Siding

We have spent the past 2 weeks painting. Today we finished priming all the boards that will be white. I took a half day off work and Stefan's dad and I painted the rest while the builders were putting up the ones that were already painted. Tomorrow Josefin is going to start with the base coat of oil on the boards that will later be stained. So that is what we are going to be doing for the rest of the week. Tonight Stefan and his 2nd cousin Patrik drove our storage room door out to the house. Haylie has her H1N1 vaccine tomorrow, so I took the day off. We are going to visit her old daycare in the morning. She has really missed everybody there. Its only been 5 weeks, but she was worried today that the kids wouldn't remember her.

Halloween

We didn't do any trick or treating this year, but decorated a little. Haylie decorated the tables and the computer. Then we had worms and monster meat with magic potion for dinner. (Thai noodles with chicken and veggie wok, sprite with green food coloring for Haylie and Sour Apple liqueur for us, and candy eyeballs frozen in ice cubes.) And of course, anytime you turn off the lights and light candles it is spooky for a kid. Later her cousins came and trick or treated so we had a little Halloweenish anyway.

Today Haylie slept until 8 AM and then had a nice relaxing morning with cartoons. I slept until 9:45 and then after we got ready, we went to the house to paint. Stefan's dad was with us and he and I painted while Stefan worked a little in the yard and had kid duty.

She had a snack and did some watercolor painting and watched Dora for a while. Her mouth did not stop moving the entire time we were there. Man can that kid talk. After lunch, Stefan painted a couple boards and I went with Haylie out back and pushed her on the swing and cleared out some thorny stuff and wild roses that had grown near it since this spring.

Stefan built this frame to paint and dry boards on in the family room. We are priming the boards that are going to be white right now. Many hundreds of boards. This is just about all we have done in the past week. Stefan's sister Josefin had done some taping and spackling in the bedrooms. She is in Barcelona this weekend for a soccer game. Stefan's other two sisters, their families, and his mom and step-dad Göran are in Thailand now for 2 weeks for his step-dad's 60th birthday. We had to opt out because of the house and our Disney trip at Christmas.

Tomorrow is fathers' day in Sweden, so we are taking Stefan's dad to Clarion Hotel Wisby for brunch & tea. Stefan's two brothers are coming too. The tea part is not so much tea but rather lots of cakes and cookies. Yum.

Here I am, painting in Haylie's room.

I had pasta salad, which Haylie later absconded with in lieu of her hot dog. I have actually forced myself to eat two hot dogs recently, but didn't enjoy them. Blah.

Clean-up day

On Saturday we enlisted some help to clean up in and around the house. We all swept, sorted, and burned construction mess. I sorted metal and sheetrock and piled on the trailer, then bagged up plastic, and then vacuumed sheetrock dust and sawdust for a while inside. Haylie was following Josefin around, helping her, so I had to make the best of having som time to myself. Stefan had a good laugh when I was carrying a large piece of sheetrock over/on my head and had a mishap. It was somewhat damp after sitting outside for a few weeks, and as I rounded the corner to the front of the house where he was, it buckled in the middle, pinching my thumb where I was holding it, and left me stuck in a little sheetrock pup-tent, crouched on the ground holding my thumb and complaining. After a good laugh he helped lift it off me.

After lots of hard work, Josefin, Haylie, Camilla and Todda were tuckered out. Just Stefan and his dad were still working after several hours. Stefan and Todda had driven a load of sheetrock, plastic, and metal scraps to the recycling station. When they got back, we took a break and roasted hot dogs over the fire.

The roof and gutters are on, and we are content with our choice of black. Soon the siding will be coming, and we will be painting it inside the house.

The builders are waiting for some parts for the ventilation over the stove before they can insulate over the vaulted ceiling. After that, they can spray up the insulation and finish sheetrocking the ceiling.

Here is our entryway, facing the closet. The convergence of the infloor heating is in the back of the closet. To the right of the closet we will have coathooks and shoes for everyday use.

Off the kitchen, we will have a little computer/reading corner, and a door to the patio.

This is the view from the kitchen. The eating area is on the right and the living room on the left. Straight ahead will be the wood-burning stove (where the particle board is), and a pocket door to the family room and our bedrooms and main bath.

Here is the hallway with the guest room on the left, the guest bath on the right, and laundry straight ahead. The storage room is to the left of the laundry room at the end. That is where the furnace and the breaker box will be. At the end of the hall here, we will have a green door to outside. We wanted a window in it, but had to settle for without, because getting a colored door was more expensive than white, and I had to have a colored door.

This is the guest bath. The toilet will be to the left and the bathtub to the right.

The kitchen windows are supposed to come in about 3 weeks. Those will make a huge difference in the feeling of the room.

We are stockpiling lumber scraps out by the shed, so that we can burn them this winter in our wood-burning stove. Stefan's dad was restless while we were eating hot dogs, so he built a side for our wood pile. He is going to do the other side the next time he comes. I have my perennials on the opposite side of the shed. Stefan's dad is one of those guys that saves stuff that could be of use, so he brought home a bunch of plywood scraps for burning in his stove in the garage, some plastic pipes and other odds and ends we didn't want.

Josefin (Stefan's youngest sister, in blue) and Stefan are going to go to the paint store tomorrow and buy some supplies to start taping and spackling the sheetrock seams. She is working as a painter at the moment, and likes to paint and wallpaper. We are going to hire her to help us.

TGIF

Today Stefan had a work dinner as a thank you for a job he did. I gave Haylie a haircut, took off a couple inches, which should make brushing easier. Her hair was getting really long. She is sleeping, talking in her sleep as a matter of fact. Complaining at me in her sleep to be precise.

There was some serious sawing going on at the house on Thursday. She also worked on a project with a hammer and nails that she had to bring home with her. I had a splitting headache and it was a lot of banging. I am still sick.

We stopped by to see Stefan on our way home from work/daycare. He has been working a lot in the evenings so Haylie hasn't seen him much this week.

The windows were put in on Thursday. Here is a view of the back from the NW.

The patio doors from the living room and kitchen.

As soon as Stefan is done with the cans for the spotlights in the living room and kitchen, they can insulate above the vaulted ceiling and sheetrock. The kitchen windows were ordered later than the rest so they haven't arrived yet.

Our bedroom with the wood-burning stove parked in the middle for safekeeping.

The main bathroom

The living room windows from the inside.

Haylie's room

Alfalfa

When little Sassafras woke up this morning, I noticed that she had given herself an Alfalfa, right on top of her head. I don't quite know when she did it, or where the hair she cut off has ended up. "Jag bara råkade klippa det!" ("I just happened to cut it!") Now she has a little chunk of hair that is just sticking up. Good thing we already had picture day. I had to tell her about when Grandma gave herself a haircut and had to have really short hair. She asked "Like Uncle Tommy?" Grandma will have to show Haylie her school picture post- self-inflicted haircut sometime.

Windows

This is our bedroom. The interior walls are almost all up now, and Stefan is putting in switches and outlets so they can close them up on both sides. Haylie complained that her room was small when we were there on Monday. Our roof is done too. The windows came today, so Stefan and his dad will be driving them to the house tonight. It will take a couple trips. It will be nice when they are in place so we get a feel of how the end result will be. I am home sick today. I got a 24 hr stomach bug yesterday, and a cold with fever at the same time, which is still hanging around today. Haylie has a sore throat too, so she was thrilled to be able to sleep in today and stay home with me. We had baguettes and with cheese and veggies, grapes and melon for lunch today, with a danish afterwards, and then she had an ice cream cone this afternoon. She played by herself a really long time this morning, actually having a nice little dialogue for her farm people and animals without pestering me, so I had a chance to rest and read my book. She so rarely plays by herself.

Trip to Stockholm

On Thursday Oct 8th, we went to Stockholm for a few days. We did IKEA and worked on picking out some stuff for our kitchen and laundry room, and on Friday we renewed Haylie's american passport at the Embassy and then went to Skansen. Other than that, it felt like we spent most of the weekend in transit: ferry, bus, and subway.

The Embassy

Haylie did some horseback riding.

At Skansen you can go in the Lemur exhibit with the Lemurs, or in with various monkeys. The Lemurs are funny, because they bask in the sun in a meditative position. Haylie was nervous about monkeys jumping on her so she wasn't all that thrilled. I was more nervous about monkey poop falling on me as they were checking us out from directly overhead.

Moose

We were just in time for owl feeding. Haylie liked watching them swoop down and take the food from the keeper's hand.

Haylie did get to ride a real pony, which she did very solemnly and seriously. She loves riding.

We got to watch one of the horses being curried, which she liked. Stefan had to stay far away because the dander was just flying.

Stefan has been busy putting tubes all over the place to pull the wiring through later.

Last Saturday was Klinte market. Haylie did the rides and had cotton candy before lunch. She had a good day. Here she is seen jumping on a big trampoline with a harness on. Stefan was pulling her down so her butt would bounce, then she would fly up in the air, laughing all the way.

Where is Haylie?

She was too chicken to go down the big slide until an older friend came and showed her the ropes. Then it was thrilling.

We have had a lot going on the past two weeks. Last week, Stefan worked on the house nonstop. This week, I was home sick a couple days, and Haylie had her first week at her new daycare. Stefan has been in charge of schooling her in there, so they went together a little more each day, and now he is leaving after about a half hour together and coming back to get her in the afternoon. She has already made a few new friends.

Yesterday the kids played "All squirrels, switch nests"

These three look like they are going to have lots of fun together. They spent Tuesday chasing boys together and "putting them in jail".