Winter has arrived and night temperatures have suddenly fallen down to -20°C. While I love winter, with the delay in the remodelling of the future home heavy snowfall before end of November would pose a major problem to the timeline. We have been travelling in Central Europe during the last weeks and next week I need to be in Germany. So all work on the cabin has come to a complete standstill at the moment. Hence chances to move in…
Renovation continues. Sometimes you make a plan … and then it gets totally wrecked by reality. This is what just happened to me: I had to fight old and stubborn screws which would vehemently refuse to come out of those wooden planks where they had been sitting for decades. In the process of doing the new floor I had to remove the old door sills. Piece of cake! Not! In particular not when you want to keep the old wooden…
Olle passed away yesterday while hunting moose, his favourite sports. Our thoughts are with his wife and his loved ones. Everytime Olle talked about this house his eyes where shining. Whenever I asked him about details of the construction or simply how particular things worked, he would give me a detailed answer, with all the little tricks and specialties you need to know. This place was his for almost 60 years and it was him who built and extended most…
Perfect weather and finally we found a time slot to begin finally with the renovation work. While the boy (me) works on the new floor in the future bedroom, the two girls are painting the walls in the living room of the main cabin. This week support flew in from 2500 km away. So we are three people now renovating. Thank you Margit! The plan is to work on the house whenever there is some spare time in the coming…
Mushrooms, Strawberries, Raspberries, wild Raspberries and much more is to be found and harvested on the grounds surrounding the house. There is even a potato field which we might reactivate in the future. However, the definite star among all the plants and trees growing here is a tiny apple tree. Only a bit over two meters tall, but a small sensation. Keep in mind this tree stands more or less at the Arctic Circle, 140 kilometres inland from the Baltic…
Today was the first day to explore the river close to the house a bit. No, this was no serious kayak expedition going for many miles, but just a short paddling trip down and upstream to get a first impression of the direct surroundings. Just because I do not live here yet does not mean I cannot have any fun here yet! On the river On the River Back home Temperatures are still very mild and the conditions were just…
Hooray! Today was the day! After another two weeks of waiting we finally got the keys to the house – alongside with ancient documents of ownership and historical land surveying charts. Exciting! The actual act of buying was rather unspectacular, the typical Scandinavian way: You meet at the bank, exchange some signatures and documents, you get the keys. 40 minutes, maybe less. That is it! And most of that time was actually talking about technical details of the property, how…
Nothing much happens. … no, this is only half-true. Actually a lot is happening. But all that is related to my professional life. A manuscript just got finished and a huge project will keep me overly busy for the entire summer. Half a month to go before the keys will finally be handed over – but even then nothing much will happen down by the river. I have to be patient until the end of summer. Sometimes priorities cannot be…
A month has passed since we first discovered this place, a month of thinking, of considering and weighting facts and risks, discussing with friends. During that time we have also met with the owners once, lovely people who moved here in the 60s. In the end all was remarkably simple. We know the timing is bad. We know the house is bent along the long side, the roof is far from straight and many of the windows are in dire…
The last mile of gravel road was a bumpy ride. … but now we are here, standing among those old trees – trees that withstood many a harsh winter. We only came here to tick this place off the list. To know for sure it would never be a place to consider: just another old, wooden cabin, a place down by the river that could never suit our needs. … but now we are here, and there is a boat…