One of our big projects this year is moving our house to a different spot on our property. Right now the house is very close to the road, and we would like some more privacy from passing traffic. It’s a big project, and a little overwhelming to think about. But, we have accomplished the first step!
Staking the corners.
Root cellar corners.
Our neighbor was getting a septic system put in at his cabin, so we made a deal with the dude digging and building his system, to come over to our place when he was finished (while all the big machinery was up there anyway) to level a spot for our house and dig the hole for our future root cellar. An hour and a half and a couple hundred dollars later: we have a level pad and a big hole!
It’s pretty cool to watch a big machine move all that earth so quickly. The only unfortunate part is that bedrock lies 3.5 feet under the surface, so the root cellar hole did not end up as deep as we wanted. Instead, we’ll just have to build up the sides, so it will be mostly underground anyway. The root cellar is going to be a huge undertaking, but now that the hole is dug, we can work on it as we have time. We’re not expecting to have the root cellar finished this year.
Big machine work.
So now that that first step is completed, next we need to build a foundation for the house. We’ll be working on setting some concrete rounds, filling the rest in with gravel, leveling everything, and then building a wooden platform for the house to be moved onto. That should be solid enough for our little cabin, and we can hire the guy who originally delivered the cabin to come up, attach his cool wheel and forklift thing to it, and move it down the hill.
Everything will be a lot more centralized once the house is moved. We’ll be right next to the garden and the chicken coop, and the greenhouse will be a much shorter walk from our front door. Plus we’ll be nearly totally hidden from traffic on our road. It’s going to be awesome.
Future root cellar.
Level pad.
It’s so nice to get a jump-start on all these big projects this year. Chickens and ducks will be added to our pack in a few short weeks! And just wait for more garden pictures… coming soon.
Loki escaping the hole.
(And guess what… it’s windy and cold and miserable outside, which means I get a chance to blog, haha!)
Future house home.
Amelia's Meadow 
Very Cool! Looks like a BIG project. Sounds like a good move though.
LikeLike
One other thing to consider is that it looks like you have an uphill slope around your future cabin site, be aware of future rain / snowmelt that would drain right towards the house. As long as you have some loose gravel / dirt it could be used to build up a berm to redirect water after the house is moved. Looks awesome.
LikeLike