Houses on the move

Waste diverted

Seattle mover Nickel Bros. says each house saved diverts 50,000 to 100,000 pounds of debris from landfills. The pile outside this Seattle house is only about 15% of the home's total debris.

Night move

This 1908 five-bedroom farmhouse was in the path of industrial development in the Kent Valley, south of Seattle. Here, movers collapsed a street light's arm (in front of the house) so the house could get past. The home's 10-mile, zigzag move took it around a bridge, down an airport runway and onto a barge for transport on Lake Washington to its new site.

Craftsman saved

To make way for a Seattle town-house development, movers jacked this house up and placed beams under it. Then they jacked it even higher to install a second set of beams crosswise to the first. They put rollers between the two sets of beams and are shown here sliding the house off its foundation in preparation for an eight-block move. The chimney was dismantled then reassembled after the move.

Narrow road

Movers guide a truck and house through a tight passage with overhanging trees in Seattle's Queen Anne neighborhood. They had to temporarily move high-voltage, high-tension overhead trolley lines -- at a cost of roughly $30,000 -- to relocate it just 10 blocks from its original site.

Rear dollies

A house weighing about 35 tons is loaded onto beams that ride on eight-wheeled dollies.

More on moving homes from MSN Real Estate

• Read:  Why build? Move an older home instead