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My resume is at:
www.geocities.com/josephct1972/resume.html
Because my house in 2003 was a "secondary home" and was heated with only firewood when I first bought it, almost every single insurance company in Maine refused to insure the home. Insurance companies function in the community -- not on orbiting space stations. And I wanted to improve the community by taking a distressed property and bringing it back to life. How short-sighted! Finally, an insurance agency in central Maine, gave me fire, liability insurance and later vandalism insurance. I take my hat off to them for providing me some coverage, when hardly anyone else wanted to offer anything to me at all. Another company in Madawaska also offered me fire insurance. But sadly they called several weeks after I already made a deal with a central Maine company. However, I thank them for their offer, and I will remember them if I am ever screwed by the central-Maine company.
I bought a house that no one else wanted, because it required investment to upgrade it. As of November 2005 I spent almost $9,500 in repairs, upgrades and the purchase of a 0.4 acre piece of land next to me. As much as I love Aroostook County, the area is economically depressed compared to southern Connecticut. I hope businessmen and insurers in the region will be more friendly to out-of-state investment in the future.
In the past, it was customary to complain that big government stopped investment and creativity. Now, insurance companies are the monoliths with inflexible rules that are hindering the free movement of real estate and the improvement of real estate. I hope Maine's governor and state legislature will soon investigate this trend of insurance companies refusing to cover people whose only source of heat is a woodburning stove and whose electricity might be lower than 100 AMP circuit breakers. A huge segement of Aroostook County might be excluded by their over-stringent rules.
The house closed in mid-April 2003. I needed a plumber to help me start things up again when the electricity was switched back on.
The first plumber I called said it was "impossible" for him to help me for a few hours.
A second plumber I called, in St. David, Maine, put the plumbing back on during my first visit. And in my second visit he put in a new electric water heater and a propane house heater. During the fourth visit, he installed a new toilet, two new faucets, and shut-off valves in the basement for the shower.
An electrician from Madawaska also installed three new ceiling fans where none existed before around July 4, shut-off switches for the electric water heater and well pump, and a special plug for the thermostat of the propane heater. In January 2004 he put two electric baseboards in the basement to keep the basement above freezing in even the worst weather.
A Grand Isle contractor put on a new roof in August 2003 over the "house" part of the building. Dead River Co. installed a second propane wall furnace in December 2003.
In early 2005, a red tin roof was placed over the woodshed and the entrance over the basement.
In mid 2005, a new front porch was added.
In late 2005, the house received a new front door.
In early 2006, the front side of the house had its two windows ripped out and replaced. The front of the house then had cedar shingles placed upon it.
Some organizations helped me finance my house purchase.
The sum of $9,800 is too much for most personal loans. Even though Citi and People's Bank of Connecticut did not lend me as much money as I wanted, their unsecured, short-term loans did make my home purchase possible. No thanks go to Fleet Bank of Connecticut. I had been a customer of them for years and they refused me. I have since closed my checking and savings accounts with them. The personal loans were paid off 100 percent in 2004.
My ancestors were not the Acadians who were deported from Nova Scotia by the English in 1755 and later resettled in New Brunswick and Louisiana. However, many of my ancestors were French and Quebecois. My mother was born in Normandy. My late father was born in Massachusetts, but two of his grandparents came from Quebec (one of his grandmothers was an Iroquoise from Trois-Rivieres, Quebec).
During recent years, it has been hard for someone in an Anglophone state like Connecticut to function if he enjoys listening to Edith Piaf compact discs and spending his lunch breaks reading about Napoleon and the Iroquois in the original French.
It is okay for someone of almost any ethnic origin to talk about his ancestors' language, food, history and culture in Connecticut. However, I have been condemened for talking about my French and Quebecois ancestors. France has a 2,000 year history. Quebec City and Nova Scotia has been settled longer than the Anglophone part of North America. But many Anglophones prefer to forget this in their orgy of hatred for anything French. Instead of fighting this prejudice, I choose to go into exile in a town where more than half of the population speaks French at home. At last, I feel at home. At last, I do not have to fight to justify my love for Francophonie. At last, I can sip my red wine and wear my beret with pride. To see my autobiography, visit http://www.geocities.com/josephct1972/index.html