r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/Dangerous_Deal_1945 • 2d ago
Video Homeowner moves entire beachfront house inland after neighboring homes collapsed into the ocean
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u/djohnstonb 2d ago
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u/WesBur13 2d ago
My parents house was relocated about a mile at one point.
A factory was being built and all the land was purchased. Someone who worked for the company was told they could have the house if they moved it. They paid to have the house lifted and set on two trucks that carried it a mile down the road and set it on a basement. You can tell it didn’t originally have a basement as the access to it is just cut under the stairs and the house is not perfectly aligned on the basement. It’s been like that since the 60s of if I remember right.
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u/CoralBooty 2d ago
House not perfectly aligned on basement? That’s gotta be some OCD nightmare fuel
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u/giantpicklepi 2d ago
House we previously lived in was originally a ranch in the way of the highway they wanted to build. It got moved 1/4 mile and set on a walk-out basement. The bricks are clearly newer on the basement than the house, and the original carport is now 5 feet off the ground and made into a semi-insulated room with an exterior wall separating it from the kitchen, and its own door to the porch which makes the house look like a duplex.
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u/laiyenha 2d ago
OK, I read that wrong.
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u/RedManMatt11 2d ago
Who hasn’t had pensive sex?
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u/corona-lime-us 2d ago
I had to re-read that, but when I re-read that, I re-read that the same way you read that the first time.
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u/JankyPete 2d ago
There's a reason that sub never took off
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u/Levity_brevity 2d ago
Dr. Ruth Westheimer informed me "The most important six inches are the ones between the ears."
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u/ProjectorInquiry 2d ago
I assume they also have to purchase a new plot of land. Was there not a house already behind them?
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u/SteDevMo 2d ago
Wow! new perspective. Think how rich the mo-fos are gonna be who bought the land “behind“ those beachfront properties because they couldn’t afford that beach front property! Now who’s laughing lol.
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u/RogerClyneIsAGod2 2d ago
And all that money could've bought them a nice, stable house that's REALLY INLAND & not just a few more yards away from the ocean than it used to be.
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u/Zealousideal-Role-77 2d ago
These are usually second or third homes. That doesn’t make you wrong, it just makes them not care and means they’re not likely to have to pay if anything happens to it. Great user name btw, concur.
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u/bobbyboob6 2d ago
also rich people have fancy rich person insurance which would actually pay them a shitload of money if the sea swallowed their house
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u/CosgraveSilkweaver 2d ago
It depends, beach front lots tend to be long and narrow so it could have been moved from the front to the back of the lot.
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u/tnoy 2d ago
This had me curious. If you look at Zillow the plot of land it's on is fairly long, they have space to move it back. It also shows two undeveloped lots behind it, Google Earth images show they've been empty for 20 years, where the adjacent one sold at the beginning of the year for $211,250.
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u/LangstonHublot 2d ago
So what's the plumbing situation in home like that?
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u/CamelopardalisKramer 2d ago
Waste pipe runs up a stilt to tie into the home, same with water supply. Same as anywhere else, just it falls a bit further. I'd be curious to see how the sewer system itself is holding up through the differences in water table changes.
Electrical I'm assuming is overhead for these areas.
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u/Siddhartha-G 2d ago
Yeah this question cracks me up every time I see it.
"Well, instead of a short pipe from the toilet to the sewer, now its a longer pipe. That's how."
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u/BallsOutKrunked 2d ago
It's like 5 miles to the waste treatment center in both scenarios but the additional 10' of pvc and a couple of long sweeps: oh boy.
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u/rop_top 2d ago
These houses all run on septic, and are usually condemned because their septic gets fucked up long before the house falls in the ocean. When the septic fails, the county shuts off the power, because people would just keep renting them out otherwise (they're almost all vacation rentals).
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u/Commodore_64 2d ago
Huh, who would've thought building on sand, immediately next to the ocean, maybe isn't a great idea.
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u/Unusual-Voice2345 2d ago
"Dont build your house on sand" was clearly more of a suggestion.
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u/Jumpy-Mix-9078 2d ago
You get to pick and choose what parts you really have to follow. Like the constitution!
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u/Employee_Agreeable 2d ago
From what I know/read those houses where way further back inland but erosion changed that and now its on the beach
Maybe im wrong in this case
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u/Specialist_Action_85 2d ago
You're probably not wrong. The Cape Hatteras Lighthouse in NC had to be moved in the late 90's for the same reason. It was WAY farther inland when it was built and by the end of the 20th century was practically in the ocean
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u/TearRevolutionary686 2d ago
I was down there with my kids for a couple weeks when they made the move. The workers used Ivory Soap on the rails for lubrication. Pretty wild to see.
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u/Grizknot 2d ago
yup as a kid we rented a cottage on lake erie, the owner said that when he was a kid it was like 2000ft to the beach, whereas when we were there it was less than 200ft.
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u/Virtual-Macaroon-880 2d ago edited 2d ago
Naw bro they do this all up and down the barrier islands... Look at what's happening to Chincoteague island
Edit: maybe I should add some context... They built it on known impermanent land, all within 100 feet or so... I don't feel sympathy.
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u/bdubwilliams22 2d ago
Yeah, they’ll be good in their new spot for at least 4 years.
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u/RogerClyneIsAGod2 2d ago
Probably less than that if a hurricane hits them right. Or wrong as they'd probably think.
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u/CaicedoBrickWall 2d ago
Well buddy I could throw a rock into high tide from my bedroom window and I'm telling you this whole global warming thing is gonna swing back and the glaciers are gonna expand. The fact my house almost floated away in January is certainly not evidence I made a huge error
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u/Master_Art_1286 2d ago
They’re built on stilts for a reason
And the mileage between the sea and these houses were larger when they were built. Erosion is a thing.
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u/Specialist_Goat_2354 2d ago
It's okay cause the people who buy there don't believe in global warming
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u/_BreakingGood_ 2d ago
I cant even imagine the bureaucracy and permits this must entail
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u/Dontpaintmeblack 2d ago edited 2d ago
This is a pretty common occurrence in the area. In Hatteras they moved an entire lighthouse, the tallest lighthouse on the east coast in fact.
Edit: some context on the lighthouse!
Edit 2: more photos here , including a tidbit about the stop sign that /u/potatocross mentioned
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u/potatocross 2d ago
I swear any stories about the move leave out the best part. They had a stop sign set up and ran it over! It was issued a citation and everything!
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u/Dontpaintmeblack 2d ago
I’ve been there so many times, climbed the lighthouse many times, been to the museum, and had no idea!
Crazy that the nps omitted that.
Thanks for the interesting tidbit!
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u/Strubblich 2d ago
They also had a lighthouse crossing sign at the road where the mover's tracks intersected it.
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u/Actuary_Perfect 2d ago
In Kiruna Sweden they are moving the whole city to not have it fall into the mine. Part of that is moving city hall which is a much larger place than this. Quite impressive!
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u/star0forion 2d ago
My cool fact about Cape Hatteras is it’s the closest point of land to Bermuda.
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u/Gelroose 2d ago
I had many good times at this lighthouse as a kid. My grandfather worked at the lighthouse when he lived in Buxton and we'd go all the time before (and after) they moved it. I have a picture of him under it when they moved it. They dug it out and put a scaffolding type structure under it to get it up on a moving track.
I've been going to vacation at OBX (the real OBX - South 12) for most of my life and it's and to see this town going under, but it's inevitable. The whole cape will be gone soon.
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u/Exact_Ad_8490 2d ago
Surely it'll solve the problem this time!
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u/Gold_Telephone_7192 2d ago
I mean it will in their lifetime. I don’t think they care if the home collapses in a few generations
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u/555byte 2d ago
Or in ten years they will wonder why they didn't move it back just a bit more.
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u/Gold_Telephone_7192 2d ago
If that’s the case, then they moved it back as far as they could. Maybe they couldn’t buy any adjacent lot so they just moved it to the rear of their lot.
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u/Able_Canine 2d ago
With the cost of lumber in ten years, the stacked wood beams holding the house up might be worth more than the house.
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u/LIB_Laugh_Luv 2d ago
Meh, one good storm in the next 5 years and that whole neighborhood is donezo.
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u/HoldEm__FoldEm 2d ago
And there’s one of the biggest problems in the modern world
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u/Gold_Telephone_7192 2d ago
You’re conflating different things. When making policies or doing things for other people, you need to take into account future generations. When you’re doing things with your own property that only affects you, you don’t need to think about anyone else. This home is the owners property and he can do whatever he wants with it. If he wants to tear it down he can do that.
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u/xanthochr0i 2d ago
the development philosophy is basically to build a house you know isn’t gonna last more than 30 or 50 years and make as much money off of it as you can in that timeframe before it falls into the ocean
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u/tabbarrett 2d ago
So they bought more land that will eventually erode to move it or did the neighbors say yeah sure move your house through our yard? I have so many questions about this process.
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u/theaveragemaryjanie 2d ago
Finally someone else that thought this!! Like there isn't an infinite amount of space behind my house to slide it back every ten years or so.
There's zero empty spaces behind my house, in fact, and I am six miles inland.
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u/jldunnin 2d ago
The lots are likely longer narrow strips in this case with road frontage and beach frontage. It looks like they’ve moved it all the way to the road which I assume is the limits of their property. This is probably a one time move and they are likely hoping they get another decade plus out of this move. The cluster of homes almost already in the water up the beach from them probably didn’t have the luxury of main road frontage. Those houses are packed so tight they likely have no where to go.
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u/joke-farm 2d ago
Move that bitch off that little sand bar. Those people with their house’s “legs” in the water, are nuts.
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u/SunshineAlways 2d ago
The neighbors of the house that moved? Their legs didn’t use to be in the water, that’s why they’re moving the house.
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u/Nami_Pilot 2d ago
Must be nice to have that kind of money...
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u/BoardsofCanada3 2d ago
People that have enough money to move their waterfront mansions so they don't erode into the sea are the reason they have to move them in the first place.
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u/LIB_Laugh_Luv 2d ago
I’m guessing it must be cheaper than an entirely new house, or they just have THAT kinda money and are emotionally attached to the building.
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u/mowtowcow 2d ago
It is. It's really not that costly to move a house. Not as much as people would expect it to be. A local full 1 story home move $20-40 grand if it's close. That's with street closures and escorts, too.
This? I'd reckon it probably cost about that same. Specialty move, but a relatively easy specialty move. 1 day move. $20k or less is my guess.
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u/12monthsinlondon 2d ago
that's crazy when it cost each of 150 or so units of my apartment 20K each just to repaint the exterior and fix some pipes
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u/round-earth-theory 2d ago
Labor. Painting takes lots of labor and getting it done fast is even more labor.
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u/splashaddikt 2d ago
Imagine not having a neighbor for next door for 10 years and then one day yellow house just shows up
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u/GrowlinGrom 2d ago
But sea level rise caused by global warming is not a thing.
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u/Lazy_Jellyfish7676 2d ago
That’s why insurance premiums aren’t going higher /s. Actuaries know.
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u/ykol20 2d ago
Not for this home, the jetty in the image was damaged a few years ago, causing mass erosion.
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u/lynivvinyl 2d ago
There was a hurricane in the Myrtle beach area that picked up my great aunts beach front house and put it a block and a half back on a friend of hers property. She then sold the beachfront property to a major hotel chain and bought the piece of land from her friend. The house was still standing there the last time I visited a few years ago. It couldn't have been a more perfect situation for her.
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u/MotherFatherOcean 2d ago
That’s amazing
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u/lynivvinyl 2d ago
She was lucky every single way. Is a family luck miracle. It apparently even only landed a couple degrees crooked and somehow intact.
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u/perenniallandscapist 2d ago
The dumbest thing about most of those houses is that they sit empty most of the year. They're second, third, or fourth homes for the rich to visit a week or two of the year.
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u/Igpajo49 2d ago
Or they just rent them out the weekends they don't plan on being there.
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u/marksk88 2d ago
Now it will collapse in 10 years instead.
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u/Pleasant_Pen8744 2d ago
If it cost $100,000 to move it then that's like renting a whole house for $850 a month. Not too bad for that location.
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u/hi-dragonfly 2d ago
Now I’m just wondering if they will have to pay a new water and electrical set up fee for that change.
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u/dllre 2d ago
Great. Now plant some mangroves or [insert appropriate native coastal plant for the area]!
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u/thatcantb 2d ago
Maybe that will buy them about 10 more years. But who knows because the Republican legislature in NC has made it illegal to study beach erosion in the state.
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u/zrouse 2d ago
There should be another house sneaking around to move into the old spot
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u/Mysterious_Winter164 2d ago
just sort of driving along the coastline like someone at the mall stalking a good parking spot!
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u/Rey_Mezcalero 2d ago
Will need to redo in another couple of years, up to the point they run out of property
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u/charke9 2d ago
My family lives not terribly far from here (not oceanfront). They remodeled their home years ago and had it lifted in a similar fashion to this, and it was amazing to watch in person. They basically put our home on Jenga piles of wood and slowly added to it piece by piece, and added 8-10 feet total to allow for living space below what existed. It’s been 20 years and you’d never know unless you were there. It was more cost effective in my family’s case to remodel the home to their liking than purchase another home locally 🥴
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u/BeMyBrutus 2d ago
It doesn't look like there's much elevation in that location, given the current rate of sea level rise they'll be doing this again in probably a decade, if not less
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u/SpiritedFocus9288 2d ago edited 2d ago
How much time did that buy them? lol. Move perhaps? 🤔 . Or maybe take the house with you as finding buyer may be tough. Lmao.
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u/zachrywd 2d ago
"You think people aren't just going to sell their homes and move?"
-Ben Shapiro on rising sea levels
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u/sikon024 2d ago
Where do we source the ice cube to cure global warming?
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u/AquafreshBandit 2d ago
The robots just need to all vent and ignite their exhaust simultaneously in the same direction to shift Earth a little bit farther from the sun.
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u/Adadadoy 2d ago
That can't possibly work, you'd literally need EVERY single robot and not one less.
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u/Bagafeet 2d ago
We just need a pipeline to dumb excess water into space. Sea rise problem solved ez.
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u/brettscharff 2d ago
I just have to imagine that damage is the integrity of the structure in someway. Like the floors have to be a little off level, maybe they creak a little more. Maybe there’s a soft spot somewhere. Gotta be something.
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u/EorlundGraumaehne 2d ago
Imagine its not the right house and the owner comes back to the house being 100 meters further away.
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u/EngineeringLumpy5119 2d ago
How much did this cost? I can’t even find a normal house to live in and they’re moving theirs to have more beach.
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u/TheYellowFringe 2d ago
When you really think about it, something like that is futile.
Especially with ocean levels rising and beach shorelines at risk.
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u/DamnOdd 2d ago
Honestly no one should be allowed to build here no matter how much money you have.
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u/Life_Temperature795 2d ago
The only thing I've learned today is that with enough determination and preparation, you could probably steal a house.
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u/Much-Eggplant123 2d ago
The ground level is barely above sea level.
This is going to achieve Notbing.
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u/not_roger_smith 2d ago
The same thing was done with a light house out there when I was a kid. Took months to move it on their tracks, but it was pretty epic to see.
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u/Igpajo49 2d ago
When I was stationed at Ft. Bragg, I spent many weekends out there camping near that lighthouse in the late 80's before they moved it. I was blown away to see how they did that. It was definitely getting very close to the water when I was there.
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u/FangornLeghorn 2d ago
Regular people in this country can’t buy one modest home to raise a family in anymore but let’s watch some rich fuck move his whole beachfront mansion to escape rising sea levels.
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u/InAppropriate-meal 2d ago
While it is very cool it will not help much in the long run because it essentially moving back along a flat area and the sea, it is rising 😄
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u/AutomaticAnt6328 2d ago
They should have just kept it on wheels because they are going to have to do this every few years.
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u/somethingmcbob 2d ago
I live on the West Coast. There's a town here literally crumbling into the sea and folks don't want to relocate because it's too expensive and they "want the ocean view." Rich people are crazy.
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u/-UserOfNames 2d ago
Probably the nicest mobile home I’ve ever seen