Cottage for Sale, Must be Moved! A Woman Moves a House to Make a Home by Kate Whouley

Despite having lived across New England for years, I’ve never actually had my own house to come home to. Instead, I’ve simply imagined what it would be to move into one of beguiling old cottages and farmhouses that I’d see on my drives.

Real estate dreamers like me will find vivid inspiration in Cape Cod writer Kate Whouley’s acclaimed 2004 memoir, which details her quest to transplant an abandoned cottage to her own property. 

It’s funny, fascinating, often philosophical tale, and when Whouley describes the attraction of a cottage “with personality, with history, a cottage that has been loved,” it feels as if she’s speaking for everyone who’s ever gazed at a house and wondered, Could you be mine? —Jenn Johnson, Yankee senior managing editor

When Kate Whouley saw the classified ad for an abandoned cottage that had to be moved, she began to dream. Transport the cottage…attach it to my three-room house…create more space for my work and life….Smart, single, and self-employed, Whouley was used to fending for herself. But she wasn't prepared for half the complications of her house-moving adventures. 

Supported by loyal friends, and egged on by her bossy gray cat, Whouley encountered a parade of town officials, a small convoy of State Police (who escorted her cottage, with lights flashing, through four Cape Cod towns), and an army of house-moving, home-building men. Like the cottage on wheels, Kate Whouley takes the back roads, with a keen eye for the inner scenery. For everyone who has ever dreamed of creating a space of their own, there is a cottage for sale. You only have to move it.

The new edition celebrates the twentieth anniversary of the quirky and beloved memoir that has become a Cape Cod classic. Including a new chapter by the author that catches readers up on the cottage, Kate, and the current Cat-in-Charge.

• Publisher:‎ Sea Crow Press
• Paperback
• Print length:‎ 356 pages
• Item Weight:‎ 13.1 ounces
• Dimensions:‎ 5.25 x 0.89 x 8 inches