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“It’s always a fine line,” Rabideau said. “We do the best we can to keep an eye on it. We do what we have to do, security first, but we also want the support of the locals.”

The DuMoulins’ house has entrances from the United States and Canada. Agents have come to know the people who live in the house, currently vacant, and allow them to move back and forth freely as long as they stay in the house or the tiny front or backyard. There’s a small granite border marker just outside the front door.

There is a gate hidden in a backyard hedge. DuMoulin said U.S. agents wanted to be sure the gate was wired shut. It is.

Rosemary Lalime, their real estate agent, said that between the time the house was listed around the turn of the year and the end of May when a Canadian magazine noted its odd location she showed it 10 times. In the last two weeks she’s shown it six times and has six more appointments.

All but one person has come from the United States. One man called from Toronto.

“He was inquiring more about the border situation and if he bought it, what are his rights,” Lalime said. “I put him in touch with the Border Patrol.”

Brian DuMoulin said that usually the agents from both countries know who they are, but he told of a time when a new Canadian border agent saw him, his wife and her sister standing in front of the house, “a good 18 feet into the States.” He demanded they report to the Canadian border post.

“He simply didn’t know,” DuMoulin said, noting it took about 45 minutes to resolve the situation after the agent called his superiors.

“That’s the awkwardness,” he said. “If there is an awkwardness, it’s that you can’t just go this way or this way, you’ve got to go through (the ports of entry) and then back through.”