The house is shown here on its journey from rural Martin County to Blue Earth last Monday.

An honest-to-goodness house cruising along the highway, sans foundation, is not exactly a sight you see every day.

However, Faribault County locals in the right place at the right time on Monday, Feb. 28 may have been treated to such a vision.

The mammoth-sized relocation project was made possible all thanks to the late Merle Christianson and the Martin-Faribault County Chapter of Habitat for Humanity.

Staci Thompson, executive director of the area’s Habitat for Humanity chapter, shares Christianson was a resident of rural Martin County.

Following his death, he made a generous donation.

“He left his property and the out-buildings to the DNR (Department of Natural Resources),” Thompson says.

The DNR plans to restore the land to its original state, which initially spelled the demise of the three houses which stood on the property.

The houses might have seen their end had Kim Shaffer, the executer of Christianson’s estate, not also been a member of Habitat for Humanity.

Shaffer, of Krahmer, Shaffer & Edmunson, Ltd. in Fairmont, called Thompson and urged her to come look at the properties being considered for demolition on the site.

“I walked into the first one, and thought, ‘I could live here and be so happy,'” Thompson recalls. “I just marveled at the craftsmanship. It was built by the family.” 

The houses themselves were offered to Habitat for Humanity as a donation, which the organization gladly accepted.

This just left the considerable task of moving the houses to a new home.

Additionally, though the structures themselves were donated, there were other costs to consider when undertaking the relocation project.

“Moving costs are expensive,” Thompson says. “We hire people to lift power lines and build a basement to set the house down on. We put a good $80,000 into it before we do anything with the structure.” 

However, Thompson explains relocating existing houses can still be a financially sound strategy.

“With the price of building materials, we are still coming out better financially by not building from scratch,” Thompson says. “Our families, if they get a rehabilitated house, get more character, and get a lot more house than if we built.”

The moving process has become pretty slick, too.

The house which was moved on Feb. 23 began its morning just outside East Chain on 70th Street. By noon, however, it was gliding into a vacant lot on 21st Street in Blue Earth.

It helps that Blue Earth’s Spencer Heavy Movers, who facilitated the whole process, have moved more than one house in their time.

Thompson shares the company helped move an additional house off of Christianson’s property in January. This one, however, was set down on Prairie Avenue in Fairmont, where it awaits warmer weather atop a set of stilts.

The newly-placed Blue Earth house will also need to wait until spring to receive a foundation.

“We’re going to have the house up on stilts until spring, until they can get a hole dug,” Thompson explains. “We’re praying for an early spring.” 

If all goes well, however, the relocation should result in a true win-win situation.

The Blue Earth house already has a family lined up for occupancy once it is safely grounded atop its new basement.

Meanwhile, the original property on 70th Street is slated to become a conservation area which will serve as a different kind of habitat for the residents of nature.

“It’s a beautiful spot to do that,” Thompson notes.

She thinks Martin-Faribault County’s Habitat for Humanity Chapter may resume building houses from scratch in the next four or five years.

However, their current waste-not, want-not approach of recycling houses instead of building them seems to be serving the program just fine for the time being.

“It’s just amazing to watch the process,” Thompson concludes. “You don’t think this big thing can be maneuvered, but it can.”