PACIFICA (KRON) — The coastline in Pacifica has changed recently as a result of the El Nino storm.
We have seen cliffs wiped out, some apartment buildings torn down, and on Tuesday, one house is being prepared to be moved.
“It’s not an easy process to move a house,” homeowner Melisa McConnell said.
But that is in fact what McConnell is doing with her Esplanade Avenue home, which sits precariously above the ocean in Pacifica.
“It’s our house, our heart is in that house, and it would close to kill me to watch a bulldozer take it down,” McConnell said.
Demolition became an option when the house was yellow-tagged after punishing El Nino storms in January pounded the cliffs and wiped out 25 feet of her backyard.
Ultimately, though, she decided it was worth saving the place.
“The inside of the house, it’s made with heart of redwood studs,” McConnell said. “When we took it down to the studs when we remodeled it, we were amazed the whole house smelled like redwood. They don’t make houses like this anymore.”
On Tuesday, contractors, using 10 hydraulic jacks, slowly lifted the home in the air, inch by inch.
“We go up 4 feet so we can…put these other big steel beams under there, and that’s going to be the main frame underneath the house once it’s up to 4 feet. And then, we actually build like an almost like a railroad track but with wood timber that we use to roll the house forward on,” contractor Tony Medieros said.
On Wednesday, the plan is to roll the house forward 20 feet so the front edge will be adjacent to the sidewalk. That will buy them time to move the home to a permanent location somewhere else in town
“If someone who is holding onto a lot would be so kind as to allow us to pay them fair market value for the lot, we can save our house,” McConnell said. “That’s what we’re hoping for.”