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!!
Sunday, July 22, 2007
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.)
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...
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...
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