We are tearing down a 90-year-old house - what can be preserved?

Maybe you can find a place for a (small) old window in an interior wall.

A friend has a parent area with a mini-hallway and had an old wooden window installed in the wall between the hallway and the built-in bathtub (it may be hard to imagine, but it looks good)

Wow, if there are freestanding bathtubs, then either take them out into the garden and plant around them nicely or set them up as a small mini pond. Or cut them up and use them as a sofa somewhere!

Good morning

The old front door can still be perfectly used as an interior door for the living room or similar.

Olli

A ninety-year-old house was built with stones of a format no longer in use today. In addition, they are probably still solid, so they are no longer structurally suitable for walls according to today's insulation standards; decorative, yes, but even there the different format causes complications. They are therefore more suitable for horticultural uses than for the house again.

Old wood is welcomed and in demand in the renovation of old buildings. But if you don’t have the right connections, you can still search a long time for buyers.

In general, I find it nice on the one hand when someone wants to do demolition not by smashing things up, but in a way that preserves materials. And secondly, you partly have to do that, since mixed (especially contaminated) construction waste is expensive to dispose of. But that is also labor-intensive, meaning if you don’t do it yourself, it is costly in terms of labor.

I would (following the motto of ten commandments / three treasures / what would I take to an island) make a strict selection of appealing things, deliberately preserving and expanding only these, and let the rest follow the path of all earthly things. Unless you have a lot of time and money.

Depending on (also structural) quality of the substance, what I would consider is: to what extent it might be economical to leave the old basement under the slab of the new house, possibly with relocation of its exit. However, the architect must really love his job for that.

One could also approach it from a different angle. Sometimes it is important to capture the spirit of a thing, not necessarily the material experience.

That means, what exactly was so beautiful about Grandma’s little house? How was it created? What carries this impression?

Perhaps it helps to extract the important part of a thing, to find a kind of "essence" for it. One could also take an idea along; it does not have to be an object. Can the "good feeling" perhaps be translated into a contemporary visual language?

For the purpose of professional education, I undertook various trips to Pompeii. On my first visits, I stuck to wall paintings and details. I almost strained my eyes out. Gradually, I began to think that perhaps it is not so much about that. I went through with more enjoyment and relaxedly absorbed only the atmosphere. The second method brought the results forward better than the first.

I wish you much success and much joy in discovering.