Day 31 in Deutschland – Cleaning Out the Attic & Another Birthday Party (Sindersdorf and Hilpoltstein, GE)

There’s still a little snow on the ground here in Sindersdorf this morning (Monday, 4 January).

This is the view from the upstairs window (below), towards the main street and the Volunteer Fire Department (Freiwillige Feuerwehr) house.

IMG_5395

The next door neighbor was out shoveling his Hof (driveway).  Hi Xaver 🙂

IMG_5405

On Monday morning, we got put to work here at the house.  Guess we have to earn our keep, right? 🙂  Stilla’s brother Wolfgang has been cleaning out and working on the attic.  There used to be a room at one end of the attic that was built out in 1974 with cinder block walls and heavy-duty paneling and plaster.  William and Wolfgang had already broken down most of the walls prior to us getting here and now there was a huge pile of debris that needed to be cleaned out.

IMG_6992

IMG_5428

Here we are taking an old metal door down the narrow stairwell from the attic.  I supervised most of the heavy-lifting as you can see from the pics  🙂

IMG_5409

Wolfgang, William, and Stilla carefully maneuvered the door down two flights of stairs to the front yard.  Wolfgang will probably re-purpose the door somewhere else around the house.

IMG_5410

IMG_5413

IMG_5422

IMG_5424

That was one heavy door, or so I was told 🙂  How do you like the ’70s-era poster still pasted on the door?

IMG_5426

The remnants of the cinderblock walls were strewn all over the floor in the attic.  Now how should we get all this cleaned up?

IMG_5427

Well, the solution was a giant transport container and a construction debris chute that Wolfgang had delivered from a local business:

IMG_5435

Here we are stringing the chute in place up to the attic window:

IMG_6971

IMG_6973

IMG_6975

IMG_6978

The plastic debris chute got heavier and heavier the higher up we pulled.  Here I am tying off the debris chute to one of the attic timbers.  Hope it holds 🙂

IMG_6979

IMG_6977

IMG_6980

IMG_6986

IMG_5433

We finally got the top piece of the debris chute in place.

IMG_6989

And now it was just a matter of tossing all the debris down the chute…

IMG_6994

… we used our hands and shovels to toss chunks of concrete and plaster down the chute and into the container.

IMG_6995

IMG_6999

IMG_7001

Even Stilla got crazy with the sledgehammer 😉

IMG_5438

IMG_5436

IMG_5437

Go Stilla, Go!  Whew… we haven’t worked that hard in awhile 🙂

We got most of the debris cleaned out by late-afternoon when we finally called it a day.  We’ll finish up tomorrow morning.  We had to get ready to go to another birthday party!

But before we left the attic for the day, Stilla snapped some pics from the seldom used attic windows.  Here’s some views (below) from the attic window on the west-side of the house:

IMG_6983
Sindersdorf church steeple in the background behind the neighbors house.
IMG_6985
View to the west.
IMG_6988
View to the southwest. The house next door used to be a Gasthaus, now it’s just a rental unit.

And here’s the view out the other side of the attic on the east-side of the house (below).

IMG_7002
The family yard (Hof). View to the east.
IMG_7003
Front driveway and the old barn which is now a B&B run by Wolfgang. View to the north out the west-side attic window.

After we got cleaned up, Stilla and I got picked up by Maria (Stilla’s older sister) who drove us over to Wolfgang and Verena’s house in Hilpoltstein.  Wolfgang is Maria’s son, who recently got married to Verena.

It was Verena’s birthday!  Happy Birthday Verena 🙂

IMG_7021
Wolfgang & Verena.

Wolfgang & Verena visited us in Colorado back in 2012.  We took them with us on a short trip in the Urban Escape Vehicle through Utah.

IMG_8359

Here’s Wolfgang & Verena (below) at Goosenecks State Park in June 2012.

IMG_8368

Our campsite view at Goosenecks State Park in 2012.

IMG_8358

We enjoyed the evening with close family and lots of Wolfgang & Verena’s friends who showed up to help celebrate her birthday.

IMG_7009

IMG_7005

As usual… lots of good food and liquid refreshments :

IMG_7013

IMG_7007

Wolfgang demonstrated his espresso making skills with his commercial grade machine.  It didn’t know making coffee could be so complicated 🙂

IMG_7010

We held out late into the evening and were the last ones to leave.  We thanked Wolfgang & Verena for another wonderful evening and caught a ride back home with Martin and Maria.

Happy Birthday Verena!