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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 – …
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 …
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, …