The Restoration Story

A weeping house, as it was back in 2012, surprisingly standing still almost like a person who finds the strength to survive until resuscitation comes to the rescue.

This is how we found my grandparents' house back in the summer of 2012, It had not been lived in since 2007, it was dilapidated, hard to recognise and beginning to fall down....

It was so sad to see it like this, especially as my Mum, who was born and brought up here, was there too. Her crying echoing down the village, just like the house was 'crying' for help. That was the moment when I knew something had to be done to save it.

The exterior walls were showing signs of water damage, as the lime wash coating, peeled off in places.

The peeled off limewash paint revealed a wall with serious damage in its structure and a drop in height was becoming obvious on the front half of the building, which is usually caused by water ingress.

It was heart-breaking to see the house that once stood proud surrendering to the passing of time. The power supply was compromised and the overgrowth was taking over, with overhanging tree branches and roots invading the building.

Nature is slowly taking over.

The outdoor stone staircase started to detach from the rest of the house due to the lack of foundation and the weight of the stone steps.

The green moss on the side is a sad proof of the water damage, that caused the staircase to move. The banister had long gone and no piece of it could be found.

Despite the overall damage, the ornamental features on the balcony walls were a reminder of the days when my ancestors were putting their imprint on the personality of their home.

Galeris- as it was called by the family, is an end to end L-shaped balcony, once the place for grandad's afternoon siestas, family gatherings, laughing and joy, hearty meals.
Then 2012, lonely and suffering with collapsing render and flaking paint, but a curiously well kept wooden floor.

Water damage in the balcony ceiling.

Downstairs porch after water took its toll, revealing the bare stone structure with mortar missing in places.

Stone wall in the downstairs porch after the lime wash was long gone and mortar had been gradually eroded by water ingress.

Main entrance door - leading to the Odaia mare (grand room) that was so difficult to open for fear of what was to be found inside.

The Odaia Mare (grand room) - a corner at first glance, objects of memory showing that even time stopped when the last occupier left. My dear grandma must have found it so hard to part with her home which she had to leave due to ill health and old age.

A picture can't get anymore distressing than this - a room full of laughter and life once, now was covered in cobwebs, rot and mould. The only hope was left in the Icon on the wall. Looking at it gave me strength and a feeling of my ancestors still being there somehow.

Once a cosy bed I slept in as a child, as did previous generations and my family relatives - now a pile of rubble, dust and rotten wood. It was so hard to see this.

The landing connecting the two bedrooms upstairs, left in the hands of time and the intruding elements, still had signs of the past on the walls and pieces of furniture that brought memories back. There was a message of hope in those framed tapestries on the walls still hanging there.

One of several holes in the roof, due to the loss of the tiles, visible from the path leading to the top garden.

The younger generation in the family, carrying the promise to take a treasure of the past into the future, as a living proof of her ancestry.

On a wet October day in 2014, 4 hours were spent in the attic to rescue all the family documents that were stored here. The wool spinning wheel, in the picture, is a family heirloom that was once passed on to my grandmother from her grandma. It must have seen a century and a half of time.

Daylight through the holes in the roof.
Miraculously, a lot of the family memorabilia survived despite the weather exposure in the loft.

The restoration began in June 2015 with the uncovering of the top layer of rendering to establish the depth of the damage. It looked like major surgery performed by a team of craftsmen, who didn't know what they were going to find.

The cool room (ziminc) had no windows, so in order to become the kitchen, it had to have a window opening created in one wall. This proved tricky, as the wall was 60cm thick and made of big stones, mortared together.

The Odaia Mica (Small room) as the room under the balcony was called, was barely standing and had to be underpinned and raised due to the subsidence of the structural walls.

The stone staircase had to be removed piece by piece. The stone steps had to be marked individually, so that they could be put back in the same order, once a foundation was made and the underside was reinforced. The foundation was necessary to support the weight of the steps, which are substantial. The rest of the house was built on bedrock, which acts as a foundation. This is how people traditionally built houses in mountain areas. It's a technique inherited from the Dacians.

Digging to pour a reinforced concrete foundation belt, revealed the bedrock that the house was built on. The bedrock is the original foundation and the technique is specific for traditional houses in mountain areas. The concrete belt was added to stabilise the structure for the future.

Once the staircase supporting wall removed, it revealed the damage to the adjoining wall.
The gap is the result of the staircase moving away from the rest of the building.

The obvious droop at the front of the structure had to be fixed. Once strengthened, the top of the wall was brought in line with the rest of the walls before rebuilding the roof.

When first built a century ago, the roof was covered with wooden shingles. During the 1980's, the house had the roof recovered with ceramic tiles. Over time, the added weight put pressure on the walls. As part of the roof repairs, the tiles were completely removed and the height of the roof raised to comply with the required ratio for laying wooden shingles, which most of our ancestors knew, but it's a skill that so few people have these days.

Removing the roof and attic showed the most affected ceiling area was that above the east bedroom, where the daylight can be seen through the rotten wood slats. These were in turn completely renewed, as well as all supporting wooden beams to create a safe space, still in keeping with the old building.

The new roof structure on the left, old tiled roof on the right. The raised height is noticeable on the repaired left half.

The image shows the height difference between the old and the rebuilt roof. This was necessary, as it's an architectural requirement, to allow the building to take the weight of a shingled roof.

New timber battens for the ceiling. Wire mesh applied, next step is rendering.

Repairs to the landing ceiling and relocation of the attic hatch, were necessary to allow half of the landing to be partitioned off to create a shower room.

The wall at the top of these original windows of the east side bedroom had to be raised and repaired.

An impressive number of individually cut pine shingles were treated with copper sulphate for weather protection and prepared for covering the roof exterior.

Wooden Shingles being fitted to the roof boards.

Frames being added to the roof for the attic windows

The reconstituted roof windows (called 'Lucarne'='light catchers') viewed from the ground

The roof windows now fitted with the wooden shingles are a beautiful feature of the house, recreated from the oldest surviving photograph.

A close up view of the completed Shingles on one of the Attic windows

The roof over the Galerie (Balcony) in the process of being fitted with shingles

Here are two hand carved Finials for the ridge of the roof. They are called 'cuci' (cuckoos).

One of the finials being fixed in place. The new wooden shingle roof is now complete.

Galerie - The balcony's rendering had to be removed where crumbled and the ceiling had to be completely redone due to rot damage. The wire mesh was applied for reinforcement, future pest protection and as a base for the first layer of fresh rendering.

Repaired arch on the Galerie and the new roof eaves.

The eaves had to be modified to ensure coverage of the staircase and the new banister. The beams under the eaves were replaced during the roof rebuild. Each beam is individually carved to faithfully follow the pattern of the originals.

Wooden roof beam being hand carved in keeping with the very pattern of the surviving ones. Such craftsmanship is so rare to find in the present days.

The loose rendering was removed from the exterior walls bringing to light the traditional wall structure that the upper floor walls are made of. It's called Wattle and Daub (woven hazel tree branches filled with an earth mix containing goats hair - a smart method our ancestors used to prevent the walls from developing cracks).

Since the day our experienced architect assessed the house, it was noticed how wonderfully kept the walls were - considering they survived a century's worth of living, extreme weather conditions, earth movements and eventually lack of maintenance.

Once the exterior walls had all the damaged rendering removed, the next stage was to wrap the building entirely in wire mesh, before the first layer of new rendering was applied. This is usually very rough and it's the base for the next layer which is finer.

The intermediate layer is a mix that contains earth, water, sand as well as cattle dung, which is a sound binder with known crack - prevention qualities.

The intermediate layer of rendering was applied not by direct pressure but by a throwing technique to help it stick. It's fascinating to watch and even if it looks messy at this stage, it finally dries and acts as a strong support for the final layer, which is the finest as well.

The final layer of rendering applied on the internal kitchen walls was done with care to ensure that the two original niches were kept in the north wall.

A third and final layer of rendering was applied on all exterior walls and left to dry before painting with lime wash.
The driveway was in working progress and the stones were ready to cover all the driveway walls to retain the soil and to be in keeping with the character of the area.

All layers are meant to be breathable and so is the lime wash. This ensures the humidity levels are self regulating as the building will eliminate excess moisture through its walls.

When the third and finest rendering was applied (called 'tinci') all the wall imperfections in the external appearance were retained to preserve the original charm of the building.

The ornamental features on the upstairs porch exterior were redone using wood cut to shape, covered with wire mesh and rendered. They are a perfect remake of the originals. It's not clear what the shape could represent but it's possible they were added either as medallions for family coats of arms or they could be stylised traditional bread making bowls ('covata').

The downstairs porch was completely restored, including the wooden elements with added decorative features to match the noble nature of the original building. The posts are made of oak to survive the weather, which can be humid in mountain areas like this.

Details on the wooden posts were carefully made to match the rest of the building in architecture. This is a purely Romanian building style called Neo-Romnesc (Neo-Romanian) which was at its peak a 100 years ago when this house was built.

Odaia Mare (The Grand Room) during the renovation. Floor levels had to be dropped by scooping out ground soil, as a solution to very low ceilings. This room has an impressive amount of stone in its walls.

The north wall of the living room was the most problematic as it's built into the landscape therefore it absorbed a lot of damp. A channel had to be dug out at the base and insulation applied before doubling up the wall with another stone wall in front of the insulation.

A protective stone wall being mortared after insulation and metal reinforcement were placed against the original wall to prevent movement due to external landscape pressure.

The east bedroom stove remade in the manner of the original which was found crumbled. Two chimneys had to be built to comply with safety requirements as the original stoves vented into the attic space. This picture shows the stove drying out before lime-wash paint was applied.

The shape of the internal staircase is semi-circular to fit in the space.

An internal staircase had to be added even if not originally there. This was due to practical reasons as the only staircase of the house is external. The added staircase required a lot of technical skill to fit in a relatively tight space. The sliding door was custom made for the same reason.

A sample of the wall structure upstairs - where wooden battens are filled in with earth mix render.

The top of the staircase caused lack of headroom, hence a section of the wall above had to be removed and during that process the structure of the wall became apparent revealing hazel branches as old as the building.

A rustic bench was created above the staircase to provide an ingenious cover that would fit in with the rest of the features.

Most of the doors were kept where possible but the remaining paint was removed with great difficulty due to the age of the wood.

Outdoor side steps were rebuilt and re-positioned away from the building at a later date as they were passing on damp to the connecting kitchen wall.

The house with the new banister.

The Grand Room now looking cosy and finished ready for its guests.

Creating the driveway meant a substantial amount of soil had to be dug out to create a level surface for parking.

At the final stage of the digging a big piece of limestone was found. This had to be dug to allow correct levelling.

The gate roof having the shingles fitted on. In order to cover the whole area, a number of over 2000 pine shingles was individually hand cut and laid in the same pattern as on the roof on the house.

The driveway in its final appearance looks like it's always been there.
The gates and the shingled roof add beautifully to the authenticity.