Nostalgia

I've been reading some books that pictures Falun how it used to look like and what it looks like now. I am still very attached to that town even though we have moved and are now living in Borlange. I sometimes do wonder about the good of progress and change, at least in the way how towns change over the years Somehow I would like to smack the silly people who thought progress was to knock down charming old houses and destroy complete blocks and replace them with bunker looking complexes all in the name of progress and the future good. Borlange I think is a brilliant example of how it can go wrong. The town center looks like it is a set of concrete boxes put together, no curves, no greenery, no surprises just this grey, beige mass of concrete and glass from the seventies. No wonder people don't like to be in town and that the businesses are moving en mass to the big shopping mall Kupolen just outside the city center. But I must say that Falun did patch up a lot of the damage done by redoing lots of the buildings as to make a softer skyline.

Just as an example the house we now own is from 1925 but you really couldn't tell, that is how massive and damaging the renovation to it is. The former owners must have ripped every feature out of it because bloody eck we haven't found ONE original feature, part from the doors which I am surprised they kept. But also very pleased that they did because they will be lovely once we have stripped them of I don't know how many layers of paint and repainted them in a soft white. I am quite sure that at one point they must have had a balcony above the porch and most likely a glass veranda entrance underneath it. Also I think there must have been a wooden staircase inside even though the one in here now is made out of the much used MDF and then covered with plastic carpet (shudder).

There is quite a lot I would like to do with our house in terms of renovation and putting a bit of the features back in or at least try and give it a bit of its charm back. At some point we will renovate the bathroom/sauna/utilityroom and the kitchen. Most likely we will get rid of the sauna, I quite like saunas but haven't tried ours out because it has been packed with books and other stuff when we were doing the lounge and bedrooms upstairs. I much more prefer to have a bath tub installed and a better way of having the washing machine/dryer tower placed. The kitchen is a problem in itself as it is now since there really is only one way of having our kitchen table and we cant fit any free standing cupboards in since the walls are too narrow and you got a fire in one corner. It would be very interesting to change everything around in there and move the fire into the lounge plus put in a better fitting window where the sink is today. That's another thing that is annoying me just a bit, there are at least 6 different styles of windows in the house, somehow it makes it look lopsided. But there are good points as well with the house or else we wouldn't have bought it, but I like to dream a bit of what it can be made into. Just to ease James' worries I'd better put this disclaimer in; I am just talking out loud and not making any firm plans to do anything or all of what I have written in here. Better love..? :)