Our final corner section to the new wardrobes came on friday and we have just finished putting it togheter. The last door will go on in a bit. But what a bugger it was to get in place! I hate our leaning floor by now because it didnt fit to put it togheter as it suggesteed in the manual so we had to improvise as how to do it and in which order so all pieces would line up in the end. It was a lot of huffing and puffing, swearing 'till your ears went red and an exess of banging them togheter using your feet, hands or you name it!

And now when you think that it will all fit nicely the bloody middle door hinge is one hole too high up! And yes i did measure it!!!! Calm down, breeeeaaatthh.........!

Part from all the hiccups and exsessive swearing the new wardrobes looks fantastic. Now theres just a trip left to return 2 damaged doors and get some shelfs and pull out drawers.

Sauna anybody?

It is warm and sticky outside today since there is spurts of rain in between the sunny spots. Feels like walking in an outdoor sauna when in the garden. I did bake some bread though earlier this morning when it still was cool outside, but now I don't think I want to be in the kitchen at all but got to make some dinner for James when he gets back from work in a couple of hours time.

I've had a go at carpentering today and fixed the upstairs loo door that was very tight to close. Now it works like a charm and glides close with a smooth swoosh sound instead of the crackling screech it had before. It still hasn't got a door handle though so it is still a matter of getting your finger almost caught when hooking it in the hole where the handle should be when closing the door. But once we find some nice old-fashioned door handles I think we will be replacing all of them so no point in just buying one odd one is it. There are just too many odd ones already! I am also going to start stripping the doors before it gets too cold outside. I thought I might be using paint stripper and it doesn't work so well if it is too cold. For maximum effect it needs to be above +15 and you really have to be outside since it does smell very VERY foul when gucking it about.

We are off for a quicky to IKEA tomorrow to buy a corner section and new doors for our wardrobe upstairs. We had a peek to see what make the wardrobe was because we wanted extra shelving and by luck it was from IKEA's range so we bought extra fittings and shelves the last time we went to IKEA and now we are thinking about expanding it along the wall and corner. We are aiming to empty the downstairs wardrobe so we can take down the wall and get the space back that they used from the lounge to make it in the first place. It is only 1.5 m but it will make all the difference since you will gain an extra doorway as well into the lounge.

Hopefully the man from the chimney shop will get in touch early next week so he can come measure what size our chimney is and fix the odd little jobs needed to it and also fit a slip stop for the roof ladder before we get our chimney swept this autumn. I also phoned a big garden center outside Ludvika about planting Syringa vulgaris (Bondsyren in Swedish) as a hedge and what it would cost and when the best time was to plant them. I also asked about our existing hedge towards the road that is looking very bleak and thin and it seems it is best to cut it in spring so that is what we are going to do. Planting the hedge is best to do in September though. So we have to decide what kind of Syren we are having and how many to get. You have to order in august to get them in September so got a little while yet to decide. They had 3 varieties that suited as hedges, one mixed coloured one where you get white,pink and lilac flowers, the old sort Bondsyren and a new Russian variety that had dark lilac flowers. The nice chappy recommended the Swedish Bondsyren for hedging since it grew very well and thickly so that I think is what we are going to get. The bushes cost from 200-400 kr for a bundle of 10 bushes and you would need 2-3 bushes per meter.

I also called the council to ask about putting up a fence towards the road and if there were any restrictions. Apparently you can put up a see-through-fence 110cm high without permission but if you wanted it higher and non-see-through you needed to apply for a building permission. I also asked about hedges and if we needed the neighbours consent to plant one. We only need them to agree if we want it smack on the border but we could have it well in on our yard and they would have nothing to say about it as long as it didn't grow into their yard. But considering the big stump of an old maple three that they have cut down just in the border I don't think they can argue that much. We'll just have to see. Mum has offered to come with us encase they start talking Finnish behind our backs just to listen in on what they are saying, no need in telling them she will understand is there...

I think, yes i think B,C & O is back in business.. But got to remain calm it could just be a trick of my eyes that the Blog Goddess is back and writing!

Now if only James would get his ass in gear and start writing again it would be perfect... :)

Wandering benches..

Woke up this morning at 4.30 by James saying that our two new garden benches were missing and that he found one of them all broken up a bit further up the road. I got up and went around the block to see if I could find the missing one. I asked a passing neighbour as well but he hadn't seen or heard anything even though the bench was found just outside his house. James went the other route and found the other one in one piece at the railroad crossing

I called the police later on and reported it, got to see if we get anything from our home insurance, doubt it will cover the risk though. When I was out putting the table and the rescued bench away I saw that our neighbour across the road was looking agitated and on the phone so I asked if he had something broken too last night. They'd smashed his car rear light in and he was on the phone to the police. We talked a bit while waiting for the police and while waiting our neighbour across from us came home, still drunk... He asked a bit what was going on and we said what had happened and he looked a bit blank. Bet you it was him and his friends going to a party who did the damage but was too drunk to remember, because he couldn't for the life of him remember how he ended up sleeping in a forrest 10 km from here...

Anyway, the police came round, they parked in our drive way and looked at our bench and Olle's car and walked around looking mighty important. Hopefully it made the drunken neighbour a bit nervous and that his dad had a look outside the kitchen window to see what was going on too. Whoever did it left behind an empty cart of Finnish strong beer so it is a bit touchy whether or not it was neighbour or not. We'll probably never know.

The adventures of living in a house has just started! I've calmed down now though..

Some things don't need an explanation..

This is what greets me every time I need to go and get a garden tool. And it smells absolutely divine... And on the right hand side of the door there is a small golden honeysuckle adding to the scent as well. It's not as big as the rosebush yet but give it a couple of years and it will cover the wall behind it and the doorway. I'll make sure of that!

Right now inside the old paintshop there is a very pungent smell of wood oil since we have given our patio furniture their first coat. It didn't help to have both doors open and all windows wide open, I still got a headache from the fumes.

We've celebrated midsummer here in Sweden and we had my mum and sister with bf over to stay. We had a bit of luck with the weather being very nice and warm so we did manage to have a bbq. Much laughter and a game of boule on the lawn after the bbq made the evening complete. We didn't have a midsummer pole to dance around and neither did we bother about going somewhere to have a look at one being raised. We might have one next year and I'll make sure that James does the frog dance as well! Everyone stayed the night and we had a very late night game of TP. The next day was very chilly after a early morning downpour which actually filled all the water butts! We were all very tired so we just relaxed and had a nice lunch before people started to set of back home.

And today it is back to the grindstone but somehow I don't mind anymore, because I can just leave it all back in Falun when I go home at night. It does make a difference with a bit of distance between work and home. Anyway for me and it also helps to know that I can just sit out in the garden and relax if I like when I get back home.

Some pictures from our new house and garden. These are the lovely pink roses in their new pots on the steps.

I just love these flowers. Gazanias they are called here and they only open when it is sunny.

Finaly done with the new hall downstairs and upstairs!

And this is what we are considering having on our kitchen wall, it's just a little bit of wall by the window that will have it if we decide on it.

A young brunette goes into the doctor's office and says that her body hurts wherever she touches it.
"Impossible," says the doctor.
"Show me."
She takes her finger and pushes her elbow and screams in agony. She pushes her knee and screams, pushes her ankle and screams. Everywhere she touches makes her scream.
The doctor says, "You're not really brunette are you?"
The girl says "No, I'm really a blonde".
"I thought so," the doctor says.
"You have a broken finger."

Time is a flying...

Where do the days go? I cant believe just how quickly the days have passed since we moved in with boxes, furniture and fishes. Thing is, it is only 3 weeks since we did move in and we already have some flower beds going and a bit of a vegetable patch started. Plus we have managed to almost agree on a wild kind of wallpaper for the kitchen and paint the hall a very nice shade of green. Today we went and bought some more good soil and 3 pale terracotta pots for my intense pink patio roses I bought earlier this week. They are now sitting nicely on the steps up to the front door.

I also managed to connect the water butts together with this brilliant set of tube and washers that James dad suggested we get. I still cant believe that we Swedes haven't come up with something similar so James ordered them online and had them sent to his parents and they sent them on to us. Might be a good import idea there...Hmm. I got a bit of assistance from Lotta when assembling them so if there is rain tomorrow as they predict with some thunder included we will be set with rain water in hopefully all 5 butts for another spell of nice warm summer weather as we have had for 3 days now.

I planted my beans today and put up the bean poles. All I need to do now is sow some marigolds and weed and water. Until this autumn that is. We have to see if we will get started on a bigger vegetable plot, lots of digging involved there though so we'll have to see, I would like to be able to grow potatoes at least!

I had a nice little chat to one of our neighbor's. We can call her Liz. She has lived here all her life and took over her parents house. She used to know the first people who owned this house and she could tell me quite a lot about how it used to look like before. They had big garden beds with summer flowers and vegetables in them, but they were all on the wrong side for us as we intend to dig up the lawn closer to the house rather then the old shop. They had pebble paths inbetween the beds and now I understand where all the pebbles are coming from when we have been digging up our new flower beds. She also said there used to be a one room and kitchen upstairs and that the 2 brothers lived in the house with their parents and one brothers family. It would be fun to get a hold of some pictures from how it looked like then. Maybe I'll ask our Liz nicely if she has any.

I cant believe how many shades of green there is!

We are trying to decide on a nice apple green for our hall that continues on up the steps and the landing upstairs. We contemplated lots of different colors before settling on some sort of lime green or apple green. Not knowing how many shades there were that looked nice on paper and horrible on the wall we are now into our fifth tester pot and still it doesn't feel right. Well one of the new ones we got today feels better then the darker olive green we decided on yesterday. The olive is nice in daylight but makes the hall look very dark at night time. What to do, what to do..

In other news we have finished digging two flower borders and have planted one up but got some left to do in the shady one. The tomatoes have gone in the short end where there is sun all day and they are really sprouting on now. We have also got rid of the big mound of dirt that they dug up earlier when fixing a leaking water main. We also shifted the big lilac bushes they uprooted at the same time.

We are doing a wee bit of planning for the future as well. We really do want a green house in the garden or a conservatory added onto the house and if we did the latter one we could have a patio area next to it with steps down to the garden we thought. Still have to decide where the vegetable garden is going to be dug this autumn though. I dread that because it was hard enough doing the little flower beds with all the turf that had to be removed and all the weeds that left all their roots if you weren't careful with the fork. Maybe we could have a digging party? Anyone interested?

I think I'm going to have a look if the paint has dried yet, they tend to dry darker these green ones..

So here we are then..

The new house.

And we all are a wee bit bushed really and in need of a few nights good sleep but who got the time for that when there are things to put in place and boxes to be taken out and the garden to tend to and lots and lots more stuff. We cleaned out the apartment today and took just about everything that was left there from yesterday when the big move was. We had some good weather yesterday but today just rained in really. The next adventure for us is the hunt for a new lawn mover and we will have to venture into the land of DIY at one pint or another and I'm sure it will be a fun trip but a bit scary since there is a house to tend to now a days. As soon as the weather eases off a bit I'm going to have a good poke around the garden and see what can be done in there. I'm tempted to get started but I really shouldn't until the house feels a bit more finished or at least until we have some curtains up and not a box in sight.. good thing there is some storage to tuck boxes into isn't it?

It's short and sweet today since i really am longing for bed, so tired..

4 days remaining...

The moving crew (James mum and dad) are arriving tomorrow. They will be staying until next Saturday and help us with bits and bobs and driving the van. We are getting to borrow my sisters huge Mercedes Estate as well so we'll have an extra car to take the boxes in. And boy do we need it. At the last count we did, including all the prepacked ones in the storage and the ones under our bed we are now up to 64 banana boxes filled to the rim with our home. And still we are functioning quite well without everything that is packed. It sure makes you wonder why you have so much stuff doesn't it. And perhaps if you really need everything you got as well...

12 days remaining....

Got this in my mail today and laughed at the last little paragraph, nice pun.. :o)


TO ALL THE KIDS WHO SURVIVED the 1930's 40's, 50's, 60's and 70's !!

First, we survived being born to mothers who smoked and/or drank while they carried us.

They took aspirin, ate blue cheese dressing and didn't get tested for diabetes.

Then after that trauma, our baby cribs were covered with bright colored lead-based paints.

We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, doors or cabinets and when we rode our bikes, we had no helmets, not to mention, the risks we took hitchhiking.

As children, we would ride in cars with no seat belts or air bags.

Riding in the back of a pick up on a warm day was always a special treat.

We drank water from the garden hose and NOT from a bottle.

We shared one soft drink with four friends, from one bottle and NO ONE actually died from this.

We ate cupcakes, bread and butter and drank soda pop with sugar in it, but we weren't overweight because WE WERE ALWAYS OUTSIDE PLAYING!

We would leave home in the morning and play all day, as long as we were back when the streetlights came on.

No one was able to reach us all day. And we were O.K.

We would spend hours building our go-carts out of scraps and then ride down the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes. After running into the bushes a few times, we learned to solve the problem.

We did not have Playstations, Nintendo's, X-boxes, no video games at all, no 99 channels on cable, no video tape movies, no surround sound, no cell phones, no personal computers, no Internet or Internet chat rooms..........WE HAD FRIENDS and we went outside and found them!

We fell out of trees, got cut, broke bones and teeth and there were no lawsuits from these accidents.

We made up games with sticks and tennis balls and ate worms and although we were told it would happen, we did not put out very many eyes, nor did the worms live in us forever.

We rode bikes or walked to a friend's house and knocked on the door or rang the bell, or just walked in and talked to them!

Little League had tryouts and not everyone made the team. Those who didn't had to learn to deal with disappointment. Imagine that!!

The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke the law was unheard of. They actually sided with the law!

This generation has produced some of the best risk-takers, problem solvers and inventors ever!The past 50 years have been an explosion of innovation and new ideas.

We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we learned HOW TO DEAL WITH IT ALL! And YOU are one of them!
CONGRATULATIONS!

You might want to share this with others who have had the luck to grow up as kids, before the lawyers and the government regulated our lives for our own good.


Kind of makes you want to run through the house with scissors, doesn't it?!

14 days remaining...

Well now, it is getting closer to our moving date and i am feeling more and more drained by the day. I dont know if it just all down to stress and that my spring allergys are going in high gear but i just have NO energy at all. Dont know what to do about it either. I was home from work yesterday and slept practically all day but it only helped for a few hours this morning when i had some errands to do and visit my gran who is in hospital due to a fractured thigh bone after a nasty fall last thursday. Now i have no energy to do anything, just sit and my eyes are starting to itch and all i feel like is to go to bed! Help

21 days remaining....

Do you have a theme song or know anybody that has one? James, my sweet and funny husband has one. Its like a little fanfare and he uses it when entering a room, preparing food or any kind of action produces it now a days and all I can think about when I hear him go "Du de Dum" is .... Danger Mouse! But I'm sure its not from there but all I can think of is Danger Mouse and Penfold racing to the rescue of the world, again. LOL

22 days remaining....

New phone number and adress... check
Notice about moving sent to internet provider... check
Electricity company - chosen and informed... check
House insurance... check
Give notice to cable tv operator... check
Appartment sold.. check (big YAY)
House bought.. check (HUGE YaaaaaY)

I think that was all..? Oh i almost forgot..

Vacation planned and approved.. CHECK!

Got up early today and went to the allotment to get it prepared for sowing. We got some gravel added to our little path so it is all nice and straight. I tidied up the raspberry bushes and added onto the wicker fence I tried building last year it had sagged a bit during the winter. Some of the spring flower bulbs are coming up but nothing flowering yet but hopefully they will be soon if this nice warm weather persists. It was a lovely day with almost summer temperatures and a nice cool breeze coming from the lake Varpan. There is something very relaxing about gardening spite the hard work of turning soil and you get the extra bonus of watching all kind of little birds help themselves to whatever worms you expose while digging.

4 weeks left BTW, cant wait until we are in the new house!

I know, I know its been ages since I blogged. But there has been some developments. We did sign the contract and sent it of to the housing associating for approval earlier as I blogged about. Only thing is that it came back last week Friday saying they couldn't process it because James name was in it as well. So we did rewrite the contracts and the buyers did sign again even though I thought for a while they wouldn't, you know nerves are tense before the contract has been approved. But to our surprise James still had to sign a consent form allowing me to sell the apartment! Wouldn't it had been better if they would have agreed to the first contract?! Anyway it is all done and has been sent away again to the housing association for approval.

Right now we are in England since my maniac for a husband is going to run the London Marathon on Sunday. We went into London yesterday to pick up his running number and some other freebies that came along. After that we had a very relaxing day and visited the British Museum and did a spot of shopping as well. Cant go to London without seeing what's new in Covent Garden now can you? But did we have tired feet after all that walking, no not much..

Today is set for a spot of light shopping in Ipswich and tomorrow it is visiting day to James grandparents and other relatives. Sunday we all know what James is going to do, hopefully around 4 hours worth of it as well. On Monday I suspect I will have the pleasure of pulling said James out of bed and giggle while he descends the stairs on his bum since he will be too stiff and achy from the run to walk down it. Hopefully by Tuesday he is well enough to make the plane trip home. We might have to get him a wheelchair at the airport since it is quite a long treck out to the gates in Stansted Airport... At least the ones Ryanair uses for its Swedish flights.

Finally at home it will only be a month before we are moving!

Still keeping everything crossed in terms of the apartment sale, we might be able to have good news tomorrow. Well it is good already but just to make sure it is even better news for tomorrow, you know.

It is terribly busy at work at the moment. Lots of shoppers since it is Easter this weekend. The worst day is yet to come, tomorrow, until we can have a little bit of a breather on Friday. Hopefully people will be out in the lasting warm spring weather we are having at the moment and the rest of the weekend will just breeze by. It has been up to +14 today which makes for a welcome change from last weeks cold and quite nippy -15. The snow have been melting visibly today and I went for a long walk around the little lakes just down from us. All in all after a hectic morning and afternoon I am finally home and can relax a bit. But not too much or I will fall asleep!

I've started some seeds, at the moment it is just the double flowering Petunias I bought from England and a new sort of flower I've not seen before. In Latin it is Cistanthe grandiflora but in Swedish it is Stor Sidenblomma. Petunias are happily sprouting away and are a cm high. Bit gangly but I think they will get better once I take the hood off the tray. No sign of the Sidenblomma yet but they are supposed to be late at sprouting. Other then those I don't think I will have time to do any vegetables. Possibly I will do the runnerbeans in pots again to give them a head start in our cold spring and summer start. It did work a treat last year and we had a very good, big harvest of beans. Also I'm going to try out some nice yellow pearshaped tomatos in buckets at our new place. My mum is doing those for me since she had such a good hand at getting her tomato plants so big last year. All in all, it is feeling much more like spring!

After a day of scrubbing and dubbing so everything was neatly shining and you could eat off the floor we had 8 couples come to the viewing, 3 left a note of interest straight away and the rest have until Monday to think about it. Keeping literally everything crossed we might be able to sign a contract before Easter.

Six couples are interested in our apartment, at least that is how many is coming to the viewing tomorrow. I've been busy all morning getting things done but it seems that nothing is getting done! I'm just running around like a chicken without a head, panicking! BREATH!

In other news I think the new ice age has begun. We woke up to a foot of fresh snow this morning, it is soon V?rdagjämning damn it! That is when spring should have been sprung but not this year it seems. We have a very late winter and a fickle one at that.

Oh well I should be getting back at running around aimlessly, panicking.