{"id":15957,"date":"2019-03-28T10:39:51","date_gmt":"2019-03-28T14:39:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/?p=15957"},"modified":"2020-09-29T09:12:27","modified_gmt":"2020-09-29T13:12:27","slug":"the-secret-joys-of-unwrapping-summer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/the-secret-joys-of-unwrapping-summer\/","title":{"rendered":"The Secret Joys of Unwrapping Summer"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"issuuembed\" style=\"width: 100%; height: 600px;\" data-configid=\"37604829\/68736938\"><\/div>\n<p><script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"\/\/e.issuu.com\/embed.js\" async=\"true\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">April 2019 | <a href=\"http:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/apr19-HOM_ext.pdf\">view full story as .pdf<\/a><\/p>\n<h4 class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Maine <b>opens up <\/b>with great excitement looking toward the season.<\/span><\/h4>\n<p class=\"p1\"><strong>By Colin W. Sargent<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">O<\/span><span class=\"s1\">ur summers have seductive rhythms.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\"><span class=\"s1\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-15969\" src=\"http:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/apr19-HOM_ext-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"apr19-HOM_ext\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/apr19-HOM_ext-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/apr19-HOM_ext-200x134.jpg 200w, https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/apr19-HOM_ext.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/>Inhabiting a classic Maine summer cottage is a vivid experience with a cherished set of rituals. Kennebunk\u2019s <b>49 Great Hill Road<\/b> is a stunning example. Built in the \u201clate 1800s\u201d with a private beach out front and river frontage in back, today it\u2019s for sale for $1.399M.<\/span><\/p>\n<h4 class=\"p4\"><b>A Rose on the Shore<\/b><\/h4>\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s1\">Its interior is rustic beadboard. The sea sparkles in nearly all the rooms, including a grand salon with fireplace. Light follows into a generous dining room with built-ins that opens to the kitchen. Most magic of all, the cottage follows an enchanting rhythm where it\u2019s winterized every year. The water is cut off, the furniture covered with spare white sheets, the windows boarded from storms and then unveiled every summer.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\"><span class=\"s1\">In this unveiling ritual, the dusty sheets are carefully rolled off the ghostly slumbering furniture, to be taken outside for a wind bath. The winter\u2019s salt glaze is carefully removed with Windex and newspapers (the ink is the secret that leaves no streak) to reveal the ocean stretching all the way to England.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s2\">T<\/span>his view includes Nubble Light, Boon Island, and Strawberry Island, the old stone causeway disappearing at high tide. Gulls wheel in the winds overhead. Steps away, the historic promontory Great Hill lifts high above sea level. For centuries it was a landmark to First Nations people and ships at sea. A famous privateer battle happened in front of this house. On May 19, 1813, during the War of 1812, the British sloop<em> Rattler<\/em>, in company with the schooner <em>Bream<\/em>, captured the American privateer <em>Alexander<\/em> as she headed to Salem. Run aground by the two British warships, the <em>Alexander<\/em> was seized and taken to New Brunswick, Canada, as a prize.<\/p>\n<h4 class=\"p4\"><b>Nostalgia Dose<\/b><\/h4>\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s1\">\u201cWhen cottages like these were built, there was no plan to spend the winter in Maine,\u201d says listing agent Bette Schofield. \u201cFamilies traveled by train from Boston or Philadelphia\u201d to rusticate up here. \u201cThe lot is about a quarter of an acre. There\u2019s 55 feet of oceanfront, 75 feet of riverfront.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\"><span class=\"s1\">In any of the eleven rooms, \u201ca new buyer will fall in love with this house because they\u2019re reminded of a childhood in Maine\u2013maybe a camp they went to.\u201d Or a sailing school with a boathouse, a great uncle\u2019s cottage\u2013a place out of the wind and safe from time. Old books conjure up multiple generations and a smell of the sea. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\"><span class=\"s1\">The house is so close to the ocean it seems to rise and fall with the waves. We can almost smell the scent of blueberry muffins baking in the kitchen. What would it be like to walk your dog on your own beach? The historic Mousam River at your back door is a memorable place to kayak.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\"><span class=\"s1\">Meanwhile, the younger generation of the family who\u2019s lived here many years are going to miss it. \u201cI\u2019ve been going up there since I was born,\u201d Jonathan Grinder, 60, says. \u201cMy grandfather bought it in the 1920s. During college, you know, you miss a few years. I may have missed five, but I remember one year arriving before anyone else. It was pitch dark, around 11 p.m. I couldn\u2019t see anything, but I remember walking through and knowing instinctively where all of the furniture was, where all of the lights were. It\u2019s in my DNA.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p7\"><span class=\"s1\">J<\/span><span class=\"s1\">onathan owns an athletic events company. His brother, Tim, is an art dealer. His sister, Beth, is a faculty member at Penn State University (she has a Ph.D. in Curriculum and Instruction). The world calls. Who\u2019s calling you?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Inhabiting a classic Maine summer cottage is a vivid experience with a cherished set of rituals.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15968,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[892,232,224],"tags":[335,329,207,127,126,208],"class_list":["post-15957","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-real-estate","category-shelter-design","category-talking-walls","tag-april-2019","tag-home-and-design","tag-homes","tag-maine","tag-portland","tag-real-estate"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15957","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15957"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15957\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18936,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15957\/revisions\/18936"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15968"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15957"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15957"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15957"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}