Joseph is an original. Just like his house. Hardly anything here has cost money. And yet the old farmhouse is full of treasures that the 74yearold has collected and found over the last few decades to save them from the garbage dump and oblivion.

Around forty years ago, the Mainz native came to the small village of Gimsbach in the Glantal valley with his wife and two small children in search of an affordable home and the desire for an alternative life. And this is where he found what he was looking for: a former farmhouse dating back to 1744 with a large estate for 60,000 marks: "In the RhineMain region, you might just have been able to get a garage for that," he recalls.

Josef worked as a janitor.After his wife left the family, Josef raised the two children alone.As the small family had little money and the farm was dilapidated, he had to tackle the work himself and gradually renovate the house.He uncovered beams and laid bricks, allowing the historic structure to breathe again. He did almost everything himself, without any previous knowledge of the trade.The house "taught him everything", he says. And even if everything is a bit "crooked and bumpy", the house has ultimately become much more beautiful than he ever dreamed. For Josef, his house is like a living organism and the work on it should and will never stop.

However, the building materials that Josef uses to maintain his house do not come from the DIY store. The furniture he lives with doesn't come from furniture stores, but from landfill sites, flea markets, bulky waste or demolition sites. And long before terms such as upcycling or sustainability became fashionable: "I don't buy, I find". The top of an old coffee table, together with a large milk funnel, is transformed into a washstand with a washbasin. Every tile that he has "rescued" from a demolished house tells its own story, Josef is pleased to say: "The ones from the DIY store can't do that".

Josef actually only lives in two rooms: the bedroom and the kitchen, which is also his workshop. This is where he makes his artistic arrows from parrot feathers at the kitchen table, which he sells with his son at medieval markets.The stove in the kitchen heats the whole house, but is currently being replaced by another antique electric stove because Josef doesn't want to drive away the jackdaws that nest in the stovepipe.

The upper floor is a kind of treasure trove, where the collector and "conservator", as he calls himself, has gathered together everything he has found and collected over the past decades: antique furniture, masks from Africa or Mongolia, fossils, homemade dragon heads or an old harmonium that he bought from nuns in the Middle Rhine region.When the treasure trove gets too full and Josef needs to make room for something new, his finds go into the attic, where they are piled high into the rafters.Josef has also set up a vacation apartment in the 100 m² house.

The huge garden also consists solely of found and donated plants, which Josef grows with his green fingers. He can even harvest bananas there. In the middle of it all is a special oasis: "La Perla", a garden house with a bed and kitchen and plenty of Mediterranean flair, which he uses to celebrate his love of Italy.After a childhood and youth spent in poverty and difficult family circumstances, which at times led him down the wrong path, Josef has found happiness in life and the house in Gimsbach and has fulfilled all his wishes.Every morning he goes out into the garden and gives thanks: "I could say thank you half the day.Then the few bad things that come don't carry any weight at all". Even though Joseph lives very simply and modestly in his house, he is simply happy and content with what he has now.

A film by Christopher Hiepe (editor), Sascha Bremus (camera), Max Tiemann (camera and sound) and Diana Kalb (editor).

00:00 The house of the treasure hunter
00:27 Bedroom
01:51 Kitchen
04:10 Bathroom
06:22 Upper floor Treasure room
11:24 Attic
12:54 Garden
14:22 Bathing area