A House of Two Sides

We've known for quite a while that the house was originally split in two halves, each with it's own stairwell (loads of evidence for that!), and presumably entrance door (the two centre ones, obviously). What we don't know, is when it became one, with the stairs on the right hall removed and doors opened between the halves. It was still separated in 1937, according to the plans we have from then. We've theorised about whether it may have been built in two stages, as the fachwerk, the timber construction on the facade, shows differences in style between left and right. We thought perhaps the left might be a little older, but  last Saturday morning, while talking with a expert restorer (Thanks Franz Geiger!), a bunch of clues that we'd alreeady noticed clicked into place.

The facade on the right has diagonal cross-bracing, the facade on the left has horizontal bracing. We were told that the facades are usually symmetrical, so if you look at the facade from the right edge, the diagonal braces go down, up, down, up, down... no up to the left of the window above the former entrance door. It's like something is missing.

The left facade, June 2011. Note horizontal cross-bracing.

The right facade, June 2011. Note diagonal cross-bracing.

One of the more subtle clues is the fact that the upright timbers on the right of the facade have carpenters marks on them, following a numbering system that has been used since the medieval period. The uprights on the left have none. Moving from right to left, the uprights are numbered in descending order, We have ... XIII, XII but no XI as expected left of that same window.

Hard to see, but the central post is XII, the one to the right can be seen as XIII. Note also the different thickness.

The photo above shows that the base beam on the right is thicker than that on the left (not so conducive with one building phase where they might have taken care, or perhaps even tried to use one single beam).

Measuring between the edge of the door frame and the inner wall surface on each side of the dividing wall, and taking into account the usual symmetry in such facades, the distance from the edge of the right door to the dividing wall tallies with what one might expect given the spacing of the timbers on the far right of the facade. There's a bigger distance on the left side which suggests that it's not "in harmony".

Right corner, and new upper wall from 1937.

The corners of each side have differences. The gables on each side are currently masonry, however on the left it has sandstone blocks on the edge while on the right is a large oak post. On this side, there's an oak beam running as a footing under the brickwork. Another clue here is that on the 1937 plans for works, the gable on the right is marked as red, meaning it was new (well, it replaced something that was already there). We now suspect the entire right gable was originally half timbered and one level of this, and the rear wall, was replaced with masonry in 1937. In fact, these walls are made of red bricks, not stone like the rest of the outer and lower walls.

To cut a long story short, we think the right side of the building is older than the left. We think there was a smaller building here, with upper levels entirely half-timbered, and some time in the past the left side was added on, with a stone gable, and that at this time the entire roof was replaced to make a single roof structure. The room layout is almost perfectly symmetrical on each side, but it is odd that no such attempt was made to make the facade symmetrical.

This is all based on clues above, but we'll need an expert opinion, and maybe some dendrochronology to get some harder facts. We'll also do a little more documentary research to see if we can get some earlier maps. It just occurred to me that I found some charcoal while digging a test pit in the stalls on the right of the house (it's damp there, and I was trying to see if the groundwater was a bit high), and this could be carbon dated. If I could find some on the other side...

This is what happens when you have an archaeologist (my wife) and someone who worked in archaeology for almost 8 years (me, but I never called myself an archaeologist). Old habits die hard. Still only a theory though!

Since then, Franz gave us contact details for an expert on putting together the historical story of such houses, so looks like we'll have a better idea later this year.

Half-Life 1950

We've a few old tools lying about, some of which are very odd-looking to a city boy like myself. One looked so much more like a lethal weapon than a farm implement, it put me in mind of Half-Life, and wondering what it might look like if set in an early 20th Century German farm. Bear with me for this intermission :)

 

The classic, and my tool of choice for the last few months. Something to set the tone. If in doubt, crowbar it.

This was hiding at the back of the barn. Might need a little sharpening, but the weight alone would carry it through alien scum (or the Marder).

An upgrade to a two-pronged hay fork would give better reach, but you'd need to be accurate.

Four have to be better than two! Skewer those headcrabs! Or muck out horse shit.

We have about five of these. Lots of prongs, but with rounded tips. Great for digging out beets (it's a Sechszinkige Rübengabel), but not sure how confident I'd be heading into that unlit cellar armed only with this.

This looks like some sort of vorpal weapon. You'd expect lightning to be shooting from it at least, but it's a Zweizinkiger Rübenheber, for digging out beets. It's heavy! They don't make them like they used to!

To be honest, this has to be one of the top tools in the armoury. That blade would actually bend pretty quickly, but really, if Death uses this as a tool of choice, surely that counts as something?

In the Shadow of the Church

Just over two weeks ago, we moved from the highest point of the village, with houses built in the last 15 years, to the lowest, with houses, like our own, considerably older than that. It's like it's become some sort of hobby, but we're now living in a house right next door to The Bauernhaus itself. This is really handy, as we can pop over to tend the veggies, do a bit of work, and when things start going, keep an eye on the work. On the other side (south) is the Evangelisch church dating from 1473. So we are now, literally, in the shadow of the church.

Centre of Mittelschefflenz, pre 1960.

The house we're living in now was built in 1900, with a recent extension replacing the site of an older barn. The house can be seen to the left of the church in the photo to the right. I'm not sure when this photo was taken, but it's pre-1960, as it predates the town hall that was built more or less in the foreground. Where the person in kneeling, by a water trough in the centre, is where the stream, the Kertel, ran until it was culverted (thankfully, it still runs open on the south side of our land, and is really handy for hauling water from for the garden in dry weather). The half-timbered house on the right of this photo was demolished only a couple of years ago to make way for the new town hall, despite originally being a protected building. Our house is out of frame, about 40 metres to the left, but this old photo gives an idea of how open that area was in the past.

View from the Hof of number 2

This house, number 2, is also a former Bauernhaus, clearly, and there's a nice little courtyard at the back with several half-timbered and stone outbuildings and barns. A nice place to sit in the sun, but the configuration greatly amplifies the sound of the church bells. We get a ding-dong for every quarter hour, and deeper bongs ringing the hours. All night. Twelve bells was never so real! After two weeks here, we almost don't hear it any more. But at certain times, 11:00 and 19:30, it goes mad (movie below, with low resolution due to ultra-slow Internet connection, but it's the sound that counts in this case).

 In terms of progress on The Bauernhaus, I was a little premature with celebrating our planning permission, as it's only since yesterday that some of the final points were finally closed before we get the "red dot" that is the go signal. We had to meet the local Fire Commandant to look at the size and positioning of planned roof windows for the purposes of escape routes. All clear now!

In the meantime, our architect has been putting out incredibly detailed work lists, and the first set of offers from general builders have come in. A little bit shocking, and quite a range in price, but the detailed costs breakdown the architect specified is making it easy to compare. With luck, the first heavy works can begin in mid-July, just over two months later than originally planned.

Still, we're now at the heart of the village, and it's much nicer down here, with the company of the resident pine marten..

Milestone: Planning Permission Through

Three months and a few days after submitting our planning application, we finally received the ok (with conditions) today. It should have only taken six weeks, but with additional requirements regarding fire protection (because the barn is so close to the house, and always has been!), easement requirements and poor communication, it seemed to just drag out.

Planned front elevation.

Nevertheless, it's done, and we're officially able to begin the major works. Almost. Our architects need to finalise detailed plans for the works, and we're considering how to best find contractors. We'd prefer to keep as local as possible for all sorts of reasons.

This also means we can reveal a peek at what is planned. Already seen on the first post of this blog, the south, or front facade, will remain more or less as is. We do of course need new windows and doors of a type approved by the protection agency (meaning wood frames, with multiple panes in keeping with the period of the house). We plan on inserting four new dormer windows (Schleppgauben in this case) to bring more light into the second floor (first attic level).

The back of the house, Feb 2011.

The rear has some major changes planned, with the 70s bathroom extension being knocked down (itself subject to conditions, as the roof is asbestos, as are the cladding tiles) and being replaced with a nice new door leading directly from the kitchen into the garden. Above the kitchen, will be a new gable dormer, where the new bathroom should end up. This might be a little tricky, as it potentiallly means shifting a supporting beam to make more headroom, but it's either that or have a face-level oak beam running across the middle of the bathroom. Could be a nice feature!

Several roof windows will be inserted to bring light into the top levels of the attic rooms. Normally such windows are not allowed in protected buildings, but as it is the rear of the house, and we're not planning major remodelling of the interior, our request was accepted (considerably cheaper than building more dormer windows).

Planned rear elevation.

While the front of the house will have wall insulation on the inside, due to it being half-timbered, the rear and the east gable will be insulated externally. The east gable faces the barn, and there aren't so many windows here, with two old windows on the 1st floor having been blocked up in the past (not much of a view looking out on a barn wall). All the windows shown in the elevation below are original, with the red-marked one currently being hidden behind corrugated iron cladding. In fact, there's another one also hidden not shown on this, and that will also be opened up. This elevation also illustrates the change at the rear of the house, with the current extension shown in yellow, and the new dormer gable (not sure if that is the correct technical term) shown in red outline.

Planned east gable.

The west gable is also pretty much as is. Lots of windows here. This will be insulated from the inside. As we are not allowed put the normal German roller shutters on the windows, we plan on eventually having more traditional wooden shutters, at least on this gable. The hinges are still there from the old ones.

Planned west gable.

So, time for a minor celebration, and really getting down to work!

Introducing the First Attic Level

Current layout of 2nd floor

Now it's getting interesting. As a farmhouse, the attic levels were certainly used for practical storage, and there's plenty of evidence for this still. However, on the western side there is one room that was a bedroom, probably originally intended as such, as here the windows are relatively large (compared to the eastern gable) and, like the living room below, there are layers and layers of old paint on the walls. This room will remain pretty much as is, including the extremely low ceilings just about 2m high. The partition walls to the north and south, which are original half-timbered, will be opened up somewhat, to let light from the dormer window to the south, and roof window to the north (or at least we have applied to do so). It seems that most people with such low ceilings want to raise the height to modern standards, but we're happy enough to leave this as is, although it may seem a little claustrophobic. It makes sense, as if the ceiling is raised, it has a domino effect on the level above.

Existing bedroom in attic.

Top of the main stairs to 1st attic level.

The two landings/halls on this level continue to reflect the former division of the house into two halves. The current access up leads to a small landing, and a door to a further rustic staircase up the the next level. We plan on opening this up, again for light reasons, but more or less leaving the layout as is. The former hall on the Eastern side is already opened up. Here, it is clear from the floorboards where the former staircase from the level below originally came up. To the North of this hall, the second set of stairs to the next level up also remains, and on the northern side, the extension housing the current bathroom extends out through a hole in the original roof trusses. Until recently, a smoking cabinet was here(I almost kept it), as evidenced now by sooty stains on the woodwork and walls, and a metal plate on the ceiling to protect it. The plan here is to remove the stairs up to the next level, reintroduce a partition, and site the new bathroom in the northern half, with a decent sized window in a dormer gable construction (if permitted). To maintain access up to the next level on this side, a smaller, perhaps spiral staircase will be inserted in the southern end of the hall.

Former hallway, proposed site for new bathroom.

Door to old grain store.

The remaining two rooms on the eastern side are dark and full of character. Here, nothing has been touched for a long time, and the timbers and clay-based plaster are still exposed (see photo below). Three small windows look out onto the barn, and a fourth one is hidden behind an original partition wall to the south. This, and one of the others, no longer let in light, as the gable was clad in corrugated iron(?) sheets some time ago, leaving only two of the windows functioning. One of the window frames look original, and we'd like to keep that and reuse it elsewhere in the house. The large box (and it is pretty large, as it could not be taken down stairs when clearing out the house) is a flour box, divided into two compartments, one for wheat flour and the other for rye flour. There's still some in it. The smaller room to the north was a grain store. It's paved with clay tiles, just about visible through the door in the picture to the right, though not in a great state of repair. The plan here is to turn this into a bedroom, open the wattle and daub panels between the rooms and, like the bedroom on the other end of the house, remove the partition to the South to allow light in from the proposed dormer window. I would very much like to restore the tiles in some way, and they will probably have to be removed and reset in lime-based cement (I'm still learning the terms!). The major proposed change here is to partially open up the ceiling to form a gallery with the next level up. It's an idea we are applying for, but have yet to fully decide upon.

Introducing the Cellars

Door number 1!

The house is a so-called Kellerhaus, or at least someone mentioned that name once, in the historical sense, meaning the entire ground level is cellar and stalls, hence the four doors on the front.

Door number 1 and door number 4, on the far left and right respectively, still have sandstone posts and lintels and lead to former animal stalls. The leftmost, cellar 1, we'll call it, is still floored with cobbles and was more recently used as an oil tank room. The cobbles are uneven, and between them is a rather unhealthy looking orange residue that reminds me of the Red Weed in War of the Worlds. A stone feeding trough is still here, in fairly good condition, but the plaster between the ceiling beams is coming out a bit. The plan for this cellar is just to use as a store room, or perhaps put the washing machine in there. For now at least.

Cellar 1, behind door number 1

Cellar 4, behind door 4.

The other, on the far right, behind door number 4, was more recently used as a storeroom, and some of the beams have been replaced due to the wood rotting from the dampness from the animals that were kept there in the past (cows and horses, I believe). This cellar has a general damp problem anyway, that I really only noticed this week, after all the snow melt. While the cellars are at ground level at the front of the house, they are under ground level at the back of the house, and being at the bottom of a hill, there's some water pressure coming from behind the house. In general, it's probably not bad for the house, as at least in the past the materials were breathable. However, in cellar 4 (and 3), parts of the floors have been laid over with concrete, so dampness is "exuding" in specific areas. This will have to be addressed to bring back some balance, but this room is critical, as the plan is to use this as a "technical room" for the heating equipment (probably a pellet boiler), and a store for wood pellets. This will have to be kept as dry as possible, so we'll have to think of ways to let water and moisture escape easily.

General plan of cellars, January 2011.

Each of the centre two doors originally led into two small halls each with a staircase up to the living quarters on the first floor, as at one time the house was divided in two (we're not sure was this an original feature, or was it split later, but probably the former, which feels unusual). Behind these small halls are a pair of Gewölbekeller (vaulted cellars, but also fairly small).

The leftmost of these two centre doors is the main door with stairs immediately inside. The vaulted cellar behind it has what may be the original earthen and partially flagged (red sandstone) floor. It's pretty damp, but not wet. The stairwell in the other hall was removed quite some time ago, and the hall and cellar behind it were more recently used as a workshop, while the vaulted cellar, cellar number 3, had a concrete floor put in. I'd like to reinstate a more natural floor, or at least a breathable one, perhaps with lime and earthen tiles on top. This one would make a good beer cellar.

Cellar 3, the best preserved Gewölbekeller.

While we were told the house was built around 1800, only today I found a possible date inscribed in the sandstone lintel over the entrance to cellar 3(inside the house). It seems to say 1840, with what looks like a B to the right of it, but whoever did it was clearly not a professional. It was painted over in the past, and  some things about its positioning make me wonder if it is original, but there's no real reason to doubt it. We'll have to see what proper records we can find.

The date over the entrance to cellar 3.

One of the "problems" with the layout of the cellars is you can only get to cellar 1 and 2 from within the house. To get into cellar 3 and 4, you have to come out so, in the case of cellar 3 at least, it's not the best arrangement. We'll be applying to open up a door between the halls behind door 2 and 3, and reinstating a door between cellar 3 and 4.

The Bauernhaus

Really not sure how to introduce this blog, so here's a brief history. August 2010, after a couple of year faffing about, began house hunting in earnest, and looked at several old buildings in the region around Mosbach. Finally settled on this one, a farmhouse (hence the Bauernhaus), built sometime around 1800, as far as we know, complete with barn (which has been extended possibly twice), pigsty/tobacco drying house (built in 1927) and chicken coop (date unknown). The house itself is in need of serious renovation and modernisation. Think central heating, for one. By December we owned it, and are currently in the last stages of planning what to do before submitting a planning application.

The Bauernhaus, December 2010

The whole complex is listed for protection, so planning and works have to go through due process, and certain things must be done in certain ways, which, having worked in archaeology for a number of years and having an archaeologist for a wife, is just fine.

This blog is intended to record the stages of work, discoveries, joys and, most likely, the frustrations in trying to build a family home.

The Bauernhaus, October 2010

Planned front elevation, January 2011

Coming soon, a look at the inside as it currently stands, which will give a better idea of how much work really has to be done.