#C1 Tabula rasa

We did it. Our first construction/renovation started. Spoiler alert: we did three of them 😉 We learned in every iteration a little bit more to finally get the perfect solution for us for the time being.

Focus and destroy!!!!!!!!! Yeah!!

What first?…the carpet. The “shiny”, grey carpet everywhere… This challenge was very intensive. It was glued so hard that we lost a lot of sweat 😉 gym? Who needs one when you are renovating?

And now? Ok! I see: Let us remove the heater wall, the window bench, the stair steps, and the staircase-border.

STOOOOOPPPPPPPP… What kind of material is that? It’s too heavy for wood, to light for metal or concrete. What is it? oh NO. It is ASBESTOS…

Since the 1930s asbestos (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asbestos) was one of the most used materials to build everything. It has a lot of advantageous characteristics (fire-resistant, easy to work with, robust, etc.) but, It has one big disadvantage. If you breath it in, it can cause lung-cancer. This was the reason why it was prohibited in 1993.

If you want to remove it, you have to fulfill a lot of requirements: isolate the room, handle it with breathing-masks, and dispose it carefully in the right way at special containers at the BSR (German waste company). It is very expensive! In Germany, you have to pay per kg, and asbestos is very heavy. We ordered a company to get rid all the asbestos, according to the german laws and standards.

We replaced everything with wood or dry walls. Markus handcrafted the new heater protection, installed the new stairs and extended the staircase seamlessly to the upper floor. Afterwards we gave it a translucent layer-pointing to create a 3D effect and get the impression as if it was one big wall.

The old electrical installation was removed and newly installed by a company that had a lot of challenges with the old electric wires.

The electrical installation was very funny. All the plug sockets and power lines were on the wall inside cable conduits. The advantage is that you can put very easily one more. The disadvantage is that they occupy a lot of space, you have to clean up often and I don´t like it.

The pre-owner renovated the kitchen in the 70ties. And that was the design. „Nice“ brown flagging, brown kitchen stove. For more click here #C2.