Wednesday was moving day for the Renwick family.
Usually this sort of thing isn’t newsworthy. Except in this case, when the move incorporated transporting a roughly 3,000 square foot house 650 metres from one property to the next along 30 Avenue in the Otter neighbourhood.
The Renwicks – Bruce and Adele and their daughter – bought the 13-year-old home that would have otherwise been demolished.
Another family had previously bought the house. They planned to demolish it and then build a new one in its place.
“We said, ‘Well, we’ll take it off your hands for you,'” Bruce related. “We’re going to park it into the hole where our old house used to be (located). We’re doing a one-for-one swap. Keeps it simple.”
House move
Adele said purchasing the house from the family that now owns the property where it once sat, and then moving it has been in the works since the spring.
The 1,000 square foot house the Renwick family had lived in since 1999, a couple doors down, was built in the 1950s but they had outgrown it.
It’s been razed to make way for their ‘new’ home.
“Our house was too small for us so we would have had to sell our property and move,” Adele said.
“When this opportunity came up we decided it would be good to basically recycle a house — or (more like) upcycle it. It saves a house from going to the dumpster.
“We personally think more people should try to do this. It’s a great way of keeping the character of the neighbourhood and the cost is obviously way less than building (a new house).”
Moving the house, using local company Nickel Bros., was a huge undertaking.
“Definitely it’s a challenge,” Adele said.
“It’s been a long journey,” Bruce added.
Troy signoff
