2 Bedrooms,
2 Bathrooms,
Sleeps 6
Cottage
(2000 sq. ft.)
in Southwest Harbor, ME
0 miles from Bar Harbor
Fernald Cove Cottage is nestled in the woods at Water's edge on Fernald cove; 11 Connor Pt. Lane, Southwest Harbor, ME. A great getaway location, yet less than a mile from Town, shopping, restaurants, museums, and within walking distance of the Causway Club Golf/Tennis (open to the public), A short (~5 min) walk to Acadia National Park mountain hiking trails, Short drives to Bar Harbor, Whale watching, Fishing, Acadia Natl Park carriage roads,etc.
Waters Edge Cottage is a large 2+ bedroom A-frame, 20 ft from Fernald Cove. It has a large living room overlooking the Cove, a bedroom with 2 twin beds on the first floor, a family/video room with a double hide-a-bed, kitchen, bath & shower, washer/dryer/microwave. Up a spiral staircase to an enormous master bedroom overlooking the cove, with queen bed, large bathroom & shower, desk & WIFI, and a rear deck to watch amazing sunsets. Rentals are seasonal, June thru September, weekly minimum, Saturday 3PM to Saturday 10AM.
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 in 2012.) 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 triples, 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!