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Er-leben im Herzen Rumäniens
When I took over my old farmhouse in 2016, whose foundation walls date back to 1888, I faced a massive structural task. An old house is a legacy of craftsmanship. Unfortunately, previous owners over the past decades didn’t always make the best decisions for the old masonry. Continue reading “Repointing Rubble Stone Masonry with Lime Mortar”
Sometimes it’s the everyday coincidences that give the decisive push for a new building project. During a bike ride through the neighborhood, Elisabeth recently noticed a small doll wardrobe that had been left outside a garden gate to be given away. The good piece was made of solid spruce wood and was completely untreated. Continue reading “Building a DIY Doll Bed”
When you renovate an old building, you know this moment: You enter a room on the ground floor that hasn’t been properly heated or ventilated for years. It smells earthy, slightly musty, and the cold literally creeps up your legs from below. During my restoration project, an old farmhouse from 1888 in Transylvania, I faced exactly this fundamental problem. Continue reading “Building Protection: Stopping Rising Damp in Old Buildings and Restoring Historic Floors”
When I bought my old farmhouse from 1888 in Romania in 2016, I knew there would be a lot of work ahead of me. But only when I started knocking the layers of plaster off the walls did the true structural challenge of this project reveal itself. Beneath the crumbling plaster emerged a fascinating, yet building-physics-wise highly demanding structure: a solid mixed masonry consisting of hard, cool Saxon rubble stones and relatively soft, extremely absorbent field-fired bricks. Continue reading “Applying Lime Plaster to Mixed Masonry”
When the fine mist of the morning slowly rises from the valleys and the cool light of dawn bathes the rolling hills of Transylvania in a pale blue, one experiences the true soul of this region. It is a silence broken only by the distant barking of a dog or the monotonous clattering of a horse-drawn cart making its way over the uneven village roads. Continue reading “Traveling in Romania: The Architectural Heritage of the Fortified Churches in the Hârtibaciu Valley”
Anyone who has ever opened the massive, handcrafted softwood door of an old Saxon farmhouse knows the feeling. The heavy weight, the deep sound of the falling latch, and the inimitable patina of over a hundred years tell stories that no modern industrial door leaf could ever convey. When restoring historical buildings, I realize time and again: these doors are not just functional elements; they are the soul of the house. They were built by craftsmen who understood their trade from the ground up. Continue reading “Shaping and Restoring a Warped Historic Wooden Door”
Anyone who owns a large property knows the constant challenge: nature does not wait, it grows. If you are not permanently on site to do your rounds with a classic lawnmower every week, the grass quickly shoots up. It dries out in the summer, forms a dense, resilient mat, and often weeds, small woody shoots, and thick undergrowth mix in. This was exactly the task I faced on our roughly 1000 square meter property in Cincu, our second home in Romania. Continue reading “Stihl FS 89 Experience: The Perfect Brushcutter for Property Maintenance”
In the villages of Transylvania, fruits were the only source of vitamins during the winter. Back then, fruit was vital for survival. Each type had a different purpose – some were good for eating, others were used for jam, and still others were candied or used to produce schnapps or wine. Continue reading “Old Fruit Varieties in Transylvania: Preserving Tradition”
Imagine standing in a room that has survived almost unchanged for well over a hundred years. The air smells of fine dust, dry wood, and the history of generations. That is exactly how I felt when I took over my house from 1888 and grasped the full dimensions of the ground floor for the first time. Continue reading “Supporting Ceiling Beams in an Old Building: How to Safely Prop Up a Wooden Beam Ceiling”
When I was renovating my Transylvanian farm, it quickly became clear to me that I didn’t want to leave the property’s old water reserves unused. Continue reading “Using Well Water Sensibly: My Domestic Waterworks in the Transylvanian Farm”