Moving Day

On Monday, the stars finally were in alignment so the Can Do Cottage could be delivered. This house moving company moved it in the daylight. When we moved the first house we did this with they moved in the wee hours of the morning and rolled in about 5am.  We were told it would come before noon but they wouldn't get on the road until the morning traffic was cleared out. Right on time, we saw it coming down the road.

There was one little branch that blocked the way.

But it was removed and the real work of turning the corner began. There is only about 30 feet between the electrical pole and a tree on the adjacent property. The house is a little over 28 feet wide.

They did pull a fence post out to make a little more room. Where the truck's front tires are going has been filled up with wood beams.

They inched their way through the turn. The moving company is a multi-generational family and the father and son and helpers are shouting directions back and forth.

They cleared the turn, but have to keep the truck's wheels on the road because the area in front of the truck wheels is a mud hole. (Remember the cement truck?)

It straightened out perfectly! That's some truck driving. I have trouble backing out of my driveway. After a few more yards our house leaves the road for the last bit of it's journey home.

As it travels a bit south of the footings and over a bit of a rise, the truck gets a bit of assist from a winch on one of the other trucks that came along.

The house is facing backwards, so they need to do a bit of a pirouette.

There was some back and forth and jogging around but they pull it in over our footings.

They then went to Lunch! So did we. They returned and spent about 2 hours fine tuning the placement so that the house was exactly centered over the footings. They have it balanced on four stacks of timbers that hold up the two huge iron beams that have supported the house since it left it's original home. Using jacks, the winch and pushing with a truck they fine tuned the placement.

And there she is! We've ordered the foundation blocks, vents, mortar and sand and the contractor will start to work on the foundation next week (as long as we don't get any bad weather). When it's done, the house movers will return and set the house down on the foundation and level it so it will be as if it was built there.