BANGOR, Maine — Some came in search of bargains and others to dream and browse as this year’s Bangor Home Show kicked off Friday afternoon at the Cross Insurance Center.
Just outside the main entrance was a temporary village of modular and mobile homes, solar sheds, gazebos, mini barns, tiny houses and more.
Richie Zerrien, general manager of Coastline Homes in Ellsworth, has been showing the company’s products at the Bangor show for 10 years.
“We started introducing homes back up here about four years ago. We’re the first ones to bring homes back in a long time and others followed suit, which is good, bringing homes to a home show. It makes sense,” he said Friday afternoon, shortly after the show opened.
“We like this show just to show off the new products that we have,” he said.
Generating some buzz this year was tiny houses.
“We may not sell 50 of those a year but people love them, people drive to [see] them. There’s just a huge fan base for them right now,” he said.
He brought to the show a display model that can be hauled by a one-ton pickup and meets RV specifications “so you could park it anywhere,” he said.
“My goal is to sell a few homes every year [during the Bangor show] and last year, I think six homes [sales] come out of it. It takes care of things for us,” he said, adding that the Bangor show is the only major one he currently attends.
Now in its 47th year, the Bangor Home Show has drawn estimated crowds of 20,000 over a three-day weekend for at least the last six years, according to Dean Appleman, the show’s promoter.
“This year’s edition features more than 300 vendors both inside and outside of the Cross Insurance Center,” he said.
“This year what’s really special are the five houses that are erected outside and they’re really focusing in on energy efficiency,” Appleton said.
“And solar? I’m telling you that solar stuff has been taking off,” he said. “We have a home outside that has solar panels on top of it and people are interested. They’re asking can I get that done to my house?”
The annual home show includes vendors pitching nearly everything a household might need in terms of products and services in home construction, home improvement and remodeling, yardwork and gardening, housekeeping, heating and cooling and more.
There also were vendors of products not related to homeownership, such as fudge, jerky and jelly.
“These businesses will gain between 50 and 70 percent of their whole year’s business from this show,” he said.
“Really, this is the place to make a connection,” Appleman said.
And with show specials and discounts, “the best deal of the year, people get it at the home show.”
Lillian Zanchi of Bangor and her husband are home show regulars.
“We come every year. We found it helpful when we were building our house. We talk to different people. It just gives you a lot of ideas about things that are available, new technology,” she said.
“We come back to see the same people that we bought some of that technology from,” she said.
“If we need cement work done or gutters, there are people here to talk to,” she said. “It’s so much easier than the yellow pages and looking for a contractor to do a certain [project].”
Pastor Brian McCarthy of the First Baptist Church in Stetson and his wife Debbie came to the show in search of a deal on replacement windows.
“We’re here to see the current prices on things because when you start to replace 20 windows in a church building, it’s going to be big bucks,” he said.
“I thought the mini houses outside were really neat,” Julia Supp said, adding that she was visiting the Cross Insurance Center for the first time. “It’s a really great facility.”
Since none yet were in the market for a house or repairs, the highlight of the show was the free candy and swag given out at many of the vendors’ booths, they said.
The Bangor Home Show continues from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Saturday and from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Sunday.