The wayward house that entertained and irritated thousands of commuters on the Hollywood Freeway took another trip Tuesday night, ending up in a storage yard about 10 miles from its intended destination, thanks to Caltrans putting your tax dollars to work. Now, it's nestled far from the public eye in a Canyon Country storage yard, in between mobile homes and other large things left on the sides of Southern California roads.

Owners Patrick Richardson and Kimberly Bigman, who will be billed for the move (estimated cost: $20,000) were purportedly moving the structure to Santa Clarita so they could welcome homeless people during the cold winter months.

Uh-huh. Another homeless shelter in Santa Clarita. The only issue that could raise a bigger firestorm than hitting an overpass and dumping a 1,200 square foot bungalow into rush hour traffic.

Calls to the Santa Clarita Community Development Corporation, which runs the legitimate shelter in the winter, went unanswered, but sources close to the company said they hadn't heard of anyone opening a second shelter. That kind of news usually gets to town before a building moves in. Given the conflicts and controversy experienced by the established Santa Clarita shelter, no one in their right mind would start a new shelter - if that's really what the house was meant to be.

As you all know by now, Richardson decided to save a few dollars and jacked the house up on his own trailer, setting out early Sept. 15 from Santa Monica on his northbound quest. Ignoring the directions given to him by Caltrans, the agency responsible for knowing the clearance of every bridge and underpass, including those under which his load would not fit, he decided to take a short cut down the Hollywood freeway and the project pretty much went south from there.

For 10 days, the house sat near the Barham Boulevard exit, inviting looters (Richardson moved the house completely furnished) and taggers and those who found humor in hanging a "for sale" sign on it. Every night, the TV news showed the traffic slowing near the house and by Day #8, Bigman was at the scene, wringing her hands and telling the TV news that the house was to be used as a women's shelter. The story changed the next day to homeless shelter.

As if dropping a house off the back of a truck wasn't bad enough, now it's a charity case?

Give me a break.

I couldn't help doing some snooping and found the destination address listed on Richardson's permit to be a lot owned by Bigman set just behind a cliff in the middle of two oil fields on Sierra Highway near Placerita Canyon Road. The plot, which is not completely level, is also bereft of water, sewer and power, not to speak of a pad on which to place said benevolent shelter.

Oh, and those pesky permits required for dropping a house into the city limits? Never pulled.

What a circus that might have been, had Richardson not hit the overpass and completed the move. According to assessor maps, the road to get to said outlook is primitive at best, if he could have made it up the hill. Then there's the urban/visual blight issue.

On Tuesday, Caltrans hired Master House Movers, a firm known for getting the job done right the first time (disclosure: they have moved buildings for the SCV Historical Society during my tenure on the board of directors) to bring the house to our valley. I hope they got a good price, including a bonus for jumping at the immediacy of the situation, which could have been avoided in the first place.

Seriously, when you move a couch, call your friend with a truck. But if it's a 1960's era house (which was listed on the permit as a 25x14 room addition), bite the bullet and call People Who Do That. If they drop the house, you've got a case.

Now, Richardson and Bigman are facing much bigger expenses than the moving bill. There's the roof to replace, the windows to fix, the multi-coat paint job to cover the graffiti. Not to mention the permits that city folks will be watching for if they actually bail out The Little House That Couldn't from its place on the Island of Misfit Buildings.