Resthof renovation - on a budget

Hello,

I wanted to give a small, ongoing report on our farmstead renovation. Basically a little diary for us – with perhaps some added value for others with similar projects. Our budget: 340 TEUR including everything, plus ongoing salary-paid expenses, for: modernization of the attic, renovation of the ground floor with a total of around 190 m² of living space.

I’ll start best from the beginning:

We searched a long time for a suitable plot for us, there are also one or two entries about this in the forum. Unfortunately, plots are rare even here, the old new development areas are sold out except for the very undesirable plots, the “new” new development area, which should have come on the market 1.5 years ago, is still waiting. The city can’t agree on any developer […]

A great plot we wanted to buy unfortunately went to a competitor. Then our wish list changed additionally: we now wanted two plots next to each other (or one large one that can be divided): one for my parents, one for us. We hoped for some advantages if grandma and grandpa later live next door. Furthermore, we could better assist them in old age. The new development area kept being delayed. My mom’s and sister’s horses fell ill with lead poisoning at the current stable, my mom wanted to bring the horses to her place. Ergo, we were now looking for a large plot in the outskirts, either very close to a horse farm or preferably with permission to build a stable. Ha! If only it were that simple...

Although we actually experienced a fairly humane approach by public law thanks to good contacts with the building authority and mayor through my parents (it may also be that it had nothing to do with the contacts), nothing really fitted. Ultimately, I expanded my search to farmsteads that according to the floorplan were suitable for dividing into two residential units or, best case, were already divided. That also took time. Sometimes we hesitated too long. I come from the real estate industry and found it difficult to commit to a property without a building surveyor (technical due diligence, as we would say) immediately.

Then came our current farmstead, it fit: just under 400 m² living space on paper, in reality I believe a bit less, just under 6,200 m² plot, small stable/shed in the outdoor area, carport for 5 cars, division into two theoretical semi-detached houses possible or partly already done, DSL 200 possible (! – rare in the outskirts here), well-developed road. What was missing and still is is pasture/land for the horses. What didn’t fully meet the wishes is the country road running along the property with a permitted speed of 100 km/h and a crow armada. But – we liked the house at first sight, it had that certain something. My mom immediately agreed. No negotiating on the purchase price, which hurt our wallet, but that way no one else saw the house and the risk of wild bargaining was eliminated. That actually happens here nowadays, especially when wealthy people from the south look for a holiday residence on the Baltic Sea coast.

To Dos:

Subdivision of the floorplan into two semi-detached houses
Clarify who gets the already fully renovated semi-detached house and who still has to renovate
Division of the purchase price, incidental costs
Pasture
Outdoor facilities etc.

TBC

Fun fact: In hindsight we found out that my husband’s hairdresser used to live here with her parents. Our village is small.

So that it’s not just boring text, I’ll interrupt my monologue and post a few pictures of the current status. The small picture is from the exposé and shows our bathroom before the renovation. The other pictures show the bathroom after the renovation. A white base cabinet is still missing to the right of the washbasin, a large lamp, some smaller imperfections still need to be fixed here and there, and our plant wall still lacks some greenery. In relation to the floor plan, the bathroom is en suite; right next to the bathroom entrance there is a tiny storage room for cleaning supplies, towels, etc.

By the way, the ceiling looks very strange in the pictures. It is actually a green with a gray tint, without any yellow hue.
And yes, we already live here and before the photos I had neither the motivation to clean nor to tidy up

Cost: around 20,000 EUR (definitely NOT on a budget...)

Kept:
freestanding bathtub
toilet (new toilet seat/lid)

Changed:
Breakthrough into the walk-in closet, which at 1.40 m was difficult to access and without daylight
Extended the ledge in front of the windows, now you can sit there (if I ever finally move the plants away...)
New tiles
New shower
New washbasin, mirror
New screed
Ceiling renewed (beams painted, drywall lined)

Contracted work:
Tiles and screed
Laying of Aquapanel boards, double, in the shower area (both for warranty in case of damage, especially because of drywall)
New drain and new water supply in the shower area, these were no longer adequately sized for our new showerhead despite being from 2002

Done ourselves:
Demolition work
Dismantling sanitary objects
Breakthrough into the closet
Seat bench in front of the window
Reconstruction of drywall (new OSB, drywall panels, reinforcement of timber frame construction)
Electrical work
Cladding the ceiling with drywall, sanding and painting beams
Sanitary fixtures ordered on the internet

If we hadn’t done so much ourselves, the bathroom in its current size and features would not have been affordable. Even now the amount pains us considerably and is at least 5,000 EUR over the planned budget. The most expensive was the tiler with 13k, but considering the square meters, a price we consider good. I may provide exact details about the renovation later if I find the time.

Fun fact: In the shower, the OSB board, hidden behind tile and drywall, was happily rotting away. Poorly sealed, not using water-resistant drywall boards (and definitely not Aquapanel boards) and then OSB behind them.. well..
Fun fact²: I’m sure the construction in the potential kids’ bathroom (not yet renovated and actually not planned either) was done the same way [...]

Wow, great colors!

So, last post for today, for more we first have to work.

Bedroom: The small picture from the exposé (before) and the new picture next to it after the "modernization."
We didn’t do much and what we did, we probably made harder for ourselves than it had to be. There are still some finishing touches to be done, and a lot of furniture and decoration is still missing. But since I really like the interior style of Paulina Arcklin, that will take a while, "vintage" is not so easy to find – and then also in my price range. The furniture you see are our old ones. The bed frame should be replaced eventually, and I’d like to repaint the fronts of the wardrobe. (But I must not tell my husband that, for him "They are cream and not white. That doesn’t fit" is unfortunately not an argument.)

The hallway including the stairs, as is clearly visible, is not finished yet. We need a stair covering first, then the new door will be installed. I will write something separately about the hallway. Here, among other things, the height difference of about 35 cm after a new breakthrough had to be overcome with a low ceiling at the same time.

And yes, again not cleaned up. Shame on me.

In the context of the floor plan: Separate sleeping area with en suite bathroom, a small storage room next to the bathroom, a large storage room adjacent (door next to the wardrobe). Access to the hallway on the upper floor via a small landing staircase.

Cost: around 2.0 THOUSAND EUR. Somewhat less than planned in the budget.

Retained:
Left the shell construction as is

Changed:
Extended the wall behind the bed (otherwise no nightstand would have fit there)
Partially renewed the electrics
Installed a new door
Painted with clay paint
Renewed the ceiling (painted beams, lined with drywall)
Replaced the floor

Previously there was parquet, quite high quality even, but it absolutely did not fit my style concept, neither in shape nor color. So out with that stuff. Yes, I admit I am a bit strange here. Otherwise, we might have sanded, painted, and then sealed it again. Unfortunately, we don’t know what the stuff was glued with, but credit to the builder, he really went all out. And how. Neither with a carpet stripper nor with a crowbar could we get the better of the parquet. In painstaking detailed work, we then divided the parquet into very small sections with a circular saw and then smashed it out with a chisel and hammer. Real manual labor then. I am sure I spent more than 20 hours on removing the parquet. Now we have white laminate. Well.

Then the thing with the clay paint on the ceiling. There is indirect lighting directed toward the ceiling/beam layer – and no matter how often we painted it, despite careful priming, it never covered 100% evenly. When the indirect lighting is off, it all looks wonderful, with.. well.. many say they wouldn’t notice it. But we also know where to look.. but after the 5th coat of paint we were fed up. We didn’t want any more advice. We just wanted to stop.
That is certainly a point where others would show more enthusiasm than we did.

The sanding work also dragged on here, because I wanted these beams – matching the rest – to look "vintage" as well. We used the angle grinder to work on the straight edges and sanded off all the oil so that we could stain them. This is also where the most catching up is needed: remove white paint that splattered and we overlooked, touch up small spots with stain, and silicone white where the stain ran in. In hindsight, I would leave it stained and just apply a dark glaze; the visual difference is not that dramatic and it saves a lot of sanding work.

: Thank you very much. The "younger" generation is usually quite enthusiastic. For the "older" ones it is often too dark for a bathroom. I like the cave feeling. Matching that, rainforest sounds when you come in.

Did the before picture of the bedroom get lost ?

The plant wall in the bathroom... can you describe it a bit when you have the chance?

Indeed, the image seems to have been lost. I have uploaded it again attached.

The construction of the plant wall was done as follows:

OSB board, additionally boarded on the sides with a strip of OSB each (the same listed foil is clamped in between here), – waterproof foil – felt pockets

Everything glued. In a forum, we were recommended UHU all-purpose glue, waterproof. However, we didn’t like that very much, so we also used waterproof silicone. Now I am sure that the whole thing will not come loose on me eventually. Glued instead of screwed due to the OSB board behind, serving as the carrier board. We were afraid that using screws, despite sealing the drill holes with silicone, would allow water to penetrate.

At the bottom, we have a normal flower pot as a catch basin. It is attached to the OSB board with appropriate screws/hex nuts and serves more for appearance. The foil overlaps the attachment in a separate plastic flower pot. This catches the excess flower water. The construction fits so exactly with the wooden panel above it that the construction was basically already stable by itself. For safety, however, we used two brackets for fastening. We could have drilled into the tiles, but we wanted to avoid that.

The watering is automatic via a Gardena irrigation system with a timer. The pump is in the plastic catch basin, where a certain amount of water remains at the bottom for automatic watering. Currently, watering takes place once a day for 6 minutes. 3 minutes was not enough, as one irrigation hose is responsible for two rows of pockets and the lower one was not sufficiently watered. I exchanged the end drippers for self-cleaning drippers, hoping that these will calcify as little as possible over a long period. The hoses are still arranged somewhat provisionally for now. We want to wait first to see if the plants manage to establish properly.

Growth – everything I liked I tried to make sure that the plants like to be moist and dark. Although the latter was only moderately successful: I am sure the Monstera does not find this very amusing. Therefore, we will probably install a plant lamp. It remains to be seen if the plants will cope long-term with daily watering for 6 minutes and if the substrate will be sufficient. The size of the pockets is unfortunately not particularly generous. The plants have grown quite differently within one month. Depending on the growth type of the plant, we have kept the adjacent pockets free so that they do not overgrow each other in the long term.

If anyone has ideas for filling the empty pockets, feel free to let me know. I am still looking for dark green little plants.


BTW: You can also buy something like this for around 1 - 1.5 thousand EUR if, for example, you are not in the mood for the work. Without automatic watering, even much cheaper. But since we have to save wherever we can, we dared to do the DIY project for about 200 EUR in material costs (excluding plants).