Whidbey couple moves house from one island to another

CLINTON — A large beach house crept through the roads of South Whidbey in the dead of night as workers raced ahead of it to take down power lines and road signs to make room for it to pass.

It took eight hours for the truck hauling the house to travel five miles, but eventually it arrived at a 20-acre parcel owned by Tevon Dubois and Chanel Jost, a married couple who hope to raise a family in the recycled home someday soon.

Nickel Bros. house moving company barged the unusually shaped, 1,700-square-foot house from Bainbridge Island to a boat ramp at Possession Point. From there, it was loaded onto a truck and moved to its final resting place on Thursday night and into Friday morning.

Mark Park, operation officer for the Everett division, said traveling down Whidbey roads was a tight squeeze, but it worked out.

“It was definitely one of the most challenging routes of the year,” he said.

The couple purchased their adjoined properties in the Maxwelton Valley in 2018 and 2019 and knew they wanted to make a life on the bucolic land, which has a pasture, woods, wetlands and creek. They have been living in a tiny home but were planning on building a full-sized abode.

The problem, however, was that the cost of construction has skyrocketed in recent years and they couldn’t afford the home they had envisioned.

But then they stumbled onto the idea of buying an existing house and bringing it to their property.

Jost explained that they found the home of their dreams on the Nickel Bros. website. The company, which started in Canada, specializes in moving houses and other large structures and objects. Its website features a list of “upcycled” homes from across the region that are available to be purchased and moved to a buyer’s property.

Nickel Bros. is no stranger to Whidbey Island. In 2019, the company moved two houses from the former Freund farm in Oak Harbor to property in the countryside. In that case, the new owner of the house wanted to preserve a part of island history.

Park said the company has moved between six and 10 homes to Whidbey Island in the last four years.

According to Park, Nickel Bros. is the only company on the West Coast to move houses by barge, which is also the most difficult part of the entire process. The house from Bainbridge was especially challenging, he said, because the company was trying out a new barge.

Park said the most common reason that people buy existing houses and move them is because of the significant cost savings, which is especially attractive in a time of soaring housing prices.

Dubois and Jost agree.

“It cost less than half of what it would cost to build new,” Dubois said.

He estimates that the house will have cost them around $450,000 once everything — house, foundation and utilities — is paid for. Building it new probably would have been around $1 million, he opined.

In addition, the company reports that some buyers want to save historic properties, or they are drawn to recycled houses for the quality of construction.

Dubois and Chanel both said they love the quirkiness of the structure, as well as its history. It happens to come from Bainbridge Island, where Dubois grew up. In fact, he’s connected through friendships with the family who lived in the house.

“It will be fun to live in a house that has good energy,” Dubois said. “These folks raised their kids there. It’s a good house.”

The house had been close to the water and the former owners became concerned when recent king tides encroached upon it. As a result, they decided to build a new house farther from rising tides.

The Nickel Bros. website described the house as a charming “waterfront beach pavilion” that has the feeling of a seafarer’s home. It has rustic wood floors, vaulted ceilings, stained glass windows and shiplap accent walls.

Dubois explained that it was originally built in 1969 as a small fishing cabin. Additions were built twice in the 1980s to transform it into a beach cottage. A small second story was even added to create a “viewing tower” with a primary bedroom and another room.

As a result, the house is unique in many ways, both inside and out.

The next step in the project is to build the foundation once the county issues the needed permit. After that, the project should go quickly.

“We would love to be in it before Christmas and host family, but that’s not probable,” Dubois said, adding that it will likely be done in the early spring.

This story originally appeared in the Whidbey News-Times, a sibling publication to The Herald.