My tiny house-transport did (not) go well..

The day has finally arrived! Damn, I’ve been waiting so long for this and the feeling was completely indescribable when I woke up to my alarm super early that morning. But little did I know about how the day would end..

For starters, I want to say that I am completely transparent in my blog posts when it comes to living with a tiny house. I will tell you about the good, the bad and the ugly. The whole package – prices, dimensions, positive things and the negatives – always! I want to give you an honest big picture of it all, so that if you might want a tiny house yourself, you know what you are getting yourself into and if it is borrowing thousands from banks with high interest rates.

Now that that has been said, I hope you are sitting comfortably and have a few minutes to spare, because in this blog post I had a lot on my mind.

It is Thursday morning, July 13, 2023 and the time is 04:45am. Oatmeal with proteins, cinnamon and cardamom is consumed while an icy white Monster energy drink joins us the car. We drive to Moss and take the 06:30 ferry over to Horten, which takes half an hour to cross. From there it is only a 20 minute drive to Vestfold Minihus ❤️

I had been told by Dahlen Transport that there had to be a tractor on site to pull the house onto the well trailer, and a tractor at the farm in Vestby that could pull the house off the trailer again. After some searching in the agricultural groups on Facebook, both parts were in place! Hurray!

Once at Vestfold Minihus, the workers were busy removing the support legs under the house, the pipe for the incinerator toilet and cutting some of the drainage pipes under the house so they don’t hit the ground during transport.

I had agreed with Dahlen that the house would go onto the farm in Vestby, and had asked him to check the address and accessibility in advance, because otherwise there would be no point in transporting the house there. On the day of the transport, the driver of the Wide Load-car also said that he had driven the track the day before and that everything looked fine. Double security for me!

Seeing my house roll for the first time is a sight and a feeling I never will forget!

“Now it’s happening for REAL!” I thought “This is NOT daydreaming because WE ARE HERE NOW and this is happening TODAY!” Pinch, pinch, pinch in arms, cheeks and legs! ADHD Mode ON!

The mobile camera was buuurning and during that day I had taken no less than 1089 photos and videos! Now it’s time to find a sweet bunch to share with you here in the blog, then.. 😅📸 Is 30 photos enough? 50? 100? 😅

The tractor pulled the house slowly around the corner, up a little hill and around a small passage untill a spacious parking lot was revealed. There the truck and the well trailer were ready for the tiny house on-rolling-part 😍

Without visibility and only with help from the trailer driver on walkie talkie, TT (Tractor-Terje) steered the ship precisely backwards until the entire wagon was placed well on the well trailer.

Now it was time to lift the house up a bit to unscrew all six wheels. Then the house was placed completely down on its stomach and fixed in position.

And the sons of the driver who were with us helping had the same pants as me! Of course a picture had to be taken! This is a once in a lifetime! 😍

READY TO DEPARTURE!

Slowly the driver drove off with the house and all. Down the tight passage, past Vestfold Minihus.. and stopped!

A power line that crossed the road hung so low that we had to use a couple of beams to lift the cable while the driver slowly drove underneath. Yes!

The next stage was to get onto the main road and stop to measure the heights.

Such a cheerful driver! 😍

“448 cm high” says the driver. The limit is a full 450 cm, so let’s put the pedal to the metal all the way to Vestby!

With a Wide-Load-car in front and one behind, my house drove in 90kmt. For every single bridge and tunnel, I had to close my eyes 🙈🤣

It was so nerve-wracking to see the house hurtling away like that on the highway!

We were behind the Wide-Load car all the way and it was really cool to see how they operated on the road! Before each tunnel, they lay in the middle of the strip and occupied both fields so that no one would pass by!

We’re talking smaaall margins here 😅 Look at the top of the house! Oh, my God! Lowest tunnel in the world!!

The sun was shining the whole trip ☀️😍 And we had buns and coke in the car which we munched on while I filmed and took pictures.

As we approached, I contacted the tractor driver Eirik, who met us at the gravel road into the farm yard.

And this was actually as far as we got.

“I can’t get in here” says the trailer driver to my great surprise and disappointment.

What did you say??

The driver ended up turning around and dropping off my house in a nearby cemetery. There he mounted the wheels and had the tractor pull the house down from the well trailer. Then he packed his things and drove off.

While we wait…

Best to check if anybody is home!

Now what?

Spontaneously I now had to find out how to get the house all the way up into the yard.

Tractordriver Eirik and me looked at eachother a little dazed.

Luckily I had him there, but his job was only to pull the house off the trailer when it arrived in the yard. I asked nicely and he said yes, but it was just pure luck that he had the time to help me after he had been to work since the morning.

“We’ll just have to try, ’cause your house can’t stand here in the cemetery! That’s just depressing.”

As the tractor driver and I were unprepared for the fact that it was our task to move the house from the cemetery, the trip up to the yard became a nightmare.

We picked up a load of gravel to increase the chances of a successful transport/ last part.

He was able to turn the house onto the dirt road where he had left the load with gravel and everyone was in reasonably good spirits. The road is one-way for about 200 meters, so our eyes were constantly on the look-out while we hoped that no one came with a bad stomach who just haaad to gooo hooome 😅

With a bit of backing and steering, we were finally on the right track.

But then it happened.

«STOOOOP» the girlfriend of the driver yelled before I heard something cracking and breaking.

The cladding on the left corner suddenly lay on the gravel..

Damn it! We have only just started on this shitty road and it’s a long way to go with worse road conditions. I had nowhere else to put the house, so we just had to continue slowly.

A picture says more than a thousand words.

I asked if it was possible to lower the house at the front so that the rear end of the house is lifted. He could do that by unlocking the attachment between tractor and drawbar (pull-eye?) (lowering the spike that is threaded into the drawbar eye, which means that the house can now “jump off” the tractor attachment and roll away). That helped.

Slowly, with grass constantly brushing up against the undercarriage of the house, it rolled up the hill. We got stuck several times, and Eirik lowered the spike little by little each time until the house finally made it to the top.

No reason to cheer just yet.

Cause here comes:
The Valley of Death!

The tractor drove down the Valley of Death with the house in tow, but when it continued up this butt-crack-shaped dump, it came to an abrupt stop.

The house was stuck like a good ol’ constipation.. The cladding was in the gravel both front and back and we couldn’t get out without more cladding being destroyed. Darker and darker clouds formed in the sky.

“Drive a little forwards!” I said. “No, stop!!” cried the girls.

“Drive a little backwards!” I said. “No, stop!!” cried the girls.

Now everyone’s motivation dropped and you could feel both the frustration and the helplessness.

This isn’t working!

Now it started to rain and we stood there only in a t-shirt and with the car all the way up in the yard without the opportunity to drive either out nor home.

The house wasn’t moving.

In desperation we scattered and ran around to all the houses in the farm and knocked. Empty and dead everywhere except for one place! She was both at home AND had materials on a trolley outside.

Happiness!

We were allowed to take as much as needed, so we took it all! The plan was now to put materials behind the wheels and back on top of them, then build twice as high in front of the wheels and drive up on them and thus climb in height.

We continued to drive forwards and backwards until the house had climbed high enough to get a few centimeters of clearance between the cladding and the gravel.

Was this enough to get us up the last few meters of the Valley of Death?

Of course not. And take a look at the rear tire..

Nothing seemed to help and now we had both used up all the materials, one wheel looked like a pancake and the house had cun away several times by jumping off the tractor so he had to pull the brakes and back down and pick up the house again (luckily there are brakes on my house!).

It could seem as if it was only a matter of 5 cm of the cladding that touched ground and gave us problems.

A terrible decision was made at the same time as the sky opened up like a pressurized high-pressure washer.

The rain felt like an intense and icy waterfall (and I got all the water from the whole roof on me) as we removed the two small doors at the back to spare them. Then we found an old, dull and rusty hand saw and set to work..

So there I was, sitting in the mud wearing only an icy t-shirt, sand from far up my face down to my socks, in the worst rainstorm I’ve ever encountered, sawing to pieces the beautiful cladding for my home that I’ve spent four years planning. I was almost in an apathetic state.

And omg, how hard it was to saw wet cladding!!

When the cladding was sawn and all the beams were rearranged under the wheels, we were ready for a final push. I told Eirik that now we just have to get the house up, dead or alive.

Slowly, centimeter by centimeter, the house devotedly climbed up the materials (lucky that there was such incredibly poor air in the tires, because that gave them great climbing abilities!). The clearance to the road increased and the whole house straightened when we finally, against all odds, in a rainstorm, cold, hungry and run down, reached the top!

My beautiful Carine, walking, laughing, howling and cheering among the plank remnants!

A little tear did build up, I must honestly admit..

I was overjoyed, if a little drenched!!

The last bit will be like stealing candy from a kid! Or wait a minute..

Aren’t the oak tree branches hanging a little low?

You have to be kidding me!?!!

For real??

The tree has four branches that the house cannot get under! And with the farm owner traveling in New York, both the time difference and his internet access were a challenge.

We finally caught up with him on Messenger and got the green light to remove the branches.

But now everyone was so wet, cold, tired and hungry. The driver hadn’t had breakfast yet and it was now 6pm.

We wanted to get it done tonight no matter what!

We decided to take a break, eat, shower and come back in warm clothes – ready for the last effort!

Carine ate and I showered. Quess we’re just a bit different 🙈😂

Back at the farm, I quickly saw that Eirik has used a chainsaw before! It was fun to see! In addition, the sun was back and shining bright! It didn’t take long before everything was neatly cut and cleared off the road.

Now we had fingers crossed and hoped that the last 30 meters would go well..

And it did!

It was now about 8pm and both Carine and I had been up since 04:45am, so we started to feel it in our bodies at the same time as we were full of adrenaline ⚡

The hours with the tractor costed $1500, so the whole transportation quickly became a much more expensive operation than first I thought. The transport company wasn’t cheap either!

The house suffered a fair amount of damage both inside and outside, but I will hopefully get that covered through the insurance..

I’m not left with a good feeling after the transport and I’m afraid I’ll find out that more has been destroyed. Time will show.

This was part 1

of the transport.

My house is temporarily placed next to the barn while my permanent place, which is behind the barn, is being excavated and prepared. There will be a nice road there with a stable surface of stone and gravel. Also possible some casting under each of the areas where the eight support legs are to be placed.

To get the house in place, it must first be pulled with a tractor and then lifted with a crane and turned around in the air (going to ask if the house can take a few extra laps before it is put down)! Skoveng Kranservice has sponsored me with the entire lifting operation and I have hired a drone company to film the whole thing! I think it will be very cool! 😍

I’ve learned quite a bit from this:

Check everything yourself, ask several professionals, measure wide, long and high and make 100% sure that this is a job that can be carried out even if it is not your field of expertise, and have a plan B (and a thick wallet)!

Now all this is a week ago and I can’t believe how we managed it 😅 How we got all the way up to the yard, but I remember a nightmare of damaged cladding, wet beams, sawing and shouting. It’s expensive to do big projects when you’re inexperienced!

What would you have done in this situation?

Would love to hear from you!

Thank you so much for reading ❤️

🌈Irene

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