And so it began, 990 days after we lost our home. Finally. Despite the rainy forecast, the company decided that now is the time to move our house.

On Wednesday morning, I received a phone call from one of the road association members, Allan. He’s been in touch with all the players in our little mountain drama. Allan knows all the questions to ask, as he’s been the point of contact for several of our neighbors who have rebuilt with modular homes. He let me know that the trucking company transported the halves of our house from their temporary home to the bottom of the mountain. That trek took several hours and likely impeded traffic in several small towns and a couple of larger ones along the way.

Thursday was moving the house halves up the mountain day. We woke up to clouds and rain. After dodging the weather for nine months, ironically, we started this part of our adventure with rain*. Because the crew was coming from over two hours away, the copious amount of moisture caused delays on their end. They arrived three hours late to begin the arduous trek up the mountain.

Our mountain is tough on a good day towing a small water trailer. I can’t imagine how nerve-wracking the drive was hauling half of a house behind your semi truck. A one mile stretch of the road is the worst. It’s a windy, steep climb with several sharp curves. Better yet, it’s on the west side of the hogback where the edge drops off a few hundred feet. As the driver negotiated the turn, the downhill side of the trailer began sliding off the edge.

My heart just about stopped at my first look at the house hanging off the ledge of the cliff. I’d been part of the upper road guard to keep people from trying to drive down the mountain while the house was coming up. It happened about half a mile from where I helped a neighbor keep traffic off the road. I walked down to join the rest of the lookie-loos and see how bad the situation really was. The transport crew was cool as a cucumber, although they were a little miffed that they had to call a crane to set the back end of the house back onto the road. The crew said they’d seen worse, and indeed, our experience could have been much worse than it was.

By the time that half of the house arrived at its overnight resting place, the sun was low in the west. We met many of our new and old neighbors as they watched our almost-disaster.

Friday’s move went a lot smoother. After all, the crew had practiced on the mountain the day before… with our kitchen. They’d left the living room half down at the bottom because it would have been dark by the time they could have gotten it to the halfway spot. We were fine with that.

The crew arrived around mid-morning and pulled the living room up to where we had parked the other half for the night. A few cars headed up and down the mountain at that point. The dump truck carrying the recycled material I had ordered followed the train. We needed to add some solidity to our muddy area. That’s where the crane will park to pick the halves up to set them on the foundation.

We get a rest for the weekend. Tomorrow, the crane arrives around mid-morning to set the halves on the foundation. Now I’m getting excited.

*Admittedly, the rains until a few weeks ago have been long, soaking rains. The pattern now is sunshine and blue skies to start the day, with the clouds building up in the afternoon. Gotta love the La Ninà weather pattern as it transitions to El Niño.