Antje Grieß is a master carpenter, 42 years old and the happy homeowner of what is probably the oldest house in Siebeldingen in the Palatinate: the old village school from the 18th century.
Six years ago, she bought it cheaply and even for the renovation she got by with material costs totalling 35,000 euros. Of course, that was only because she was able to renovate almost everything on her own during the six years of construction. Before, she and her son had always lived in rented accommodation, leaving each flat better than it was before. This encouraged her to buy her own property, which she also wants to use as a retirement home.
The master carpenter took the renovation into her own hands and first experienced a rollercoaster ride of emotions. She had expected many things, but not broken load-bearing beams. The half-timbered house from 1780 was in a dilapidated condition and first had to be gutted. Together with a colleague, she removed 65 tonnes of rubble before she could start the renovation. As a single mother of a then eleven-year-old son and working full-time as a carpenter, this was a real challenge.
Little by little, she also got to grips with the history of the house. The cellar on which the house stands was built as early as 1525 and everywhere in the house she found relics from previous times that have found their place in the house again after the renovation. Antje's main concern was to do justice to the historical building style in order to preserve the old charm of the house.
Antje carefully planned each of the rooms, which are spread over 135 square metres in the old village school, and tailored them to her needs. An open kitchen and a spacious living ambience were important to her.
Since she only had a very small budget, she also had to do the furniture herself. She built much of the furniture in the kitchen, bedroom and living room herself. Among other things, she made stylish tabletops out of wooden slats, and she gave discarded furniture from a doctor's practice a functional, new wooden interior. She also rescued the old chairs of the village school from the bulky waste, painted them, varnished them and covered the seats with fabric.
Antje has put a lot of emphasis on giving new meaning to the old found objects she found during the renovation or on reusing old building materials from the house, for example by transforming them into furniture. For example, the old ceiling of the bathroom became a washstand and a shelf in the current guest toilet. She made a chic dining table for the courtyard out of the old bathroom wall. The carpenter simply cut the wood of the half-timbered wall into slats and joined them together to form a tabletop.
She also followed the "out-of-date-make-new" principle for the kitchen appliances and lamps. Her grandfather's old coffee grinder works perfectly again when rewired. Repairing instead of throwing away - that also applied to the old bread slicer, where only the knives needed to be re-sharpened. The old appliances and machines have also given Antje's kitchen a retro style. The lamp above the dining table may look like a designer lamp, but it cost just twenty euros: Antje simply spruced up a kitchen under-cabinet light with oak and linoleum and then added textile cables.
With a lot of imagination, creativity and above all craftsmanship, she brought the house to new life in small steps. The result is impressive, and for this she was also awarded a special prize by the Landesbausparkasse in the nationwide competition "The Golden House" in 2021.
A film by Catherine v. Westernhagen, Bettina Lichtenauer (camera), Arrien Peters (sound) and Roland Rossner (editing).
00:00 Old village school
01:35 Kitchen
02:22 Dining Room
03:14 Living room
04:35 Guest WC
05:14 2nd floor
06:40 Guest room
07:18 Bedroom
08:03 Bathroom
08:52 Youth room
09:25 Yard & conservatory
On the KZfaq channel of SWR Room Tour, people open the door to their unusual homes. On a very personal tour, they tell details about finishing, furnishing and architecture and talk about their philosophy of life.
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