Northville man moves 1,300-square-foot summer cottage to Lexington
It’s weird when you’ve seen a building in one spot your whole life, for almost 50 years, “then suddenly it’s on the road,” Northville resident David Di Rita said.
Di Rita, a Roxbury Group founder and principal, has had family in the Lexington area since the 1930s. His grandfather built a home in the Worth Township Blue Water Beach subdivision in 1967 and his father built a summer cottage there in 1972.
But late last week that summer cottage took the trip of its life, about 1,300-square-feet of it traveling five miles on M-25 to Lexington with a police escort.
Di Rita wanted to ride in the home while it traveled, watch Sanilac County pass by from the dining table, but that unfortunately was not an option. He thought moving the house down the highway would be harder, “but they did that in 10 minutes,” he said.
The home is a mid-century style Viceroy Home, a kit home that had engineered pieces cut to size and ready for site assembly.
Di Rita, who is one among five siblings, said the family spent their summers in the cottage. They watched the moon landing at their grandparents’ house next door, played softball in the area and built multiple tree forts.
It gave them the opportunity to grow up with their cousins and provided a multigenerational, multi-year parade of “idyllic childhood experiences.”
He really wanted to ensure that the next generation and generation after that used the cottage the same way his family did.
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“I really felt like that was more likely to happen if the cottage was in the town, in the village,” he said.
Di Rita bought a lot in Lexington near the intersection of Hubbard and Washington streets around a year ago and the cottage made the voyage Thursday.
He said he’ll either sell the vacant lot, which has sewer access and a garage that was left behind, or he’ll build a new house on the property and sell the whole thing. Once he sells the lot, it will about cover the cost of the move so he’s coming out about equal.
“It wasn’t as crazy as it sounds,” he said.
But at the end of the day, what he gets from moving the cottage is using the home his dad built. His father died about three years ago and his mom is still very attached to the place. She loved the idea of moving the home, he said.
“I feel like it’s a way to honor both of them versus just a real estate decision,” Di Rita said.
Contact Bryce Airgood at (810) 989-6202 or bairgood@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter @bairgood123.
