[Tojo]

After seeing the pictures of Andre's house & that of Manni's here's mine.

It's not stunning but it's typical of houses built at the end of the 1920's in Germany. Sadly it's missing it's shutters but you can see the brackets where they should be.... To have new ones made would cost too much unfortunately.

At he back of the house the original owners built a granny flat with a patio on top. That was in 1965. At the same time the house was attached to the town sewerage system - up until then they still used cesspits & until only 2 years ago the waste from the granny flat still went into a cesspit. We had the back wall where the door to the patio was broken through & had a sun-lounge put in as the room there had no window & was very dark. Now it's much lighter. The balcony has the original ironwork but we had it sandblasted & zinked so that it can't rust. The balcony door actually goes from the bathroom so you can have a shower & then dry yourself on the balcony if you like I wouldn't want to shock the neighbours though

[Smurfysmurf]

That is a very nice house, Tojo

It's nice to see the house after we were able to see the view from the house earlier this month

[Ritter_Schlumpfenherz]

Awwww that's a beautiful house, Tojo.

[André]

Very nice Tojo,

I realy like the end of the roofs foot where it kind of " goes round the corners". There are a lot of houses like this from the 20s and 30s in Sweden too.

/André

[Tojo]

I love the style of the roof as well although having sloping roofs does make it awkward to place furniture in the rooms upstairs....

What sold the house to us was the entrance. The estate agent opened the front door & we saw the floor tiles. I fell in love with the house there & then.

Unfortunately at the front of the house we have a busy main road (B3) & behind the house we have a busy rail line (Main-Weser route).

It's a shame we can't beam the house somewhere else

[André]

It is a shame that it is in such a "busy traffic" place.

The agents use to say that the place is whats sets the price.

You can change everything on the the house but it is still in the same place, right.


/André

[Tojo]

That is totally true André.

At the time we looked for houses the house prices were very high (now they're even higher!!) & this house was good value due to its location. We actually only paid the value of the land which the house is on (1100 sq.m) so we got the house for nothing if you think like that

The house had no heating in it & hadn't been lived in for 5 years. All the electrics had to be replaced too as the cables were the original ones. Luckily my father-in-law did a lot of work for us but for the heating we had to get a company in.

We've since had the house painted & the driveway done new. Originally there were steps in it & the steps to the front door were too wide to get a car past so you couldn't park a car in the garage. Now we can use the garage & there's plenty of space to park more cars when we have guests. The gate at the front opens at the press of a button & the design in it is taken from the railings at a railway station built around 1910 which isn't far from us. I liked the design so our gate has it, the banisters at the front door have it & also the small gate on our terrace.

[André]

This was my summerproject 2008.



I built a house for our plants and flowers. I can´t wait until the spring comes when we can start growing everthing. My daughter wants grapes.

Here we can drink wine and beer.

I have finished it since this picture with doors and painting, etc.

I will try to put some smurfs in there aswell.

/André

[Tojo]

Now I know who to invite when I want one of those in the garden

I love that building

We would like to arange our garden differently but we don't know where the end of our garden is. The house was originally on 2100 sq.m of land but the asking price was too high so nobody bought it. They later sold it with 1100 sq.m & the owners kept 1000 sq. m in the hope that they can sell it later. There aren't any border stones though & it would cost quite a lot of money to have the land measured.

If we knew where the garden ended we could put up a fence & then have a nice pavilion like yours & a glass house too.......

Also there is talk that the railway might put in 2 more tracks so we may end up losing some of our garden. We're hoping that perhaps the land might be measured then & that we wouldn't have to pay for it....

[André]

It is a lot of discussions in my town aswell about the railway. They are going to move the railwaystation to another place in town because the problem with space for new tracks and so on.

Then there are people who have to move, or get there gardens a lot smaller because of the new location of the station.

It is a shame but I don´t think you can do so much??

If they want to add 2 more tracks then you have nothing to say about that, or???

/André

[Tojo]

No, there will be nothing we can do about it.

All we can do is hope that the railway builds a wall between the tracks & our house to protect us from the noise & to hope that they either compensate us with money for the land we'd lose or to give us some other land.

They say that you go deaf when you get older so by the time they build the tracks maybe we won't hear the trains any more

[bwalters]

I don't know how old you are Tojo but don't believe that about going deaf. I think it depends on the amount of noise you are subjected to in your life, or job. I was at a chruch yesterday and I was talking to the pastor. All of the sudden I said is someone at the door. He said he didn't think so it was open. I asked if there was a back door. He said yes and walked to a window to look out. Sure enough there was a van back there. He walked down the stairs and then I could hear him talking to a lady. He came back up and said she had moved a table by pulling it and it had made a noise like knocking. He said he didn't hear anything. I have about 4 years to hit 60.

[Smurfysmurf]

Wouldn't they have to pay for the land if worst comes to worse, Tojo?

There is talk about widening the highway in front of my property. If so, it means I lose quite a substantial part of my property, but they actually would have to pay me for it. It's not something I'd be looking forward to (who wants a four lance highway in their front-yard?) but the money would probably help me to built a decent house.

[André]

We still don´t know if it was your hearing that was good or the pastor´s hearing that was bad.

I agree with you Bill. You can hear very well when you get older.

But do you know there are 2 parts of the body that never stops growing. The ears and the nose. Maybe there is a reason for that.

So sooner or later all of us will not hear as good as when we were young, but I let´s hope we hear good enough.

And the upside is that there are alot of thing we don´t wanna hear anyway.

/André

[eggie smurf]

If so, it means I lose quite a substantial part of my property, but they actually would have to pay me for it.

Not necessarily, Mo...they would use eminent domain and either take it or offer you way undervalue for it. We have had land in front of our office taken twice and never got a penny for it because of this reason.

[Tojo]

I think they'd give us money for the land. I hope more than the actual value of it though as our quality of living would drop quite considerably. As I mentioned above, I would also want a sound-insulation wall put up!!

We have heard nothing officially yet, only what has been written in the newspapers. They want to start in 2012 & have it finished by 2016.

That about the hearing was meant as a joke Even if you couldn't hear the trains you'd still be able to feel them though. When goods trains go by the house vibrates which is wierd when you're in bed as that shakes too.
It gives a whole new meaning to the phrase, "did the earth move for you darling?"