I'll huff and I'll puff

and I'll blow your house down.

I've mentioned before about the German style of renovation, it really does tend to be an all or nothing strategy.

I'm guessing that in a matter of days this house will be nothing more than a memory, then a big hole will appear (for the cellar to go in) and then building work will commence.

I can partly understand the need for this attitude, when we moved here 5 years ago I looked around so many houses where I thought to myself, "it'd be great if I could rip out the guts leaving just the walls and then start over". One house felt like a mobile home inside, another had a fully fitted bavarian beer kellar, a friend went round one that had a bomb shelter from the cold war as part of the cellar, so maybe the 'knock it down and start over' treatment is justified, it certainly keeps the architects and builders in work!