A few more pics

Great, the audience of the blog is growing. Michele left a great comment and tip in regard to the contract that will be drawn up between us and the contractor. See Michele and Greg just finished fixing up an apartment in the 15th in Paris, and I have seen the pics on their blog. It looks fabulous! So she advised to have a clause in the contract that stipulates that in case the contractor does complete the work in the agreed timeframe, 100 euros gets taken off of his price. Turns out that became a good deal for them since of course the work was not completed within said time. I am surprised any contractor would even sign that! Good thinking on their part. I wonder if that is an OK thing to do if the contractor is a friend of your father?

Anyway, I figured now that several of you are checking in, I will post a few more pictures.
Here is one of the Cogels-Osylei, the main avenue in the district Zurenborg. The lei (avenue) is known for its mix of architectural styles, Art Nouveau, Jugendstil, Neo-Gothic, etc. Some of the houses are absolutely stunning. Most of this building occured from 1890 onwards and the architects competitively tried to outdo eachother. I was reading recently that they put all of their creativity and efforts in the facades, because once inside apparently these houses are nothing special. I find that hard to believe, but oh well.

The next architectural phase came in opposition to all this ornament and attention to detail, and characterizes the houses that are built in the streets that veer off of this main avenue. This much more simple and subdued building style was applied from the 1900s on, and our house is one of those.

Here is a picture of our street.
Notice how the facades of these houses are all much more streamlined. There is an emphasis on horizontals and verticals. This is all in direct opposition to the frivolous curviness of the Art Nouveau and Jugendstil. It is hard to believe now, but those styles were heavily criticized in their day.

And here is the facade of our house.
Ours does not have one of those wonderful little balconies but it does have a bay-window, which on the inside is really great.





So here are two shots of that.





I will leave it at that for now. Greetings, from Texas, with love.