It only moved across the street, but it took six days. Then again, it was a pretty substantial move.

On Thursday afternoon, the 40-by-60-foot house on the property of 815 Main Street, a property that is being developed into 49 affordable-housing units, was moved off its foundation and across the street to be placed on its new location.

Overseen by Gary Sylvester's Building Movers and Excavators of East Falmouth, the process required several steps according to Site Superintendent Mel Dishman.

First, the home had to be removed from its existing foundation.

Construction workers "blocked up" the house, replacing parts of the existing foundation with cribbing to support the structure.  Once the house's support was transferred from the foundation to the cribbing, the remainder of the foundation was removed.  Finally, the cribbing was replaced with a wheeled, steel frame and attached to a 1967 Army truck.

Then the truck had to drive the house across the street.

The steel frame uses a "floating system" - four hydraulic pistons keep the building level by maintaining a constant pressure as the building moves.  A bump in the road relieves pressure on one piston and another compensates, keeping the building level enough that  the Christmas decorations that had been hanging in the house since the property was sold in December did not have to be removed.

Unfortunately, the building's weight compressed one wheel deep into the sand, requiring shovels and delays.

Finally, the building had to be placed on the new foundation, basically, reversing the steps in part one.  The steel frame was removed after the building was placed on cribbing, and then that cribbing will be replaced with a concrete foundation.

Gary Sylvester said that the house was a little larger than the average home that the firm moves, but that the firm has moved much bigger.  It was also nice that the structure only had to travel 500 feet.

"That's the kind of project we like," he joked.