The previous owners - back to 1732

In May I finally made it to the town's archive to see whether I could find anything on our house or the previous owners.

Well, one visit to the archive is definitely not enough... But even in a first short visit I found out quite a lot, I was especially excited to see a list of the previous owners back to 1732.

That means of course, that we are still missing information on the first 150 years after the house was presumably built around 1590 but it is a start!

Here are the owners:

1732: Georg Cuno Hannemüller, Balbierer und Brauer

1769: Christoph Nürnberg

1785: Fr. Relicta(Witwe)Dierbergen

1799/1800: Rel. Dierbergen, modo Dan. Hotopff

1808: Hr. Hotop

Christian Steinbach, Fleischer, 48 J.; Marie Osteroth, 43 J.; Sohn: Christian * 1807

1933: Peters, August, Ackerbürger, Bagmann, Emma, geb. Peters, Witwe

Especially the first one is interesting as it says that he was a brewer and a barber. As the cellar in our house used to be a brewing cellar we can be quite sure that in the 18th century, beer was brewed directly in our house. Moreover rumour goes, that Georg Cuno Hannemüller's wife has gone mad after his death and that they had to get her out of the house by force. Quite spooky...

And this is how he might have looked like, doing his work as a barber. Well, not exactly him as this in an illustration of 1568, but anyway:


More history as soon as I make it to the archive again! I really want to try and find out more on the people listed above.

Yes, we are a monument! - re-posted from August 4th 2007

It is official now: Our house is a protected architectural monument! Thanks everyone for keeping your fingers crossed!

Two preservationists - the one responsible for our town and one of the superior authority - inspected our house thoroughly (and I, of course, had been cleaning and tidying like a madwoman the night before...). And in the end they decided that the house is "worth" being officially protected and listed, not only for being a part of the old town but also for itself and its inside.
Two main aspects were crucial: On one hand there are several well preserved old parts in the house (doors and doorframes, the attic, the cellar) and on the other hand our house represents a typical example of how this kind of houses were usually renovated in the late 19th/early 20th century.

This is an extract of the mail we got, of course they'll send us an official notification later on, but this is enough for the moment:

That's what it says:
In addition to the urbanistic significance of the building (built around 1600 and renovated around 1910 in half-timbered fashion), the following findings lead to the classification of the building as an architectural monument:

• Numerous interior doors of the 17th and 18th century.
• Mighty cellar with groined vault underneath the northern axis of the building.
• Complete truss of the construction period.
• Assumption that the mighty northern house end represents parts of the first city wall before the town's burst of development.

Especially that last bit of information is sooooo exciting. I really have to take some time off to dig in the local archives.
Anyway, we are really happy and the fact that the house is now officially an architectural monument motivates us even more to go on with all of our projects!

Here are some pics of the details mentioned above:
The cellar:


Possible city wall:


Some of the doors and door frames:

First decision taken - re-posted from June 29th 2007

After thinking all the pros and cons of getting listed the inside of our house over and over again, we had another chat with the State preservationist today. I asked him a lot of questions concerning the everyday life and especially the practice of renovating in a listed building.
It all seems very reasonable: As all the changes we want to make are conform to the historical monument, we don't have to expect any major problems or conflicts with the Local Office for Historical Monuments.
To give you some examples: If we want to rip out the laminate and put in hard wood floors instead, they would support us but would NOT require a certain kind of wood or a certain laying technique etc. We would even be allowed to tear down inner walls to get bigger rooms (which we won't do). Of course certain changes wouldn't be allowed, like replacing old doors with new ones. Things we never thought of, anyway.

One last thing I wanted to know was whether we'd still be allowed to do a lot of work by ourselves or if everything has to be done by certified specialists. That would indeed have been an obstacle as we love to do things the diy-way. But that's no problem at all.

After this really positive chat we decided to give it a try. We want to have the inside of our house listed, too. The preservationist and an officer of the State Office for Historical Monuments (from Hanover) will look at the house thoroughly and decide, whether it is worth to be listed or not. So keep your fingers crossed, please!!

Upcoming decision - re-posted from June 22nd 2007

Our house is listed as a historical building, exactly as all the other houses in the historic city centre of Hornburg. We have to preserve everything on the outside of the house (facade, windows, roof etc.) and if we want to make any changes, we have to make a building application and get the permission of the State Office for Historical Monuments.

Inside the house, you can change, rip out, destroy whatever you want to. Of course we don't even think of that! On the contrary - we'll restore a lot in our old house (wood floors instead of the laminate the previous owner layed, just to give you an example).

Right now we are thinking of classifiying the inside of the house as a historical monument, too. All the changes we want to make are exactly what the State Office suggests anyway, and IF the inside is listed, you can get a lot of valuable information from the State preservationists for free.
And you can set off all the costs for renovations against tax liability. We tried to figure out how much money we could save thereby - it would probably be an amount between 10'000 and 15'000 Euro. Sounds good.

On the other hand, everyone tells us we're completely crazy because we'd allow the State Office to intervene in our renovation plans. And that we'd never again be able to sell the house if the inside is listed, too. Or for a lot less, which is of course an argument.

And even IF we decide to have it listed, it's not sure it will be classified as a historical monument by the authorities as only few of the original structure (end of the 16th, beginning of the 17th century) is left after centuries of rebuilding and adding changes to the house. I'll post pictures of the parts that are most of all worth protection over the next few days, but we're basically talking of the cellar and the attic, some of the doors and door frames and parts of the stairs (still hidden away underneath newer layers).

We really don't know what to do - any of your advice and opinions would be much appreciated!

(This post is more ore less identical to a thread in the discussion forum of www.houseblogs.net, but as nobody answered in that thread, I hope that more people will read my blog.)

Water alarm? Re-posted from October 12th 2006

Our house is situated in "Wasserstrasse" - that means Water Street in english. Sounds like any houseowner's nightmare, doesn't it? And in fact there really is a creek flowing underneath the pavement. BUT - and that's the interesting thing about it - it's absolutely necessary that it continues flowing, as the following example may show:

In the Seventies, the city council decided to regulate the creek. Within the next couple of years, the old timberframe buildings began to move and slump. Fortunately, this was quite an obvious development and the people in charge led the creek back in its natural channel. Almost immediately, the houses moved back into their original positions. Amazing, isn't it!?!

Means of course, that the cellars of these houses are always a little dampish, but as I said before: perfect wine cellars. The cellar in our house is, as the carpenter told us, even older than the rest of the house, probably 15th or 16th century. Really great!! Here's a (not really good...) picture of it:

Good news - re-posted from October 4th 2006

Now, that's what I call good news: our house is probably not going to tumble down within the next hundred years... Well, that's quite enough of a perspective for me really...

We made a "tour-de-maison" with a carpenter, specialized on restoring old timber frame buildings. The most important information: the substance and materials of the house are in a good condition. Probably no bad surprises waiting...

The carpenter - quite a fascinating guy - told us a lot of interesting things about the house. Well, he actually "read" the house. After one glance he knew, that the roof truss doesn't date from 1620, but from about 1750. A real youngster, don't you agree!?!
Guessing from the construction of the attic, we now know that our house belonged to a hops-growing farmer (drying hops on the attic). There are even left a couple of 200-year-old hops sticks. Amazing!!

The cellar of the house has a wonderful arch vault and will make up a great wine cellar...

From the outside, one of the main beams is covered up with wooden planks. The carpenter is convinced, that an inscription or at least some ornaments are hidden behind the planks. I definitely want to reveal the secret next spring! Although I'll maybe have to "struggle" with the local responsible for the protection of historical monuments about this plan...