January 13, 2010


Serendipity, the most famous beach cottage on Hatteras Island these days, may be moved out of harm’s way on Friday.

The new owners, Ben and Debbie Huss of Newton, N.C., are moving it from its location as the northernmost house on Hatteras, where it is threatened by severe erosion, to an oceanside lot about a mile south.

In charge of the move is Jim Matyiko of Expert House Movers, the company that moved the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse in 1999.

Matyiko says his crew will start preparing the house for the move today, and if all goes well and Mother Nature cooperates, it could be moving down Highway 12 on Friday.

There is much interest in the move and many folks will want to see it.  However, there is no guarantee at this point that it will happen on Friday.  If it is not moved on Friday, it will probably be early next week – again depending on weather.

Matyiko is the man calling the shots on getting the house moved. He has said he needs a period of time with no tide under the house to place cribbing timbers under the house, cut it off its pilings, jack it up and lower it down on the cribbing to be loaded on a trailer for the trip.

He also has said that he would like the wind to be about 10 mph to move the 45-foot tall building down the road.

The weather will be right on Friday, if the moving crew can get the house ready and if no problems come up – such as ocean water under the house.

The winds are forecast to blow from the east over the weekend, potentially sending the ocean water under the house again, and probably making the weather too windy for the move.  According to the National Weather Service office in Newport, N.C., the windy weather could last into Monday or Tuesday.

Matyiko has a permit from the North Carolina Department of Transportation to move the building.

The permit is good for Friday, Jan. 15, until Feb. 13.  He can move the house any day of the week between 9 a.m. and 2 p.m., and there will be some traffic delays. The movers will have to pull over every 10 minutes to let traffic pass.  Traffic will be directed by the Dare County Sheriff’s Office.

The house is 35 feet wide and the paved highway – both lanes and shoulders – is about 32 feet wide.

In his application for the permit, Matyiko said the move would take about 45 minutes to an hour.

The Cape Hatteras Electric Cooperative says that power will be shut off on the oceanside of Highway 12 along the move route as the house passes by.  They co-op anticipates no power outages for the rest of the island.

There is good news for those who can’t or don’t want to come to Rodanthe to watch the Serendipity move.

As of today, the Dare County Webcam is up and running again. It had been shut down for maintenance, and county officials didn’t expect it to be back up this week.  But it is, and if there are not more problems, you can check the progress on the move online.

Go to the Dare County Web site, www.darenc.com , click on public information files, scroll to the end and click on Webcams.  You can see Serendipity on the S-curves/Mirlo Beach cam.

The Island Free Press will continue to update the timing of the Serendipity move until it happens. We will do it as quickly as possible, but any news that the house is about to move could be at the last minute.

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