would-you-float-your-dream-home-across-lake-raft-like-this-couple

Would You Float Your Dream Home Across Lake on a Raft Like This Couple?

So you have your dream house but hate the location? Why not just move it? Easy peasy, right? Well, not exactly – but it sounds like a really cool idea. While relocating homes is not unheard of, it’s very expensive to do. Even crazier than the amount of money you’ll have to spend moving an entire house? Having to do it by water.

For Kirk Lovell and Daniele Penney, from Newfoundland, Canada, that’s exactly what they did, however. The two fell in love with a 100-year-old home. The couple who owned it wanted to knock it down. However, Lovell and Penney made an offer and decided to save the historic structure.

But the couple needed to move the home to their property across the lake. While moving it through the streets was an initial thought, both Lovell and Penney realized it would not work with the low power lines. So instead of trying to move it on a truck platform, the couple decided to float the home across the lake using a makeshift raft.

It sounds absolutely crazy – we can’t imagine investing in a century-old home and then risking its integrity by putting it in the water. But the tough Canadians knew if their ancestors could do it, they could too. Back in the 1950s, many Canadians had to float homes across waterways in order relocate to larger communities.

“I wanted to see if it could float,” Lovell said. “They did it back in the 60s, and they never had much to work with.”

Dream Home’s Journey

The whole process would take seven days just to place the home on the raft. However, Lovell and Penney researched months beforehand to figure out what they needed to build their raft.

After much studying, the couple figured out they could use 28 plastic barrels and styrofoam insulation to hoist the home up.

Having to float 56 miles across the bay, the pair waited with hearts racing. It took five nerve-racking hours for the house to travel across the water.

“It was like you were teeter-tottering on faith,” Penney said. “Was it going to stay afloat? Was it going to sink?”

Though on the journey, some water did get into the house, it made it safely and in tact. Neighbors of Lovell and Penney assisted with the travels in small boats. This was an effort to keep water out as much as possible.

“At the end of the day, a historic home was saved, a family will have a renovated home to live in with a spectacular view and everyone got to share an amazing story that will be talked out for years,” Keith Goodyear said on Facebook. Congrats to all involved.”