Heave–Ho!

Relocating a timber frame house may not be so unusual in some parts, as long as you use properly qualified people with the correct equipment and appropriate transport on suitable roadways. A slow and sometimes tricky operation, but not all that impossible.

This weekend Clayton moved our greenhouse, using his muscle power, brute strength and ability to dig in hard rocky ground, and putting up with my sarcastic and hopefully sometimes useful opinion as to whether a particular feature appeared level, straight and horizontal-ish or not. Given the AA’s judgement of the quality of my vision, it is remarkable that the greenhouse is actually still standing right way up!

The greenhouse is a simple-frame lightweight structure made of a galvanised tubular metal and covered with a flexible polycarbonate fabric made for this purpose, a thick translucent plastic sheeting, if you will. It is an average size at 4.8 metres long and 2.4 metres wide.  At a rough guess, the structure had been standing just north of the back of the garage for near on 20 years or so. The time had come for it to be moved in preparation of the planned new veggie garden.

With the assistance of, say, four others (preferably weight-lifting enthusiasts), we could have jacked up the house on three long cross-beams and lifted and carried it pall-bearer-style. But there was no such assistance in the offing. Plan “A” was thus a non-starter.

So, we looked towards our ancient Egyptian ancestors who were in the habit of doing pyramid and sphinx-type stuff. If only we had three dozen three-metre broomsticks, we could roll the building to its new location.

We could roll it on firm hard level ground. But the ground is hilly and bumpy, squishy and soft in places, and we only had one regular-length broomstick.

So that put paid to plan “B.”

Then we devised a cunning scheme. To lift-push-pull the house along a rail-road track of timber. Sort of.

And so it came to pass that this cunning scheme evolved into Plan “C”. Regrettably we had no photographers who could bear witness to the sweat and toil, but I have taken a few shots of the aftermath scenes of the battlefield for posterity.

(Above): Ground Zero, the previous site lays fallow after the departure of the greenhouse, opening a sunny space for future generations of yummy organic veggies…

(Above): One of the “railway lines” of Plan “C” along which the house was lifted/dragged/ pushed to its new location nearer the boundary fence. When we were almost done, we discovered by accident that jamming a sliver of polythene on top of the rail under the greenhouse frame dramatically decreased the pulling effort required!

(Above): The greenhouse stands squarely on its new site nearer the boundary fence. Next we need to attend to its renovation and re-cladding, to fit into the planned new garden precinct.