Seeing Red

Eight and a half years after we started redoing the room which would become our bedroom, I finally started painting this week.

When we first moved into this house in 1998, this room was used as the guest/junk room. It was pepto-bismol pink and it smelled funny, especially in the closet. There was one large triple window, but it was in really bad condition. Only one of the three sections could be opened. On two of the three sections, one layer of glass was broken, so they were single pane. We tried storing cardboard boxes in the closet, but after just a couple of weeks, they got mildewy. After that, it was just wasted space.

When we started redoing the room, one of the first things we did was rip up the floor. There we discovered the source of odor: the sewage pipe from the bathroom went under the closet, and it was missing a piece. The horizontal pipe emptied directly into the vertical pipe--instead of a bend piece, it was open. Eeeew! Once that was fixed, the room smelled a bit better, but it was still a little funky. The floor also hid places where the subfloor wasn't poured all the way out to the rock foundation. Here it was just dirt. Filling these holes solved the mildew problems in those corners. In the meanwhile, we had just the cement sub-floor for a year or so.

We also ripped down the ceiling/attic floor and redid it so that we could store things in the attic and not risk stepping through the rotted boards (15 inch wide oak, but so rotted we could break them by hand). We replaced the 1950's vintage triple window with a smaller but more age appropriate double window. That in itself would have made the room darker, which we'd never do, so we also reinstalled two windows in the gavel end of the house. From the outside, we could see where these windows had been bricked up. The view out these windows is probably the best in the house, and we often see wildlife in that direction. When we put in these windows, we pulled down the drywall that had lined that wall. Behind the drywall was fiberglass insulation, but it looked more like a giant ant farm for mice. Once that was gone, the smell disappeared.

We did all this from sub-floor to ceiling ourselves. We did have an electrician do some work and inspect what we'd done, and we had someone else coat the brick and adobe walls with cement. Then we installed in-floor heating and click together wood-laminate flooring. This knotty pine flooring looks okay and age appropriate, but it turned out to be a bit soft and has scratched easily. Shortly before our daughter was born, we moved our bedroom into this room.

After that, remodeling was no longer a priority. We decided the cement walls were too rough, so we spackled all but the chimney. We also installed a wood burning stove. Before we could paint, I wanted to fix all the cracks and scratches in the spackle. Unfortunately I'm far too much of a perfectionist for this job, and I would work for hours on just a couple of square feet. By this fall, I'd finally managed to spackle over 3/4 of the room, but the remaining walls came into room (around the pantry) and were especially exposed. I just couldn't get them right. We brought in the pros, and these two guys did the job in about half an hour. Spackle complete, we now had no excuses not to paint. I no longer liked the original blue color scheme we had selected for the room 7 years ago, so we started over with a mountain of brochures and paint chips. Having worked at a paint factory, I was inspired to challenge my inclination to paint everything a variation on white, so we chose deep red for the interior walls. I wanted tan for the exterior walls, but my husband feared it would look like we tried and failed to match the light yellow of the kitchen, so we chose a warm white.

We started with the chimney, which really couldn't be anything other than white. Really, there was no reason we couldn't have done this years ago. It certainly would have made sense to paint it before installing the fireplace. This was phase one, and I did the first coat on Wednesday (a holiday because of the 13th day of Christmas). The paint really got sucked into the cement, so there wasn't enough for two coats. We apparently bought the last one liter can of this stuff in Skåne, but we did manage to find more paint (a larger can and a different brand) so I could do the second coat on Saturday. I also did the prep work for the red walls and brush painted the edges and corners on Saturday then continued on Sunday. When I first opened the can, I was shocked--it was bright red and a little pinkish. As I painted, I was reminded of all the things that were this color: lipstick, firetrucks, etc. The second coat looked more like our old Volvo 740. Miraculously, the third coat dried darker and pretty much how we expected. The white chimney is pretty contrasty, so I think I'll get my way with the darker exterior walls, but that will have to wait a few weeks.

The biggest question remains: Why didn't we do this years ago?

New Blog

Today I created a new blog for the purpose of showing photos and marketing my photography. It's not pretty, but at least I got it to link to my regular website and display large photographs. (The size of the photographs is one of the things that have frustrated me with this blog.) Hopefully I will eventually figure out how to make it more attractive. I've been told that a blog is a great asset and supplement to a regular website. If it's done right, it's easily found by search engines and thus an excellent marketing tool.

I will keep using this blog, as I have, to share my personal thoughts and activities.

On my mind these days is our upcoming trip to Florida. We leave next Saturday, all three of us. For the first week my husband will be at a meeting in Miami, so my daughter and I will have time to explore. My mom and her husband will come to Miami to meet us there. It will be nice to see them since we didn't see them for Christmas. The second week the three of will have our first family vacation together that isn't all about visiting relatives. We're looking forward to seeing the Everglades and the Keys.

So from here in our snowy winter wonderland, I've been surfing up hotels and activities in sunny and warm south Florida. If anyone's been to this area, tips would be greatly appreciated.

Happy New Year!

New Year's Eve started out as another Christmas. We ate scones and cookies at my mother-in-law's house and opened presents from her and my brother-in-law's family.

We were invited to a New Year's Eve party this year, with the same people who had the Halloween party. It was nice. The highlight of the evening was fireworks at midnight. It's the one time per year where the usually safety-obsessive Swedes abandon all common sense. Kids light fire-crackers and mini-rockets in their hands then throw them at each other. This year's ads for fireworks featured things like safety glasses and hearing protection for kids, which is definitely a step in the right direction, but a lot of the rockets seem just plain dangerous. Even if you do manage to pound the things into the frozen ground sufficiently, misfires seem to be fairly common, and a rocket going any direction other than up is bad news. To me, the fountain style fireworks seem a lot safer than the type that shoot high into the air.

So anyway, we were outside at midnight where it was -8 C (18 F). We toasted each other with champagne and sparkling cider. I chose the cider, but I didn't drink it fast enough, and it froze in the glass. The alcohol in the champagne functioned as antifreeze to keep it liquid. There was still a little snow left from before Christmas, and it had been supplemented with a powered sugar dusting the night before. This evening there was a rim frost which covered not only the grass and cars but the trees as well. Add the full moon, and the fireworks, and it was a very bright and beautiful night.

I realize now that it's been 10 years since we were last invited to a New Year's Eve party. It was the big 2000 party, and I remember it fondly. It's also weird to think how much has changed since then. Our friends who hosted the party have divorced, moved away, and remarried. Other friends who seem to have had kids forever did not have kids yet, and neither did we.

I'm not much for new year's resolutions, but I'm setting a goal for a happier and healthier year. I'm going to focus on the positive and not dwell on the negative. I'm also going to try to exercise more and eat better. Sound familiar? At least I'm not resolving to lose weight.

I survived Christmas 2009, part 2

On the 24th, we loaded up the Burb and drove to our friends' house in Denmark about 2 hours away. A few minutes after having dropped the cats of at the kennel, I was hit by a sense of peace. I realized that there was nothing else that could be done. For the next two days, my to-do list was on hold. Sure, I'd help out at my friend's house, but it was a relief to suddenly be going with the flow.

The snow made for a beautiful drive. Much to our surprise, road conditions were perfect, and there was no traffic. We actually showed up early. For lunch, we had warm rice porridge. Yum! After lunch, we went for a walk and the kids did some sledding. We were very lucky that there was still enough snow left for that. There was a big hill with a whole lot of kids sledding. Unfortunately our kids were determined to take the hill from the top, and they both wiped out big time and arrived home in tears. The traditional Donald Duck Christmas Special (apparently an equally important tradition both in Denmark and Sweden) and some caramel corn quickly raised their spirits again.

The main course for dinner was duck. We also had my red cabbage, gravy, boiled potatoes, caramelized potatoes (yum!), prunes and apples cooked inside the duck, and potato chips (yes, that's part of the traditional Danish Christmas meal). We had rice pudding with cherry sauce for dessert. This has chopped almonds in it, along with one whole almond, and the person who finds the whole almond gets a prize. After the food, we danced (walked really) and sang (hummed at best for those of us who don't know the Danish Christmas songs) around the Christmas tree. Then everyone opens their presents. After the frenzy, just in case anyone's even remotely hungry, it was time for cookies and candy with coffee or tea. I brought banana bread, caramel corn, pecan butterballs, spritz cookies, peppermint meringues, and peanut butter buckeyes. They supplemented with licorice and marzipan/nougat candies.

On the 25th, we took it easy, sat around, and enjoyed each others' company. It rained, and the snow melted. In the evening we made an Indian lamb dish which was a nice break from all the Christmas food, then we drove home.

On the 26th, we finally decorated our Christmas tree. Our daughter picked it out. I think it was wider than it was tall (exactly the opposite of what I would have chosen for our crowded living room), but it turned out nicely anyhow. My husband's mother was supposed to come for Christmas dinner on the 26th and spend the night, but there was some misunderstanding having to do with a dog she was watching that has a problem with cats, so she came for a shorter visit on the 27th instead.

The 27th was also the day I hosted the annual White Elephant Gift Exchange for the neighborhood, so that was a really busy day. It turned out that a lot of the neighbors had other plans, so we weren't so many guests, but it was a lot of fun anyhow. When the guests left, we opened presents again even though my MIL had forgotten to bring her presents. We'd saved some presents for our daughter to open, and we didn't think it was fair to make her wait any longer.

For dinner I prepared a traditional Swedish Christmas dinner (Julbord) which featured ham, meatballs, small sausages, two kinds of pickled herring, smoked salmon, three kinds of breads, three kinds of cheeses, o'gratin potatoes (traditionally it would be boiled potatoes, but I think that's just too boring), and red cabbage. I felt that more veggies were needed, so I also served creamed spinach and fresh cherry tomatoes. Since it was getting late, and we'd already gorged ourselves with cookies and candy all afternoon, we decided to skip dessert.

MIL invited our daughter to go home with her, so we're kid-free for a few days until New Year's Eve.

I survived Christmas 2009, part 1

It's finally time to take a deep breath and let life return to normal. Sort of. I'm in Christmas recovery mode now. After a month of hectic activity and preparations, it's over. We're unexpectedly kid free for a couple of days, so we've spent the time painting the inside of the barn/new garage.

In Sweden, the Christmas season starts with the first of Advent, which this year was the last Sunday in November. That's when the Christmas decorations are put up, and I actually did this on schedule. The first weekend in December, I was in Berlin (more on that later). From the moment I got home, I felt I was playing catch up, both with work and with all the Christmas stuff: cards to write and mail, presents to order, packages to send, cookies to bake, presents to wrap, etc. Then there's all the kid stuff too: cards to make, gingerbread house to assemble, Lucia concert at school, the Lucia/Christmas concert at the church, the violin concert with the music school, and finally the last-day-of-school show (canceled due to snow). That's right, snow! We got plenty of it, and we even had a white Christmas.

We had a real snowstorm on the 18th with over a foot of snow and plenty of wind to blow it into drifts. My husband left for work and made it only about 50 meters before getting stuck in a drift that was deeper than the car. Shortly thereafter, our neighbor came to plow us out and helped pull the car back onto the road. He decided to work from home, but our daughter really wanted to make it to the last-day-of-school show and party, so he drove her to school in the Suburban. Only 2 teachers and about 5 kids had made it to school, so they sent everyone home.

The snow was about two feet deep by the time the snow let up on Saturday. We walked to a party at a neighbor's house, and it was absolutely magical. It felt like walking through a Christmas card. It snowed on and off for the next few days, but it also got warmer, so the snow compacted, and it never got any deeper. On the 23d, it started to thaw. My husband likes to wait until the 23d to do the tree. By then, I was too busy cooking, so he took our daughter to pick out a tree. There were only 4 trees left at the lot, so she got to pick one out, and we got a great deal on it. However, we had so much to do that we decided to wait with bringing the tree in and decorating it.

I just couldn't help myself

I've been totally swamped since I got back from Berlin, but I have tons of pictures and every intention of blogging about it. Today I took a break from everything else I have to do to take some pictures. The sun came out, and with the snow it was so pretty. I just couldn't resist. So here are some pictures. (If you notice the low angle of the sun, that's how it is this far north. These pictures were taken at noon!)

It's the first real snow of the season which started yesterday after several days of teasing with a powered sugar dusting then wet stuff that melted nearly as fast as it fell. I love the snow, and needless to say, my daughter does too. This morning I was reminded about the down side of snow. It took me about 20 minutes to excavate and break into my car. I eventually got the passenger side door opened, and Lina and I climbed in from there. She had to climb again to get out when we got to school. I'd estimate we have about 6 inches of snow, but it's been blowing around, so some areas are nearly bare, and others are a couple of feet deep. You need to keep your speed up to drive through the drifts, but it results in a very satisfying cloud of snow!

Christmas is in the air

December began with the return of the cold weather. The temperature dropped literally overnight from the 40's (6-9 C) down to freezing. The days are still cloudy, but the nights have been clear and COLD. Today it really felt like it was going to snow. The Christmas decorations add to the mood.

Most importantly, I'm excited about going to Berlin. Tonight I leave for Denmark where I'll spend the night at my friend's house, then very early tomorrow, we'll take a bus to Berlin. We plan to do some sightseeing and shopping, but mostly relax and enjoy a mom's weekend out (kid and husband free).

I haven't been to Berlin since 1989, a few months before the Berlin Wall fell. Thus the 20th anniversary of the Wall coming down is a milestone for me too. In 1989 I was in college, traveling with two friends from high school. We did the Eurail thing, covering 9 countries in 5 weeks by train with everything in our backpacks. It was an amazing experience, and I learned a lot about myself. I'd love to reminisce, but now it's time to go! I'll probably be without internet until Monday.