Couple forced to move home 3 feet at cost of $40,000

At exactly 10:21 a.m. yesterday, the two cranes tugged on their load. The house creaked, groaned and rose into the air. Its big move was on -- 3 feet to the left.

It was more of a hop, really. A $40,000 hop, compliments of an unfortunate inheritance, a long-running neighborhood feud, a fast-growing rural area and a county rule that is meant to give neighbors their space.

"I have never dealt with this kind of stuff before," Stacey Ford, a real estate agent, said as her house floated into the air 40 feet from the placid little lake.

The most immediate cause for the move is a long-standing Snohomish County rule that requires houses in most residential zones be set back at least 5 feet from property lines. The Fords' house, built in 1976, sat 3.1 feet from the line at one corner, and 2.23 feet at another.

When a next-door neighbor complained to the county, the county stuck to its rule.

Thus the 3-foot move, which will make it legal by inches.

The story started earlier than that, though.

The tiny 940-square-foot house was way out in the country when it was built on Martha Lake, along Lakewood Road, in the mid-1970s, Ford said.

As the cities grew north, places such as Martha Lake filled in with houses as retirees and commuters looked for quiet hideaways close to the urban hustle. The past dozen years have brought 14 new homes to the little lake's shores.

In 1993, one of them plunked itself down next to the house at 18417 Lakewood Road that was then owned by Stacey Ford's uncle, Dennis Davis.

According to the Fords, friction broke out almost immediately when a tree the new neighbor cut to improve his view fell onto Davis' lot, breaking a shed in the process.

The neighbor rebuilt the shed, but the feud continued in ways big and small.

The biggest bomb dropped a few weeks after Davis died in 1998, willing his house -- along with its $80,000 mortgage -- to his niece Stacey and her soon-to-be husband Lonney Ford. The neighbor, using a recent property line survey, turned the Fords in for owning a house that was too close to their property line.

The Fords, faced with the choice of cutting 3 feet off their house, moving it or fighting, chose to fight. They applied for a variance from the county's 5-foot setback, a rule that has been on the books since 1966.

They got some sympathy from the county's planning staff, who recommended in writing that a county hearing examiner let the house stay put because forcing a move or a renovation after so many years would be "unduly harsh."

Hearing Examiner John E. Galt disagreed, ruling that the Fords failed to show that no harm had been done to a neighbor's rights.

The Fords could have appealed to Superior Court. But with $15,000 in legal expenses invested up to that point, and facing the potential of more than $100,000 in county fines if they continued to lose in court, they chose the move.

The work is being done by Lonney's father, crane company owner Max Ford, who said he'll give them a price break. But the job will still end up costing up to $40,000. They'll repour the foundation while it's up in the air, and build an additional floor to try to add value.

Setback problems are uncommon, Snohomish County Planning and Development Services Department special services coordinator John Roney said, because most property owners figure out where their property lines are before they get building permits.

The Fords aren't so sure. Their latest property survey showed that their other next-door neighbor built a deck that juts a few feet over the property line. And a fence sits 4 feet deep in their back yard.

"I suppose this could go all the way around the lake if we pushed it," Lonney Ford said. They have no plans to do so, however.

Most of Martha Lake's residents, meanwhile, seem to have gotten what they moved there for: a mix of rural calm and city life. Ducks quacked on the sunny water yesterday while Ford's cranes roared their engines.

"It's a wonderful neighborhood," Ramona Cooley said while waiting for a bus. "I love it."

P-I reporter David Fisher can be reached at 425-252-2215 or davidfisher@seattle-pi.com