Status of the buildings

The buildings are in quite good condition, that is described on 2017-01-05 First visit in more detail. There is just very little immediate work to be done to keep the buildings in a state where they will not rot away.

This document will describe what needs to be done at different stages to allow a sustainable living. This does not necessarily mean that we want to have the buildings in a state where "normal" people would rent a room but that living there in the early stages needs people to know how to operate the buildings.

Buying process

To buy the houses, a legal entity has to be formed. The current approach is to get a "wirtschaftlicher Verein", an association that is allowed to act economically.

The buying process itself involves some costs and fees on top of the sum.

Early stage - absolute necessities immediately

Roof damage

The roof leaks a bit of rain water at different places. The most urgent place needs exchanging a bit of wood of the floor, the others can be fixed with pots below first and delayed to the soon stage. In the absolute worst case, a heavy bit of the floor/ceiling needs exchanging as well, but this is very unlikely and will be discovered on the floor repair.

tools:

• hammer, drill to get the old floor out
• woodsaw for floor wood
• screwdriver

Water installation

One of the houses is still connected to drinking water, the other is not. Just getting a water contract is necessary. To get water into the other house, the easiest solution is to get a water counter installed there. Longterm we want to use the same counter and contract for both houses. Just a small breakthrough as well as some meters of piping are needed to do this.

The rest of the (cold) water installation should be fine. There is one toilet connection leaking (K20, half floor) that in worst case needs disconnecting.

tools:

• 2x pipe wrench

Heating system

K20 contains a gas central heating system that is very likely in good condition to be used. Just a chimney cleaner is needed in this stage as well as some little repair work if something is broken. All the piping is expected to be in good condition (and is visually) but not really known, we might have some minor freezing damage or leaks.

Gas installation

The central heating system as well as some (still available) stoves are gas driven. The installation looks completely fine, a gas counter needs to be installed. At first, having gas available in just one building is completely fine, later, both nets can be connected.

As previously all flats in the building had separate gas counters and there are no valves installed in the house, this needs to be done before a new central counter can be installed.

Electrical system

Solution A

The current electrical system is disconnected but the houses have a connection point in the main corridor. The whole installation needs to be redone but can be partly - on our own risk - still used. It is reasonable or even required that we at least redo the main installation before we request new electricity meters to reduce later cost and effort.

It is important to include the electrician also in the planning beforehand so they will connect the installation in the end.

Solution B

We can get GS50 modules with reduced specification for free. Installing 150 of those modules would provide us with approximately 4.5 kWp, providing approximately 0.9-31 kWh a day, depending on the sun. Adding necessary components (like a 3 kW inverter) and a bunch of saved batteries is possible for approximately 1000 Euros as well. The whole electrical installation can then be done way more relaxed.

The drawback of this approach would be that we don't have much electricity then - using it for any heating purposes (washing machine, cooking, hair drying, sauna) would be impossible and need alternative solutions. In the winter days, even light and computers have to be used with energy usage in mind.

Hot water

The building contains 6 electrical hot water boilers as well as some gas driven ones. Some of those should still be usable for the first time.

Interiors

While not in best condition, the walls and flooring can be kept at first. General furniture, dishes & cutlery, tables, beds & mattresses, ... is needed but easily available from places around where we have contact to. Also, we will get enough that is thrown away nearby.

Medium stage - necessities in the first years

roof damage

The roof needs to be fixed properly, a bigger area is affected of minor leaks. Maybe it even makes sense to redo it completely. Also it has to be evaluated, how soon this needs to be done (0-5 years)