It’s moving day for one Vancouver Island family, but instead of packing their belongings and saying goodbye to their old home, they are waiting for the tide to come in.
That’s because they’re using a house-moving service to pick up their dream home and carefully ship it away.
In January, Emilie Worthington purchased a 1912 heritage home in an Oak Bay neighbourhood and has spent the last few months co-ordinating the move.
“I just loved my daily walks in this neighbourhood, and I wondered how I could ever get into a house like this,” Worthington said. “And then I had a friend who just told me about house moving and then I really became curious from then on.”
On Monday morning the 100-tonne structure was lifted from its foundation and loaded onto a massive dolly system. Then it was transported to McNeill Bay where it sat on the road waiting for tidewaters to rise enough for a barge to come in and take it away.
Nickel Bros. is handling the move and the company will be storing the house at its Duke Point facility until Worthington and her family buy some land north of Victoria to put it on.
It’s a major investment of time and money but in the end Worthington hopes to come out ahead.
"We could easily spend over $1 million if we bought something new but we don’t really have that to spend,” Worthington said.
“You know what? This house has stood the test of time. All the finishing is already there, the kitchen was completely renovated. It’s beautiful inside and out, so once we put it back together we’ll have a great house for half the cost of buying new."
Many of the neighbours along Beach Drive stopped to marvel; many taking photos and commenting on the massive amount of muscle involved in the move.
“It’s pretty overwhelming,” one man remarked while walking by. “I think the history of the house is kind of cool too. If you like an old house and you can move it and keep the feel of it, I think it’s pretty cool.”
