Dear Salt Water Farm Friends and Family,
I am excited to announce that I’ve joined the outstanding team at Legacy Properties Sotheby’s International Realty. If you’d like to follow my endeavors, have interest in buying or selling a home in Maine, or have family or friends looking to relocate to this very special corner of the world, join my Legacy Properties Newsletter to be the first to know of opportunities OR email me at aahearn@legacysir.com. You can also see the homes that I’ve found for my clients over the past few years here.
Twelve years ago, I moved from New York City to a beautiful piece of coastal property in Lincolnville, Maine, which many of you know as Salt Water Farm.
The vision for this land was already ten years in the making – in 1999, a real estate agent named George Wheelwright introduced my parents to a long-fallowed sheep farm, now wet and wooded and ruggedly charming. On a cold, damp Spring day that year, my family walked the untamed fields in muck boots. I could hear the ocean waves crashing before I could see them. At a clearing on the bluff, the ocean in view, my dad announced, “Girls, we are going the spend the rest of our lives here.”
Thereafter, George became a close friend to our family, connecting us with all the carpenters, masons, electricians, builders and plumbers who have helped create this place. We are deeply grateful to him for many things, but most of all, for helping us to find our bearings here in mid-coast Maine. I learned that it just takes one person to ease a transition to a new place.
In the twenty-two years since, my family has built a beautiful home that accommodates three generations. I have been fortunate to build a thriving business that celebrates local food and farming. My husband and I married on an August afternoon on the ocean’s edge. When our daughter was born, we dipped her tiny toes in the cold salt water of the Penobscot Bay, proud to call her a “Mainer.”
Since establishing a life here, I have always jumped at the opportunity to welcome newcomers into our community, much like George did some twenty years ago. Whether inviting them to a party to meet new friends; connecting them with a job opportunity; or even setting them up on a date, I love to watch people fall in love with this place as I did and my parents have. I truly believe that mid-coast Maine has so much to offer (Penobscot Bay and its spectacular assortment of islands; the rolling Camden Hills; Lake Megunticook in all its majesty; the wonderful schools, community organizations, and the world class restaurants and markets) all a short walk or drive away. But above all this, an even more compelling reason to live here is the people. I could never have imagined making so many meaningful friendships in one lifetime as I have here in Maine.
After years of obsessing over the housing inventory in our area (always with a potential new community member in mind), I decided to pursue a real estate career to complement my work at the cooking school. So many of my students have that smitten look in their eyes that says: “This place is magical, can we live here?” Now I can help them do just that – find a new home, build a new life.
