Moving a house is as life changing as building one

Building your dream home is cool but moving your dream home? Wayyyyyy cooler.

Going to tiptoe around the idea, and say if you are here,

 then you have already gone down the rabbit hole of researching older house restoration,

 and have considered the crazy-amazing concept of structurally moving a house.

If you already found a house to move, then I can’t wait to hear about it!

If you are still on the fence about the idea but want to start the search, then let’s talk about it!

Or maybe you just think it is whack-a-doodle cray-cray bat eyed idea and want to see what all the fuss is about! – The welder made it known this was what he thought of me for the first few months of this crazy train!

Every one moves- but not everyone moves the whole HOUSE

It’s true.

Crazy, house-moving, life-changing true.

Are you intrigued by those mind-blowing pictures of old houses being jacked up and driven down the road?

Do you wonder where they are going?

Who in there right mind is trucking an old house down the road??!

Can I drive???- ok maybe I am the only one thinking that…

Who thinks about these things????!!!!

Me-oh, my gosh always ME!

And those incredible people who structurally move houses for a living, I am going to assume they eat, sleep, dream about it too!!

Which is also me, I could so do this for a living if they would let me drive!!

Would you??

Would you move an entire house to save it?

I like to think my twin soul is out there, daydreaming about moving a house she found.

Maybe sipping a cup of coffee in her paint smeared jammys excitedly pep talking her husband into how they too could move a house to their land!

 While he claims he is listening… with his eyes closed.

Maybe she is out there somewhere dreaming of me too.

-Our husbands can ‘rest’ their eyes together as we gab over reconfiguring floorplans!

Are people who move houses crazy?

Is it CRAZY to move an ENTIRE house from one foundation to a brand new one?

I mean…Kinda??!

Sorta?

Definitely!

Soooo….AGAIN I want to Welcome my crazies!

You have finally found your peoples!?

We are MOVING on up!!

Can I get an amen, feels good to be around like-minded souls who have a passion for saving old houses!

It’s hard in a world of new built house lovers to find people who understand the value in older homes.

When we started down this journey, it was really just me starting out. The welder- who is usually so supportive of my middle of the night ideas, too many cups of coffee thoughts, random spur of the moment can’t live without, feel like I might die-Just HAVE to give it a whirl adventures.

Yeah even he thought I had fallen off the rocker.

So I did as much research as I could and honestly found that there isn’t much out there. Other than the professional sites (that I read, re-read, re-read repeat) I devoured, I couldn’t find any personal stories. Any real life adventures.

There are some amazing new articles of historical structures being moved in order to be saved. One of my favorite childhood memory, standing beside the Cape Hatteras lighthouse while it was being moved. I can remember looking up to my Grandma as she climbed the steps that day, for years she volunteered with the National Park Service and had the unique opportunity to stand at the top of the lighthouse during one the days it moved.

Remembering that and knowing that as an adult I could possibly make that happen.

That is what they call making childhood dreams come true.

Is moving a house for us?

Historical structures are being moved and saved all around our country.

I genuinely and whole heartedly believe we need to start talking about it. Sharing our story and joining together to spread the word.

For us personally

• Looked for a way to have a forever home for our family while having history and character
• Had our forever land so moving was not an option
• Did not want to be house poor, affordability has always been high on our list (probably higher on the welders list than vintage style is on mine)- we are definitely the people with historic mansion taste on a single wide budget
• Might be strange for some to hear but we really talked most nights about wanting to get our hands dirty, we wanted to do a good portion of the work ourselves

For all of these reasons we really just prayed about what we should do. We explored building but that thought left quickly after drawing up and paying for the plans.

But I swear every single shack we passed was begging me to save it.

Local House Moving

House moving, especially older antique homes is not as rare as it is in other areas, in a neighboring county historic Jones-Lee house was moved! We had the same company move our houses.

The local Tarkil Branch Farm has a museum with an 1830s dogtrot fully furnished. They offer tours and have over 10 other vintage buildings, some that were moved there. When we stopped by Benny was full of local knowledge and took his time showing us around.

When we decided to even think about moving a house to our farm, I thought it was financially out of our reach.

I figured moving houses was for those with deep pockets and we were the family on the sewn shut pocket budget. You know the kind of pocket you go to stick your hand in and then curse the person who designed pants with the pockets sewn shut!

The house has a new home

I am sure you can tell we moved a house.

I wonder if you noticed that we turned around and moved another one.

In the process of planning this all out I have drawn up floorplans and determined where exactly the houses should sit on our land.

We want to save money so we had the house mover set them in a way that our septic system will be tie into the new structure. I also feel it was important to set the houses on the farm with the views in mind, we have a beautiful farm that opens up at the end of a long dirt path. I love the old growth trees and the special seclusion we gain from that. It makes me smile that the house placement captures the views from each side, framed out by historic 100 year old windows.

So you moved a house, now what?

The houses have finally been cribbed up in their new forever location on our farm here in Pink Hill, NC.

We have drawn the permits to combine them into one house.

This is definitely my biggest renovation to date and I can’t wait to share with y’all the truth behind moving and renovating two houses.

Make sure you check out the hoarder’s house I renovated.