Giving old building materials and furniture a new value - that is Sandra and Alfred's approach to life. And so, with a lot of ingenuity and creativity, they have given a 200-year-old, dilapidated half-timbered house its very own look, both inside and out.

Sandra and Alfred bought the old half-timbered house and barn in Boppard Rheinbay in the Middle Rhine Valley more than 25 years ago. The little house used to house the village's grocery store and the barn housed the stables for cows, pigs and chickens. When Sandra and Alfred bought the house, it had already been renovated several times inside. As a result, however, it was completely blocked up and had lost its old charm.

Sandra and Alfred set about renovating their little house. They invested a lot of sweat and their own work, as they had hardly any money at the time. However, not everything went smoothly during the renovation and there were many difficulties to overcome. A house this old is built very differently to today's houses. The couple carefully tried to adapt the house to today's requirements. They had to tear out walls, modernize everything and find many creative solutions in the process. It's a good thing that Alfred is an inventor at heart and that they are both talented craftsmen. What didn't exist, Alfred simply built: sometimes it was machines, sometimes a heating stove, built with the stones from the old night storage heaters, or sometimes tricky doors, like the one to the attic. The house is full of self-designed upcycling ideas.

As Sandra and Alfred love natural and sustainable building materials, they insulated their house with wood wool, plastered it with clay and clad it with wood on the outside. They also used a lot of natural stone. They were often able to get these cheaply or for free from building rubble dumps or private individuals. If they needed something, they first looked to see where they could find something used or discarded. They almost always found what they were looking for. In the early days, they used advertisements in a newspaper, later the internet, flea markets and bulky waste to find materials, furniture and objects and then upcycle them with a lot of effort and passion.

Even today, when the house is finished, Alfred can't drive past a pile of bulky waste without stopping. So far, it has always been worth it. At times, Sandra and Alfred had 17 old, discarded doors sitting around. After Alfred had refurbished them, they were all used again - including the old Esslingen town hall door, for example. It now serves as the entrance door to the practice rooms. Sandra is a psychotherapist for children and adolescents, Alfred is a specialist in psychosomatic medicine and psychotherapy.

In their free time, they enjoy their 1,000 m² garden, which is laid out close to nature and planted with lots of bee- and insect-friendly plants. They have also invested a lot of work in it. They have felled trees, created terraces and plants in the garden and acquired chickens and runner ducks. The chickens bring the eggs and the runner ducks make sure the garden is snail-free. Sandra grows potatoes, vegetables and herbs in the raised bed and her bees provide honey. Despite all this, they are not self-sufficient.

When they are not in their garden, Alfred makes various ceramics, which he also sells, and Sandra works on her tiles, which she applies everywhere in and around the house to create colorful, artistic motifs and mosaics and with which she breathes new life into old materials. Sandra and Alfred are deeply committed to giving new value to old and discarded materials.

A film by Carolin Baumgart (editor), Johannes Bock (camera), Arrien Peters (camera and sound) and Steffen Sprengel (editor).

00:00 House made of garbage
00:30 Dining room
01:48 Living room
03:13 Kitchen
04:29 Winter garden
05:06 Library lounge
06:00 Bathroom
07:12 Creative room
08:58 Garden
11:47 Mosaic exterior facade
12:25 Office