Bob “Grumps” Grenier has done it all: a career in construction, owning and selling car washes, buying and selling real estate, building eight houses and camps for his family and, at 70, building a home for himself and by himself in five months.

“Raising my four children and being married to my wife for the past 50 years is the best thing I have done,” the outspoken Mainer said with a slight French accent. Born and raised in Lewiston, he now lives in Monmouth with the love of his life, Jackie.

A hangar behind his house with “Grumps Aerodrome” hand-painted on it serves as the base for his other love: flying. He has assembled four airplanes from kits and is constructing one he designed in his garage.

A somewhat level hayfield serves as a runway. “It’s a little short for most of my friends who fly, and it can be a little hairy coming in, but no problem to take off from,” he says.

“Evenings are the best when the sun is getting low and sparkling off the water, or when the wind blows the grassy fields below. It’s like a beautiful painting.”

Grenier took up flying when his son, Tim, became a pilot. Within a 50-mile radius of his home, Grumps can land in any of about 30 home-built landing strips. Jackie sometimes flies with him.

“We often go visit our children and grandchildren who still live nearby,” says Grumps, who chose the nickname – one of his grandchildren asked what he wanted to be called – because he would know it was him when they said it.

“When one of them says ‘Grumps’ in a crowd, I know it’s me they are calling.”