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© Roger Davies
© Roger Davies
Photo courtesy of homeowners
Photo courtesy of homeowners
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© Colleen Duffley
Photo courtesy of homeowners
Photo courtesy of homeowners
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Next time you move, take the whole house
By Jeanne Huber of Southern Living
The shopping-center rescue: Before
Randy Harelson and Richard Gibbs love to remodel old houses. So when they heard that a 1948 cottage they had admired was for sale because it was in the way of a planned shopping center, they rushed over.
- Southern Living: Pick the right exterior paint colors
Next time you move, take the whole house
The shopping-center rescue: After
How they transformed this cottage:
- Attached a small screened porch to the rear so they could open the house from front to back.
- Added two baths with a rear addition and bumped out the shower for views of Choctawhatchee Bay.
- Turned the existing small bath into a laundry room.
- Repurposed the front bedroom as a studio and later added more studio space with a second addition.
- Installed three skylights to bring extra light into the all-wood interior.
Next time you move, take the whole house
Original materials
Aiming to refresh the cottage without changing its character, they updated all the functioning parts — wiring, plumbing, air conditioning and heating — added a fireplace and skylights and extended the back for two new baths and a large shower. But the cottage looks the same from the front, and the interior is still lined with charming knotty pine.
- MSN Living: Inside an eclectic Maine cottage
- On our blog, 'Listed': An MIT-designed, modern castle
Next time you move, take the whole house
Making the move
Cottage size: about 1,500 square feet, cut into three pieces for the move
What they paid for the house: $16,000
Relocation: $20,000
Renovation: $110,000
Cool move detail: One bit of proof of how smoothly the move went was that all the doors still worked perfectly afterward.
How far it traveled: 8 miles by flatbed truck
Next time you move, take the whole house
The pastor's cottage: Before
Paige and Mark Schnell were on the hunt for a new cottage when they heard that a local church was auctioning off its pastor's house to make room for a new sanctuary. The couple immediately put in a bid, scouted for a house mover and, after a whirlwind two-week search, found the ideal corner lot just a few miles away.
- Southern Living: Pick the right exterior paint colors
Next time you move, take the whole house
The pastor's cottage: After
How they transformed this cottage:
- Replaced some master-bedroom windows with French doors that open directly onto the porch.
- Widened a kitchen pass-through and installed a new counter with bar stools.
- Added new windows and an awning to the front bedroom to give the exterior balance.
- Switched upper kitchen cabinets for stainless-steel shelves for a more open look.
- Recycled the orphaned cabinets in the utility room.
Next time you move, take the whole house
Vintage furniture
Paige, an interior designer, and Mark, an urban designer, loved almost everything about their new house — its rot-resistant cypress siding, simple design, solid feel and spacious screened porch. Besides a few new doors and windows, most other changes were strictly cosmetic, with fresh white paint inside and out and colorful decorating.
- MSN Living: Inside an eclectic Maine cottage
- On our blog, 'Listed': An MIT-designed, modern castle
Next time you move, take the whole house
Loading the house
Cottage size: About 1,500 square feet, cut in half for the move
What they paid for the house: $25,000
Relocation: $59,000 (including the new foundation)
Renovation: $130,000
Cool move detail: The house went back together so perfectly that the crew used the original screw holes to reinstall roof panels.
How far it traveled: 4 miles by flatbed truck
- Southern Living: Pick the right exterior paint colors
Next time you move, take the whole house
House-moving information
Location, location, location. It really is as important as they say, especially when it comes to perfectly good homes sitting in the path of future development. Enter the house movers — the kind who truck structures, not pack boxes — for a rescue mission of enormous proportions.
Donald Barbee from Ducky Johnson House Movers gives us the lowdown on house moving.
- MSN Living: Inside an eclectic Maine cottage
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