The House We Moved

While we were in Virginia this past month, an auntie reminded us that we had been so busy renovating that we'd not actually posted pictures of the work in progress. Talk about an oversight! So I spent a little time this holiday uploading pictures that I meant to share with you last year.

So, thank you Aunt Donna. Here's the ongoing saga of our house!

We found this little gem at an auction site. The city owned the property and needed the house moved to make room for a wind generator farm. It's an old farmhouse and because of its location, not many people were interested in driving out to the country to look at it. We were, in fact, the only people to go have a look.

We saw a solidly built structure, what appeared to be two houses merged with an addition added on the back of the main structure at some point in its history. The above is the main section of the house, while below is the other section. A neighbor told us this little section was an old bunk house (a house built to room farm hands) moved in and affixed to the main house some time after the Great Depression.

If you look carefully you can see a wind generator in the background.

You can see by the roof line here the addition that was added when the kitchen was modernized. This is the backdoor and kitchen portion of the main house.

Here is a picture of the way the two houses were "merged" to make an "L" shaped structure. This house has been on the move before, or at least this small section has. Why not buy it and move it again?

We were ready to make our bid at auction! We set a maximum bid before we started so that we wouldn't get ourselves over our heads in the enthusiasm of the moment. When the auction day came, we didn't know what to expect. We made our bid and waited. There was no activity on the auction site until about five minutes before the close of bidding. We were in a bidding war! We bid and counter bid until we reached our maximum. We were disappointed to watch the time tick away and our competitor win what we had hoped to be our home.

But...several days later the auction house called to tell us that the other bidder had defaulted. We were the proud owners of a house that had to move as soon as possible.

Time to move some earth and lay some foundation. The movers came out and took careful measurements and then translated that to foundation footings on our property.

One day soon, the mover called, "We're chugging down the road!"

The little section moved in first.

Can you believe this angle?
The mover dared us to place a cup of water in the sink for the move.
Not a drop spilled.

Next came the larger section. You can see the PVC pipe attached to vents and the roof line to assist power lines over the obstacles. They just slide right over the roof. Before the house was even lifted from its original foundation, the mover had plotted and driven the 30 miles several different ways to find the safest route with the fewest low hanging lines.

This is where the little section of the house had to connect to the larger section. This portion was the old "bunkhouse" that had been affixed to the house all those decades ago. This section made its second move just fine, too. We placed a tarp over the hallway door to keep out any rain. Due to the drought it didn't rain for several more months. The tarp kept out the dust and debris from all the dust devils blowing around.

Here's a picture of the interior of that bunkhouse section. It's basically two large rooms and a bathroom. This baby blue carpet was throughout the entire house. Though the carpet was in fairly good shape, we removed it all. We have three children who suffer from allergies and wall to wall carpet is too hard on their systems. Beneath it is hardwood flooring.

Next time we revisit the house issue, we'll show you how the house looks on our lot and how nice the floors look without the carpet. Meanwhile, we found some mold in the kitchen flooring, so that's all gone now, too. Ah, the joys of remodeling....