314 Sokokis Ave, Limington, Maine

it's our new house! we're still trying to get used to this crazy idea.

the house

it is done! they closed on the house today; we've got the deed!

a tidbit of house history

we've gotten some confirmation from the realtor: tomorrow (Thursday) should indeed be the final closing date!! Hooray!!
meanwhile, we've gotten some historical documents from the State of Maine, it's the official paperwork regarding the Limington Historic District, of which our house is a part. We read through and found the description of our house!


Moulton Family House, c. 1880-C,
Route 11
This two-story three-bay frame house is comprised of what appears to be an earlier side gable building to which have been added a pair of Queen Anne style corner towers and a wraparound porch. Presently, the dwelling is clad in asbestos siding. The original house has corner pilasters with round arched panels and gable end returns, whereas the alterations feature three-sided towers with two-over-one windows and turned porch posts with sawn brackets. A one-and-a-half-story ell extends to a small, much altered barn. To the northwest is a larger, free-standing barn.

According to local tradition, this house was erected in the 1870's or early 1880's by the Moulton family. Its materials are said to have come from two houses that had been dismantled in Hiram.

this is interesting - my parents had thought the house was older, I wonder if we'll ever find more historical info about this! I know that my parents' house in Gorham included several structures - including an original house and an ell, which had been taken from a location a few miles away and dragged off its foundation by oxen, in its entirety, and transported across the fields using rollers made from giant logs, a team of oxen pulling the whole structure to its current location, where it was just tacked on to the side of the original structure. So I wonder if our house was also transported from Hiram in the same manner? or was it dismantled and re-assembled on the current location? Anyway, it would also be fun to find old photos of the house someday...

more house news

OK, we're totally obsessed with this house and absolutely overflowing with excitement and anxiety to find out whether the whole deal is going to go through! Today we got some positive news, our offer has formally been accepted by the bank, on paper. Looks like it's a go!!!!! Thursday is supposed to be our official closing date. So, we'll be able to really say it's our house by the end of the week, hopefully! My mom went in to the town office and did a bit of research, and learned that this property & house were last assessed in 2003, at that time they were valued at around 400% the price we're going to pay! WOW. Perhaps that was before the barn collapsed and before the ell roof fell apart.

Meanwhile, we've been doing lots of research about the place. Because the house has a historic plaque on the porch, Mike started researching the history and has been corresponding with the Limington Historical Society, he's found some colorful stories about the history of the town but hasn't found anything specific about our house yet.

We read all about the Francis Small nature preserve, hiking on Sawyer Mountain, and swimming at Pequawket Beach on Horne Pond, just down the road from our house! (Of course there's also the Limington Rips, where I remember splashing around as a kid.)

Anyway, I've got some more pictures of the place! Here is the exterior:

complicated roofline (front side of the house)

In back of the house is the ell, which is in terrible condition:

side view of the house and ell

side door

trashy looking junk and ell

the ell is filled with junk

there is also an "in-law apartment" in the ell, but it's badly damaged by water from the leaky roof so it'll have to be all torn out and... who knows.

Here's the back yard:

i'm pretty sure that's one of three apple trees growing in our back yard!

too bad about the barn

squash growing in the back yard

basketball hoop behind the barn

richard and backyard

backside of barn

backside of house - seen from back yard

inside the house!

nice wood floors and windows. first floor, front room
(this is inside one of the front turrets)

indoors

kitchen

windows over the sink in the kitchen

front entrance, nice bannister

missing plaster next to the stairs

one of the upstairs bedrooms

turret bedroom upstairs

more missing plaster, upstairs bedroom

basement: granite slab & boulder foundation

front porch & front yard:

the front porch

view to road from front porch

barn view from porch

retaining wall, street view from downhill

retaining wall, cute house next door

hydrangea bush

decorative pampas grasses

here's the hitching post where visitors used to tie up their horses

it looks like there are lots of other pretty old houses in the neighborhood! here's a video of my sister and brother-in-law driving around getting lost in the neighborhood: