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!!