Waves house makes a mile-long move to Rodanthe

Video from Howard Adams

After a year of planning, a former Waves home made a trek north to its new Rodanthe location, following a roughly mile-long route along N.C. Highway 12.

The move was successfully completed with the help of Barry Crum of Crum Works Inc., Cape Hatteras Electric Cooperative (CHEC), Spectrum, and safety escorts from the Dare County Sheriff’s Office, and the journey took only 90 minutes or so to complete.

The Crum Works crew. Photo by Howard Adams.

“It was a lot faster than I thought,” said homeowner Howard Adams. “Barry did a great job lowering the house as much as possible, so that the power company didn’t have to drop as many lines, and everyone [involved] was just phenomenal.”

Adams is the owner of Neptunes Kitchen & Dive Bar in Rodanthe and Howard’s Tap Shack in Avon, and like every business owner on Hatteras Island, he has difficulty recruiting employees, mainly because they can’t find a seasonal or long-term place to live.

“Staffing has been a constant issue since I’ve owned a restaurant, and that’s mostly because of housing,” he said.

So, when an opportunity arose to purchase a six-bedroom home with two separate entrances at the Cape Hatteras/Outer Banks KOA Resort, he took advantage.

“The KOA was going to tear it down, because they are doing something else in that area, and there were a couple of people who came to me and told me about it,” he said. “They were interested, but didn’t have a place to put it, and I did.”

“It has been a year in the making,” he added. “Things got delayed last spring, and then the summer came upon us, and you can’t clog up the highway during the summer – especially with the two largest campgrounds on the island [located] right in the middle of the move. That would have been a nightmare.”

CHEC checks the power lines. Image from Howard Adams.

After coordinating with CHEC, Spectrum, Dare County Sheriff’s Office, and the other players involved, a tentative date was set in January, which was slightly delayed and eventually rescheduled to February 4.

“It was supposed to be moved 2-3 weeks ago, but in the end, it all worked out,” said Adams. “We had a beautiful day, so it was meant to be.”

A lot of preparation work was required before the house could head down the highway. Decks and stairs were temporarily removed, and an under-house storage area was demolished.

After word spread about the imminent move, spectators showed up in the Tri-Villages to capture the event. A house cruising down N.C. Highway 12 is not a common sight on Hatteras Island, so house moving occasions tend to garner a lot of attention. For example, one of the most famous local house moves – the moving of the home featured in the movie “Nights in Rodanthe” – is still chatted about 15 years later.

“There were so many people out to see it – you would have thought we were having a parade,” said Adams.

Now that the home is at its new Dean Avenue location, there will be more work involved to get it ready for full-time tenants, but the new Rodanthe home will be ready for residents before the summer season is in full swing.

“I have some employees that I am already talking to who need a place to live,” said Adams. “Of course, if I have room for others, they are more than welcome – I know that housing is a struggle here.”