fashion blog

At the end of last summer we renovated a room for Dag! Ever since we moved out of the flat in the city to stay in the countryside permanently we have been living in a constant renovation state, or rather, the notion of a  we-should-be-renovating  state. Half of our downstairs still consists of a labyrinth of boxes, and while I knew this would be a slow process, it is driving me insane nontetheless. However, slowly but certainly we have managed to get  some things  done:  a year ago we turned what I had referred to as "the renovation hole" into a walk-in closet, and at the end of summer we finally got around fixing Dag a proper room! (Earlier this year we renovated a room for Dag's older brother -the oldest boy has moved away from home to study already- and as late as then we finally also got proper electricity in this room; everything had been with extention chords there forever. We also got electricity to the walk-in closet and some chords and plugs in our bed...

Now as the sun has returned to our hemisphere it's time to show the plants some love, re-pot and take care of them after the winter darkness. This year I -finally- got a couple of plant lamps to help my green inhabitants survive the dark months better. I somewhere read a comparison of the amount of light, and it is ridiculously low here in winter (from some 100 000 lux on a summer's day to just 500 during the darkest period), which is of course pretty obvious if you live here, but to see the actual numbers on paper is pretty describing as well. So now it's time for bigger pots for some, new soil and other care taking. I have always liked to decorate with plants, especially to make a room nicer when it is still waiting for a touch up or renovation, as is the case with our living room downstairs. We finally got the most important parts renovated, like upstairs  ( or: most of it, still some left...), and then the two-year-box-labyrinth-hell that was our former city flat clean...

You may know that my love for putting wheels on, or rather: under things, is just about as big as my love for pockets. When we made Dag's room  we put wheels under most of the storage. Easy to move around when playing, building fortresses and creating new secret worlds. He has a bench with boxes filled with toys underneath, that he can roll out when he needs them, to where he wants them. I planned and Eddi made a lego tray to build on, and then push under the bed for when not needed. And also to mimize the amount of hazardous little hard pieces to step onto when spread out on the floor (they still appear there too though...) And I got a couple of transport trolleys from the hardware store to store the bigger toy boxes on. (Yes, half of our house consists of Lego.) I wonder if there is something more that I'd manage to wheel still...

We finally have a living room! Yes, there has always been a living room downstairs , but that room still has boxes and extra furniture from our  former city flat  everywhere, that have been waiting for the renovation to progress so they can be taken into use and the downstairs one glorious day be emptied up of extras. A day which is very much closer now than a few months ago. (Insert big choir underneath my window singing Hallelujah! the Bach way here.)  We had basically been hanging out in the kitchen for the past two years while first fixing up the boys' rooms , and this summer we finally got the upstairs hallways turned into a hang-out space.  The hallways was always ugly, unpractical, and tended to collect junk. There are no proper before's of that exact reason. A long time ago when I first came here it made you feel like a tiny hotdog in a bun as one wall was ketchup red and the other mustard yellow. Eventually we coloured the walls white as a quick fix. The ce...

This is the best part of the renovation! Choosing colours and getting to paint. (or ok, second best, after actually being done. or maybe third, because getting to bring the stuff in and decorate is pretty close to being a winner as well...) Also, note: nice floor. Handpainted by mister Eddi again, like he did downstairs.

Ah, the joy of a clean surface. Especially since it looked like this moments before: To be honest, half of this is on the floor now but the mind rests so much better with at least one level done.

I guess we are at that point of the year again when small whispers and hints about a possible arriving spring start showing up in blogs on the northern hemisphere.  That, and the time when I start mentioning that I probably should wash my windows... But it's a big thing here, always, when the long winter ends and the light starts coming back (and it easily sounds all Game of Thrones when you talk about that..). We're at the yo-yo season where snow melts and returns again and those lighter shoes in the closet start getting restless but will have to wait. But at least we do have more light; longer days. Like many others, I often get an urge to decorate and fix things up at home with the arrival of spring. Not really happening this year, as everything looks like shit still; we live in a labyrinth of ikea-bags and boxes after the move away from the city flat last November. The only decent looking and thus bearable (plus photographable) room is the kitchen, which of course means it...

I have an orchid in my soon-to-be-former home, that keeps in growing and making new branches and new flowers. As soon as the flowers fall off new ones appear. And I don't know how this little fella does it, considering  most orchids just come to wither and die  under my tl-and-c, as I've pondered upon  before . Not sure what I've done differently this time, perhaps watered it with a more constant routine, or then it's the fact that I only sleep in the apartment a couple of night per week and it grows better that way because it's just not fond of humans. Either way, I hope this one will survive the move out to the countryside and can keep making me happy with it's amazing prettiness!

Everything is so clean and tidy at home now! I've been organising and cleaning (late at night, after work) for several days!  It hasn't been this little stuff around for years. But that is of course, because everything is now in bags and boxes in the farm house livingroom. And the place seriously looks like crap. So after days of cleaning in the countryside I am actually dreaming about getting to organise and clean some more! But that would require the opportunity to some days off, so alas, lets see when the universe grants me a few. That, plus some renovation, and things will eventually be tip-top! (Uh.) The reason to all of this is of course that you can now buy our lovely city home . All though I've renovated it myself it has been on rent all along from my grandmother, who has now decided to sell it. It's sad but was of course inevitable at some point. Although I hadn't thought I'd move out to the countryside permanently before my kids were grown up so that w...