Moving Up

Why some who want an addition choose to lift and move their homes instead

- NICHOLAS PHILLIPS

JOHN MATYIKO AND his wife, Mary Matyiko, move houses. Whole houses. They pick them up and transport them, all in one piece. Sometimes they’ll move a house just yards away: This year, for example, they took a 7,000-square-foot house on East Monroe in Kirkwood and shifted it to the edge of the property, freeing up two empty lots that the homeowner can now sell. At other times, the Matyikos’ company, Expert House Movers, will move a house miles down the road. Often they’ll do no more than lift a house upward so workers can lay down a brand-new basement below—a crucial option in St. Louis, where century-old homes may be perched atop shaky foundations and where it’s sometimes cheaper to make an addition by building down instead of out.

“We usually get clients who think outside the box,” says Mary. “Every day is different. That’s part of what’s fun.”