Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Moving house in New Zealand!

Since most of the homes in New Zealand are of the papier mache variety and are covered with 'wood finishes', 'brick effects' and so on, it is really easy (if a little expensive) to check out your neighbourhood, decide you would prefer to live somewhere else, call the owners of the above featured trucks and arrange to have your house moved to a better location. And with that, abracadabra - your home can be loaded onto the aforementioned truck or trucks, and relocated to the suburb or rural area of your choice!
This particular home has arrived from somewhere else and is in the process of being installed beside one of the main routes (called State Highways here) just outside the little town of Huntly.

This 'piece' of the house has been temporarily removed from the main house - probably for ease of loading onto the trucks, and will be re-attached once the house is in it's final position. The whole things is then balanced on the wheels you can see under the structure until the corner posts and support structures have been pounded into the ground and then before you can say 'Jack Robinson' the bits are all put back together again and lowered onto the supports. Wheels removed and gaps filled we assume and there you go! All set up and ready to meet your new neighbours!
We just were so amused to see that although the house is empty of furniture, there are still drapes at the windows - swinging about as they lift and lower and swing the house about until it's in it's final position. That 'final' position is relative I guess - if the new neighbours turn out to be seriously undesirable - no worries - call the moving company and move house again!
Last time we drove past this location, the house was leaning at a very precarious looking angle, but had the bit they had initially removed, stuck back on again - so clearly one of these days, the owners can move back in!

No comments:

Post a Comment