UPDATE: The deal is sealed, and Serendipity will be on the move

January 6, 2010 | Local News | By: Irene Nolan

The iconic beach house Serendipity has new owners and will soon be moved from its current location in Mirlo Beach in northern Rodanthe.

No longer will the house be the first cottage on Hatteras Island that travelers see as they head south on Highway 12. Nor will it have the sweeping vista of empty beaches to its north where it borders the Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge.

However, it will no longer be in imminent danger from high tides and punishing waves with each coastal storm. And it will no longer be the public nuisance that Dare County had declared it.

Ben and Debbie Huss of Newton in western North Carolina closed their deal to buy the house on Monday, Jan. 4.

And it could move a mile south on Highway 12 to its new home as early as next week.

They paid the sellers, Michael and Susan Creasy of Champion, Pa., $275,000 for Serendipity, well below the $499,000 asking price – and also well below the $525,000 that the Creasys paid for the house in 2003.

“The sale price may come as a surprise to many, and it was less than the sellers had hoped for,” said Marsha M. Brown, broker with Marsha M. Brown & Co. in Rodanthe, the agent for the buyers. “But when all expenses were taken into consideration to move the house, not to mention purchasing an alternate lot, it was the maximum sale price that Ben and Debbie Huss would consider.”

Serendipity is headed to 23289 East Beacon Rd., Lot 3, in the Southern Vista subdivision in Rodanthe, less than a mile south of where the house currently stands.

The Husses paid $190,000 for the new lot, also below the asking price of $269,000.

“The views will be outstanding as the lot is high where the beautiful stature of Serendipity will stand out and be easy to locate,” said Brown.

Brown notes that the cottage was once listed for sale for more than $1 million, but that recurring ocean overwash in recent storms were a problem for the owner – and the traveling public.

Ocean tide washing under not just Serendipity but most of the northernmost houses in Mirlo Beach flowed down the driveways and onto Highway 12, closing the road more frequently with each passing year — sometimes in minor northeasters.

Dare County declared the house a public nuisance after last November’s coastal storm and gave the owners 10 days to move it or remove it.

The Creasys have said that they had invested heavily into the house, which they loved, but were not able financially to move it.

Meanwhile, Ben Huss, a bail bondsman from Newton, N.C., and his wife, Debbie, had seen the house in the 2008 feature film that made it famous, “Nights in Rodanthe,” starring Richard Gere and Diane Lane and based on the bestselling novel by Nicholas Sparks.

Ben and Debbie Huss came to Hatteras to see Serendipity last April. They are only two of many movie fans who have visited the house and taken pictures there. But they, like the others, saw it without its Hollywood splendor and seriously threatened by the ocean.

It had been spruced up by the moviemakers with blue shutters, decks, gazebos, and landscaping. All of that had to be removed after the filming ended.

The Husses began investigating buying the house, finding a new home site for it, and moving it.

In addition, with the help of their friend and project manager Mike Price, they will return the house to its movie days’ grandeur — blue shutters and all.

Marsha Brown says that Price, who has been on this project from day one with the new owners, “embraces the dream of seeing Serendipity protected, restored, celebrated, and enjoyed by the families who liked the book and movie and who love Hatteras Island.”

The Husses were hoping that the house would be moved to the new lot this week, but that turned out to be overly ambitious, especially since Mother Nature has not been cooperating.

The new owners have contracted with Expert House Movers, the company that moved the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse in 1999, to take Serendipity to its new home.

Jim Matyiko is the head mover on this project, which he says will be a challenge.

Ocean tide has continued to wash under the house since the November northeaster. And it was under the house at high tide this week.

Matyiko says he needs a good 24 hours with no tide under the house to cut it off the pilings, jack it up, and “put it on wheels” for the move.

Also, he said, he would prefer that the winds be about 10 mph to move the 45-foot tall structure.

So the future of Serendipity now rests with what the weather will do in the coming weeks.

The new owners have almost all of the permits they need to move the house – and there are many.

Both Dare County and CAMA officials, who want to see this house moved, have given their blessing and their permits.

Earl Fountain of Cape Hatteras Electric Cooperative said that the new owners have taken care of the paperwork and paid the fees necessary to move house around the power lines.

Fountain says CHEC will install a 60-foot tall pole at Beacon Road, where the house will be turned left, to let it move under the lines. Power may be off for times in parts of northern Rodanthe, but it will not be off on the entire island.

Matyiko says the move down the highway could take up to three hours – or it could happen in just a half hour, depending on the conditions of the moving permit from the North Carolina Department of Transportation, which he says he has applied for but not yet received.

There will probably be some traffic delays on the day of the move.

Meanwhile, Ben and Debbie Huss spent most of the week in Rodanthe dealing with the details of the move and the restoration of Serendipity.

Marsha Brown recalls her first meeting with Ben, Debbie, and Mike.

“The first thing I did,” she says, “was show them Serendipity on the YouTube clip, along with past Island Free Press articles and pictures online to show them what they would be up against.”

At that time, she said, Ben commented he had never seen anybody try to talk him out of buying something before, but Brown wanted to make sure there was no question that the house was in danger and that he would be facing considerable risk and expense to save it.

The Husses eventually decided to forge ahead.

“My hat is off to Ben and Debbie Huss,” Brown said. “They’re both smart, successful business people who saw something they wanted in this life and refused to let naysayers get in their way. Besides that, I’m happy to see the good this transaction will do for our communities of the tri-villages. People love that house and come into our office all the time asking about it or are seen taking pictures of it from morning to dusk.”

Serendipity will be managed by Bonnie Rowe, broker and owner of Vacation Traditions (www.vacationtraditions.com), a property management company in Rodanthe.

Ben and Debbie Huss hope to have the house moved, restored, and ready for rentals by Easter.

According to the Vacation Traditions Web site, Serendipity will be a five-bedroom, four-bath cottage with many amenities that will rent from $1,995 a week in the off season up to $4,995 a week in the in season at mid-summer.

Ben Huss gets philosophical and loquacious when he talks about he and his wife came to rescue Serendipity.

“Why me?” he asks. “It’s not an antique house or anything. I don’t know how it fell into our hands.”

Just was meant to be, he muses.

And, at the same time, he knows the risks he faces moving the house to another location close to the ocean. The new home of Serendipity is not oceanfront, but oceanside. The oceanfront lots in front of it, however, are probably unbuildable.

Again he is philosophical.

“This new lot is just destined for this house,” Ben Huss said. “It might also be oceanfront in five years, but I know I won’t be moving it again.”

(The Island Free Press will publish more about the move and traffic restrictions when it is finally scheduled.)

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