The Ultimate in Recycling

Everyone knows that it’s important it to recycle!!

Here in our home we sort plastic, paper, tin and yard waste (in the summer) for weekly (or bi-weekly) pick-up and this summer we’ll be installing a composter in the backyard (looking forward to this!). We’ve also made a huge effort to reuse materials in our renovation projects. Perhaps the most visible example of this is our oak flooring – we sourced out oak strips from a local salvage yard that matched the original floor in our living room, using the strips to carry the flooring into our hallway. Once we have the entire floor (old and “new”) re-sanded and stained it’ll look fantastic!

But let me show you what I think is the ultimate in recycling!

A few weeks back Brian and I were driving past a section of 6th Avenue (New Westminster, BC) where workers were removing beautiful mature trees. What were they doing?! That’s when we saw these signs.

Forget reclaimed oak strip flooring… how about a reclaimed house!!

Two old houses (1912 & 1920 respectively), sitting on the edge of a beautiful and historic neighbourhood here in New Westminster called Queen’s Park (I’ll take you on a neighbourhood tour once the trees bloom!), are up for sale & relocation! These houses are listed on the city’s heritage resource inventory so they can’t be torn down. Historic preservation is key.

Many of you will remember my post about a beautiful heritage-house filled neighbourhood in the city of Vancouver – and you’ll also recall my professed love of old homes. While far from lovely to look at, these two houses are no exception. I can totally see the potential in them!! How about you?

Of the two houses, the seafoam green Craftsman is my absolute fave! Of course the Foursquare would be fantastic if the enclosed porch was restored to it’s original beauty. Ahhh I love houses!! :-)

Now I was curious, though… how would the houses be moved? I found out that relocating a house is a big undertaking but that it’s entire feasible with good planning and cooperation between the city and the contractor hired to orchestrate the move.

The following photos are feature moves found on the website of house moving specialists Nickel Bros. House Moving Ltd. Nickel Bros. is located here in the Pacific Northwest.

The magnitude of these moves is massive – and overwhelming if you think about all that is involved… prep to lift and move the house (chimneys dismantled, windows and doors secured and lots of other stuff I can’t even imagine!)… then comes the lifting, mounting the house on the truck… moving the house down the street would involve the temporary relocation of powerlines (we have them here in New West, most municipalities would have them underground) and/or street lights. A route would have to be planned that’s wide enough to accommodate the house, too. Yikes!

So what happens when the movers get the house to it’s new location? Well… they place it on it’s new foundation :-)

Take a look at this house – it was moved from Esquimalt (neighbouring city to Victoria, BC) to Pender Island where it was restored and later opened as Nosey Point Inn B&B. Absolutely lovely locale!

Seeing this charming house on it’s beautiful new lot makes me wonder where the two New West houses will be relocated and how they’ll look in their new locations! You know… I think I’m going to connect with the property management company that owns the homes and see if I can be kept in the loop. Maybe they’ll let me come and take some pics of the moves so that I can share them with our DesignTies readers!

In the mean time, I cruised some of the neighbourhoods of New Westminster searching for similar houses in the hopes that I could show you just how lovely these two diamonds in the rough can be!

Here’s to Recycling, Reusing and Reducing out of Respect for our environment!

And don't forget to participate in Earth Hour on March 28th. Help save the planet!!

Victoria from EdinDesign Interiors