and this?

Not to mention the somewhat demanding and quite extensive process:

Well, it has now turned into this:

I don’t think I need to tell you that we’re happy!    You can see all the pictures right here.

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 55.4057415 12.1334587 http://www.connectingthedots.dk/2009/08/19/lend-me-your-voice-whats-in-the-future/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=lend-me-your-voice-whats-in-the-future http://www.connectingthedots.dk/2009/08/19/lend-me-your-voice-whats-in-the-future/#comments Wed, 19 Aug 2009 13:44:05 +0000 Astrid http://www.connectingthedots.dk/?p=999

This is where it becomes a bit nerve-wracking. There’s this big hole in our house, and at times it can be a bit hard to believe, that the hole will turn into a kitchen any time soon. Thumbs up to Mads, though – he’s really good at wrecking stuff and digging big holes – even dug a few in the yard as well to prove it…  The pictures were taken a few days ago – it’s worse now…

What do you think, guys? Do you believe in our project? Or do you just think we’re a couple of crazy Danes who have taken on an impossible project that won’t be finished without serious help from professionals? Let’s see what kind of expectations we’re trying to live up to here – will we have to prove you wrong, or will we struggle to meet your sky-high expectations?

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.

Frida has kind of a comedy-stunt going that is ridiculously entertaining. She is always on the go, from one toy to another – one kind of trouble to another. Typically, she will play with something, throw it over her shoulder and move on to the next. And then, when the first thing hits the floor with a loud noise, she turns around with eyes that say: “Who made that noise – what’s going on back here?”. And the best part is, she does this over and over… Man, she makes us laugh!

A while ago Mads and I agreed, that we needed a break from him working on the house. Or maybe I agreed..? Anyway, we had a break, and now Mads wants to get something done again – fair enough. This house is dated 1912, and there’s still a lot of work to be done.

The previous owners had a fence around the small yard out back. We wanted to take that down in order to open up towards the garden, so we did – long ago. This weekend, Mads removed the foundation for the fence, which could have been an easy job, had they not thought it necessary to cast a concrete foundation 40 cm into the ground for the entire length of the fence. Geeeez – talk about unnecessary solutions…. So instead of it being easy, this is what went on in the garden.

And now it’s gone – the concrete foundation, that is - thanks to Mads and his very noisy and shaky device.

Eventually, we’re going to cover the yard with new garden tiles, but for now, I think we’re settling for an expansion of the lawn, until we have the time and means for the solution we really want.

There is now! We were lucky enough to find it second-hand at frou-frou.dk - it’s kind of expensive to buy new, and now we get a number with a past, allowing us to guess where it has spent its previous life… I’m going to see if I can make a name plate for the mailbox in photoshop to match the design of the housenumber. Again, it would be nice to buy a real one, but that’ll have to wait, because the name plates like that cost a small fortune!

Mads installed our new front door yesterday and fixed the finish around the door this evening. The door actually isn’t all that new, since we bought it along with the new windows way back in August 2006. It has been living in the garage ever since. It has windows in it, and yesterday I was going for the door several times, thinking someone forgot to close it. C’mon, girl – that’s just your new light in the hallway… :) I do love the way it lets lots and lots of light into our hallway, but we still need to get used to the fact that you can actually see through the front door – amazingly, it works both ways, so you have to consider how you look before people come up to the door, and not just after they ring the doorbell! That’s right, we also put up the doorbell, which has been down since the house was sandblasted late April. Once we get the lamp back up as well, I promise I’ll post a picture of how it all looks. In the meantime you’ll have to do with my anemone japonica.

I want to say thank you for all the wonderful feedback I’m getting on my blog. I love reading it and visiting your blogs, finding out who you are and why you stopped by. I always answer questions in the comments, so remember to check back, if you posed a question. Should you have any suggestions for me on how to improve my blog or make it more welcoming for you as a reader, please send me an email or leave me a comment on it. Speaking of which, if you would like to know when I update my blog, but you don’t use any kind of reader, I added the possibility to subscribe to my posts by email. However, please do continue to come to my blog and let me know you’re here!

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…….

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. To make it easier you can choose to see them as a slide show here – going backwards in time.

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!