Maine Cottage

Maine Visitor centers can boost business - Bangor Daily News

2010-03-29T09:59:00.000-05:00

Visitor centers can boost business - Bangor Daily News

Travel, tourism businesses have new resource in BDN - Bangor Daily News

2010-03-17T04:48:00.000-05:00

Maine Travel, tourism businesses have new resource in BDN - Bangor Daily News

Cherry Dip Cottage Blog Has a new Home

2007-07-25T12:14:00.003-05:00

Hi, please go to our new web site CherryDipMaine to view our updated Blog.
Thanks,
Matt, Nicole & Charlie Zito

More Rocks

2007-07-24T08:41:00.000-05:00

We have many rock projects going on at the house, including a granite retaining wall, clutured stone, and stone stacking walls.

Ice Skating Pond

2007-02-21T08:49:00.000-05:00

New Railings

2007-02-15T18:13:00.000-05:00

Our railings for the steps and the sides were installed last week. Jack a local artist made them by hand. The railings are brushed iron in a rust look with metal wiring running vertically similar to the wire on sailboats. The metal wire gives the railings a nautical feel.

We still have to do all our staining and painting in the house but we decided to leave this project for the spring.

Chainsaw Nicole & Matt the Logger

2007-02-05T18:09:00.000-05:00

Nicole Chainsawing her wood.

Baths, Chainsaws and a new Office

2007-02-04T08:34:00.000-05:00

We are adjusting nicely to our new home. Nicoles whirlpool bathtube is bubbling and the 2nd floor bathroom has 1 sink left to be connected. The basement office area is finished other than than cultured stone I need to place on the chimnney and the radiant heat flooring that needs some plumbing work.

Nicole bought her self a nice little lightweight Echo chainsaw under the sage guidance of Maine woodsmen Marvin Moore (our awesome neighbor). She just loves her wood. Our woodstove cranks 24-7. She aka "hot rods" the stove.

Oh yeah...Marvin has been dropping off "trees" at the house which he has cut down on land clearing jobs the last 2-weeks. We should have enough wood for next two years. All we need now is one of those little Kubota or John Deere tractors and we will fit right in up here.

Shower, Sink, Dishwasher and more

2007-01-24T19:54:00.000-05:00

Ahhhhhhhh.... all the comforts of a real home are starting to be installed.

We are working on the office downstairs, framing out the walls and ceiling. We hope to get our office area set up by next week as Matt is slowly going crazy with his make shift office in the bedroom. You'll notice we still have alot of sawdust and "stuff" everywhere. We hope that all our contractors will be out of the house by mid-February. We can then organize "SIT DOWN" and reflect on our amazing project.

In the House + Cultured Stone

2007-01-21T19:10:00.000-05:00

We moved into the house today. We are officially out of the condo in Winter Harbor. It has been 4 months to the date today, since we struck the first nail. We are very proud of our project and we look forward to lounging in our new house before we head to Florida in March. The cultured rock project continues on. Our "artistic" hand rail and 1st floor railing system will be installed soon. A local welder/artist "Jack" is working on completing a brushed metal railing masterpiece. This we hope along with the stone chimmney will be a focal point of the house. More pics to come....

The move & Matt's Rocks

2007-01-14T18:10:00.000-05:00

Hi, everyone! We managed to start moving into the house yesterday. We still don't have plumbing or hot water but we are very close. We are still using the condo in Winter Harbor to shower and other things. We hooked up our WiFi and now surf in the house at speeds around 900K, not bad for satellite Internet.

The siding was completed. We are now focusing on hooking up the automatic generator, finishing the plumbing and heating and completion of the wiring.

We started the masonry on the facia of our chimmney using cultured rock. The cultured rock stacks like bricks and you use a mortar/cement mix to adhere the rocks to the chimmney. The chimmney runs up through all three floors so this is a big project. I've added some pics here so you can see. This is one my projects so I am sure it will be slow going. It is very time consuming. Mark Richmond our mason is assisting me on the third floor so we can finish this area first as the chimmney goes through our master bedroom.

Siding, Satellites, Appliances

2007-01-07T16:57:00.000-05:00

The siding is almost finished. There is one siding section left facing the water which should be completed by this week. Nicoles appliances came in and our propane tank was delivered. Check out the research center in the backyard. We've got 3 satellites. Our new plumber started work on Friday. We hope to move into the house soon.

First Maine Christmas

2006-12-30T08:22:00.000-05:00

We spent our first night in the house on Christmas Eve. We cranked the wood stove up to 60 degrees. We were surprised, considering the wood stove is the only heat source currently in the house. We opened presents on Christmas Day and of course Charlie enjoyed the most.

Siding continues, poly-urathane of the floors continues and our plumber is scheduled to start the plumbing late next week. Our new goal is to be in the house by January 15th. As soon as we finish the floors we can bring in our appliances. The propane tank (our fuel source) comes on Wednesday.

We got HughesNet satellite Internet hooked up yesterday. We went with the commercial line and we are receiving speeds of 935k-1.5MB download which is equivalent to the DSL we had here in our condo. There is no cable or DSL high speed Internet at or near Robbins Point Road.

Nicole's Dishnet satellite TV is installed next week as well. Our back yard will soon look like a government research center.

The house is really coming around and we are very pleased. We can't wait to move in.
Happy New Year!

The Siding

2006-12-26T20:55:00.001-05:00


A 30-sec clip of our siding. Check it out. More video to come in 2007.

Siding Started, Plumbing & Heating on Deck

2006-12-22T20:07:00.000-05:00

We just started the siding of the house. Actually we have Danny & Mark working on this job as Nicole and I decided it would be best to allow the carpenters to work on this project. We hoped to be in the house by Christmas but this will not happen as we have to hire another plumber/heating crew. We had some, lets say "creative differences" with the first crew so we are now on back order with hiring another crew.

My "rocks" came in today and I'll pick them up next week. I am looking forward to working on the chimnney. Wait to you see my "cultured stoned chimnney.

We are finishing up the floors. We sanded all floors last week and coated with a poly-oil base to protect the sanded finish. The spruce looks great now.

Oh yeah....if you didn't already know we built the house for 3 months without electricity. Well we had a gas generator that ran the saws but thats all. The guys out front are hooking up our electric.

Danny our finish carpenter built an awesome tub base for Nicoles whirlpool bath/combo on the 2nd floor. The tub base he made is beautiful. He did a great job. Danny is doing all the inside trim in the house as well.

First Snow in Maine

2006-12-12T18:28:00.000-05:00

We took some pics of the first big snow storm in ME. The house siding will start going up later this week, so look for more pics of the outside actually being completed. Yeapeee!

Lost Camera Found

2006-12-08T20:35:00.000-05:00

Well we finally found our camera that was missing for 2+ weeks. Here are some pictures we took in the last 2-days. Much is getting done. Electricity going in and interior work including finish carpentry being completed.

Our friends from Ouray Colorado (Craig, Maureen, Marley & Gertey) came to visit us for a few days. Maureen even swung the hammer. Look out!

Stairs & Dogs

2006-11-26T19:46:00.000-05:00

We built our basement and 2nd floor stairs the last two days. We constructed using our own design. We went with a "floating" look, removing the risers from the back. It looks cool.

Charlie and Hot Dog (Sharon & Marvin our neighbors dog) up to their tricks.

House Closed In

2006-11-23T18:31:00.000-05:00

2 months after the first hammer was swung we completed closing in the house. All the doors and windows are in and the mud room is complete. The roofers finished up on Wednesday on both the main house and the mud room. We will tackle the siding and finish work next.

Windows, Doors and Mud Room

2006-11-14T19:22:00.000-05:00

We have installed almost all the windows and doors in the house. Just a few remain. We are now working on the mud room. The main roof is suppose to be installed next week. We could use it as the rain keeps finding its way into the house. We had a ladder and wood bench stolen from the site the other day. We were a little upset but our neighbors Marvin & Sharon seem more upset than we are.

We have missed a few days from building as the rains continue here in the Northeast. Wed, Thur, and Sat look good so we hope to make progress on closing the house up. We will fire up the wood stove tommorow as well. This should help dry out the house from all the rain.

We have made a few more home purchases including a couch and sofa. We are holding off on our kitchen appliances and cupboards until we get the outside of the house all closed up.

We hope to be in the house by Christmas.

Windows Going In

2006-11-05T16:54:00.000-05:00

We have been working on the windows the last few days. We now have a total of 10 enclosed.

The weather will be nice the next 5-7 days so we hope to get them all in by then.

Sheathing & Insulation

2006-11-03T20:02:00.000-05:00

We are working on completing the sheathing and insulation. The roof insulation has been completed. Our roofers bailed on us earlier this week. We actually think the guy was trying to hustle us. Unfortunately for him, he didn't know who he was dealing with. We hired another roofer today and his crew is set to come in around Nov 16, 17. After we finish the sheathing and insulation on the sides, we will start installing the windows and doors.

It is starting to get cold. This morning it was 32 degrees but warmed up in the afternoon. So far our weather has been great. Our friend Mark the mason was kind enough to lend us his scaffling. We will use the scaffling the next two weeks to help install the windows and finish up the insulation.

Dad (Alan) is here for the next few weeks. He is already to help.

Charlie as usual up to his tricks and Matt is becoming a true Mainer with his winter beard.

Roof Closed up

2006-10-28T18:17:00.000-05:00

We closed in the roof on Friday. All the sheathing, insulation and strapping is set. Now we just wait for the roofing contractor to install the metal roof. Included here are a few pic of us working on the roof and the chimney contractors finishing up their project. We really like Mark & Danny the chminey masons. They will be back we hope to help us work on the inside finishing and carpentry.

Nicole just had to get on that dam roof...She is in heaven building our home.

Ahhhhhhh...we are taking off Sat/Sun...Matt needs a break his elbow is hurting.

Closing in on the roof

2006-10-25T17:56:00.000-05:00

We are getting closer to having the roof totally enclosed. Great news for Matt he doesn't have to go on the roof. We hired a contractor to place the metal roof on the house. Yeapeeeee!

The chimney guys are already at the top of the roof. Tomorrow they finish with brick at the point.

We thought we saw some snow today but it was probably just sleet. It was cold windy and rainy. Charlie is staying in the Toyota 4-Runner all day. He doesn't like the cold. We have a few nice days coming up. We are in good shape as we will have the roof up by early next week.

Were Gainnnnnnnnnnen on her

2006-10-20T16:42:00.000-05:00

(Maine lingo for, we are making progress.)

We have started the inside sheathing process. We are using 2x6 1" sea pine boards, tongue & groove. The sea pine is placed on the outside of the frame so we will view all the wood from the inside of the house, (the wood that is facing us from inside the home).

A 2nd sheathing (outside siding) then goes on the outside of the house over insulation. The outside boards will be our wood siding. It is a very interesting process and difficult to explain via text. We are about 60% done on the inside sheating then the roof comes next. Nicole says we are putting on the roof ourselves but I am getting contractor quotes as I am not to excited about doing the roof. We will see what comes about.

Exciting news! We contracted with a mason to build us a chimmney. We are going to place the chimmney in the middle of the house then we are going to apply a cultured stone wall around all four sides. This is going to be one of the highlights of the house. We are going to incorporate a "floating" staircase as well so the rock chimmney can be viewed from all sides of the house. The floating staircase will enable us to "open" the house up as without implementing a divder wall. We bought a Vermont Castings wood stove the other day for the first floor.

Trusses Up and the House is Framed out

2006-10-13T19:29:00.000-05:00

Wow! We did it. The house is now framed. We had great help from two Dads (Mike & Alan), a mom (Irene), friends Dan & Lois Topolski, and our new neighbor Marvin. We built the beams by hand, boy were they heavy to put up. There are a total 11 trusses.

Our 2nd wood delivery came on Sunday early this week and included our windows, doors, and metal roof. We also got the sheathing a nice "Sea Pine" tongue and grooved from New
Hampshire. We will start the sheathing on Sunday.

Our septic and holding tanks were buried and we had the water drilled on Wednesday, 380 ft. down.

2nd Floor Decking

2006-10-05T20:30:00.000-05:00

Matt and Nicole work on the 2nd floor decking. Our neighbor Marvin looks above as we build.

Alan, Mike and Irene completed the decking on the mud room/2nd floor bathroom area of the house.

The Beams Go up

2006-10-05T20:04:00.000-05:00

We got all the beams up on the house. It was tough but we did it. Our new crew includes Dad (Alan), Dad (Mike) and Irene (Mom).

1st Floor Decking

2006-09-30T20:35:00.000-05:00

Nicole and I completed the first floor decking on Thursday. We took a much needed day off on Friday. The 1st floor decking is spruce 2" thick. The flooring is just awesome. This wood will be our actual floor boards. This job was difficult as we had to stagger the 10' sections and attach via tongue & groove with a cool tool called a "Bow Wrench.." The boards are very heavy and it was tough on our knees. To say the least we slep well Wed, Thur and Fri.

Box Beams and basement floor completed

2006-09-30T20:22:00.000-05:00

The box beams (22 of them, 11 first floor, 11 second floor) were built by Pat & Jerry. Mom is a hammering machine. Look out, she now has a new weapon. Mom & Jerry were with us for the first three weeks here in Maine and their help and support was greatly appreciated. We were sorry to see them go but their contribution is "boxed & beamed forever." Mom & Jerry thank you so much!

Sills, Moose and Earthquakes

2006-09-22T17:59:00.000-05:00

The last 24-hours have been exciting. First, on Thursday night we saw our first moose. He was strolling down the road. It was very cool to see.

Friday morning at approximately 6:50AM EST there was an extremely loud "boom" noise which woke us immdiately. Then suddenly the entire townhouse started to shake. The entire episode lasted maybe 5 seconds. We thought it was the construction crew in the condo complex working on the sewer system. We figured the A.R. Whitten boys were "dynamiting" a piece of ledge or something. We found out later in the afternoon that it was a quake, 3.9 on the rictor scale, 1 mile SW of Bar Harbor. We are about 1o nautical miles to Bar Harbor.

The sill plates were set on Thur/Fri. We got the sills bolted down and they are now as we say, "square, level, and straight."

Radiant Tubing & Wood Delivered

2006-09-20T20:49:00.000-05:00

The radiant tubing for our basement floor was installed this morning. Around 3:00 PM the wood showed up. Aka "Boomer" drove 8 hours from New Hampshire to get us the wood. Boomer is an Internet star in the making. To continue to show support for Boomer we have uploaded his picture to the world wide web.

There is a lot of wood and this is just the first load. There is a second load that includes our doors, windows and roof. Most of the wood is from Europe.

Foundation Insulation, Drainage and Rock Wall

2006-09-19T18:52:00.000-05:00

Insulation and drainage placed. Rock wall on both sides of the foundation is placed as a retaining wall for the fill. The black stuff is tar that we placed on the outside of the foundation. The steel pins leave little holes when you pry them off, so you need to fill the hole on the outside of the foundation with tar.

Yeah...Matt loves Rock Walls, thumbs up here!

The wood is delivered on Wednesday...Yeapeee......

New Sea Kayak

2006-09-19T18:42:00.000-05:00

Nicole got an open sea kayak the other day to make short trips in the cove and out to West Bay. Matt just happened to get the first run out. Sir Charles looks on with his new Old Town Canoe canine life vest.

A little R&R

2006-09-17T07:33:00.000-05:00

We placed our hammock at the bottom of the bluff. Matt ventures into the water for the first time off EEL rock.

Your not a true Mainer until you have a lobster license plate and have gone to a church bean supper. Mom, Matt, Nicole and Jerry enjoying.

Foundation Walls Installed and Poured

2006-09-17T07:14:00.000-05:00

The foundation walls were installed on Monday and poured on Tuesday.

Clearing the bluff to the water

2006-09-11T20:02:00.000-05:00

We spent the last few days clearing the bluff for accessing the water. The drop off is fairly steep and we have cleared out many dead and small trees. Maine shorefront zoning laws allow you to cut down trees that are 4" in diameter or smaller within 75' of the shore. Any trees that are wider than 4" and within the 75' of shoreline cannot be touched.

Oh....Nicole got herself a "alligator" chainsaw and gas generator from Home Depot. I had to slow her down before she cut down the entire state of Maine. She just loves her litttle Alligator chainsaw.

Nicole & Sir Charles at EEL rock.

2006-09-08T18:09:00.000-05:00

Nicole & Charles enjoying the high tide and EEL rock.

Foundation Started

2006-09-08T17:27:00.000-05:00

The footers were placed on the foundation on Thursday. No work took place on Friday. We are hoping to have the entire foundation, septic tank, electric and water well all completed within 2-weeks. Our first day cottage will be delivered on Sept 20th. On Sept 21st we start the real work.

Fill Fill and more Fill

2006-09-08T17:08:00.001-05:00

The dump trucks were dumping fill on our site all day Tues and Wed. Our lot is being elevated for the gravity feed septic system and walkout basement.

EEL Rock

2006-09-03T17:45:00.000-05:00

We met some local Mainers today (Sharon &
Marvin) whom came by the site when Nicole was putting up the mailbox. Sharon & Marvin have lived in Gouldsboro most of their life. Marvin took me down to the large ledge rock on our property to tell me stories of when he was a boy. He and his friends would dive off the rock into the water. Its about 15 feet deep off this rock called "EEL Rock." Monkey and I are looking forward to swimming and diving off EEl rock next summer.

Supposedly the area we live around was an old mining area in the late 1800's. "Local lore has it that the water on our property has beds of silver below it. No don't worry we are not going to start mining just yet.

Excavation Complete

2006-09-03T17:11:00.000-05:00

Winter Harbor, ME

2006-09-03T07:43:00.000-05:00

Nicole, Charlie and I moved into our townhouse on Friday in Winter Harbor, Maine. The townhouse is very nice, 3B/2B...yes we have room for anyone that wants to come up and hammer a few nails. You can walk to the downtown district only about 200 yards. The harbor is only 100 yards and Sir Charles is in heaven. He is working on aligning himself with the tides now...

Our house site was excavated and the foundation is being poured on Tues/Wed. We are going to the site today to put up our mailbox. We will have pics uploaded by Wed showing the progress.

Waters Edge

2006-08-29T08:05:00.000-05:00

This is the shoreline frontage of our lot. 250 ft of tidal oceanwater.