This Old House: German Edition

This half-timber house on our street, just around the corner from our house, is undergoing restoration. Everyday as I walk Rebecca to Kindergarten, I check out how the process is proceeding. All the plaster on the outside was removed and recently, many old timbers and bricks were replaced.

As the old timbers were being loaded into the back of a truck, a neighbor and I struck up a conversation with one of the workers. The neighbor remarked on the condition of the timbers (they looked like termites had gotten to them) and the worker explained that that's what 500-year old timbers look like.

I couldn't help myself and said, "We don't have such old houses in the U.S.," which earned the not unexpected but good-natured response, "Well, of course you don't. How long have houses been built in the U.S.?"

While recently watching the series The Tudors about the life of Henry VIII of England, I said to David, "You know, when all this was going on with Henry and his wives, that house around the corner was probably already there."

So, it was an ironic moment when I spied this mailbox in front of that house. I've counted 4 such mailboxes on our little street. Some local store must have gotten a hold of a bunch of them.

The house next door is my favorite house in Liederbach. Can't wait to see how the house on the right will look when finished. And I've also been asking myself how difficult it would be to have a half-timbered house like these built in the U.S.