A 19th century Victorian home in West Oakland can be yours for free.
If you have the land, and the money, to move it.
The owners of the 133-year-old home at 2428 Chestnut St. have permission to tear it down, but they would like someone to take it over and move it away. The owners plan to build 12 housing units in three buildings on the site, so they need the house gone.
Moving the house will be complicated, to say the least.
"We have moved houses longer distances, but they are typically a ranch style that has an 8-foot ceiling, not an 11- or 12-foot ceiling," Mike Trost of Trost House Movers told KCBS Radio. "(A ranch-style house typically) has a 4-in-12 slope roof, instead of 6-in-12 is probably what this thing (has)."
Trost estimated the move would cost $25,000, but that won't be the only expense. The home needs to be renovated with new floors, new wiring and plumbing, and you also have to have the land.
To move the house, PG&E would charge to temporarily move the power lines, and the home would need to fit under freeway overpasses.
"They're not really tall, especially the ones over there by Emeryville along 880," Trost said. "(Highway) 580 has typically low crossings."
If there are no takers, the house will be torn down by next year.
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