Another busy weekend

 Last Friday I found myself on the train to Winnekendonk once more, for a weekend of birthday BBQ and building work. So after a quick trip to Essen to teach the last course of that week, and my own driving lesson, here I am, ready to get started.
From the outside, the house looks great already: cosy, inviting, sunset-lit.

 Round the corner, down the path.

 Towards the gate my boyfriend built last week. Now we don't have to go aaaall the way round the house to visit his parents!

And there it is! The front door, looking lovely. But what awaits us inside?
Well...

 This!
The kitchen.

 My boyfriend's been busy over the last two weeks, getting rid of all the old plaster and the dividing walls.

 Here he is, the man himself! :)

 Taking away that wall and getting rid of this godawful old wallpaper has already made such a difference. The whole room feels bigger, airier and somewhat brighter.
Now that the plaster has been removed, we can start thinking about the electrics and plumbing, where we want sockets and light switches and where the water pipes have to go. Being the slightly geeky people that we are we have of course already drawn up a plan of all the sockets and switches we want, especially in the kitchen! No more extension cords EVER, if I have any say in the matter!

 Work! So much work! Aaargh...

 Our future bathroom is now mostly empty.

 Time for a well-earned rest!

 Granny's bed's gone now as well, which just leaves the old wardrobe. After taking that out, we discovered, tucked away in the corner, behind a paper-thin MDF wall...

 ...a secret doorway! Sadly, no family treasure and/or walled-in, dead bodies to be found. :(

 But still, I am more and more convinced that we are moving into The Burrow! It's definitely held up by magic, rooms have been added and taken away, and the layout is extremely interesting.

 What looked like an ordinary wall revealed a long-forgotten passage to the kitchen. Way back, when building regulations were still unheard of, people just added doors and entire rooms to buildings as and when needed. The ceiling height changes from room to room, too.

 Ta-daa, a door!

 Removing old wallpaper, a task everybody just loves!

 Once that was done, all that was left to be done in that room for that day was removing the old carpet. We found slightly damp floorboards, resting on a layer of ashes, stamped down dirt and gravel/broken bits of plaster. No stone floor! :)

And that was it! Another busy weekend gone. The next steps include completely emptying the future bedroom and starting on the wiring and plumbing in the kitchen.Then the kitchen window and the front door, thermal insulation, the ceiling and finally, plastering the walls so that we can paint them and assemble the kitchen. Then we could, technically move in! :D Ok, we would have to knock down the wall between kitchen and living room first, but still. As soon as we have a working kitchen, we could move in.