Round Top Idea Cottage Move In
Other than 30 mph gusting winds, leaden skies and intermittent downpours, it was a perfectly beautiful Round Top morning when the call came.
Editor’s note: Kathy Johnston of The Compound is chronicling the evolution of the ugly duckling as it metamorphoses into a beautiful swan under the steady hand of Julie Dodson of Dodson Interiors and Mark Massey, developer of The Compound near Round Top, Texas.
Lewis Tindall of Tindall General Contractors called to say that “the little house that could” had just arrived on the outskirts of Warrenton. So, I got in the car and headed out to chronicle the Round Top Idea Cottage’s arrival at The Compound.
I was hanging over the fence line, umbrella discarded (it had once been yanked from my grip, and rendered useless, flipped inside out) when a Fayette County Sheriff car came flying by to stop approaching traffic just beyond the entrance. There, large sections of fencing had been removed in anticipation of this event and I was glad to be inside the gates and not among the curious and disgruntled on the highway.
In the distance, the rain-distorted flashing lights of the advance escort finally came into view, then the 18-wheeler’s cab lights appeared along with a simultaneous thought: “Gad it’s huge!”
Round Top Idea Cottage
I’d been expecting a diminutive cottage and here comes this big old house perched seemingly precariously, high above the 18-wheeler cab. I aimed the camera sequentially at its lumbering arrival across the Compound’s frontage, as it was, ever so slowly, maneuvered out of waiting traffic onto the property by the Yoakum House Moving team.
I’d been looking at four little orange cones that Mark Massey had placed the week before. Following the convoy back to that area, I wondered how in the world the guy behind the wheel could possibly jockey that load into place and hit such a teensy footprint. Well, he should teach parallel parking in his spare time. Because, after everyone scoped it out for ten minutes, all it took were three well-executed maneuvers, and following a few “two inches to the left” directions from Mark for that driver to hit his mark.
Masterful.
Taking to the cover of the Gazebo we watched the Yoakum team finish up the details of placement, and unhitch the rig from its behemoth load. Everyone stood back to observe the result. There was real satisfaction in seeing that house in place. It was visually pleasing, aligned with the Gazebo at its front, and the entrance to the Peck Barn beyond, in perfect symmetry. It will make a beautiful “Idea House” this spring antique show, thanks to the transformations to be soon made by the Tindall construction team and Julie Dodson of Dodson Interiors.
As I was Instagramming the various moments of the move a bit later in the day, someone else’s popped up; he had obviously been stopped in traffic near The Compound when the house came by …“Everything’s bigger in Texas, I just saw the world’s largest motor home go by. Oh, it’s headed to The Compound.” 
Had to laugh. Stay tuned. The real fun (and work) begins.
Miss the first post? Read more here.
Interested in buying the cottage for your property? Inquiries:
Frank Johnston, Broker,
Heritage Texas Country Properties
979/249-7315
Frank Johnston, Broker,
Heritage Texas Country Properties
979/249-7315