Southwest Harbor Cottage for Rent: Waters Edge Cottage, In the woods, spacious, quiet cove, private - Property 184061

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About Fernald Cove Cottage: Our cottage was once part of a large estate on Fernald Cove, which empties into Somes Sound. Your nearest neighbors are the Hays, who have a converted stable that is now a magnificent home. Our cottage sits at the waters edge to Fernald cove in 3 acres of woods. As the Cove is tidal, it empties at low tide. Kayaks and canoes are welcome, just watch out for low tide. It's a muddy walk back! Our cottage was once just two nice rooms with their own roofs, connected by a kitchen and bath. When we purchased it, we decided to enlarge it for our family of four, and the best way to conserve what we had was to convert it to the A-frame design you now see. We simply joined the two roof lines East and West by following the existing roof lines, and enclosed the area in between with a living room, plus an enormous master bedroom and bath up a spiral staircase to the newly created second floor. The end facing the cove has large glass windows, and the opposite end has a deck and rear stairs.

More History: The timbers and floors in the expansion came from a distillery in Cincinnati, which was being taken down, and the lumber sold for just pennies / foot. The beams are 2 1/2 inches thick X 8, 10 or 12 inches wide, ~20 ft long, of southern yellow pine, an extremely hard and well seasoned wood. Some of the vertical supports are massive, and the floors and ceiling are 2 X 6 inch tongue and groove, ~ 20 ft long, as can seen as you go up the spiral stairway. We purchased the wood in Cincinnati, hauled it to our home there and spent weeks pulling out nails, until we had ~40,000 pounds of lumber which we hauled up to the cottage on a truck. We spent two years/summers building the addition, after having the foundation 'improved' (Had it redone again last year!) from original post supports. We used adjacent trees and block-and- tackle to hoist the beams in place; father & son (16). The support beams are bolted tripples, and only intersect the original structure in two places, the closets

And More: The metal supports were custom made by a blacksmith in Cincinnati, where we spend our winters. As father & son assembled the support structure, roof shingles purchased in Oregon as pre-assembled shingled panels, 2 ft X 8 ft, and let us put up the roof covering in a much shorter time. These were pre-coated with sealant by mother and daughter (12) by putting them through a trough, enabling a thorough coating of sealer and recovery of excess for the next panel. True family effort! The final shingling and vertical shingles were done by Norman Harkins Builders, to whom we owe a great deal of thanks, as we did not have time to finish before 'summer vacation' ended, returning to Cincinnati and work and school. Now we have a nice living room facing the cove, two bedrooms downstairs, (One we have converted to a TV room, DVD room really, as no real TV reception in the woods!) The second floor has a very large bdrm and bath/shower. Furnishings mostly from home. Hope you enjoy your stay!

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