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The Diary of Our House And Barn Projects

February, 2005

February 11

Overall, I suppose February was an up and down month, but it started out OK. I was in Southern Virginia, at a business meeting in Lynchburg. On the way back to the Washington airport, I stopped at the home of President Madison. I was looking for remodel ideas for an 18th Century home. You can visit the diary I wrote. (Use "back" to return to this page.)

February 19

We knew we'd need professional help evaluating our potential purchase, so we were on the lookout for an architect who knew about restoration of local old homes. On an earlier visit, in the Pommersfelden bakery, Marianne had found a brochure advertising a small architect bureau, specializing in Feng Shwei and old Bavarian homes. It's a connected world. Marianne called the number and left a message on the answering machine to the effect of "if you can understand this message in English, and are interested in dealing with us, please call".

Axel Treuner did call, in English. He arranged to meet Marianne at his office (& home) in Bamberg. His enthusiasm was infectious, even if it ran ahead of his English from time to time, so we contracted with Axel to do a cost estimate for reconstruction of Mr. Werner's house.

A couple weeks later, we went to the house with Axel, Mr. Werner, and his son Stefan, who was forced into translator duty.

The entrance was still run-down charming.

From the outside, things still looked rough, but one man's rough is another's "quaint". Personally, I liked the water pump for the cows.

Upstairs, the house looked pretty sound actually.

One bedroom had newspapers scattered about, all from the mid- to late-1950's! It's been awhile since this place was fully occupied!