15.01.2021
My house was built in 1857. It is a big farm house which was at some point split into 2 units, so I live in the semi detached property. It is still fairly spacious – 180 sq meters or almost 2000 sq feet. I have half an acre of land and three outbuildings. I bought it 18 months ago when I moved to Germany. I found it on the internet site of the local estate agents and it was the second house I saw. As I wrote previously, it’s proximity to the lake sold it to me. I imagined rowing on the lake and my dogs swimming in it. I didn’t do much rowing yet, but my dogs are keen swimmers and use it a lot, especially in hot weather. I also saw B&B potential in it, unfortunately Covid19 pandemic stretched my plans in time, but I will get there eventually. There are a few houses in the village that offer holiday rentals already, but when I saw the house initially I didn’t know that.
When I moved in and saw everything clearly, I was terrified. There was a huge mold problem, which I didn’t see before and the amount of improvements the house needed was enormous. I was scared of the smell of dampness, so slept in the downstairs bathroom on a borrowed camp bed, as far from mold and other unsavoury growths on walls as possible for about a month. After having the very expensive damp treatment I moved upstairs, to the only one done up room under eaves. The previous owners left me two beds and other dusty unmentionables which made my skin crawl, so I still slept on my camp bed, together with Linus. He is only a small terrier mix but the single camp bed was a tough call for the two of us. Still, I soldiered on. I threw away mattresses and tons of smelly rubbish in a hired skip which I paid a small fortune for, because I didn’t realise that in Germany I had to split whatever I discarded, in line with the local recycling guidelines. As it was done for me by the owner of the skip, hence the price.
To top it off, I didn’t know anyone who could help me with renovations. I normally do lighter jobs around the house myself, but this was a very big project for only one person. I finally found a builder who was available from November. I moved here in August, so there was a long wait in front of me. I then drove around the area, organising every day basics or just revisiting the area and liked it more and more. It was still summer/ early autumn and it was amazing to witness the perfect beauty around me. Even those evil rape/canola plants fields with bright yellow flowers going on and on for kilometers looked amazing. After a month or so I bought myself a new mattress for the self made bed frame left by the ex-owner, and my life started to make sense. I would wake up every morning with the sun flowing through three velux windows in the sloped ceiling and thanked the universe, higher power or luck for being here. Despite of my early misgivings and worries, I landed where I should be, I thought.
Lakehaus Lebehn 