Storing boards & logs

I must admit that my motivation for keeping the blog up to date went way down when we stopped building on the sauna. After Karel went back to Belgium I spent my time visiting Stockholm, Uppsala and parts of Dalarna.
But there was still one big job left: storing our logs and boards and planks in such a way that there're proctected from the rain & moist. It's something that must be done with care: when the wood is badly aired fungi start to grow very quickly.
Luckily I received help from my dad who visited me in Sweden at the beginning of september (it's not possible to lift the hustimmers alone).

Spacers keep the boards apart. Between the top layer and the tarp there's also a ventilation space.

Game over for this summer

Some good and some bad new:

First the bad news? Ten days before I was to leave Bart to himself I managed hurt myself. Nothing serious but no more lifting heavy logs for this summer for me. 

The good news? We had hoped to finish at least the walls this summer but alas. We managed to finish 6 out of 8 layers which isn't bad though. We even got some help from an Australian friend of ours, Ray. We met him on the course in Gränsfors and was so good to come and help us for a week. He even gave Bart some pointers on how to make that mortise axe razor sharp ... the irony of it all :-)

More news next summer!

Karel

Ray, our very helpful Aussie slave labourer

Ray preparing a lovely stew in the Dutch oven

the stew is almost ready Ray!

my last visit to Lake Orsen

Half way?

drilling dowel holes

moss for insulation between the hustimmer

view from the sauna

First layer finished!

Building

The house feels comfortable now and we've moved on to the sauna.
The foundations (boulders of +100kg) are in place and the first logs are being notched.
Karel finished the shaving horse and is using it to make dowels (pins to anchor the logs).
And of course we're exploring the neigbourhood, as you can see in the beautiful pictures!

Ten Days

Ten days have passed since our last entry. How come?

There were some technical problems that made it hard to go on the internet. The biggest one was that our power converter didn’t work. We therefore couldn’t charge our laptop and cell phones as we had hoped. Another problem was that the wireless internet connection we had hoped to use wasn’t as effective as promised.

However: We got hold of another power converter and managed to find a point close to the hut with reasonable internet connection. This is by the lake, about 500 meters away from the hut.

What did we manage to fix in these ten days? Well … quite a bit. Nothing log cabin related though, but still …

-          We started fixing the rain pipes and removing the moss from the roof.

-          We made mosquito windows to keep out the bugs and air the rooms.

-         We managed to get the wood stoves going – a gas mask could have come in handy though -  mainly to air the rooms and to the get the damp out.

-          We fitted the gas stoves with new tubes and fittings for security reasons.

-          We took out the old rugs, blankets and pillows.

-          We removed the mildew in the cupboards and on the walls.

-          We salvaged two boxspring beds and installed a new bunk bed. We therefore have two spare beds , maybe to be used in the near future?

-          We made a compost toilet and found a suitable way to dispose of the waste.

-          We installed a hand operated pump in the well and are now using our own water for washing and the dishes. We will have the water tested after we pumped up a 1000 liters.

-          We found a suitable – mosquito free – place to install the solar shower. Hot showers proved to be a much sought after luxury!

-          We scouted the area and obtained a map with walking routes in the village. It appears this is real hiking community: there is 500 kilometers of paths!

-          We befriended our lovely neighbours Mats & Lisbeth. We were even invited to join the local community of cabin owners by the lake. We went to a social occasion at the  common hall by the lake: tacos and skogsblomma!

-          We cleaned out the shed to obtain some room.

Yesterday we finally got a visit from Stig. Stig is the husband of the granddaughter of the man who built our house in the late forties. This was quite an accomplishment if you bear in mind that the road we currently use was only built in 1950. The house was meant to be used by foresters but was only used for one year. Thereafter it was only rarely used as a summer cabin.

Stig helped us quite a bit. He’s a carpenter by profession and will help us make the kitchen fire proof. It wasn’t necessary to change the beam in the attic that was supposedly too close to the chimney. He climbed on the roof in no time and assured us that the upper two layers of eternit was still ship shape. We can at least wait another year to find a solution for the roof. He assured us of this by pointing out that the inner roof was completely dry. He even helped us finding a roof worker to make an estimate.

Stig finally invited us to use his quay by the lake as often if we pleased! It’s really nicely situated and perfect for swimming.

The wood worm and big ants we discovered can be removed by a company as a part of our insurance policy.

What about the log cabin then? Well, yesterday we got hold of four really big boulders to use as our foundations. Today we made a clearing close to the house where the cabin will arise and put the first two logs in place.

Have we only been working our asses off then? Well yes, mostly but now and again we find time to relax. We enjoy the simple things like washing ourselves in the river, baking bread in a wood oven, canoeing on the lake, telling tall stories by a good shot of whisky or beer and last but not least: a game of bow and arrow.

Karel

Blue finger from log accident

state of the art power converter :)

In the meantime ...

A lot has happened since we've arrived, but the internet connection at the hut (through a wireless usbstick) is very bad. So there isn't much opportunity to post blog updates.
Most of the time we're working on the house itself to make comfortable.


Not much time, so just some impressions:

Voyage

Yesterday was the start of our big trip to Sweden. We were a little concerned about the hauling capabilities of the ten year old Nissan micra, but the car behaved flawlessly on the two day trip. The trailer we were hauling  had to take a pit stop in a local garage, but is going OK again.

On the road Karel was reading an article about Urnatur and it turned out to be on our route north, so we stopped to have a look at the cabins they have for rent:

It looks like a beautiful place to stay and was an inspiration for us.

Finally some pictures taken 'on the road' close to our destination in Dalarna:

Sauna design

The departure date to Sweden (1st of july) is getting closer and the planning is getting more and more hectic.
Here are some pictures from the sketchup design of what should become the sauna/bastu we'll be building over there.

This is a picture of the general layout of the sauna:

And this is an architectural design where everything is drawn and measured in mm's:

We'll be working on this till september. There probably won't be enough time to finish it all, I guess that'll take a couple more holidays.

house in Dalarna

There was a period of silence on the blog, but things were very busy with the logcabin/Sweden project. Everything clicked together and the project transformed and accelerated.
We found different people who are very motivated to participate. We selected a small house in Dalarna province and went there at the end of march to inspect it (together with some other plots/houses). We quickly settled on this particular house since it's beautifully located (in the woods and near a lake) and is also in an acceptable shape. It's situated on approximately 1600m² land.
After some consideration we bought the house and are now with five owners!

The plan is to renovate it this summer and to build a sauna next to it.

wanted: co-investors

The next step in our project is to find some co-investors.

What follows is the appeal we posted on some fora:

We fell in love with Swedish nature a long time ago. As you probably know Scandinavia is heaven for outdoor sportsmen and a bushcraft country par excellence, not only because of nature but also because of the right of public access. Sweden is even a member of the European Union, which can come in handy when you want to visit a doctor etc.

Our dream is to build a traditional log cabin far away from civilization, a place where all the 21st century luxuries can be forgotten and where you can fully enjoy the nature. We would prefer the Swedish-Norwegian border: either the north of the county of Värmland, or the northwest of the county of Dalarna. This is a mountainous region where the tradition of log cabin building is  a still alive and kicking.

That’s why we decided to follow a log cabin course in Gränsfors in the summer of 2010. The next summer we held a test case in Belgium. We are therefore confident now that we are capable of applying what we have learned. This fall we went to Sweden for a first exploration: we inquired about legislation, spoke to brokers, visited fifteen potential locations and the timber merchant where we want to buy our wood.

We are now looking for additional people who wish to invest in this project. We are hoping to make it more affordable by finding a third or even fourth party. As we see it now we want to buy a piece of land with already a small house on it. On this we would then build a small log cabin and use it as a sauna.

How much does this cost you wonder? If we find another investor, we estimate it at € 4,500 per person ... one investor more would make it € 3,500 per person. Don’t hesitate to contact us if you would like to know more about our plans.

If this is still over your budget but you are still interested ... we are even open to a kind of timeshare.

If you do not like to co-invest, but want to help out this summer ... please let us know!

Sincerely
Karel & Bart

blokhutzweden@gmail.com