Moving is never stress free

When you tell people you are MOVING a new house, they usually first imagine you packing boxes and actually moving to a new house. It’s been a bit of a learning curve explaining to people that yes, one day at the end of this adventure we WILL box our things up and move.

But for now, y’all we did it.

We really MOVED a house!

House moving takes more than muscles

Moving an entire house is not for the faint of heart.

We did NOT DIY this project.

It is NOT simple

and it’s NOT easy

or even all that cheap.

But MANNNNNN was it cool to watch!

Professional Help

While the welder likes to joke that he thinks I need professional help…at least I think he is joking.

Come to think of it he better be joking!

For this project we definitely needed some professional help. We had to hire a company to move the houses, permits had to be pulled for the structure to move, permits had to be obtained for the house to be actually moved on the street, and last but not least we had to have permits and paperwork drawn to start reconstruction.

The Vanna White of Hillbilly House Moving

-that man I married

When you are moving the whole dang house

Buying a house to have moved from its original foundation to our farm down the road was an easy choice for us.

It was a way to save a piece of history, to have built in character, and well let’s be serious it was pretty dad gum awesome!

Around here I like to believe we firmly stand behind

Repurposing,

Reusing,

and

Restoring!

*With the occasional Rehabilitation for husbands*

At least that is what I keep cheering to the welder at the beginning of each “Oh Hunny, could we?” chore list

Charm we lost while moving

I was heart broken that we were unable to move the two original chimneys and original Craftsman front porch columns and brick surround.

We were able to salvage the original bricks and will be using those to reconstruct the new front porch columns to match what was there.

We also lost a set of french doors.

*Pretty sure these things grew legs and walked off the site becasue they were there one day and gone the next.*

Pull the permits before you pull the house

I have put together a quick run-down of the steps we took to get our structure moving!

Your steps may be different because of local codes and different areas.

No matter what the steps are I can guarantee you that no matter where you live, they are not going to allow you to back up to a house and take off with it down the road without some kind of paperwork!

I always recommend you contact your local county or city, I have found them to be super helpful in this journey!

A great place to start is your building permits office but be aware that moving a structure down the road requires permits pulled by the structural mover and those are done usually on state level. Our house builder took care of this permit for us!

Steps to moving a House

• Find a House (Craigslist, Facebook Marketplace, ask local house movers)
• Have a professional confirm house can be moved
• Dig around original foundation to jack up house
• Jack house up and place beams
• Beams are placed to balance the house on the tire axles for the move
• Demo Original Foundation, original chimney’s that are not being move
• Hook up axles under the house to a BIG TRUCK
• Hook BIG TRUCK to another BIGGER TRUCK
• Stand by in your big truck *in your head* wondering if you should offer to help?
• GNAW all your nails off as you watch your new to you house pull off it’s original foundation
• Quickly jump in your truck to follow your new house home

The after math-after moving

Now not only did we move one historic 1920’s house but we turned around and moved a second home built in the mid 1940’s.

I set out drawing and tinkering years ago coming up with a way to combine two homes into one unique forever house! Our solution is a dining room in between!

You definitely won’t want to miss out on this renovation!

Are you and your family moving? Are you taking the house with you?

If so we would love to hear your story and follow your journey!