Monday, November 09, 2009

Never move a cabin

Over the weekend my dh and I moved our cabin. This is a 20 x 10 building we built and placed on our property in Princeton. When we delivered it we pretty much just dumped it in the most convenient spot and after staying in it for over a year decided we wanted a more permanent spot that was more aesthetic.

Last weekend we dug the trench and installed underground conduit for electricity and pvc pipe for water to the new more aesthetic location. This weekend we did the big move. We left Friday night and my dh declared we'd get the cabin moved and head home Saturday night so we would have all day Sunday at the permanent residence to get things done.

We started out trying to lift the cabin with the backhoe. The dh had made forks on the bucket for loading large bales of hay, and he thought we could just put those under the building, throw a strap around the cabin, and pick it up and move it. Didn't work. The straps kept stretching and the forks weren't long enough to support enough of the building.

Then he decided since we had piles of old power poles we'd slide three under the cabin, chaining them together and pull the cabin to where we wanted it. The cabin wasn't cooperating and we ended up having to put four poles under by lifting with the backhoe and shoving them under. Then when we hooked the chains to them front and back like lashing together logs for a raft, it made the whole thing too heavy for the backhoe to pull up the small incline where we wanted to put the cabin. When that didn't work we then had to jack up the cabin again with one handyman jack and moving from corner to corner placing blocks under it and pull out the logs.

I suggested since we were jacking it up, let's use the fifth wheel trailer we hauled it there on. So it was a matter of jacking three corners and adding blocks while slowly picking up one corner with the backhoe to get it high enough we could back the trailer under the cabin. We finally had it on the trailer by dark. So my dh backed it up the incline and close to the spot we wanted it. Then he hooked the power back up and didn't get the electricity grounded right and blew out the two light bulbs we had. I drove the backhoe to the neighbors, begged light bulbs, and returned to our place. He had the wiring right, and we slept in the cabin on the trailer Saturday night. Not making it home like the dh had planned on the way over.

Sunday morning we jacked and blocked the cabin up and inch by inch pulled the trailer out, only the one end of the cabin was on a downhill slope, so we had to run rope through the beams under the cabin and tie it to the trailer as we slowly pulled out to keep it from slipping down the slope. Once we had the trailer out from under the cabin, we block by block, corner by corner lowered the cabin until we had it all the way down to one block. Then we had to make sure it was all level, the dh hooked the electricity back up and by 11:00 am we had the cabin in the spot we wanted and everything back to normal inside.

And that was how I spent my weekend. No writing and lots of stress both mentally and physically. So how was your weekend?

Unfortunately I forgot to photos of the newly positioned cabin. I'll try to remember to take some the next time we go over there.

5 comments:

gtyyup said...

The cabin looks good from the road Paty. You should have come and had John help you...glad it's done and nobody got hurt. That wasn't an easy task!

Paty Jager said...

Thanks, Karen. I think it looks good where it's at too! Just wish I'd remembered to take a photo. Did you find your lantern in the backhoe?

Lauri said...

OMG, lady! You certainly prove when there's a will--there's a way! Congrats on a job well done!

Paty Jager said...

Thanks, Lauri!

gtyyup said...

Yes, John found the lantern. You'll be out soon enough again. Or, I'll take a pic for you.