Beth's Blog: May 2008

Sorry for the Long Delay between Postings!!
(I'm not really busy, I just think I am...ya right!)

Last Fall, the house just North of us was moved.
Many of you may have never seen
a house take a walk down the road,
so I will post some pictures,
there isn't a lot to say because
"A picture is worth a thousand words."
But I will add some captions above each picture.

235 Taylor Rd the way it sat for the last 25-30 years.

Starting to take things apart, here they work on the chimney.

Then the bricks on the front of the house.

Then the beautiful fireplace had to go,
it was to heavy to be moved down the road unsupported.

Hector was working on the back
in order to save the patio materials
otherwise they would have been
demolished by machinery.

About a block down the road
the lot is being cleared and prepared
for the house to arrive.

Here comes the big machine ready to do it's work.

Talk about a mean machine!!

Here goes the back of the house.
Take notice of the part where the siding has been removed,
there is a reason for that...

Finishing off the garage.

DONE!

Cleaning up the mess.
Notice how close to our house that truck is sitting.
But that is just the beginning...

SEE!!

I took this one, while standing in my back doorway.
(In the bottom left corner you can see the door bell.)

This is the master bedroom exposed!!
The house was to wide to go down the road
with the bedroom fully there.
That is the part above where the siding had been removed.

One of those big beams from our driveway
being placed under the house,
they picked those up and swung them around
our house and then under the other house.

They had several layers of beams,
some from side to side, and others from front to back.

These beams were a little shorter,
that's what you call a greased beam,
they actually winched the house from above the basement
to the front yard. Leaving the basement exposed.

That's what's left.

Here you can see it is jacked up
high enough for the truck to pull under,
but it sat here for about 5 weeks
before they actually came to move it.

The day before the move,
the trucks came and got everything loaded up
and ready to roll at 2am.
(Notice my little red car was frightened
and squeezed itself as close up to our house as possible!)

READY, SET...

GO!!!

We got up at 1:45 am to be ready
when the crew arrived at 2 am,
by 4 am we were back in bed!!

Lifting the wires that go to our house
to pass under without disconnecting us.

Pulling onto the road.

On the road.
The power company and the telephone companies
were here to lift or disconnect wires as necessary.

Here they were getting stuck
in the tree right across the road from our house.
(We actually planted those trees
about 15 years ago when we built that duplex.)

Again 2 doors down,
we were crunching and grinding
through the neighbours blue spruce trees,
but we made it.
(A little damage to the trees, and to the eaves on the house.)

Almost there, but some wires had to be lifted again,
and some of the road side signs had to be pulled up,
and replaced after the house went by.

Here it has been backed onto the new lot, and is being adjusted.
But most of the work was done,
and the crew actually went home
and came back in the morning to wiggle and squiggle
it to exactly the right place.
Because the lot was small the position of the house
had been staked out by a surveyor
and there was no room for mistake.