Welcome back to Part 5 of this series covering the complete build of our $20k Homestead. In case you missed them, Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, and Part 4 are here for you to read.

Frustrations

We had been searching for and calling house movers ever since we found our home in July. With grading complete, we were into September and still without a mover! The main reason was the mover we had been talking and working with kept having "things come up" and delaying his inspecting and quote us on the job. Even though he was highly rated and recommended, he kept telling us "next week", "call back in a week, I had a job run long", or something of the sort. Finally (and angrily), I called to tell him never mind--that it was apparent he didn't need the money or didn't have the decency to tell us he didn't want the job. Either way, we were tired of being put off over and over. You would think someone calling, with cash in hand would be more enticing than a company that would pay in Net 30 terms.

A New Hope

My wife was the one to find our eventual moving company. I forget how she found them, but they were great. They were busy, but listened to our situation and understood that we were under a time crunch to move the house off the land and onto ours as soon as possible. In addition, they were not just movers, but also contractors who could do well, septic, grading, gravel, etc. as needed them to. They also weren't pushing--saying to just let them know what we wanted them to do. We started with just the house move for now. Within a few weeks they were ready with permits and clearances for the 50 mile haul.

Day of The Move

I took the day off so that I could be there to see everything. The morning started at our land with the drop off of the House Tug. A dozer-like machine that was remotely controlled and would tow the house up the hill and put it in place.

East Bound and Down

After dropping off the Tug, I drove 50 miles down the road to where the house was sitting. The movers had gone down the day before and welded on a trailer tongue, put axles under it, removed it from the foundation and moved it near the road. It was a great surprise to see how fast they were working and with what care they were treating the land of which the house was being removed from! They made sure to put all trash and debris into a small pile (of which the land owner said he would take care of), and carefully loaded all blocks into a truck to re-use at our place.

Ready and waiting for the tow truck.

Hooked up and ready to go!

Back That Thing Up

The only way to get the home out and back to the main roads, was to back it down the mountain road 5 2 miles to an intersection to then turn it around. This was an amazing scene to watch. Escort and chaser trucks to block traffic, and two guys on the ground to guide the driver. It took 20 minutes to reach the turn around spot:

Piece of Cake

From here it was generally straightforward... just navigate through two cities and a mountain road to our land. About 3 hours, 6 tires, and two stops for other issues, the house arrived at the land. This photo is from halfway up the hill looking down at the road.

Fancy Toys

In order to maneuver the house onto the driveway and across the creek that flows beside the road, they brought a trailer with steerable wheels to replace the fixed axles under the house.

Make Like Sisyphus, Get Up The Hill

From here, one guy steered the axle wheels, while the driver backed the house into the land. Once clear, they switched over to the House Tug to move the house up the hill to the spot. Here's a video I shot of the process:

And enjoying a beautiful sunset on our hill that evening.

Level & Done

The next day the crew came back out early to dig the footers, build the block piers, level the house and anchor it to the ground as required by code. In our area, single wide mobile homes are not required to be set on concrete footers--just set below the frost line.

Pay The Man!

With the work done, it was time to count out the benjamins and pay the crew. $4,600 for take-down, transportation, setup & leveling of the home. It was expensive, but I have no complaints from the crew--they worked us in, did a great job, and were nice to hang out with for the two days.


Well, that's it for this one. Thank you for reading and following us, it is greatly appreciated! Coming up next...

Well Drilling & Septic Installation

See you on the next one! Follow us @greenacrehome