Kepley Grading and House Moving moved this home up North Salisbury Avenue in Spencer toward its new location on Long Ferry Road. The home was moved from Kannapolis. photo by Wayne Hinshaw, Salisbury Post

Kepley Grading and House Moving moved this home up North Salisbury Avenue in Spencer toward its new location on Long Ferry Road. The home was moved from Kannapolis. A worker on top of the house lifts some wires over the roof. photo by Wayne Hinshaw, Salisbury Post

Kepley Grading and House Moving moved this home up North Salisbury Avenue in Spencer toward its new location on Long Ferry Road. The home was moved from Kannapolis. photo by Wayne Hinshaw, Salisbury Post

Kepley Grading and House Moving moved this home up North Salisbury Avenue in Spencer toward its new location on Long Ferry Road. The home was moved from Kannapolis. Here, a telephone line had to be raised for the house. photo by Wayne Hinshaw, Salisbury Post

By Paris Goodnight

pgoodnight@salisburypost.com

Kepley Grading and House Moving got oh-so-close Wednesdayto moving a house from its former spot in Kannapolis to a new location on Long Ferry Road.

But Buddy Kepley said they had to stop about two blocks from the final resting spot because Wednesday's rain made it too muddy to finish the grading needed before setting the house in place.

Kepley said the house went through foreclosure a few years ago and had never been lived in. He was called in originally to demolish it, but he convinced the new owner that wasn't the best idea.

"It was too nice to tear down," he said.

Kepley said he planned at one point to move the house to his own land on the New River in Independence, Va., but he eventually found a buyer in Rowan County.

He said the distance didn't faze him a bit since he's moved houses 160 miles before, working with the company that's been in business since 1946.

He started the process about a week and a half ago, moving the house to his company base on Sherrills Ford Road. Then workers began the final leg Wednesday, traveling up to N.C. 150 and Main Street before turning onto Long Ferry Road. Interstates aren't an option when moving houses.

"We took the back ways where there's not as much traffic," he said, adding the trip from Kannapolis Parkway went along Unity Church, Deal and Millbridge roads, as well as N.C. 152 and 150 before arriving at his shop.

He had part of the roof trimmed off to make it fit under wires and cross arms along the way — some places with only a couple inches to spare. But he said a carpenter wouldn't need but about a day and a half to reconstruct the parts where trusses were trimmed off and marked.

He said the new owner will end up getting a home for about a fourth or a third of what new construction would cost. Now, all he needs is some clear weather to make it that last 800 feet or so off the road to the new homesite that's part of a 100-acre farm near Goodman Lake Road.

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