The Beginning

A couple of days ago we were the successful bidders for a house.  Not so strange, really...lots of folks bid on and acquire new homes.  But this one IS different!  The county is getting ready to do a road project and change the intersection of two roads near some property we own--where our shop for our business is located and where we have hoped to someday build a house and live.  We built the shop for our business out there several years ago, but just hadn't been willing or able to begin building a house.  Until opportunity came knocking.  As part of the process for acquiring right of ways for the project, the county contacted us concerning a piece of our 15 acres that they needed.  During the discussion, HH happened to ask what was going to become of the house on the property next door, which he had noted was in the direct path of the new intersection.  They told us that they had purchased it and were going to demolish the house.  A little niggle began to form in his brain, and before I knew it we were on the road to finding out if it was possible to acquire the house and move it to a building site on our property next door--I told him that it sounded like a "Harebrained Scheme!"

Now, when I say next door, you must think in rather grand terms--the house sits on about 2 acres and our little piece of paradise next door is just over 15 acres.  Now, the county wasn't sure that this was a good idea.  They have time constraints--the house must be off the property by June 2 in order for their project to begin on time or they could lose federal money that is helping to fund the project.  They were concerned that it couldn't be moved in that amount of time.  They had already looked into moving it, but property would have to be purchased, and a state highway would have to be closed to move it.  It didn't sound feasible.

When we learned that the public works department would be asking the Cowlitz County Commissioners to allow them to "dispose" of the house, we attended the commissioner's meeting and asked them to consider putting it up for auction, which would save the county the costs of demolition, keep a LARGE amount of materials out of the waste stream, AND would keep the house on the tax roles and keep revenue coming in for the county---a win for everyone!  The commissioner's eventually did order the house to be surplussed, and we entered our bid on May 14, 2013.  We were the high (and only) bidders and our bid was accepted that same afternoon.  Now, you know that there was a lot of nail biting and second-guessing during the several weeks we had to wait, not to mention figuring out who could move this thing down the road for us, what permits, etc. we would need, and HOW THE HECK we were going to get all this done in the short amount of time that we would have after our bid was (hopefully) selected.

Here's a picture of our Harebrained Scheme.....