World Photo by Lou Sennick Excavator operator Richard Fortune tears apart the house at 2505 Sheridan St. in North Bend on Monday. The debris was taken to West Coast Recycling in Coos Bay. Items that can be recycled will be pulled out before final disposal.

NORTH BEND — If the drawn-out saga of North Bend’s most notorious house were detailed in a popular book, its most famous line might be: Ding-dong the house is gone!

The dangerous house no longer blights the hill above U.S. Highway 101 and Sapphires Mongolian Grill. Torn down Monday afternoon by Fortune’s Bulldozing & Grading LLC of Coquille, all that’s left of the 2505 Sheridan Ave. building is the foundation and the sliding slope upon which it sat.

Fortune’s manager David Eversz said the removal is going much more smoothly than expected, especially considering the recent history of lawsuits, a business closure and other issues surrounding the dangerous house.

“My effort is for everybody to come out smelling like a rose if that’s possible in a stinky situation,” Eversz said.

Richard Fortune, the part owner of Fortune’s, said the dry weather has been a boon for his crew. The company used an excavator and trailer to demolish and remove the house in about 10 hours. Its 100 yards of remains will be recycled by West Coast Recycling in Coos Bay.

“I was hoping the slope would not give out on us. ... It held up,” Fortune said. “If we had rain it would have been a lot more dangerous.”

Today, Fortune’s crew members will haul off the footings and concrete slabs, followed by dirt and fill in the slope. Then, workers will cover the hillside in 10-millimeter-thick plastic from the top of the property line on Sheridan down the hill 120 to 150 feet. They also will install drain pipes and a coffer dam to capture and direct water. The crew also will pour a sidewalk and curb structure.

“That’s going to keep water from draining into the hillside and saturating it more,” Fortune said.

Fortune said he expects to finish the job by next Friday.

His company will be responsible for the plastic covering until the end of the rainy season in June. The contractor speculated grass and trees may be planted on the hillside for root structure to prevent further slippage.

Removing the house from the slope took a lot of pressure off the hill, Fortune added.

“As long as we don’t have problems with the ground underneath, we should be all right,” he said.

Crew members are taking precautions on the hill, Eversz said, by having someone keep an eye on the slope from the bottom to make sure the excavator doesn’t get tangled in utility wires or fall of the side. They also wear personal protection gear. Additionally, an engineer from the Galli Group of Grants Pass is overseeing the project to prevent any further damage to the hill and neighboring properties.

“I can understand (neighbors’) concerns. The entire hillside slid down and nobody wants anymore of it to go down,” Eversz said.

The house and its slipping slope have been a problem for the city of North Bend since early 2007, when councilors first learned that both could crash down onto the property below. Late last month, the council signed a death sentence for the house, awarding a $14,441 demolition bid to Fortune’s. The price tag for removal recently increased to nearly $28,000 for the cost of asbestos removal and other details.

Mayor Rick Wetherell said he was pleased Monday the house is finally gone.

“I’m just glad it’s over,” he said. “Well, until stage II.”

There will be a sequel. A lawsuit between the house’s owner, Yesi Guriado, and Eugene Hill, the owner of Sapphires, is scheduled to open in court April 1.