REVIEW: Moving Houses continues to surprise us, or should we say, other people’s ambition continues to amaze us. This week, it’s a massive mansion to be relocated to Greytown – and a controversial paint job.
Conservation architect Chessa Stevens and Rob Tilbrook (“conservation builder”) have just finished renovating a gorgeous wee cottage – one of those beauties that help make Greytown a desirable place to live.
Now they’re ready to upsize, which turns out to be an understatement. They think they’ve found their forever home, and it’s enormous. It’s a historical landmark 30km up the road in Masterton – the 150-year-old former vicarage for St Matthews’ Church, a listed heritage building.
We’ve seen some big moves on Moving Houses, but never anything on this scale (the renovation looks just as scary as the relocation).
READ MORE:
* Moving Houses: Couple rescue great-grandparents’ rundown mansion nobody wants
* Moving Houses: New home arrives and three days later the owners move in
* Moving Houses: Taking a punt; 100-year-old cottage barged to Kaikōura with no consents in place
But it doesn’t faze these two: “She has the vision and I follow. It works well for us,” Rob says. But it looks like Chessa is having second thoughts when she says: “It looks bigger today than it has on previous days.” It can’t have actually grown overnight.
You can see it needs lots of work – the roof is rusty (so much pigeon poo) and who knows what condition that joinery is in. Inside, it’s a jumble, thanks to various projects over the years, but it has heart rimu timber and many character features, including a bay window and full-length verandas on both floors.
Bizarrely the house is attached to a retirement home next door. So, first, the two buildings have to be separated.
Rob and Chessa are paying around $275,000 for the house and the removal. And they’ve found a big, country site for the house just outside Greytown.
Matt from Central House Movers says the worst-case scenario will involve cutting the house into six pieces (which is what happens). He says Rob knows what he’s doing and will cut the house up himself.
But the house is clearly too wide for a little country lane lined with trees. Is there a plan B? Yes, they will be going cross-country, cutting through a neighbour’s paddock.
The bay window needs to come off, and Rob doesn’t want to tell Chessa. These houses always look like ruins when they’re cut up, with all their innards exposed. And this house has already had wall linings dismantled, so it looks worse than most. There’s an added complexity – steel beams have to be inserted to keep everything sturdy.
“It’s a little more invasive than I envisaged,” Rob says of the slicing. Another understatement.
The crane lifts the 40-tonne top floor off the house and everything creaks. It’s nerve-wracking. The middle section of weatherboards gets cut off, so the load can now fit on the trailer and hang down either side. I wonder how that will affect the “leaning” that will be needed to get past obstacles like bridge rails?
Lots of people turn up to watch the move, including it seems, everyone from the retirement home. In fact, it looks like the whole town has come out. This is history moving, and it’s probably quite nostalgic for some of these locals. There’s a pigeon who doesn’t want to leave his roost, so he comes too.
Chessa’s mum says it’s better than any Christmas parade, ever.
I am not sure that we have seen such a wide load hit the road. Presenter Clarke Gayford is almost as excited as the owners. (He’s probably pleased this one won’t be an all-nighter because it’s only going 30km.)
Counting pilot vehicles, there are 18 vehicles in this convoy. Unbelievable. The temporary “eyebrows” allow power lines to slide over the high points on each load. We see this on every move and it works a treat.
In Carterton, the locals have to put down their darts and come out of the pub to move their cars out of the way. Then the convoy reaches Greytown, where it sneaks through a supermarket carpark to avoid some low overhanging wires.
It rains hard, which is just what they don’t want for the paddock. An overhanging tree gets trimmed, and the entire convoy inches along. They let the tires go down before heading onto the grass. The tires slip. It’s very soft. The second load with the gable section loses traction, and they have to bring in a digger to pull the load.
The whole job is finished off the next morning. Chessa and Rob have had no sleep.
The top piece goes on top of the lower section while still on the trailer, which somehow doesn’t buckle under the weight. The loads are manoeuvred into place with millimetre accuracy.
All credit to these guys, although someone looks like they’re about to get their hand squashed. And no-one, Gayford included, is wearing a hard hat. I guess if a house is going to come down on you, a hard hat won’t be much help. Still, seems weird.
Colour scheme will be “putty” and red
Gayford returns more than a year later, and It’s “very much a work in progress”. A summer of rain has delayed the exterior painting, and it looks like they have a long way to go.
But they have finished the porch, and chosen an unusual colour scheme of light “muddy” walls (the shade is Resene Putty) with a red door and window mullions (Resene Pioneer Red) – that will be the scheme for the house. It’s not a combo I would have chosen (it reminds me, somewhat unpleasantly, of very old school buildings), and it’s likely to be controversial. But Chessa believes it was most likely the colours chosen when the addition was done around 1910.
I am not sure why they should choose that particular era when the house is older than that, and has clearly had many reinventions over the years.
They are hoping to move in within a couple of weeks. They already have one completed bathroom.
Inside, they have done a lot of work. Walls have been removed to create one large living space, with heritage colours again featuring on the walls and joinery. The original ceiling that had been buried beneath Gib is now exposed and looking great.
There’s an Arts and Crafts William Morris wallpaper in what will be kitchen (the paper is “a little bit of an indulgence”. A freestanding cooker is waiting to be installed.
Chessa and Rob have painted the walls in their bedroom (which will eventually be the library) in a dark blue, which looks wonderful. Again, they’re not bowing to trends here.
Upstairs is yet to be completed. But they’re already enjoying the sunny balcony.
Cost so far just over $1.1 million
The couple estimate they have spent $350,000, and they have a long way to go. The land was $760,000, which means so far the cost is just over $1.1 million. But it is a lot of house for the money.
None of the pigeons have shown up, so far, so Gayford gifts them a couple, which look to be knitted.
Just like last week’s relocation in the Āwhitu Peninsula, we are holding out for an update. They are doing an amazing job and we really want to see it finished.