Our shanty....

In the summer of 1993 I («) decided, now it´s time for me to move away from Karlstad (this coffee-smelling, worthless hockeyteam, bad town). I had lived in Herrgårdsgatan (downtown... 25 meters to work, 3 discos and 5 bars within 150 meters) and now I needed something completly different! So... I will move out in the countryside! And such luck, there was a nice landlord who let me take an old shed! Now I only had to get rid of my flat... and I finally get rid of it with a lost of SEK 60000. But hey, it´s only money!! Happy and with great expectations I packed my stuff and my cats and went back home to Småland!!!

Well, this wasn´t the way it looked when I moved (November 1993). But this was the picture I had in my memory and this was the picture of MY HOME! The cottage in the pic was the place where I lived during building my house, a summer-cottage with an area of 24 square meters! And it was going to be a really cold winter brrr brr....
The winter was nice and sunny when I started to build, in the beginning of December. It was very long workdays and worknights! In the pic to the right, you can see the future home with workingrigs around and to the left in the pic, there´s the summer-cottage. Please observe the little satelite-dish... It was probable the first me and Goran put up... but that´s a whole different story!

At Christmas, the work had reached this point inside. The old floor was taken away and in the same time we were working with the ceiling 5,5 meters up. The isolation will go up into the ceiling, the rope is to secure a beam. This beam would later been taken away to give the house more space. Don´t ask me how you can secure the beam with a rope downwards!?!?! But anyway, it was a success!!
My father was so kind and helped me during the construction. He was so helpful. One of his specialities was to watch and admire the fantastic result of the work! Another very important task of his, was to bring me food. I hadn´t time to cook, I was mending my house. (In Swedish this is a "play with words". To cook (food) is the same as mend (food) in Swedish... I had not time to mend food, I mended my house, got it??!?!?!)

Some days the house looked more like a trasch-yard (maybe it still does according to some). All the walls was re-bouilt, new isolation, new boards and so on. You really had to work yourself warm, cause inside it was as cold as outside... About cold... In the beginning of February 1994 the water decided to freeze! I had no running water for two months (try it sometime, huh!). But there was more to come... After this the outflow went down, too. It was now I saw my chance to get close to the animals. The whole nature became my... yeah you know. I can only tell you that one did not go to "wash ones hands" if it wasn´t absolutly nessecary and you didn´t bring any magazine to read... hahahaha!!

To be able to finish the work with the ceeling we had to put the "open fire" inside (but it was acually to soon, it was always in the way!!). Some 'expert' from Vetlanda helped us and this 'expert' had to come bach three times to finish the work.... and still it was crooked!!!! This is how it ends when you don´t do it yourself... In the background you can glimpse the bathroomwall...
In one of the corners in the house (in the bathroom) all the electricity-pipes were gathered to lead out to the electricity-central. I hope we never have to do this again... I still don´t understand that it works! But if often does, like now for an example.

In the same corner, the wall should be covered with plates.... where do you buy plates like this?? You had to saw and try it and saw and try it and file and try it and throw it away and start all over again and saw and try it and.... Finaly we had all pieces in place and today it looks like an ordinary wall.

Time went by and finally was all the walls covered with plates. I have to tell you a story.., when I was working with the wall in the pic, I was up (3,5-4 meters) by the window and I kicked the ladder down, so there I was late at night all alone. What do you do? Well you take some of the boards and build a bridge over the beams to the attic. This took a couple of horus but noone got hurt! In the picture you can also see (bad though) a couple of bricks which are built into the wooden-wall. This is just a "work of art" but noone seems to understand it....

Spring arrived! The house stated to look like a house!! Kitchen-cupboards, wardrobes and so on. WOW!! MY house starts to look like a house! The kitchen was a little difficult to get right. The house was built in the early 1900 and well, I guess square angels and stuff like that wasn´t very important (or somebody had shaken the house real good during the years), but in the end the kitchen was ok.

Now another helpful person came. My mother! She was very good with the paintbrush and did a lot of the painting. But what about her arms, they hardly reach the ceiling. Such a luck noone from the "work-health-comitté" came to visit haha!

It was just a few more things left to do.. lacquer the floor, put wallpapers up and paint the walls. Wait, something was missing! The stairs!! It was delayed from the factory and acually I moved in before I got the stairs delivered. How many of you have lived in a 2 storied house without stairs? I had to use a ladder to get up to the attic (or down to the basement depending on where you start...). Fun when you just have gone out of bed early in the morning and will go downstairs to take a shower...

Finally the stairs arrived. Here you have to start with your right foot (yes right, not left) otherwise it can end with a disaster! The steps in the stairs are constructed in a way to let the stairs go real steep, because of this the steps are "just half"... first to the right second to the left and so on. Well, the house was finiched in the summer of 1994 (acually there´s still some things left to do...). There are some things a little different with my house compared with others, a future world-known artist (my cousin Jörn) has done some art-paintings on the walls, a guitarr is nailed to the wall and so on. I guess there isn´t a house like this in the whole world (but then I´m a little odd, too!?!?). Anyway, I like it here so much and I believe I will live here for a loooooooooong time! Finally here´s a picture showing the view from the kitchen-window (the second from left we had for dinner last year hahaha).