If You Lived Here, You’d be Home by Now!

Posted by Alex in Everything Else, Pictures, Travel & Places on September 25, 2007 at 4:21 pm



Photo: Brian Vander Brug / LAT

Bad idea: moving a house
Really bad idea: moving a house BY YOURSELF
Neatorama-worthy: moving a house by yourself, hauling it on a trailer, having the wheels come lose, hitting a bridge, and then getting stranded in the middle of the 101 Freeway in Los Angeles, California!

Here’s the story of one DIY kind of guy Patrick Richardson, who thought he could save some money by not hiring professional house movers:

Richardson, 45, of Castaic, obtained a permit from Caltrans to transport the oversize load on the freeway. Instead of taking the shortest route — up the 405 Freeway and over the Sepulveda Pass — he took a longer and more level route through downtown L.A. and north on the 101 Freeway.

By the time the 20-foot-wide structure reached the downtown area, wheels were reportedly coming loose from the trailer hauling the house. Richardson made emergency repairs and lumbered onward, only to come to a halt again in Hollywood.

That’s where his house struck the 14-foot-10-inch Western Avenue bridge. The impact sheared off the top of the structure’s roof. A SigAlert was called when it took hours to free the stuck house. Richardson eventually was able to limp another 3 1/2 miles to Barham Boulevard, where the shoulder beneath the overpass was wide enough for the house to be parked out of traffic lanes.

There the structure has sat, day after day, rush hour after rush hour.

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COMMENT

10 comments to "If You Lived Here, You’d be Home by Now!"

  1. MrPumpernickel
    September 25th, 2007 at 4:27 pm

    I’d argue that it’s actually a good idea to move a house. Often it’s cheaper to move the house you have if you’re going to move than it is to build anew. There are even people who buy houses, move them to large lots where other people can buy them and move them to where they live. Think a used car lot, only houses instead of cars.

    The bad idea is obviously, as written, to do it yourself :P

  2. Ian
    September 25th, 2007 at 5:31 pm

    The bright side: He’s freeway-close

  3. kerozene
    September 25th, 2007 at 7:02 pm

    Ugh… what a total idiot. Yet another toad wanting to inconvienience everyone else, just so THEY can do something cheaper. Glad it backfired on him.

  4. Ian
    September 25th, 2007 at 7:22 pm

    The house I’m in was actually moved from West LA to Sunland, 30 years ago. People move houses now and again, it’s not a bad idea. But it should be done by pros.

  5. Retrokatze
    September 25th, 2007 at 9:36 pm

    I’ll never get over the fact that houses in the USA are actually movable…

  6. Carruthers
    September 25th, 2007 at 11:50 pm

    I’ve lived in LA for years and I still don’t know what SigAlert means. No guesses please; I’ve heard many other Angelenos wonder the same thing, guess and not know the real answer. It would be nice to know the real meaning from the police dept or whoever it is that issues these things.

  7. Alex
    September 26th, 2007 at 1:38 am

    Named after radio executive Loyd Sigmond who developed a recorder that allowed police to report in a traffic alert bulletin.

  8. Lasse
    September 26th, 2007 at 1:51 am

    Houses light enough to move. No wonder they get smashed to smithereens in hurricanes.

  9. Carruthers
    September 26th, 2007 at 10:17 am

    Thanks Alex. I always suspected the “Sig” didn’t stand for “Signal” or “Significant” which is the usual guess.

    As for “houses light enough to move: perhaps you’re confusing the east coast with the west. We don’t get hurricanes here, we get earthquakes. If you build your house out of brick it’ll not only cost a lot more in the first place but it won’t have that flexibility that wooden houses do here that are able to sway and shake in small quakes and not incur damage.

  10. Bob
    September 26th, 2007 at 12:49 pm

    SigAlert is:
    http://www.sigalert.com/map.asp?Region=LA+West


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