We met a fellow old house lover named Nils who was giving away free beadboard on Craigslist. We had scoped it out in his alley last weekend before actually meeting him and noticed a house lifted up on cribbing behind his house—just like our house had been during our foundation project but WAY higher in the air AND on a hillside. We finally coordinated a time this weekend to come pick up the beadboard—socially distanced—and finally got his whole house lift story.
Developers had bought the lot next to his family’s house. The lot housed a 1907 house that was slated for demolition. They went back and forth with the developers but the developers weren’t having any of it. They didn’t want to deal with moving the house, even if Nils and his family were willing to do the heavy lifting (no pun intended!). The move only happened because of the coronavirus pandemic: The developers’ project was put on hold so the house move was able to go through. Apparently the house moving company said it was one of their most challenging lifts because they had to move it up the hill and over to Nils’s backyard.
Long story short, after exchanging stories of our own house lift and what we’re doing with our house, Nils said he had beadboard from the lifted house that was in way better condition that he was happy to give us. It has beads and v-grooves on both sides so we may just be able to flip them over and stain them instead of having to strip the paint. The hope is they’ll find a new home in our mud room eventually, but we don’t even have walls yet so that won’t be until a very long time from now. We’re so happy to have found a kindred spirit today!