A new car

Posted on August 17, 2017 by Wolfie217

On Tuesday we finally got our new car. It’s a Renault Zoe, a small electric car. We ordered it in the beginning of April after we had an accident with our Škoda and it had to be scrapped. It took some time for it to be delivered, but it was worth the wait and we had another car (a Renault Kadjar) from the dealer until it arrived.

Here is a picture of the car (sorry for the quality of the picture):

Picture of the new car

Here is a picture of the loaner:

Picutre of the car we loaned

Here is a picture of the damage on the Škoda, it wasn’t a bad accident, airbags didn’t deploy, but the insurance company rather traded in the car then letting us fix it:

Picture of the crashed car

3rd of Advent (11)

Posted on December 11, 2016 by Wolfie217

third-advent

Fancy guests in Stockholm. The Norwegian engine was there because it pulled a new trainset on tour before going to Oslo.

Bicycling!

Posted on August 6, 2016 by Wolfie217

I just have to tell you all like the proud father I am: My daughter now knows how to bicycle all by her herself. For a week or so she has known how to bicycle with the little exception of that she couldn’t start herself. Today our evening walk started the same way as most, I held her to start and then she was off. When we were almost home again, she didn’t want to wait for us to catch up with her so she tried to start herself and did. Back home she waited for us at the entrance to the driveway, she wanted to show us how she had started herself and she did. So now she knows how to bicycle, from start to stop.

Here is a picture of her on the way last week.

Bicycling Daughter

Golden Fun

Posted on August 2, 2016 by Wolfie217

We have finally bought a new car. It is really difficult to buy a car, first we had a budget, then there was a thought of what kind of car we wanted, then we started looking at ads. There are so many cars out there matching our criteria. We had to look at some cars.

If you want the quick version, just scroll to the end of the post, there is some good portion of rambling in the middle.

So, the new car should not be too old, we had a limit of how much we could put, and preferably not driven that far. That makes a tricky combination. We looked at Hyundais, first. Then we realised we didn’t want something as wind sensitive as the Yellow Danger. There are some other models there too. We also looked at VW-Polo and Golf and siblings from Seat and Skoda. Na, either they were Stone Age (or at least from the previous millennium) or they had been driving something like 300 000 km. At this point we realised we need to broaden our search and start actually looking at cars not only browsing ads.

So Susanna’s parents came to take care of our kids and we went for a tour de used-car-dealers. At the first place we had a rather shocking encounter with a Hyundai Getz, (I think it was), not that old, just not taken care of. There we also saw a Ford Focus that kind of opened our eyes to the Fords. The second place was closed (or just not answering the phone), the third place had grass growing out of the car so we decided that we didn’t really think that was proper treatment for a car to be sold.

After a much needed lunch we continued up the coast to look at some other cars. Two Hyundai Accent were the lures. We took one for a test drive. Not our car. And it wasn’t that nice either. We looked at some Fords again, but neither one of them was better than the one in the morning.

Off to the next place. We were greeted by an eager salesman (probably the owner of the place). After letting him know what we wanted he started showing us cars. It was a bit confusing at first; he was showing all kind of cars kind of at once. But we wanted to look closer at a few of them. Here we first came in touch with the French cars. We realised that a Citroën C4 wasn’t our cup of tea, centre speedometers should be banned. The C3 wasn’t that nice and lacked some features, I was really hoping for car with cruise-control. We looked at some Opels here too but they were a bit over our budget.

A Renault Mégane was a nice surprise tough. Coming in a bit below our budget it caught our eyes. So we asked for a test-drive. It was a pleasant surprise. Quiet, smooth and comfortable. We really liked it. Still we weren’t convinced. Renault isn’t a brand we were familiar with. It had some things that needed tending but that wasn’t a problem the salesman said, they would fix it.

Off to the next place, the last place in our tour. Here we had high hopes. Boy did they fail. The cars were in lesser shape than at the previous place and seemingly higher in price. We didn’t even test-drive any car there.

On the way home Susanna researched a bit about Renaults. The gathered info convinced us that a Renault could actually be a feasible choice for us. We still liked the Ford Focus though. Back home we did some background check on the most interesting cars we had looked at. 7 owners on both the Ford from the morning and the Mégane. But wait; the first owner of the Mégane was a car rental company. So that’s why it was so cheap. Some more research on owning a former rental crossed that car off our list. Now we were back to the Ford Focus. It had been rolling a bit far so we decided to look at some more.

As we didn’t want to ask someone to watch our kids again Markus and I drove to Kristianstad to check out some Fords we had seen ads for. The first one was sold. Going to the next one. At first it looked okay, but a closer look revealed rust, and plenty of it. It was actually more rusty than the Yellow Danger. And that isn’t a good sign for a car almost 4 years younger. It had some parts almost falling off. We still took it for a test-drive. It didn’t feel good either and made some funny noises.

Disappointed we looked around in the store. There was a Renault Mégane there too. It looked really nice. So we took a closer look. I asked if we could take it for a test-drive. It felt good. We looked at it, no rust to be found except for a bit on the break disks in the back. (One of them needs replacement in a not too distant future). Just below our budget but without winter tires. Winter tires could be included though. So we went home thinking this might be the car. Back home we did the background check. Only one user and nothing other showing up.

So, today (Monday) we went back there to buy it. Susanna hadn’t seen it before but she liked it too. Here it is, the Golden Fun. A bit bigger than needed, but it could double as family car in case we need to. Now I only have to install a phone-holder.

Golden Fun, Renault Mégane Combi

Here is a picture of the car.

We already made use of the fact that we have two cars again. Susanna went shopping while I picked up our daughter from a friend.

Winter is here

Posted on November 22, 2015 by Wolfie217

Yesterday it started snowing while we were driving to Malmö. As we went back the roads had transformed to a slippery white adventure. Lucky us we had put on the winter tires in the morning. (Na, I had checked the weather report and it said something about snow coming).

I just love snow. It makes life just a little bit better. Especially in November as it is so dark otherwise.

Our daughter and I made a snow-family the first night:

A close up of the snow-lamp in the background:

Snow-light

Today was filled with outdoor activities. First of all had the driveway to be cleared from snow. That took a while, luckily I wasn’t alone on that. Here is the before:

And this was the result:

Cleared front yard

Our house looks so nice in the snow.

You might notice something different in the picture, last weekend we had great help from a friend of ours and Johannes parents taking down the birch-tree just next to the house.

Here it is after it was cut down:

And here is the house from the field without the tree:

Thank you so much for all the help.

I’ve also been doing things with the play-house, first I made all the corner-boards, but they still have to be painted in this picture:

To paint them I moved them into the shed:

I had great help holding the boards and tools from my son. Now some of them are back up, but as I can’t paint them all at once and now the cold came there are still some waiting to get done.

As the snow stayed I also built a snow-igloo for our daughter this afternoon. It’s kind of hard work playing in the snow. Here she sits inside enjoying the candle I put in as light:

That’s all for now; Enjoy the snow and drive safe.

My legs hurt

Posted on October 15, 2015 by Wolfie217

I did it. Today everything was right. Our son didn’t sleep before it was too short for him to sleep before we have to pick up his sister from preschool. It was dry outside and I was in the mood. So I packed our son in the trailer for the bicycle and off we went, to pick up his sister by bicycle.

I had checked the route and it gave me a hint that it wouldn’t be easy. Back and forth along the small backroads, I won’t take the main road, it’s not safe. It should be about 8 km, and more than 50 meters up and down. It turned out to be a bit longer and the last part the wind came straight against me.

Our daughter was happy that I picked her up with the bicycle. Her brother slept on the way there. On the way home I had some time to make pictures.

We live in an electricity producing area; there are wind turbines all over the place.

As I got a bit tired I had to make a few short brakes, just to rest my legs and arms.

Taking a break

Just before we come home I have to lift/drag all of us across this old stone wall. It is hard to imagine that I can get both bicycle and trailer through the shrubs behind the wall, but the path is wide enough.

Crossing of the wall

Doing the pickup this way made the day feel shorter. (A good thing when one has to entertain a 1 and a 4 year old kid). It was fun to actually go somewhere and not just going back and forth along our little road we live at. I just love bicycling.

On the downside I realised in how bad shape I am. Okay, the wind was against me, but 8.5 km in just short of 40 minutes, that’s not good. I will have to do this on a regular basis to get back in to some kind of shape again. It would do me good. So I will try to do it at least once a week, as long as it isn’t raining, I’m comfortable that way and dirt roads just aren’t fun to be on when wet. I won’t do it with too much snow either, who knows how well the snow is cleared off the small backroads.

Now I will try to sleep, my legs are killing me.

Some reflections on the first weeks

Posted on September 11, 2015 by Wolfie217

I have been home with the kids for almost two weeks now and I think things are going good so far. Most times I went shopping with only our son, but yesterday we went all three of us. That’s more of a challenge, but with the arrangement below it went really nice. Except for the last 5 minutes when our son fell asleep. Not the best place to fall asleep. He did wake up as soon as we left the store and didn’t sleep until late in the afternoon.

Sleeping during the daytime is a bit of a challenge too (for our son, or maybe for me getting him to sleep). It seems like it is easier for him to get to peace than it was for our daughter though. So far he has slept a while every day. The best time is when our daughter is at preschool, right after lunch. Then I will have some time to fix things here without having him to watch out for. It is also good as he then will be tired in the evening when we want him to sleep. Some days that’s just not possible, luckily our daughter can amuse herself long enough for me to get him to rest the days she is at home or when he didn’t sleep before we picked her up again.

We have had a great harvest of plums this year. (Last year we didn’t realize that we had a plumtree until the one plum fell down). This has resulted in a bunch of cakes like this one.

We did some other things with the plums too, like chutney and compote, really nice. The blackberries are still in the process of being harvested, so far we have made some jam, but the plan is to make sorbet out of some we already have gathered.

Time to be a house husband again

Posted on September 1, 2015 by Wolfie217

Since today I’m a house husband. I will stay at home taking care of my kids, the kitchen and all other things connected to the house while my wife goes to work. The last two years I did the working, but now it’s Susanna’s turn again.

I have done it once before, one year, when I stayed home with our daughter, now it is time for me to take care of our son and our daughter since she only is in preschool for 15 hours a week.

Preschool started today too, so today was really a day of changes. Our daughter needs more friends to play with than we can provide here at home so preschool it is. We have gotten a place at a really nice preschool in the next village to the south from us so it’s not far away. I’m just missing the bicycle path there; otherwise I would have used the bicycle trailer most days. Now I think I might do it once or twice as I have to take backroads that are more than twice the distance. I just don’t bicycle with my kids along a main road with a speed limit of 90 km/h.

That is just one way this time will be different than last time. Living in a house changes things too. There is always something to do when taking care of kids and household isn’t enough. I doubt I will get bored. I doubt I’ll get many other things done, kids and household has a tendency to be more time-consuming than I anticipate.

Anyhow, if you have your ways by Gamla Bo, give me a call and maybe you can stop by for a cup of tea.

Inauguration of the balcony

Posted on August 21, 2015 by Wolfie217

We have now lived in our house for more than one and a half year. The house has a nice balcony on the west side with a beautiful view of the fields and woods (and lake if you know where to look) around our house. Already when we bought it we saw the potential of calm evenings on the balcony just sitting, chatting and having a nice glass of wine.

Tonight we finally did it. And for the occasion we used the Schorndorfer sparkling wine we got from our relatives during our summer Germany tour. It was just as nice as we thought it would be. (And we can sit there without a baby monitor as the window to the bedroom is not too far away and open so we hear them that way).

This is just one of the things that start coming into order now. Until this summer we have had a bit of chaos in the house and garden but now things are starting to come together. Books have been organised (there are probably more than thousand to sort out) into some kind of order, plans for the garden are made, windows are being fixed, tiles on the roof that were broken been replaced and many more things. Sure some of the fixing will never end but it has started.

The reason we inaugurated the balcony now was that one thing on our list was to clean off the moss from it and impregnate it with new oil was done this week and now it is a much nicer place. And that the kids went to bed early enough for us not to be dead tired.

This place is just such a great place to live. This year we are enjoying the fruits (so far strawberries, cherries, blackberries and plums, later apples) and some vegetables too (radishes, tomatoes, broad beans, potatoes and some red onions). The children have plenty of outdoor space to play, with our sandbox, the swings and the small children’s house that is under construction but well playable. We even got a hammock, but I’ve got to repair it now as it was old and the strings broke after a few uses.

Here are some pictures forms our place:

Our garden, with the fence to keep out rabbits and dears on the left.

Playhouse, hammock and sandbox

The playhouse, hammock and sand box, chill and fun for parents and kids. Our green island with our house on the left

This green island is our home; the house is just about visible on the left.

Lakeside sunset

short walk from our place you get to the lake, were sunsets like this one can be enjoyed (or swimming and canoeing weather dependent).

2014 – A year to remember?

Posted on January 1, 2014 by Wolfie217

2013 was an amazing year. As it started I didn’t know what it would hold for us. I had a few expectations, but they are dwarfed by what actually happened.

(See my post from the 10^th of January last year: http://blog.wolfmaier.se/wolfie217/2013/01/10/new-year-what-will-you-bring/)

Here are the points that I thought of as certain last year:

“

I will go back to work. (Just the date is not decided yet).
Our daughter will turn two. (She actually turns 16 months today).
We will travel to Skåne a few times, the first trip to see my cousin in law become a priest in the Church of Sweden.
Our daughter will learn so many more things.

“

Little did I know then that some of the things on the list would be bigger, more altering than I thought.

We had already been thinking of making the move when I wrote this, but nothing was planned. So now to what actually happened:

I did go back to work, just not the work I used to go to. I’m doing so many new things. I’m having great new colleagues. It’s in a new town.
Our daughter turned two and is easier and easier to understand. She even talks in two languages some times.
We travelled to Skåne many times. Now we travel to Stockholm. First we travelled to look for houses, then to get the key to our apartment. After that the direction changed and we travel to Stockholm to visit family and friends.
Our daughter is still learning so many things.

But the biggest things that happen were not thought of:

We made the move, leaving our home in Stockholm for a new one in Skåne, first in Höör, then in our house in Gamla Bo.

I got a new job. A great job at Ramböll in Malmö.
We bought a house on the country side.
We are expecting a little Poff to join us in 2014. Poff being the working name of our next kid.

This leads me up to the headline question: 2014 – A year to remember?

It definitely will be. We will have our second kid; that is really big. We have been looking forward to have at least one more kid, but as things dragged along it wasn’t easy for me at least. I wanted the kids to be closer in age. One just has no say in how fast things go. Now there won’t be too long between them, just a little less than three years and that is fine, it was just longer than I hoped for.

I don’t know how our daughter will react to Poff arriving but I think she will become a great big sister. She already talks about the little little baby living in mom.

I do know that Poff will be born into a nice home.

By the way, Poff comes from the fact that at some point a friend of ours called Susanna and me Piff and Puff, as the chipmunks in Donald duck. Our daughter had the working name of Paff before she was borne.

Now we just have to get the home in order. We have had my parents here for Christmas and New Year and they have helped us a great deal, making our home liveable. There are still plenty of things to be done until some real ordinary life will show up, many boxes to be unpacked, lamps fixed (they have to stay at the apartment until it is clean; we keep it until the last of January). Curtains and pictures on the walls might take a longer time.

Owning a house is much more an ongoing project than renting a place. The list of what is to do will grow faster than we can check things off.

Back to the question, now a few points to remember from 2014 that we already know:

A trip to Zambia.
Poff being born.
The first summer in our house.

There will probably be a few more things. It won’t be an ordinary year. It will just not be the life changer that 2013 has been.

(And we do have a guest room).

Yellow Danger

Posted on November 28, 2013 by Wolfie217

We are now the not so proud owners of the Yellow Danger. If you haven’t guessed it yet; it’s a new car.

We need a second car as we move to our house as it takes too long to take the bus to the station (and the bus only goes every now and then) making the commute to work just annoying. So we decided we buy a small cheap car that would take me the short trip (about 10 kilometres) to the station. We looked at a few ads. And last Tuesday I went to a dealer and bought a cheap little thing.

We are now the owners of a yellow Hyundai Atos from 2001. Yellow Danger is its name. (Gula faran in Swedish). It isn’t the nicest car there is. (I do like the fact that it is yellow though). It has some parts missing. (Nothing important I hope). It has an electrical motor pre-heater, which is good for starting the car in the winter. Not much else is electric in the car (kind of Stone Age but less things that can break). It has some dents, but they are “fixed”.

I think it will do fine taking me to the train. I won’t need a super wide parking space and it won’t use much petrol either. I don’t think we’ll drive far with the car, I sure hope we don’t have to, it’s just not as good on the motorway as our Škoda and its steering is made for city driving.

Here is a picture of the car type. (Not the one but a similar one with a few less dents).

Boat owners

Posted on November 10, 2013 by Wolfie217

Now “our” house has passed its check-up and the water-test came back with good results too, so we will get our keys in the beginning of December.

Today we went over to the house to clear some things with the previous owners; among other things we decided what things they didn’t need to trash to clear the house. We had talked about the things in the garden shed before. We also knew about the fact that some of the shelves would stay. What we didn’t know that with the house we would be boat owners. Okay it’s just a canoe but still it’s a boat. Some nice surprise there; not only do we live close to the lake, but we have the means to get out onto it.

We will also get one sofa; it will complement our lounge perfectly. We are now in the process of filling our model of the house with furniture, so that we know where to put the things when we move.

Maybe we should be starting packing now? There are still some things to figure out before that, like the fact; can we use the boxes we used in the last move, or will they want the boxes back just during our crazy moving days? We will try to move before Christmas, we just don’t know when we will have time to sleep too. (As I work and our daughter keeps Susanna busy during the day). I can already announce that if anyone feels called to help us with the move (we’ll do it ourselves this time) and needs a break from Christmas shopping, just give us a call. We will probably need help more than once during December.

Our daughter seems to like the house too. Today Susanna showed her the room we are thinking will be hers and she approved of it. And she really loves the stairs. And the cat. But we won’t get the cat.

We found our house

Posted on October 27, 2013 by Wolfie217

Last Wednesday we signed a contract to our new home. It’s a little house in the village of Gamla Bo, just south of Ringsjön in Skåne. That is just about 10 kilometres south of where we live now.

We will have access to the place by December 2nd but we haven’t decided on when we move yet. We will have our flat until the end of January, so there won’t be any rush.

There are still some small hurdles to pass. On Tuesday we will have the house checked by a professional to give an opinion on what flaws there are to the house. We will also check the water to see if we have to connect it to the public water supply as it has a well now and it could be contaminated. (The previous owner thought the water was fine though so we hope it is).

The house is situated on an almost 3000 square meters plot of land with a driveway, a bunch of trees (some of them are fruit trees) on a grass lawn and a garage/shed. The shed part has to get its roof fixed; the rest is okay as it is. Surrounding the plot are fields belonging to a local farmer, though he doesn’t farm any more, but he cuts the grass there.

It’s about 100 meters to the lake. We will have a guestroom, if we use the rooms the way we think now. There are trees in perfect distance for a hammock, space for growing some vegetables. Maybe some chicken?

The house doesn’t have a basement. I don’t mind that. It uses the ground for heating and has a little fire place too. There is a balcony on the second floor and an outdoor room in the back, with a nice view of the field and the evening sun.

Detail of the house

Somehow it’s scary to buy a house. There are so many things to think about. I hope we have thought about most of them.

There are budgets to make, maintenance lists to create and plenty of new things to take care of that one doesn’t have to do when renting an apartment. Both of us grew up in houses. But we didn’t have the responsibility of taking care of them back then. The practical things I have seen. The paperwork I haven’t.

We will have to get one more car too. That is a bit of a bummer. And we just can’t afford an electric one like I would like to. (That would be perfect, commuting by electrical car). Now it has to be a small (but still 4 doors) thing with low fuel consumption. And cheap. Not too old. Did I mention cheap? I will use that go get to the train station, either in Eslöv (probably not as there are too few parking lots there), Stehag (even less probable as there are just a handful of parking lots there and only the local trains stop there) or Höör.

I have started to make a model in SketchUp of the house. It makes planning and moving in easier. I still lack some measurements so I will try to get them on Tuesday.

All the pictures are courtesy of Våningen och Villan, the real-estate agent helping in selling the house. http://www.vaningen.se/

Leaving the old, starting the new

Posted on July 8, 2013 by Wolfie217

Today I went to Höör to get our keys for the new apartment. It’s getting real now. In less than two weeks we will be living in this new place.

I flew down, leaving the old Bromma airport, arriving at the “new” Sturup airport the local airport where we will live (it’s about 50 minutes by car from Höör).

Now we have a new front door. I like that. And a new view.

Now we only have to move there. But first some socialising and vacation.

We bought a car.

Posted on June 17, 2013 by Wolfie217

One more thing has come to place in the process of moving. We bought a car. A Skoda Octavia Combi 2.0 FSI.

I think it will serve us well. It is always a risky thing buying a car and we will probably know the result in a few years but now we have it and are happy about it.

Here is a picture of it. (Name is still not decided).

Picture by the previous owner.

New job, new place, time for an update maybe?

Posted on June 1, 2013 by Wolfie217

The last couple of weeks have been eventful. As I wrote earlier we have decided to move to Skåne. We want to live in a house. Finding a house 600 km away isn’t easy. So we will move anyway. To a rental apartment first so that we can look for a house while we already live in the area and we don’t have time pressure.

First things first:

I have a new job; I will be starting in September working at Ramböll, a consulting firm with an office in Malmö, with similar things that I was working with before I left for parental leave. There will be some new tasks, I’m looking forward to learning new things and this is broadening my possibilities. I think this might be my dream job; it is at least at the company where I have been dreaming of working.

I had to quit my current job because of that, they did know that I was moving though so it didn’t really come as a surprise that I might want to try something new.

More new jobs:

Susanna will work in Malmö too. She will start there and when I start working she will be staying home with our daughter. This got final this last week too.

What about a house?

During our trip after Easter we looked at 13 houses. Here is a description of that; it was posted before we looked at the last house though. The last house was a bit of a tricky one, good location and plot of land, but an unplanned house with far too many stairs. And there were some parts of the house that weren’t ready.

A few weeks ago we went down there again, this time with my parents. We wanted to look at a house again. Good we took them along, to live in that house we will have to invest some money as it had some major flaws that we as laymen didn’t see.

We did look at two other houses too:

The chicken farm:

First we looked at an old chicken farm. The house was nice and all, but the old chicken barns would have given us a bit much to do, keeping the place in good order. The barns hadn’t been used for chickens for a while; they were rented out as storage for old cars during the winter months, we could have kept that concept, but then we would have to keep the roofs in perfect condition.

The house with the humongous living room:

The house with the humongous living room was right by the railway-line between Malmö and Stockholm. The house was a converted summer house, extended in several steps to its size. The plot of land was nice too, a bit forest, close to a lake and close to a future (maybe in one year from now) railway station. A few things would have to be done with the place for us to move in though.

We can imagine ourselves living there, but we didn’t want to make a fast deal because we want to do it right, and we want the place to be the right place. But as we had our jobs organised we need some place to stay.

Some place to rent:

So we have started to look for a place to rent for the time until we have found the house we want to live in. We haven’t signed anything yet but there is an apartment that we were offered and we will (if nothing happens till Monday) let them know we want it. That would give us a place to live from the first of July. (Hint hint: If you want to help us move, it will probably be by mid-July).

We have also cancelled this place, we didn’t want to pay double rent for more than two months, so now we really hope everything works out otherwise we’ll be homeless by the end of August (actually by the end of July as we need the home to be less far from Malmö by then).

So this was a short update on what is going on here. Life is exciting.

12 houses

Posted on April 8, 2013 by Wolfie217

We have been in Skåne again. This time we had one major task, find a home.

I haven’t written about this here before: We have decided to move to the south. We have always had a long term plan of owning a house. In Stockholm houses are really expensive. Too expensive for the life we want to live. So we figured out that to own a house we need to find a better way. As we have family in Skåne (Susanna’s parents live here) we thought it would be a good idea to move here. One other thing that makes Skåne a good place to move to is that it’s possible to work there in the professions we have. The move should be made before our daughter would start school.

Last year we visited my aunt. Her husband said one thing that made us think. Start with your dream now. Don’t wait, start now with something simple and work your way up to what you want. In waiting you only loose time. We thought about how this would apply to us: We probably should start to rethink the time frame. During the Christmas-holiday we had time to think. We decided that we should change our time frame a bit. Now the goal is to move to Skåne by the end of August.

This means:

We need jobs in Skåne. (We are working on that).

We need a place to live in Skåne. This is why we went down here this time.

We have during the last week looked at 12 different houses. It’s hard work looking at houses. We have been so fortunate that Susanna’s parents have a good hand with our daughter so they have looked after her the days we had many houses to look at.

After looking at 12 houses we do better know what we want. Five of the houses were really interesting. None of them had all the things we want, but that might be impossible as we have a budget to stick to. Most of them were okay places, but just not for us.

We looked at one house were we would have been owners of 30 meters of E6. (It was hardly a place to bring up kids, living at the edge of heavy traffic). The house wasn’t that nice either.

We looked at one other house where after walking up the stairs I decided it wasn’t really a good idea to be two people on the stairs.

We looked at an odd house in the middle of the forest that really more looked like a big tent and it was filled with cats, (I counted 5 I think), the only thing missing was the crazy cat lady.

We looked at a small house that had a nice plot of land by Rönneå, just that the house was not really a place for a family and needed a lot of work.

We looked at a house with more birdcages than Skansen. It had a pool and I think it was four ponds. The plot was over landscaped, it was nice and all, but just too much.

We looked at a really beautiful house that had a too small plot.

We looked at a simple house that needed plenty of work and was only heated with wood.

Then we looked at five houses that were more interesting.

One nice one with a view of Denmark. It wasn’t possible to see the water between though. It had the rooms we need, a bit small plot, but it will be easy to rent land from the surrounding farmers as they have land that is difficult to use for them. The current owners do this as they have horses.

One small one with a lovely plot of land.

One that we looked at already in January. It was a well-built house, using very little energy. The plot was half in a nature reserve and half outside. Parts of the house had barely been used.

One that was super-cosy. It was small on paper, but the layout was really smart, making it one of the bigger houses despite the numbers. It also had a lovely plot of land. It was just a bit far off, actually in the same neighbourhood as the tent.

And one with a winter lake view. It had a fine but messy piece of land and the house had high ceilings and plenty of bathrooms. And it had rhododendrons. Big rhododendrons, as big as on Roan Mountain, just not as many. Here it would be possible to go swimming, as Ringsjön is close.

Now we have to figure out what we want. When we have our jobs secured we will go on and make an offer, so we have to look at some of the houses again, with help of people that know more of houses than we. I’ll keep you posted…

I started running again

Posted on July 19, 2012 by Wolfie217

Somehow I have gained a few kilos this spring and summer. So I have to do something about it. Since I really like good food and snacks I have to tackle it the other way, by getting more exercise.

So I started running again. I write this today as it already is the second time I’m doing it. (I ran on Monday too).

I don’t know how many times I have started running and it has stayed at one time. Just this spring I started last time, that time it lasted only one time, then I got a cold. Last autumn just after my daughter was born I started running too and a few times before that. Now I don’t want to start running again until spring 2013.

Last autumn I even got new shoes. My old ones had been my running shoes for a few years and didn’t feel that good while running anymore. And they squeak. Now they are degraded to bicycling and summer out in the nature shoes, there the squeak doesn’t bother me as much.

I have started out with just a short run, basically running around Södra Ängby, a 4 km course mostly on asphalt. When I feel it is getting a bit short I will extend it a bit.

If I want to run in the forest, I don’t now due to high concentration of mosquitos; there are good possibilities for that too with the Grimsta and Judarn nature reserve just around the corner.

Last time I did regular running (more than just once every half year) I lost about 10 kg, I don’t know how much it will be this time and I won’t know any time soon either, this is something that takes time.

Okay, I might have to stretch some more now…

Ordered a bike trailer

Posted on October 15, 2011 by Wolfie217

Today we ordered a bike trailer. Now we will be able to be even less dependent on a car.

I’ve been thinking about getting one for a while now and I convinced Susanna that it would be a good idea.

The one we decided to by is a kind that can be used as a stroller, children’s trailer or cargo trailer. This will give us possibilities to use it both to go on tours with Ellinor (once she’s big enough to wear a helmet) and to do our weekly shopping.

Now I have to learn how to bike with a trailer. It shouldn’t be that hard, but I have to learn to not speed along as usual, since one should not pull it too fast.

Last week there was a proposition made that cars would have to yield at bike path crossings. I think that is a really bad idea, in some cases it’s smart, when there is a yield sign before the bike path and the adjacent road is a main road it makes sense that cars yield to bikes, but when a bike path is crossing a main road it’s just plain stupid to not slow down and yield to cars, since there is a big chance that the driver on the main road won’t see the bike in time.

Here is the link (in Swedish) to a post by Stina Bergström where she writes about it. I think it is good to do promote bicycling, but to give the bicycles right of way is not a good way of doing it, it’s just too dangerous. Making it legal to bike on the road if you keep some kind of minimum speed (maybe 20 or 30 km/h) when there is a combined bicycle-walking path along it is a far better idea, due to the dangers of going fast on a path where there can be pedestrians.

But as usual, the first things to do to promote bicycling are not new rules but to see to that the rules there are, really are enforced. Both when it comes to bicyclist (like driving in the wrong direction, against red light or on the sidewalk), or motor vehicles (like parking on bike paths or turning without using turn signals).

And keep the bike paths clear of snow and slush in the winter!

My thoughts and random rambling

A simple blog about my life.

Tag Archives: New things