NORTH YARMOUTH — Behind the doors of the big red barn on Route 9 is a homey world reminiscent of the past, mixed with smatterings of the present.

Opened a year ago, Find on Route 9 offers a variety of new and vintage items, gifts, collectibles, signs, furniture, women’s clothing and handcrafts. The shop that mixes the old and new is the culmination of a dream for resident Tricia Bowdoin.

“This is something that I’ve always wanted to do when my kids were old enough,” she said Aug. 7; they’re now 23 and 20.

Of the name, she said, “I wanted something to rhyme … that kind of catches, clicks. We’re right on Route 9, even though it’s Bowdoin Court.”

Ironically, the Find on Route 9’s greatest challenge may be its location.

Although just up the street from the North Yarmouth Memorial School at 2 Bowdoin Court, Bowdoin advises visitors to put 162 Memorial Highway (Route 9) into their GPS, since Bowdoin Court tends not to appear on such devices.

“Everybody’s calling me from Bowdoin Street in Yarmouth,” she said. “… That’s been hard.”

The business is open during the summer on Fridays and Saturdays, 11 a.m.-5 p.m., and Sundays 11 a.m.-4 p.m. It adds Thursdays in non-summer months.

Bowdoin’s father-in-law, Roger Bowdoin, once owned both the former chicken barn and a neighboring house. He has moved to Harpswell, but kept the barn, allowing his daughter-in-law to give it a second life.

“I didn’t want to see it just go to waste,” she said. “Helping him out paying taxes, and me being able to (open the business), I’m really grateful for him.”

Bowdoin’s parents also lend a hand when she’s unable to be in the store. Her father is retired, but it’s unlikely her mother ever will.

“I think she’s more like me,” said Bowdoin, who also handles invoicing and human resources for her husband’s excavation business and tends bar at the American Legion hall in Gray. “Got to get my kid through college.”

Bowdoin doesn’t do consignments, nor does she buy items from people who come into her store. She does her own search for items to sell and buys products wholesale.

“I mix new stuff with vintage stuff and antiques,” Bowdoin said, although she doesn’t offer many antiques. “That’s not what I was going for,” she added.

Vintage items, on the other hand, are a bit more recent, she explained.

Newer items with an older feel include colonial tin works. Bowdoin offers many Dixie Belle paints, which “has been one of my biggest draws,” she said, noting that people visiting the Dixie Belle website find an explanation of how to find the Find.

Bowdoin’s customers are greeted with “extremely reasonably low” prices, she said, “because it’s all about finding a good find. … If I find a good find I want to pass it on to you, because that was my passion; that’s what I want to do.”

Alex Lear can be reached at 781-3661 ext. 113 or alear@theforecaster.net. Follow him on Twitter: @learics.

North Yarmouth resident Tricia Bowdoin operates the Find on Route 9, offering new and vintage gifts, collectibles, signs, furniture, women’s clothing and hand-crafted items.

The Find on Route 9 opened a year ago in North Yarmouth.