Even though we have been living here for a few weeks now, and have been working on the farm since August, it still hits us every once in a while: “Hey, this is our farm.” This weekend it has been particularly often that we are standing around and once again we remember that we live here and actually own this place.
Things have been moving along incredibly fast lately, even with a few delays here and there. But looking back on the last few months we have really come a long way. We still get overwhelmed sometimes by all the work which needs to be done, but we love it here and can’t wait until the spring comes so we can get a move on.
I know exactly what you’re writing about, Tiffany! My feelings are quite the same, especially the day we signed the contract was really overwhelming. And sometimes I still can’t believe that I signed that piece of paper 🙂
There’s one thing I wanted to ask you: Is your house “unter Denkmalschutz”? And if it is, how did you deal with it concerning the renovation of the house? Are you allowed to make all the changes you’d like?
Hi Anna, yes our farm is “unter Denkmalschutz”. We are quite lucky in that regard because our real estate agent has very good contacts with the Denkmalschutzamt. The “big boss” of the Hessen Denkmalschutz came with us to the farm before we signed the contract. We submited the plans of exactly what we wanted to do in writing, and had written approval within a few days. So far so good I guess…. 😉
They do very explicitly ask that you contact them before doing anything, but we found that they are a good source of know-how also. Plus there is quite a few things they don’t allow you to do. Our neighbors where “restoring”-read “destroying” their Fachwerk and the Denkmalschutz shut them down.
Oops, I seem to have missed out on your answer… Now that’s a really interesting information and you’re quite lucky everything went so smoothly. I’m optimistic though that we won’t have any serious problems either. We actually wanted to put solar cells on the roof of one of the outbuildings – and although it is not to be seen from the street, we are not allowed to do that… But I agree with you, the folks at the Denkmalschutzamt know a lot about the old structures and I’m looking forward to a longer chat with them. By the way, our whole town (Hornburg) is “unter Denkmalschutz” 🙂