SeSSi nS 94 P r t L a n d montHL maga ine wiLLiam ra eis fiLe PHoto turer.’ That was quite a phone call! asanyone elp-revie ed ouse sland sotospea A local TV reporter pulled me aside on the island. He said, “I can’t believe that [during one of the worst winters] you took three dilapidated old structures from 1907, took them down to the bare bones, and rebuilt these three skeletons into these gorgeous houses.” We’d also built a brand-new caretaker’s cottage. All of the properties are solar pow- ered with backup generators, new wells, new septic fields, and all new plumbing lines. Our brand-new dock is 375 feet long. It cost almost $450,000. hesalesport olio oryourhal o ouse slandsuggests that s uare eeto thelargerimmigrationbuilding isgrand atheredasacommerciallocation orapossible islandbouti uehotelinthe uture. idyousensethis romthebeginning No, we really didn’t consider the 10,000-square-foot foundation as a foot- print for future building originally. In- stead, we were busy cleaning up the is- land. I was personally there for a number of weeks, helping to clean up the mess. [Developer] Mike Scarks, the former own- er, had already removed 10 or 15 huge dumpsters full of junk that the previous owner had hoarded and left on the island, including a large fire engine. I n the very beginning, our plan was to renovate just one house per year. But later on, we realized how important that 10,000-square-foot structure is. We, or the owners after us, could have one beautiful bed-and-breakfast or a small, quality boutique hotel, along with [guest residences] in some of the other histori- cally significant structures. We’re negotiating with Central Maine Power to bring power and inter- net to the island. ean hile youveventuredbolduseo solarpo er. hat astheinspirationthere In the beginning, we felt solar would be the best bet because the power company want- ed over $500,000 to bring in power. But now they need us, and the price is reduced by more than half. We were very fortunate to have a good solar-power solution contractor, Maine So- lar Solutions, owned by Sam Zuckerman. hatsthemosttellingadvicesomeoneelsegaveyou abouttheisland henyouboughtit Some people I knew warned me that the cost of transportation was going to be unbelievable. They were correct! Looking back, we spent almost $1 mil- lion in transporting lumber and prod- ucts, equipment, tools, concrete, vehi- cles, sand, gravel, mulch–even the trail- ers and RVs and the food required to house and feed a small army of workers each day. uringexplorationandexcavation hatdidyou ind We found a graveyard where a British sail- or is buried. We also found a keg made by Watney Combe Reid & Co. Ltd., of Lon- don that dates to the 1800s. [We traced the company records in] the national archives. Some liquid was still in the keg. he s uare t undati n the r er i igrati n enter a aits a ne uture.