After living for 30 years in a national monument that was first thoroughly restored, it was time for a new challenge: a self-designed, sustainable wooden house. Guess what we fell in love with after years of preparations and searching? Another national monument… We restored it completely and made it sustainable.
Just as neglected as the previous house, although a house from 1880 is less sturdily built than a canal house from 1620. The interior had already been completely demolished in 1981 and replaced with a lot of wood panelling. Historical research of the building and some old photos revealed the original position of the staircase, the central hallway, en-suite rooms, and the position of the toilets. Originally, there was no bathroom.
With the help of a Polish carpentry workshop that still works entirely with pre-war machines, a 19th-century staircase was reconstructed. An Italian marble quarry was able to supply the large floor slabs, and a French supplier helped with extra-long knot-free oak planks for the wood panelling above the wainscoting. All other missing details were filled in in a contemporary way.
Additionally, the house was completely made sustainable with a geothermal heat pump with two boreholes down to 140 meters deep, vacuum insulation in the narrow cavities, and vacuum glass in the old window frames. Exceptional for a national monument, this house was entirely made airtight with RC values between 5 and 7, in consultation with DGMR building physics advisors. Special attention was given to the beam supports in the single-brick exterior walls. All floors and the wall plate were entirely detached from the exterior wall, ensuring proper airtightness here as well. This also applies to the impressive attic with ‘Stiffened Improved Dutch Truss with Wall Style’. It lies entirely on the warm side of the airtight construction without any interruptions.
The garden is double-wide and partly lies behind the adjacent staff houses (sold in the 1950s) of this ‘Transverse House with Gable Roof’. Here the completely original horse stable with hayloft under a roof with Schenkel trusses (Philibert truss) was still present. It has been converted into a garden house with two bedrooms for guests.
