Southport Island Retreat - Southport, ME

This was a very nice house to rent and the surrounding area is absolutely gorgeous with easy travel throughout mid-coast Maine. It has a large, reasonably stocked kitchen, 2 baths and 5 bedrooms. The spiral staircase is narrow and not child-friendly but there's another staircase that was easier for them. The rooms are smaller than they appear in the photos, but we (6 adults and 3 children) were comfortable with the space. There was a nice little deck overlooking the backyard and pond, there was some deck furniture and a gas grill in good working order. All the makings for a comfortable stay!

All that said, we rented for the third week of May, and the house had a distinct feel of not having been thoroughly checked over for the season:
no screens on upstairs windows, dirty living room and sliding door windows, broken icemaker on the fridge, cobwebs in some of the rooms, no directions for the heat, no remote for the TV, some bed pillows ready for the trash bin and a nonworking kitchen ceiling light over the sink. We had constant problems with water pressure throughout our stay until it no longer ran. I called Vacasa and a maintenance person came out - the fix was a simple water filter change. Again, all of these were preventable issues and should have been taken care of before rental.

I lived in the mid coast area for the last 22 years and came back for a family vacation. I wouldn't rent this home again without knowing that everything was in good, working order. I actually saw in reviews that there had been water pressure issues but there were responses that the water pressure had been fixed and I trusted that to be the case when I booked our stay. It is otherwise a very nice house in a great area.

For a summer rental (on city water) for a group of 4 – 6 people I would rate this home a 5. But for a winter rental (on well water) I would not suggest staying here based on our 26 night stay in January.

The good:
- First floor is newly renovated - nicely done with new appliances and furniture.
- All mattresses are memory foam - very comfortable.
- Kitchen is well stocked with just about everything you could need.
- Kevin, the gentleman who handles property maintenance. is great! Knowledgeable, friendly, responsive.

The bad:
- Like previous guests, we had water pressure issues, with barely a trickle of water coming out of the shower. Kevin changed the inline water filter and the pressure appeared to return to normal.
- Unfortunately, changing the filter only temporarily fixed the issue. There was regularly air in the lines, and the water cycled several times a day through normal/low/so hard it hurt your skin, back to normal pressure. We learned to jump back when the warning gurgling started in the shower!
- The home is on well water during winter, and the water smelled extremely strongly of metal/iron. It was so bad that we bought bottled water for drinking/ cooking, which was quite a bit of cost for 3.5 weeks. The clothes we washed now smell like metal/blood, and our skin/hair still smelled for a few days after we left. We brought a small humidifier, and it is now stained throughout with rust deposits.
- There were crumbs on the kitchen counters when we arrived, though the bathrooms seemed to have been cleaned.
- We struggled with the heating at first but discovered that the upstairs unit was mislabeled as heat when it is actually cooling. Things improved after that, but, not surprisingly, when the outdoor temp dipped below ~25 the baseboard heat had trouble keeping the home above 67 degrees. Easily fixed with a sweatshirt, but it did make for some cold mornings.

To be aware of:
- The upstairs bathroom is not updated, shower is not in great shape.
- Though the home sleeps 9, that would be snug with the small downstairs bathroom/overall space. Pictures online make the living area appear larger than it is, though for a group of 4 - 6 it would be fine.
- The spiral staircase is VERY tight. I would not recommend it for children, older people, or those who are much larger than "average" size. There is a back staircase that can be used, but the steps on it are pretty shallow – it is usable, but something to be aware of for older guests.

We had a nice time over Christmas break at this cottage. It was very clean and attractively decorated. The Vacasa photos were a bit deceiving as they made the living space look expansive. While the cottage is by no means cramped, it was smaller than expected. We were also surprised how closely the cottage sits to the road, but it is on a dead end lane so traffic is not an issue. It was very quiet and peaceful. There is a pretty creek and pond in the yard and surrounding harbor/inlets are beautiful! We appreciated that Vacasa efficiently handled a malfunctioning refrigerator issue- even at 10:00pm on Christmas Eve!
Our concerns/suggestions include:
-A shovel and salt/ice melt should be provided for renter use. It snowed a few inches while we were there and we had no way to clear the steps.
-The cottage's water pressure was poor. Thankfully, the toilets flushed adequately, but filling pots of water for cooking was an exercise in patience. The upstairs shower was nothing more than a trickle of water. We made do with the downstairs shower, but NO other water could be running at the same time as it would cut shower water pressure significantly. Owners should definitely look into improving the pump/plumbing issues.
-The cottage was heated with a unit blowing from upstairs and it didn't effectively warm the entire cottage. A space heater was provided- which helped, but ceiling fans might be a good investment to push the air downstairs.

Lovely home! Very picturesque location! Minutes from Booth Bay Harbor. Kitchen well stocked. Beds very comfy. This is a 4 bedroom home, but this time it was just my husband and I. Everything seemed brand new. Loved our stay! Thank you for sharing your lovely home!