
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, October 12, 1993                   TAG: 9310120003
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: ED SHAMY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

AND LAST OF ALL, THE FOUNDATION IS LAID AND HOUSE PUT ON IT

Best that Dennis Keesee can remember, every cinder-block foundation he's ever worked on was built first - before the walls, before the roof, before the doors and windows and furnaces were added.

His world turned upside down, Keesee was hard at it Monday afternoon, slapping mud and laying block, ducking beneath the skirt of a hovering house to build a foundation for a home up in the air.

Two houses, now propped up on temporary supports along Liberty Road near Meadows Street in Roanoke, were moved from the neighborhood behind Berglund Chevrolet to make way for the auto dealership to expand.

Jacked up from their foundations along Noble Avenue, fitted with wheels and pulled a couple thousand feet by Hill House Movers, the frame homes are being refitted with foundations on formerly wooded lots.

Once Keesee and helper Dean Trail finish the 4-foot foundation, the home will be eased down a few inches to rest on the cinder blocks.

That's how 129 Noble Ave. becomes 2619 Liberty Road.

"It is kind of amazing, isn't it?" asked Keesee, pausing to scratch the top of his ballcap. "Never did one quite like this before."

by CNB