Building a Dream

I managed to find some time today to write about some new things that are going on, in and around the house. It has been more than 4 months now since we moved into our new house. And we have never been so happy. But having a house comes with a lot of work too. Our house was a "nyckelfärdigt" house. Meaning - ready to move in and start living.

Although we have already moved in and started living, there are many things to get done. But nothing could be done during winter as the whole house was surrounded by snow.

But finally the weather started to get better and we have Spring at last. As the temperature started rising the work began. We started with putting the floor stones in the carport and around the storage room outside and also a little part in front of the house. Putting the stones was pretty quick than I thought.

Then we started building the wooden deck outside the house. When we initially thought about the dimensions of the deck, it did not seem so big. But now as the wooden frame of the deck started to shape up, it feels like the deck is going to be very huge.

After all this we still have to paint the house too. And that is going to be a hell lot of work.

I finally got some time to write a few lines on the blog. December has been crazy... I hardly had time to breathe. But all is done now... well almost!

Before I begin to describe how crazy and tiresome the whole last month has been, I would like to wish everyone a Happy New Year!! (and belated X-Mas wishes).

The first page of the new chapter in our lives started on 7th December, the day of the final inspection. Everything went smooth without a hiccup. We couldn't have asked for more. Myresjöhus and the contractors had done a very good job. Then came the time to handover the keys. It felt so great. We finally made it.

Finally!!

Me & Ana with the team from Myresjöhus

Ana with Rogerio

Day 1 was all about moving our stuff from the apartment to the house. Luckily we had our friends helping us (thanks to Rogerio, Marcos and Ricardo) and most of the things were already packed in the boxes so it was easier to get the stuff in the house. But unpacking and putting things in place was tiresome. When we were finished unpacking, the house still felt empty. As we were living in an apartment which was way smaller compared to the house, we did not have much stuff to fill in the empty spaces of the house. Also the dining table and the sofa we had ordered had not arrived yet. It was a strange feeling with so much empty space in the house. We could actually hear echo when we spoke.

The sofa and dining table arrived a few days later and it looked much better. Until that time the only place we had to sit were the three bar stools that I had purchased and mounted myself. Speaking of mounting stuff... the whole of December just until before Christmas day, all I had been doing was mounting furniture and putting curtains in place. I have never in my life mounted so many things so quickly. All the furniture that we purchased for the kids rooms took a lot of time to put together.

Picking up the boxes at Ikea

It was a lot of boxes. I could hardly push the cart.

Ana showing off the shopping list

When it comes to Ikea furniture, you got to have skills to mount the furniture. And the amount of time and effort I put in preparing the kids rooms, I can actually add it as a skill in my CV and maybe get a job at Ikea.

When Christmas arrived, we were all set, at least to receive all the friends we invited over for X-mas.
It was around 20-25 people in the house, but the house never felt crowded. There was plenty of space for everyone to enjoy. It made us feel happy and satisfied.

After X-mas and New Year's it was time to get back to work. I had been on vacation the whole of December so that we can arrange everything in the new house. But not a single moment of that felt like a vacation, I had been working so hard the whole of December that I actually was longing to get back to office. As soon as I got back to office, I felt a bit relaxed. What an irony! But then I had to travel for a week to Seattle for work meetings. The jet lag was too much to handle and it messed up my whole week.

But luckily today I found some time to at least conclude what we started a year ago. It has been a really memorable journey. Building house is not easy, it takes time and patience (and of course money... a lot of it). But one thing I can say is that when I am in our new home with my wife and watching the kids enjoying their own space, all feels worth the time and effort.

And here are some more pics for you to enjoy!