From Deseret News archives:
Want a free house? Better move it — to a new location
Opportunity to have that same 1910-era home to call your own, in a location of your choosing? Priceless.
That's the situation Jacquie Jones is offering in Kaysville, where she has a vintage house, with two floors and an attic, that she's making available for anyone who wants to haul it away. The only costs would be for the move and any refurbishment the recipients want to undertake once it's theirs.
"The family who lived there before we did spent a lot of time and money refurbishing it, so it's not a bad home," Jones said. "That's why it's hard for me to say, 'Yeah, just bulldoze it' or something like that."
Jones designed and built two other available homes on the property, and she has lived in the older house for about a year. While she finds it charming, she nonetheless wants it gone in order to enhance the chances the other two houses will sell, and she wants to build a third house on the older structure's site.
"It's a darling home. It's a clean home. It's not, per se, a pioneer house. It's a nice home, and I want to be sure it's taken care of," she said.
The house at 1809 S. Sunset Drive was used in one of the "Benji" movies and an episode of "Touched By An Angel," she said. The home features a main floor with a master bedroom, family room, parlor and a kitchen that was added to and updated with new appliances in the 1990s. There's also a laundry, two full bathrooms and a computer area with a wood-burning stove. Upstairs are two bedrooms, a bathroom and a sitting area. Lifetime-guaranteed shingles, upgraded appliances, porch and garage round out the amenities.
One moving company estimated that it would cost $18,000 to take the home off the lot, with additional costs depending on how far it goes. Acquiring a lot and hauling the house to, say, elsewhere in Kaysville and refurbishing it likely would cost $125,000 to $150,000, Jones said.
"If they don't want to take the garage, it would probably cost less, but it is going to take somebody with some ingenuity and vision of what it can be," she said.
Jones is considering charging a contingency fee to protect against damage to several old-growth trees on the property. Otherwise, she's hoping to find a legitimate taker who can have it off the property by Nov. 1.
"I think it will benefit some family who's got the gumption to do this," she said. "I'd much rather see it go to a cute family that wants to work hard and make it work than see it just bulldozed. I see that happen with a lot of developers that come into an area."
E-mail: bwallace@desnews.com
