Back in December we bought a house. Not a house and land, just a house that someone didn't want on their land any more. The house is a "Queenslander" style, which means its up on stumps to keep out the snakes, termites and flood waters, and it once had a wrap-around veranda, which is now half built-in, but still very generous. The original parts of the house are probably nearly 100 years old, with some parts added in the 1980s (and already tested negative for asbestos, phew!).
It has taken SEVEN months to organise all the council paperwork and for the removalists to be ready, but our house finally moved this week!
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| Half of the house on the truck ready to move |
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| The first half coming down our road around 3am |
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| The first half in the house yard |
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| The second half still on the truck |
The removalist just has to put the roof back on and stump the house. Then all we have to do is connect power, install rainwater tanks and septic system, replace the roof, install insulation and ceiling fans, paint the interior...... its fun to have a project! I will show you around the inside as soon as the removalists have finished and its all settled on our property.
Have you ever moved a house? Or renovated an old house? Tell me it won't be too much work....
Wow what an amazing project. We are constantly working on our 200+ year old farm house and I will tell you that doing it your way is much easier than working on one that you live in. You can go to town on it and it will be easier to bring it up to 21st century standards. Good idea!
ReplyDeleteI hope we will have time and money to work on it before we have to move in, that is the plan! I know how difficult it is to work on a house once its full of furniture...
Deletewow! that is huge! You must have had to clear both sides of the road - it looks like there is no room! How far did you move it? Is this on Cheslyn Rise? Did they cut the house in half?
ReplyDeleteIts not so huge, our road is really narrow, its actually 16 x 13 m in total, the cut it into one 10 x 13 m piece and one 6 x 13 piece. It moved 14 km, most of that on the highway, but coming down our road was the hardest part as it has washed out to one lane since the rain in Jan/Feb this year and not been fixed at all since then. The removalist was very tense about coming up the road!
DeleteI sold our house in the weekend shopper for $10,000 to someone and it did take months for the person to get all the papers in order and we were building on it so he ended up paying a penalty per week but from what I'm told these things take way longer than one would think. All the professional house movers who came to see the house all said it would take at least 5 months to get the paper work in order and they wouldn't pay me for the house however they would take it away for fee (yes, very generous of them to make money off me). Anyway I put it in the weekend shopper and could have sold it 15 times over. Very excited for your project look forward to seeing the monthly improvements. Regards Kathy A, Brisbane, Australia
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that's funny to hear it from the other perspective. It does take a LONG time to organise!
DeleteI've never relocated a home, but my over 50 mum (then) did, about eight years ago. She and her partner did all the work, only having to employ the removalists, electricians and plumbers. They laid a lot of the electrical cables themselves and plumbing (without gluing) to save money when the professionals came on site. As an owner builder you're allowed to do this, so long as the qualified trades person approves after inspection, as they know all the regulations and safety protocols.
ReplyDeleteIt does take a while to complete however, and they were working pretty much full time on it. They were able to get it to lock up and were given their occupancy certificate by the council. Which really helped cut costs on having to live in double locations and put them right on site to get stuff done in their spare time.
I always wanted to relocate a house, but probably won't - unless something happens to our present dwelling. Fingers crossed, it doesn't, LOL. I think you guys have your work cut out for you though. If hard work is your thing though, then you'll get through the workload eventually. Good luck and hope the rest of it goes well for you.
Fortunately the house is in pretty good condition. We will be doing as much of the work as we legally are allowed to :)
DeleteI haven't fully renovated a house, but we're in the process of ever so slowly updating the one that we live in. New circuit breakers, lots of paint, new blinds and curtains, gardens, and some small alterations. I've found that 180mm long foam roller covers seem to give the best paint coverage and they're much lighter.
ReplyDeleteI will be very pleased to get to the painting stage!
DeleteWe have in 41 years of married life: built a 40 foot addition on a farmhouse, torn down a couple of houses, completely upgraded a couple more houses, and the last one (my husbands says never again) we tore back to bare studs, both sides, and completely replumbed, rewired, rebuilt, and sold too cheap! I'm blest with a husband who can do literally everything in the housing trade, and the only thing he hasn't done is build a house completely from scratch! I'm game - we'll see if it happens=D
ReplyDeleteHow exciting, we built our last house ourselves, and everything on this property so far as well. We will be looking at the removal home option in another 12 months or so, if this farm starts to show us some love soon ;)
ReplyDeleteIt must be a bit of a strange feeling, seeing your house turn up on a truck at 3am! Looks great :)
ReplyDeleteThat's definitely a project you have on your hands. Have fun!
Now that is what I call moving house!!
ReplyDeleteI've heard of it overseas but it's completely foreign here.
Congrats - can't wait to see inside...
yes, I will do a tour soon, when its all tidy again :)
DeleteWell done. When we moved to the farm we lived in a cute little cottage but needed to build a bigger home for the farm stay. We loved the little house and transported it to another paddock and built our new home. Trouble is ....we haven't had the money or the time to get back to doing up the little house and putting it on the farm as extra accomodation. So it is just sitting there.... we have thought about selling it ,but we live on a farm behind other farms and it would require cutting our neighbours fences to get it out.
ReplyDeleteSo having looked into moving the house further, I know just how much work it was to get your house to your new home. It is a beautiful home that you have there, I know you will enjoy fixing it up , plus older homes just have so much more character.
What a gorgeous house! And your half house is bigger than our entire house! It's going to be heaven living in there.
ReplyDeleteIts really only small, just 3 bedrooms, you will see when I do the inside tour later...
DeleteGosh! You don't do things by halves do you?! Actually, I suppose you did.
ReplyDeleteSuch a gorgeous looking house. I am looking forward to seeing it brought back to life.
what a big job...moving a house...but also very exciting....
ReplyDeletethat is quite an accomplishment :)
ReplyDeletethanks everyone :) I'm looking forward to sharing our progress with you.
ReplyDeleteThat's awesome. Looking forward to reading about this project.
ReplyDeleteWe've never moved a house, but some of our neighbors did about 2 years ago. The place looks awesome. Funny as a bystander to know that their house used to be in a field a few miles away... it looks like a brand new house now.
What an adventure! I imagine it will be a big project but it'll be wonderful when you're finished. Thank you for sharing this at the HomeAcre Hop; I hope you'll join us again this Thursday.
ReplyDelete~ Kathi
That's certainly one way of constructing a house. :)
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