Frohe Weihnachten! Buon Natale!

Dear Reader,

it is now seven weeks since we moved in and we're now experiencing our first Christmas in the Waldhus. We're happy and grateful to be living this moment and to share it with friends and family. We discover our house every day a bit more and feel comfortable and welcomed in it, feel at home.

For you a few impressions of these days, with all best wishes for a joyful Christmas and a serene and prosperous New Year.


...the Christmas' essentials: a ginger bread house and some biscuits for small presents...

...followed by the first presents from our neighbours!! Thank you!!! :-) 

...and even a Christmas Thought from Sweden... ;-)

 

...enough 'food' for our fireplace...

...some green and red accents ;-) ....

...on the Christmas Eve, a great walk to enjoy the beautiful (although not very Christmacy) sun!!

...some chill out time ;-) ....

...and then obviously a Christmas tree...

...and finally, in the night, presents for children and adults and an unforgettable night walk in the woods, blessed with a lovely moonlit...

Buon Natale dear Reader,
to you and your loved ones a peaceful holiday season from Elena & Holger of Waldhus!!

Take care,
Ele

We moved in: First impressions

Dear Reader

we're alive! And we're have been living for one month now in our Schwedenhaus home!!! :-)

These weeks have been flying away so quickly I never managed to take a breath and sit down to update you with some pictures... on top of all the packing, cleaning, and unpacking process we also had some residual works to be sorted out. This means we have been hosting carpenters, tilers, plumbers, drywall builders, and digger drivers for most about half of the past four weeks!! And we still have a few small works to complete... and then of course the whole house has to be tidied up and furnished.

Christmas time is almost there and still so much to do!! :-| But well, one thing at the time. For now, we're just happy to get to know our new home, get acquainted to it, feel it, enjoy it. And we love it every day more. ;-)

So..not so much to see yet - we're still covered in boxes and a large portion of furniture is missing. Nevertheless, a few pictures to show you how things are progressing! ;-)

We actually managed to move at the end of October, and we were blessed with a beautiful and warm Autumn sun!! Daniel completed the first shaping of the garden and here is the final result: 

I find it beautiful and can't wait to start working on it next Spring! ;-)

The terrace and the balcony were also completed and we immediately made good use of the wonderful weather...

Then here just a few pictures from inside the house, with proof that we actually made it on time to celebrate my birthday 'at home' :-) ...although you may notice that the kitchen is still missing a few pieces... :-) :-)

 

Music corner...

And fireplace!! We ab-so-lu-tely love it! And it has been happily blessing us with warmth and light almost every night during the whole month!!!

Here our all room / working space to be - although here it still looks like a messy warehouse...

 Bathroom: with makeshift curtains and forniture..

And then last week we got a lovely pre-Christmas suprise: the first snow!!

A blessing, a white silent coat that invites you to slow down and rediscover the wonder of a tiny ice crystal... ;-)

So here we are. Discovering this place that is now our home piece after piece. Every new tiny experience, every new friend that comes to visit gives a bit more edge and personality and warmth to the house, making it every day a bit more 'ours'.
The most odd feeling was to realize from the very first evening that we actually felt at home, as if every room and corner was simply as it should be: naturally right. :-) I think this shows Mr. Fortenbach's skills in designing a house that feels cosy, functional, and simply the right house for us. We are very thankful to our architect and the whole Rörvikshus Team, who made this whole adventure possible in the first instance.

Now time to sleep. Did I tell you dear Reader? We sleep much better since we moved it. And I've never loved a bedroom as much as I love this one. ;-)

Have a good, resting night.
Write to you soon,
Ele

La Cucina : Die Küche :-)

Dear Reader,

One week to go and finally the kitchen arrived!!

And not just that: We also managed to get electricity in the house, the terrace and balcony have been partly assembled, most doors are placed and several refinement works have been completed :-) :-) :-)

There is still much to do, in particular we don't have any bathroom ready yet (!!) and neither water no heating system are working!!

But hey, we still have five days to go!! ;-)

So first, here a few pictures of our new kitchen!!!! :-) :-) :-)

Here details of the ash wood cabinets...

And here in the evening, when we brought the first light in the house!! ;-)

The kitchen is a Lube Agnese, colour Camelia, with cinnamon quartz worktop :-)  I already love it and can't wait to start backing and cooking as soon as we're settled!! I also find the colours fit perfectly with the walls, windows, and floor. The whole room just feel soooo cosy and warm and ready to welcome friends and quality family time!!! ;-)

More pictures will hopefully follow in the next days, but first it's time for us to focus on packing and cleaning and moving and unpacking...

So much to do!! And of course with the best possible timing a cold caught Holger and me these days...!!! Aber was soll's...Kopf hoch and let's get the job done!

Write to you soon,
take care till then,
Ele

Il camino!! The first fire...

Dear Reader

this weekend has been quite intense and our house experienced a huge new step forward: we built our fireplace and for the first time we could have warmth and welcoming fire at our place!!

A fireplace or stove was a great wish of ours and a priority for the house ;-) After a long search our choice fell on an Italian wood stove from a company that has accompanied my childhood and youth: Palazzetti. :-) Open fireplaces, stoves, chéminées...in my family there has always been a Palazzetti (or two!!) to warm up cold winter evenings and bring light to Christmas Eve nights ;-)

To save on the budget we chose a model that would not require brick or stonwork, so that we could assemble the whole thing ourselves - with the help of some good friends! :-)

Despite the ca. 260kg of stove to move around, the whole process worked nicely and smoothely, and on Saturday evening we could enjoy our first fire - and start heating up the otherwise ice-cold house!!!!!

The most heavy part of our stove (130kg) - arrived at home safely thanks to Daniel's readiness to help and delicate touch with its excavator!! :-) 

Holger and its father did then a great job assembling the stove like professionals in a few hours!!!

 

And before dinner we could finally light our first fire!!!! :-) :-) :-) Il nostro primo fuoco!!!! 

Even a simple polystyrene block feels like a cosy couch with a well-placed fire!!!! :-) :-) And for the first time, we could enjoy our living room...

The stove works great and we could raise the temperature in the ground floor from nearly zero to an almost comfortable level ;-) We still have to paint the pedestal (right now it still looks greenish from the priming we gave) but the stove already fits the room very nicely. And best of all, we got a solid 15kw fireplace with plenty of place to admire the flames (from everywhere in the ground floor) and that we could assemble ourselves!! Sooooo proud of my men!!!! :-) :-) :-)

So, one more step done. No matter what, we're not going to freeze over in two weeks time... ;-) which is already a lot to say, given that we're still missing electricity...!!!

Have a good, warm night dear reader,
Ele