200-year-old wooden house, perfectly restored

This vacation home is located in the Swiss Alps, and reading its story, I greatly regretted that the owners didn't take (or publish) photos of the house before it was renovated. The house, more than 200 years old, looks amazing, but it took a lot of work and owners determined to keep everything old and authentic.

The house, in a village of less than 500 people - Brienzwiler - in the Bernese Oberland, was discovered by two young men from Zurich, eager to leave the hustle and bustle of the city on weekends and vacations for the peace and quiet of a village in the Alps, where even now the main occupations are picking plums and making jam and brandy, or baking bread once a week in the communal village oven.

I'm sorry there are no photos from before the renovation because the owners say that all the walls were covered with synthetic panels smoked by years of coal heating, panels that divided the house into small, dark rooms, and that access to the house was by climbing 2-3 steps and entering first into ... the bathroom. However, beyond all this, they were able to see the true value of the house and did not miss the opportunity to buy it.

They believed in their project even though no one guaranteed at the beginning that they would be able to preserve the original structure. However, after 7 months of work with architects, building experts and restorers, they managed to pull out from behind the old panels and walls blackened by coal and wood smoke, a real gem.

The couple wanted a cozy rustic-style interior that would suit both the house and the mountain setting, and they succeeded in spades. The home's walls and floors, made of fir and pine, have been sanded but let the patina of time speak of the home's age. The old objects have been associated with urban aesthetics. Nothing is cluttered, there are not hundreds of objects that look like they are in the Alps, there are only "touches" tastefully and decently placed that make the rustic house an absolutely wonderful place.

Lovers of antiques, the two young people have enriched their home with objects taken from flea markets or brought back from their travels around the world.

In the dining room there's an imposing pinewood pendulum from Germany, and a Catalan bell and a wooden sleigh from Montreal decorate the entrance staircase. The only "shiny" things in the house are the kitchenware, which the owners, true city folk, couldn't do without.

The entrance to the house also respects the place. Bells fastened by bands of embroidered leather are hung at the entrance and access is through neatly stacked small piles of firewood and, most importantly, you don't enter the bathroom first.

It is beautiful what the owners have managed to do with this old wooden house and the attention to detail is impressive. The house is as rustic and authentic as it can be, the decor is minimalist, with remarkable old objects, but without suffocating the space and the view.

The couple say their biggest challenge was to achieve a rustic home that was as authentic as possible while still having all the modern conveniences. And they seem to have succeeded perfectly since, thanks to the wonders of modern technology, they can turn on the central heating in the house the moment they leave Zurich.

source: lonny.com