House for a Dollar, Anyone?

Eskimo Pie was thrilled to talk with us about the Queen. Us moving the house solved a couple of problems for them. First, they got rid of the house at no cost to themselves. If they had hired someone to demolish the house and clear the lot off, it would have cost them thousands of dollars. Second, they were getting rid of the house without demolishing her. That was definitely good PR with the historic preservation crowd in Russellville.

None the less, it took us nine months to get a contract negotiated and signed so we could begin work. The matter was complicated by the fact that Eskimo Pie had to send the contract up to their corporate headquarters so their counsel could look at it. Aside from the fact that we were very anxious to begin work on the house, it really didn't end up too badly. The house cost us a dollar. In return we agreed to move the house within 6 months. If we failed to do so, we basically lost all rights to the house and we had to pay them $5,000.00 to cover the cost of clearing the site. We weren't too happy with the 6 month deadline.

We'd hoped to have a year to move her. We'd started the negotiation process in 2002 and signed the contract in April (?) of 2003. If we had year to complete the move, that would give us the rest of the year to prepare the new house site and to the house. Then we could wait out the winter and move it in the spring of 2004. But, if we only had 6 months, so be it.