Local home on the move to Vancouver Island

Local home on the move to Vancouver Island

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Story Published: Jun 17, 2008 at 6:56 PM PDT

Story Updated: Nov 20, 2008 at 9:50 PM PDT

By KOMO Staff

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HUNTS POINT, Wash. -- Tuesday was moving day for one huge home. The whole house began its big move to Canada.

The owners of the 30-year-old Scandinavian Tudor love their lot, but want to build their own home. So they sold the home to a house-moving company for a $1 and a donation to Habitat for Humanity.

The sale was simple, but moving the 3,300-square foot brick home and carriage house off a bog and onto a barge was not so simple.

"When you have a house that's this heavy - about 140 tons - and we're moving it with the brick in place, you have to make sure that everything is all hooked together right and the bricks are held in place. And that makes it particularly tough to do," said Jeff McCord with Nickel Bros. House Moving.

The house is headed to Vancouver Island, where its new owners live. The buyers say recycling the house easily save them $600,000, because they couldn't have built a home so big for what they paid.

And the sellers can rest assured the their former home is going to a good home. The home was built by a sailor and even has a chartroom. One of the new owners is a ferry captain who especially appreciates the nautical themes throughout the home.

"We have a great new house, more than we could have asked," said the new owner, Jennifer O'Farrell. "We're saving the landfill, saving trees."

The movers even used vegetable oil in the hydraulics in case something seeps into the water.

As for the sellers, they plan to build a Mediterranean villa.

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