Extreme makeunder

Home at 405 Vine Ave. is high above ground while it gets a new foundation

Motorists, pedestrians and bicyclists going up Vine Avenue after their trip along Fountain Lake this week noticed a spectacle that had them doing double takes.

The big, red house at 405 Vine has been up on stilts without a basement since Tuesday. More correctly stated, it was resting on I-beams supported by cribbing.

It is the home of Tim and Roberta Grahn. They bought it in 2003, believing the foundation was good. However, it merely had been covered by walls on the inside and by stucco on the outside. The decorative-block foundation for the 1895 structure was in terrible condition.

Cribbing and I-beams support the home at 405 Vine Ave. Wayne Spencer Movers, of Blue Earth, supported the home with jacks, then built the cribbing. -- Tim Engstrom/Albert Lea Tribune

“The cement had broken down in the blocks and the blocks then were turning to sand,” Tim said in an interview Friday inside another Vine Avenue home.

Meanwhile, crews from City Concrete out of Austin were pouring the footings.

All week long, motorists have slowed to take a look at the house, which is about 12 or 13 feet above the dirt and mud and equipment. Pedestrians have stopped to marvel. People have been taking pictures, some even sending them to this newspaper.