Saturday Morn; King County, WA --
Recently, Grumpy had the pleasure of witnessing the "house raising" for a good and old friend, Jack Meeker. An earlier e-mail about a year ago, to close friends and relatives, showed the charred remains of this friend's house in which he, with his wife Elinor, raised two sons and lived there for nearly 50 years. Jack nearly lost his life in that fire.
But this post is about the new house that is taking the place of the old one that burned down! The new house was built, in two sections, in a factory located in Salem OR. Scheduled to be delivered and installed on the steel-reinforced foundation in mid-December, the shipping was delayed many days because of weather-related road conditions in and around Portland OR. The first ("back half") of the house was moved onto the foundation at a time when Grumpy was not able to be there. So the photos that I am showing here are of the placement of the second half (the "front half") of the building.
Each section of the house constructed on a steel girder frame, which is a permanent part of the structure.
It is then moved from the factory site to the foundation site using a sextuple-tandem set of wheel & axle assemblies attached to that steel girder structure. 
The entire building section is lifted, using a 175-ton mobile crane, from its spot on the street to a temporary resting place that supports one end of the section on the edge of the foundation and the other (hitch) end on some wooden blocks. 
The wheel-axle assemblies and the towing frame are then removed from the steel-girder frame.
After
the 
wheel-axle assemblies and towing frame are removed, the section is again hoisted in the air and rotated into alignment with the previously-placed "back half" section of the building. The crane had to lift this section high enough to clear the far end of the mobile crane so that the crane could be rotated far enough with the section in its grasp to clear a large cedar tree that is on the street edge of the property.
Finally, with the section aligned with the foundation and the "back half" of the house, it is lowered and pulled into firm contact with the mating section.
The 175-ton mobile crane is a wonder in itself. But the story about the crane will have to be in another post.
But this post is about the new house that is taking the place of the old one that burned down! The new house was built, in two sections, in a factory located in Salem OR. Scheduled to be delivered and installed on the steel-reinforced foundation in mid-December, the shipping was delayed many days because of weather-related road conditions in and around Portland OR. The first ("back half") of the house was moved onto the foundation at a time when Grumpy was not able to be there. So the photos that I am showing here are of the placement of the second half (the "front half") of the building.
Each section of the house constructed on a steel girder frame, which is a permanent part of the structure.
It is then moved from the factory site to the foundation site using a sextuple-tandem set of wheel & axle assemblies attached to that steel girder structure. 
The entire building section is lifted, using a 175-ton mobile crane, from its spot on the street to a temporary resting place that supports one end of the section on the edge of the foundation and the other (hitch) end on some wooden blocks. 
The wheel-axle assemblies and the towing frame are then removed from the steel-girder frame.
After
the 
wheel-axle assemblies and towing frame are removed, the section is again hoisted in the air and rotated into alignment with the previously-placed "back half" section of the building. The crane had to lift this section high enough to clear the far end of the mobile crane so that the crane could be rotated far enough with the section in its grasp to clear a large cedar tree that is on the street edge of the property.Finally, with the section aligned with the foundation and the "back half" of the house, it is lowered and pulled into firm contact with the mating section.
The 175-ton mobile crane is a wonder in itself. But the story about the crane will have to be in another post.
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