It’s always the people, usually their pets, and often their furniture and vehicles, that relocate to a new destination.

But on Jan. 12, a whole house moved to Orcas. Six days before it arrived, the house was looking out at the view of Lake Washington. Now it is taking in the view of Puget Sound.

The house, which belongs to Janet Jewell and Larry Cohen, was originally going to make the move on Dec. 21 but the unexpected snow storm delayed the six-day trip. Jewell and Cohen, who have been long-time summer residents on Orcas, are planning to move here full-time in the next couple of years. They had a 1,000 square foot house in Kenmore and a tiny cabin on Orcas. The larger house was slated for demolition and it seemed like a great idea to bring it here.

“We had refurbished the kitchen before we moved,” Jewell said. “If it had just been any house we might not have moved it, but we really like the house.”

Casjen Cramer, Operations Manager of Nickel Brothers, specializes in these moves, and said that house moving is the ultimate in recycling. Each project recycles between 50,000 and 100,000 pounds in potential construction and demolition debris that would otherwise end up in landfills. It saves the 60 to 80 trees, the copper and wiring and other building materials that would be thrown away. For those who have property but no house, Nickel Brothers maintains an inventory that range in price from $50,000 to $300,000 that can be moved within the Northwest.

“The whole concept of being able to move a house goes beyond many people’s conception,” Cramer said. “We tell people we move houses and they say, ‘you mean you move the furniture?’ It’s hard for them to imagine.”

Nickel Brothers has been moving houses for 54 years and has special equipment to do it. For the Jewell/Cohen and other houses they use hydraulic jacks in a unified jacking system that requires only one lever lift to move it off the foundation.

“We essentially built a trailer under the house that stayed with it during the entire move,” Cramer said. “A specialized moving truck hooked up to the trailer and took it to the barge for the trip down Lake Washington, through the Ballard Locks and on to Orcas.”

The Nickel truck hooked it up to the trailer again once land was reached and took it to its new neighborhood.

Jewell says their new neighbors have been helpful. They allowed them to remove and replace a fence and several trees to help with the house’s arrival.

“The neighbors have been just great and very welcoming to the house,” Jewell said. “I think the house will be very happy on Orcas Island.”