AFTER
BEFORE
O
n our first trip to Switzerland to look for a new home,
we fell in love with the hamlet of Lauenen, a small
unspoilt village, five minutes drive above the exclusive
resort of Gstaad. We had gone there after hearing
about a farmhouse restoration project in the Swiss
mountainside carried out by some school friends of ours. We were
intrigued by their story and as we were ready for a change and looking
for a new project we decided to investigate.
The mixture of green pastures and high, snow topped mountain
peaks was irresistible.
As the village largely consisted of working dairy farms, there was no
immediate property for sale. But having ruled out any other location in
the area and set our heart on living in Lauenen we decided to rent an
apartment there to use as a base to scout for our future home.
A derelict farm built in 1867 by a local farmer, on a sunny hillside
above the village, caught our attention. The grandson of the farmer
who had built the farm had died in 1985 and the building left empty
had started to fall to ruin.
We approached the owner with an offer to buy it, but it took us
five years to finally agree on a sale – as we quickly found, the local
community takes pride in farming and they view real estate and land
LEFT: The original facade of the farm dates from 1867 and was restored while it remained
standing in its entirety
ABOVE: This photo of the previous owner’s family taken in 1900 was found during the
renovation
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