New life for an old church

IN March 2018, her fourth Holi­da­y­Ar­chi­tecture project, the old church in Bern­kastel-Wehlen on the Mosel, will open its doors, and for the first time in Germany guests will be able to stay in a church, and later the adjacent fire station. ??An encou­raging story for anyone who has ever secretly dreamed of creating their own Holi­da­y­Ar­chi­tecture pro­perty.

Anke, you gra­duated as a business admi­nis­trator and before embarking on your first project had no direct expe­rience with the reno­vation of buil­dings, or of the hos­pi­tality industry. Did you, so to speak, “fall into” the role of holiday pro­perty architect?
Anke Nuxoll-Oster: You could say that. The story began back in 2007, when we com­pleted the con­version of our home in an old pro­perty into apart­ments for several gene­ra­tions, and it won the 1st prize in the readers’ vote for con­ver­sions and exten­sions in the Zuhause Wohnen magazine.
The magazine sent a pho­to­grapher and stylist to cover the story for an article in the magazine. No sooner had they left the house when the doorbell rang again. The stylist just had to tell me that she thought I had a talent for interior design and should con­sider doing it pro­fes­sio­nally. I was quite sur­prised, as it had never occurred to me.

In fact I was already beginning to think I wanted a career change, and I managed to make it reality not long after­wards. At that time I couldn’t imagine myself designing the inte­riors of other people’s homes, so I began by buying a pro­perty in Cologne and con­verting it to a boarding house with six apart­ments. This was the first time I was able to give full rein to my ideas in my new pro­fession. And it went well, so I then undertook another boarding house, with fifteen apart­ments, in Essen.

So, how did you enter the holiday home sector?
Anke Nuxoll-Oster: I guess you could say it was again by an indirect route. We often had pro­blems finding a nice apartment in the Sau­erland for our skiing holiday, and at one stage I became so frus­trated that I thought it might well be easier to do it myself. I came across a sui­table house in Win­terberg, which we acquired in 2012 and now both rent out and use our­selves. Renting it out was essential, as otherwise there was no way we would have been able to afford our own holiday home.
Things went well in Win­terberg, and as I began to feel more con­fident letting out holiday homes, I pro­gressed to more distinctive pro­perties. Other pro­jects – Mon­schau­bleibe (2013), Sau­er­land­bleibe (2014) and Brü­cken­villa (2015) – fol­lowed, and are all listed with Holi­da­y­Ar­chi­tecture.

Your latest project is the con­version of a church on the Mosel. Tell us about it!
Anke Nuxoll-Oster: Yes, it’s really extra­or­dinary. I can still hardly believe that I’m now in the process of the first con­version in Germany of a church to a holiday home. There are many of these in the Net­her­lands and the UK, but it’s new ter­ritory here.

We learned from our Sau­er­land­bleibe pro­perty that there is a high demand for modern group and seminar accom­mo­dation, so we were deli­berately looking for a larger building. I came across the old church in Wehlen as a result of an online notice by the town council of Bern­kastel, who had for some time been looking for a new owner. No one wanted to take it on, as it had fallen into dis­repair. The town council lacked the financial resources to maintain it, so the rain had been coming in for years, causing sub­stantial damage to the fabric of the building. But its year of con­s­truction, 1669, and its many his­to­rical fea­tures meant it still had plenty of cha­racter.

Con­s­truction phase, spring 2017

The church was perfect for us, since the local popu­lation had out­grown it over 100 years ago, a new church was built and the old one decon­se­crated and con­verted to alms­houses – these existing sub­di­vi­sions make it ideal for a group holiday let. The building had several further changes of use, so the people of Wehlen were well accus­tomed to the idea of their church being used for alter­native pur­poses – some­thing that I believe was very helpful when it came to accep­tance of my new project.

The main body of the church, with its eight-metre high vaulted ceiling, is now being con­verted to an open-plan kitchen with dining area and seminar faci­lities. In future, the top floor will provide space for work­shops, yoga courses and other group acti­vities. There will be a total of ten bed­rooms and seven bath­rooms for guests. If there is enough money we will hop­efully be able to offer access from one of the bed­rooms to the church tower, which has a breath­taking view of the world-famous Weh­lener Son­nenuhr vineyard with its distinctive sundial. And the beau­tiful church gardens will in future be an attractive place for relaxing and bar­becues, with further space for parties and events to be deve­loped later in the vaulted cellar.

But this is all to come. At the moment I’m com­pletely immersed in the orga­ni­sation of the building works, where I am curr­ently par­ti­cu­larly involved with the choir – dealing with issues of noise and heating in a space like this is of course a major challenge, and one that is quite new to me.

When you con­sider how the church used to look, it begs the question: aren’t pro­jects like this usually incre­dibly time-con­suming and dif­ficult to budget for? Or have you always been driven by your passion, so there was never any question about it?
Anke Nuxoll-Oster: Yes, I fall in love with all my houses from the start and then there’s abso­lutely no going back. It was par­ti­cu­larly dif­ficult with the church, because I had to spend nine months fighting to get a bank loan. A building like this is a mor­tgage valuer’s nightmare and it was reported as unfi­nan­ceable several times. And the only bank that was ulti­m­ately pre­pared to lend the money to us set us a very strict budget, which means that every day I’m faced with the dilemma of what I can do and what we have to leave out. It’s cer­tainly been a dif­ficult birth. But when the reno­va­tions are com­plete, I’m sure that all the stress will be worth it.

Con­s­truction phase, spring 2017

What do you think are the qua­lities needed to suc­cessfully convert and rent out houses? Could anyone do it?
Anke Nuxoll-Oster: I think a few things are important here. Whenever I see a new pro­perty, often a very dila­pi­dated one, I imme­diately have a vision, a very precise image, of what I can make of it and how it will even­tually look. Some people think I’m crazy. I never see the way it is now, but always the final outcome.

Add to this the fact that I love tra­velling and so often dis­cover places that inspire me. I take the fea­tures that I par­ti­cu­larly like and am often able to adapt and include them in a new project. In this way I’ve created a kind of archive of all the impres­sions I’ve gained over the years, which I’ve used to inspire my own crea­tions. Over time I’ve defi­nitely deve­loped the ability to have ideas on the spot, however varied the houses are that I’ve worked on.

But in addition to crea­tivity, you need a good deal of courage and a sense of adventure. I am actually always very con­fident that the houses will prove pro­fi­table and things will go the way I planned them – if you only focus on the pro­blems, you’ll never get any­thing done. My back­ground in business admi­nis­tration is defi­nitely a plus for me; an enter­prise like this one can’t get by on crea­tivity alone. Sadly, old buil­dings con­ti­nuously sur­prise you with some hidden defect requiring more expen­diture, and I must admit that we’ve gone over-budget on every project. This means that it’s essential to include a sub­stantial financial cushion in the plans from the start. I always do that. (She smiles.)

What do you like most about renting out holiday pro­perties?
Anke Nuxoll-Oster: The best aspect is saving the houses and apart­ments from decay, carefully reno­vating them and then deco­rating and fur­nishing them entirely to your own taste. It’s a little like reinventing your own home again and again. And it’s a won­derful thing to get so much positive feedback from guests – to know that they feel at home in “my world”.

Four Holi­da­y­Ar­chi­tecture pro­perties – is that all for now?
Anke Nuxoll-Oster: (laughs) I do intend for this to be the last. I’m gra­dually rea­ching my limit, as I manage all the let­tings myself. But I’ve always secretly dreamed of a finca on Majorca… so who knows?

Accom­mo­dation in the Old Church in Bern­kastel-Wehlen can be booked from February 15th 2018 on at www.bleibe.de. The pro­perty offers space for up to 24 people for seminars, work­shops or family occa­sions. The fire station on the same site will be available at a later date, housing 4–6 people.

By Ulrich Stefan Knoll, July 2017 (updated December 2017)

Photo credits
Site photos: Andreas Scholer / toni­media GmbH, Rights: Anke Nuxoll-Oster.
Photos Mon­schau­bleibe / Brü­cken­villa:  Studio B23, Yvonne Kirch, Rights: Anke Nuxoll-Oster.
Photos Sau­er­land­bleibe: Con­stantin Meyer

The fea­tured houses

Holiday home Bleibe in der Alten Kirche

Holiday home Bleibe in der Alten Kirche

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In the Moselle village of Bern­kastel-Wehlen, a former church has been con­verted into a holiday home. The old church room with its eight-metre-high vaulted ceiling now serves as a dining and seminar room.

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Holiday home Brü­cken­villa Bleibe

Holiday home Brü­cken­villa Bleibe

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With its large mul­lioned windows, slate roof and oriel with its bell-shaped bonnet, the bridge villa in the Eifel Town Mon­schau looks like an enchanted little castle. Inside, however, modern fur­nis­hings await the guests.

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Holiday home Mon­schau­bleibe

Holiday home Mon­schau­bleibe

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This lovingly reno­vated half-tim­bered house is idyl­li­cally situated in the his­toric old town of Mon­schau. Old ele­ments from the 17th century have been res­tored and form a suc­cessful liaison with the modern fur­nis­hings.

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Holiday home Sau­er­land­bleibe

Holiday home Sau­er­land­bleibe

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The Sau­er­land­bleibe in the half-tim­bered village of Bödefeld proves that a group house can be stylish. The 200 year old farm house with room for up to 26 people is sui­table as holiday accom­mo­dation or for con­fe­rences.

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