Couple Buys $1 Home and Moves It Across LA to Save Money and Time
- Following the Eaton fire in January 2025 that destroyed their Altadena home, Evan and Caitlin Chambers purchased a 1911 Craftsman-style house in Hollywood for $1 dollar.
- The symbolic $1 purchase price covered only the building itself, leaving the couple responsible for relocation costs, foundation work, and complete rehabilitation.
- Caitlin Chambers discovered the endangered 1911 property on Instagram through the account Before The 101, which noted the house was slated for demolition to make way for affordable...
Following the Eaton fire in January 2025 that destroyed their Altadena home, Evan and Caitlin Chambers purchased a 1911 Craftsman-style house in Hollywood for $1 dollar. To save the structure from demolition, the couple arranged for the 223-meter-square building to be cut into sections and transported by night under police escort to their Los Angeles County land, according to reporting published in September 2025 by LAist and Dwell.
The $1 Hollywood Craftsman Rescue
The symbolic $1 purchase price covered only the building itself, leaving the couple responsible for relocation costs, foundation work, and complete rehabilitation. According to Dwell reporting, the couple faced rebuilding estimates between $500 and $700 per square foot after losing their property. Their California FAIR Plan insurance policy provided a $300,000 payout, leaving them underinsured for a standard ground-up rebuild.
An Instagram Discovery Beats the Bulldozer
Caitlin Chambers discovered the endangered 1911 property on Instagram through the account Before The 101, which noted the house was slated for demolition to make way for affordable housing. The couple connected with Morgan Sykes Jaybush of the architecture firm Omgivning to negotiate the purchase. The original site owner agreed to the $1 price because relocating the structure eliminated expensive demolition fees and cleared the parcel for new development.
Midnight Transport Across Los Angeles
The relocation was coordinated through Omgivning’s Historic House Relocation Project, which connects threatened historic buildings with landowners. Because of its massive dimensions, moving the house required a custom transport route that avoided bridges, underpasses, railway lines, highways, and electrical wires. The sliced sections traveled on trucks during nighttime hours accompanied by police escorts before arriving at the Altadena site.
A Faster Path to Rebuilding
Reporting from LAist in July 2025 indicated the couple budgeted approximately $550,000 for the entire acquisition, transit, and restoration process, funded by their insurance settlement, personal savings, and a GoFundMe campaign. While rebuilding from scratch could take up to three years according to project estimates, the relocation approach aimed to reduce the timeline to roughly nine to twelve months while preserving a piece of early 20th-century architecture.