Every time I take pictures of Project Kitchen and get ready to upload them in the evening, by the time it’s done, Mads is several processes ahead of me. It’s no different today – and hats off to Mads, because he is working so hard to transform the room into a kitchen at the moment. We really are getting there too – just take a look below. Remember what it looked like a few months ago? Note to self: Tell Mads he is doing a helluva job!

Two days ago, we took an important step by ordering the kitchen – isn’t it just totally exciting? We’re going with an IKEA kitchen – it’s quite simple but we’re aiming for a room that will be nice and welcoming to walk into, and something that’ll last for a good many years. Oh, I can’t wait! Just imagine what it’s like to have a dish washer again? We have been shopping for domestic appliances like oven, cook top, refrigerator, etc. the last couple of months – finding everything new – or nearly new – at great prices. That’s just something we do – we don’t mind doing our research thoroughly to save money, and it works really well for us!

Today, I have been working from home, because Ronja’s day care was closed for the day, so I needed to have her home with me. Not having my usual long transport at the end of my workday, made it possible for us to have fun in the late afternoon – so we made a carved pumpkin. I only had a really big knife (our kitchen is packed in moving boxes, as you know), so there’s not much detail to it, and the girls lost interest quite quickly. Anyhow, now he’s here – greeting passers by outside our house with style.

We’re back home! Moved back Sunday after two weeks in the Bed & Breakfast, and let me tell you: Two weeks of four people living in a one-room B&B can work if it needs to, but it’s not something I would do for fun. Even though we have nothing but a raw concrete floor in the kitchen area of our house at the moment, I just love being back home!

So what did you miss? Let me see – oh yes, Ronja had a wonderful birthday, and thank you so much for all your sweet birthday wishes!

We celebrated her birthday morning as usual, waking her up with a birthday song, presents, and breakfast. After breakfast we had to hurry outside, because Ronja got roller skates as well as a big trampoline (together with Frida who will be 2 in a month) – it all had to be tried, of course. Mads had set up the trampoline in our garden the day before, and even though it was still wet from dew, it was a huge hit with both Ronja and Frida. She caught on to the roller skating easier than what I would have thought, but it was still a bigger challenge than what it appears below…

Back in our house, Mads has been working hard. We now have a concrete floor in the kitchen, and yesterday after work we went to choose some tiles for the floor. We’re already pretty much decided on what kitchen we want, and finding the domestic appliances is coming along slowly – we don’t want the kitchen to get too expensive, so we’re trying to get us some good bargains, as we would rather not compromise too much on quality or design. For those of you who are dealing with similar projects, there are so many people out there who bought something for their house, and then realized they made a mistake for some reason. That way, you can get new stuff relatively cheap (25-50 % off compared to the price in the shops) at places like eBay or the like – in Denmark we have DBA.dk. Mads and I use that a lot.

I have added a few pictures from the process below, but if you’d like to see more – go here. It seems that you guys have as much faith in Mads as I do, so let’s see how quickly our kitchen will take shape.

]]> http://www.connectingthedots.dk/2009/09/02/no-place-like/feed/ 10 55.411485 12.141007 http://www.connectingthedots.dk/2009/08/13/on-to-the-kitchen/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=on-to-the-kitchen http://www.connectingthedots.dk/2009/08/13/on-to-the-kitchen/#comments Thu, 13 Aug 2009 21:24:43 +0000 Astrid http://www.connectingthedots.dk/?p=951

We have now been living in this old house for a little more than 5 years. When we first moved in I was 5 months pregnant with Ronja, and our primary focus back then was to get the house in a nice shape without doing anything too drastic. This task alone was big enough at the time.

Later, when Ronja had been born, and we were getting used to our new life as a family, Mads spent some time fixing the roof, doing wood work on the outside of the house, and changing most of the windows downstairs. I have just been tracking down old pictures of the house, but you get this one to the left to begin with – Ronja was about 2 months old, and Mads was putting up new barge boards on the house.

After that the 2nd floor in the house had first priority. The 2nd floor was a huge task, that involved demolishing everything and building it back up from scratch – installing roof windows, making new rooms for the children, and building a new bathroom among other stuff. That all took nearly a year, and Mads pretty much did all the work himself – we are SO happy with it.

Last year we moved on to work on the facade, and the house was sand blasted, plastered, and white washed yellow. It came to look just the way we had imagined, back when we bought the place.

The pictures above show the kichen the way it looked 5½ years ago – when we had just bought the place and started fixing it up. The pictures below show the kitchen and the adjacent rooms the way they all looked a few days ago – these are to be regarded as pictures from the before-category as well.

Yesterday we packed the last stuff from the kitchen into moving boxes, and today Mads has been tearing everything apart. Our renovating process has reached the kitchen.  Mads spent the day at home today to get started, and when I came home from work the view was already quite different.

Phew – here we go. It’s going to be another big project – from Monday we’re all moving to a Bed&Breakfast 100 m from our house, because we’re going to have a big hole in the ground until the new floor has been established. The water will be shut off to establish new pipes, and the power is going to be shut down as well.

Ronja gave me this little bird feeder Christmas before last, and it has been hanging there in the Japanese Cherry Tree ever since. I love the colours on it, and when the rest of the world is white it really comes into its own! I think I’ll go put a new fat ball on there a bit later - now that there’s snow all over the place.

Ronja’s swing set has hibernated for the day.

And I wonder if this will ever start again?

Maybe we will have time for a sled ride with the girls this afternoon, when I’m off from work? Let’s see…

Well except for the fact that we still need to paint the footings of the house and install the new downpipe at the front and the new front door. And except for the fact, that we would really like a new roof, and, and, and…. No truly, we’re so happy with the way it looks now, it’s excactly the way we wanted it from the beginning. But we won’t be finished for a while – there are still lots of projects – big and small – to throw ourselves at. It just looks a lot more finished. Check out the little bathing nymph by the picket fence. 

Yesterday was a great day! We had Mads’ grandmother, mother, and sister down for celebrating his birthday, and the weather was just awesome. We brought out Ronja’s pool, and she spent very close to the entire day in there… I also think Frida enjoyed watching her! (By the way, Frida is wearing this little apron – I just love it!) The first thing Ronja said this morning when getting up was “Where’s my swim suit?” – and right now she’s jumping around in the water.

The rest of us were benefitting from the good company with drinks, fruit, rolls, and cake. After the guests were gone, Mads and I sat in the garden, just relaxing and enjoying! Ronja was singing and splashing in the pool, Frida was taking a nap, the house was white washed all over, and the garden was just a perfect little oasis with no sounds except for the singing Ronja. Total bliss!

Right now Mads is out biking with the cycling club, but he will be back a bit later, and we’re going to have a quiet day together doing nothing except what we feel like. MMmmmmmm…….

Mads finished white washing the other end wall yesterday, and it looks great even though it’s screaming for a new front door! We have the door already – it’s in the garage, waiting for Mads to finish all of the white washing and painting of the woodworks. He’s returning the scaffold today, so it’s a good thing he has finished both of the tall end walls. Again, this is not dry yet, but you get the impression. The picture was taken yesterday evening - when it didn’t rain!

I finished the “Tie-back” tunic from the latest issue of Ottobre, and I wanted to write a bit about that as well, only it’s so dark, it’s impossible to get a decent shot of the dress. I’ll have to wait for the weather to clear up – hopefully today.

Otherwise, it’s just one of those days when you want to curl up on the couch with a blanket, a book, and a cup of hot cosiness. It’s funny actually – Frida seems to feel the same way…

The first poppy this year. All the others look like it’ll be a while for them yet, and this one is just standing there in the middle, flaunting it’s beauty.

Before I join it outside, I just have a short note on the house. Now that the colour is dry, it’s much easier to get the right colour impression. And you know what; I think I love it. For a while, we were discussing whether it was just slightly to dark, but the warmth and depth of it, and the way it lights up our garden is just spot on. Doesn’t this look idyllic?

And now if you’ll excuse me – I have to get out into my garden! 

Above you see the end wall of our house a few hours ago, just before the light disappeared, leaving the sky to the almost full moon.

Mads managed to white wash the entire end wall after work today! To us it looks wonderful – being something that we have waited for for a long time. The colour (oxide yellow) still has to dry before we can get the correct impression of it, and it was just a bit dark, when Mads finished tonight, but I simply couldn’t wait until tomorrow to take a picture of it. I love the fact that it creates such a stark contrast to the white windows, and I can’t wait to see what it’ll look like in sunshine. Mads isn’t quite done with all of the woodworks, but he has to get the tall end walls done first, since we have been lucky enough to borrow a scaffold. We can only keep it over the weekend, so first projects are woodworks and white wash on both end walls.

When we got up this morning, the rain gutters which we ordered yesterday had already arrived. I must say, we have only had good experiences with the level of service at e-vvs - and I can’t even remember how many times we ordered stuff for our house from them. Many!

Earlier today I went out into the street to take a shot of our house with the painted woodworks. Nothing spectacular about that, but being out there, I just could not help but point my camera in a different direction.

These are rhododendrons at our next-door neighbours house – it’s an amazing sight when they’re all in full bloom! And as nothing changed in my garden during the day, I’m going to share this sight with you guys. Isn’t it amazing? Someone has green fingers…

While the girls and I have been on a nice long weekend at my Mother’s, Mads has been working hard helping and preparing for the masons. It’s amazing to see the difference it makes – and we haven’t even added colour yet. As always, the entire process of our renovating can be seen here. The pictures are sorted with the newest first, and seeing them all does require a bit of patience with all the work that has been done.

Sunday afternoon we had time to drop by some friends of ours who live just a street away. With the weather we’re having we decided to play croquet, and afterwards barbecue in their garden – I just LOVE the fact that it’s almost summer! I think Ronja does too – she ran around barefooted with her croquet mallet and had the best time!

When we arrived home late in the afternoon, Mads was washing the house – rinsing off all of the sand and dirt from the sandblasted bricks. It looked like – well, I don’t know what it looked like! You certainly wouldn’t imagine that there were people living in that house – it looked like a building due for demolition! Mads told us it was a good thing we had been away – he had been wearing earplugs, and he still had a ringing in his ears long after the sandblasting guys left. Our cat, Freja, wasn’t too fond of the sandblasting either.

Mads has been working really hard washing the house and cleaning up sand for the rest of the weekend, and now everything actually looks ok. I don’t know if it’s just me, but even though it still needs the plastering and colour, I actually think it looks so much better than it has for the past years with the fake brick facing.

More pictures from the sandblasting are found here. Now we’re on to the plastering of the house next weekend.