The First Reading
The work begins
with a First Reading.
A morning inside the house, and a written judgement the owner keeps, whatever follows.
Understanding comes before advice.
A significant home rarely reveals itself through a list of visible defects. Its condition is also held in unfinished decisions, recurring problems, previous repairs, technical systems and the people who each know part of its history.
The First Reading brings these fragments together before recommendations are made or an ongoing mandate is discussed.
One morning, from the roof down.
We begin early, while the house is still quiet. We move through the property from roof to technical rooms, observing its condition, the way it is maintained and the details that influence daily ownership.
Moritz Burghardt joins us where a practical eye on workmanship will tell us more. By the time we leave, we know how the house behaves when nobody asks anything of it.
A written judgement, not a report.
The First Reading is delivered as a bound document, prepared for the owner alone. It opens with a letter from Lars Brunnhoff: what he found, what impressed him, what concerns him.
Then the condition of the house, set out as an owner experiences it rather than by trade. Every unresolved matter is numbered and marked: now, this year, or watch. The numbers stay with the house and reappear in the House File and in every Owner’s Brief until they are closed.
We say plainly where a specialist is needed.
The First Reading is not a technical survey and does not replace an architect, engineer or surveyor. Where one is required, we say so, and we say which question to put to them.
It is a paid, standalone piece of work. If we continue together, the fee is credited in full against the mandate. The judgement is yours either way.
A FIRST CONVERSATION
Afterwards you know what you own.
Every enquiry reaches Lars Brunnhoff personally. The first conversation is about the house itself: how it is used, what stands open,
who works on it.