How to move a (mini) house

Friday was an interesting day.  We had an already built 8' x 10' wooden shed moved onto our property.

This is where the story begins - a lonely, unused shed in a warehouse.

Jeff saw this little structure and knew we could use it at home.  He set about finding a way to make it ours.  This whole thing was Jeff's project and he managed all the logistics amazingly well.  I took careful notes and will share them with you in case you can find your own pre-built structure for sale.

Step 1: Prepare your yard for the shed.  This includes clearing vegetation, grading, making a pad and enlisting the help of a knowledgeable friend to assist in sinking cement supports and making them level.

Step 2: Hire a low-boy trailer and a fork lift with extensions.  Luckily, my husband knows someone with just such a trailer and he can operate a fork lift (something he learned how to do in his management position at his current company - go figure).

Step 3: Load shed onto low-boy.  Be sure to use extensions or your shed will fall off the fork lift.

Step 4: Transport shed from current location to your house.  Beware - you will leave a long line of slow moving traffic in your wake.

Step 5: Stop traffic (in our case along Hana Hwy) to maneuver low-boy into proper position while awaiting arrival of fork lift.

Step 6: Once the fork lift arrives don't forget to add the extensions again.  Carefully remove shed from low-boy trailer. (Jeff had told me about using the extensions before I actually saw how it works.  Honestly, I thought the shed was going to fall off of the fork lift even with the extensions.  Scroll down and you'll see why.)

Just to be sure you understand exactly what was happening I should tell you that our ever-cautious Genna was hanging out safely on our lanai while our ever-daring Emily was trying to crawl out of my arms, runny nose and all, to get closer to the fork lift as I was taking these pictures.  Malu (our 120 pound "guard" dog) was probably hiding behind Genna. 

Step 7: Direct the fork lift operator (Jeff is now the director and not the operator) into the driveway and oversee the precarious drive up the slope to the prepared pad. 
*Note the belt placed around the shed and fork lift.   
** Next note the left corner of the shed almost hitting the ground as it reaches the top of our driveway.  USE OF A BELT IS STRONGLY RECOMMENDED!

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By now the girls are both in the house standing / jumping on our bed to see out the windows.  Malu is curled up in Emily's room with his tail between his legs and his paw over his nose. And yes, you are right, letting an 18 month old jump on the bed without adult supervision is not the best idea but it turned out just fine.

Step 8: Carefully place shed on prepared cement supports.  (This may not be as easy as it sounds.)
In our case, the fork lift couldn't get up the slope to the pad so we had to use some unorthodox methods. 

First Jeff attempted to push the fork lift up the slope.

Obviously this didn't work.  

Enter low-boy trailer reversing up our drive.  

And gently nudging the fork lift and shed into place!

After a little fine tuning with the use of 2x4's and some man power our shed was finally in place!

Welcome home shed!  Thanks for the entertaining afternoon.