Log Off at This Cozy Log Cabin Overlooking Maine's Boothbay Harbor

When Houston-based interior designer Lisa Dalton and her husband, Bill, visited MidCoast Maine for the first time nine years ago, the couple fell fast and hard. So of course they wanted to go back the next year. That visit, however, ended up being a life-changing experience. “We did a quick trip up to look at the leaves, and in the process we bought a house!” Lisa says with a laugh.

Though she explains that they were merely “tire kickers” when they asked a real estate agent to show them some properties, they found themselves enamored with a 1920s log cabin perched on a granite bluff above Boothbay Harbor. Part of an original rusticators community known as Sprucewold (a quaint village of Adirondack cabins and a lodge developed in the early 20th century for vacationing city dwellers), the cozy 1,300-square-foot house was built from logs cut on the property. “It’s got kind of a campy feel to it,” says Lisa. “A lot of Maine is very nautical and coastal-feeling, and this has the best of both.”

What started as a summer getaway has turned into a bit of a business for the Daltons. In addition to their cabin, the couple now owns a series of vacation rentals as well as the boutique Squire Tarbox Inn. But what hasn’t changed is their love for MidCoast Maine’s low-key allure, a romance that has only blossomed further since that meant-to-be visit almost a decade ago.