Where hay used to be stored up to the roof, Sven has realized his childhood dream and built a dream apartment for himself and his wife Katrin: a modern and spacious loft. As a master roofer, he was determined to preserve the roof truss of the old barn with its imposing beams and integrate it into the building.
Sven grew up in the house. He therefore has many memories of the hayloft. As a child, he played tag there and smoked his first cigarettes. For a long time, he had wanted to convert the hayloft into his home. First, he had to convince his wife Katrin, who was not very enthusiastic about the idea at first. But in 2014 they took the plunge and bought the building from Sven's father. Together with many friends, they rebuilt everything according to their wishes. This conversion took around 1.5 years. The basic idea: as open and bright as possible.
Planning was a big challenge at first: Where do we put walls? How many levels do we want? They had to agree on all these questions. Sven and Katrin's loft is eight meters high. The living and dining area alone covers 240 square meters. Since Sven is a craftsman himself and comes from a roofing family, he and his friends were able to do almost everything themselves: laying electricity and water connections, putting up walls, painting. That saved costs. He only left the tiling to a professional. In total, they invested around 200,000 euros in the conversion.
Sven is particularly proud of the visible beams of the old roof truss. As a master roofer, he knows how much strength and sweat go into the construction. That's why it made him happy to be able to preserve the old beams and masonry. The biggest challenge was to install the insulation and plasterboard at a height of eight meters on the ceiling. Time and again, Sven also had to adjust his plans. But because he is a tinkerer who likes to find solutions, he didn't find the plan changes a problem.
One thing was particularly important to Sven during the remodeling: he wanted to be able to see from all corners that the building was an old barn. That's why Katrin and he installed a large window in the bathroom on the upper level. This allows them to look into the large living space with its old beams - even when they are in the bathtub.
From the outside, the substance is still unchanged. The exterior façade was not plastered, but only boarded up with wood. "We left the building shell as it is and only remodeled the inside. You don't have to redo anything that's still good," says Sven. On the roof they have a photovoltaic system and heating is provided by district heating from the neighbor. "Our house is completely CO² neutral."
The house is Sven's center of life: "I have a relationship with the house. I could never sell it in my life, it would kill me. Whenever things go badly and I come home, I know that this is what I work my ass off for every day.
A film by A film by Marina Schulz (editing), Enno Endlicher, Lukas Steinki (camera), Jonathan Müller (sound) and Daniela Schramm Moura (editing). Production: EIKON Media GmbH, on behalf of SWR.
00:00 Old hayloft becomes dream loft
02:00 Old beams
03:17 Dining room
04:49 Kitchen
05:54 Heating room
06:32 Old part
07:48 Gallery
09:05 Dressing room
09:42 Bedroom
10:40 Bathroom
11:20 Wardrobe
11:40 Garden