Over the last year Doro’s mother was looking for a house to invest her money in before the banks ultimately go bankrupt. We were involved in the search because Doro will be the rightful heir to the throne house and we wanted to have a house that is not janz weit draußen, like Falkensee or Spandau.
We (as in mostly Doro and her mother) visited a few houses over the time, ready to step in when one looked promising. Most of them were rather disappointing, a very special one, that I also saw in person, was cornered in a triangle between two main streets and the S-Bahn in the backyard, while planes to Tegel flew directly over it. I guess the basement would have been rather quiet.
End of 2014 we stumbled across a small doppelhaushälfte that was rather run down, but cheap and relatively close to the centre of town. A car wouldn’t be absolutely necessary to get around, the house faces South and has a large garden. We entered the bidding competition (the previous owner died with no heir to his own so the city took care of business) and won ultimately. Somewhere around December we were suddenly owners of a house.
Bidding was only part of the business, obviously. Now banks had to be convinced to give money, renovation plans had to be made, decision were made en masse.
The last few weekends and the surely the upcoming ones as well are marked by a lot of work that has to be put in the house. Everything apart from the walls has to be replaced, starting with windows and electrical lines. We already worked ourselves through half of the building tearing down wallpapers and preparing the ground for the workers to jump in. I spent more time talking about heating than I am comfortable with. I am suddenly old. Having a house and shit. Would never have guessed that.
If you want to keep a curious look on the works that are done, have a look at our blog about the house: maison.schwartzmann.de. We will update the blog with any larger news about the whole renovation process.