2023-12 Fourth Christmas
Pretty Snowy
December was great, with lots of snow. The snow makes Christmas feel real, and the reflected light from the snow brightens up the darkest month. We saw the northern lights a few times on evening walks, and the greenhouse survived the snow without problems.
Upstairs Sewing Area
As a winter project, we started work on turning the upstairs hallway area into a sewing area. We took down some fitted wardrobes which looked well-made but weren’t what we wanted for the space. Taking down things that are well done is always a bit worrying. You hope you are going to replace it with something as good, and that you aren’t going to end up making the house worse.
Behind the wardrobe was a layer of gypsum. Beyond the gypsum was multiple eras of wallpaper, dating right back to the 1940s. Under the wallpaper was the cement render on the chimney stack that runs through the middle of the property.
We tried various tricks on removing the old wallpaper, except heating and fire because the risk assessment in a wooden house didn’t look good for that approach. In the end the best technique was to scrape it all off which took a long time.
The original cement render had a course sharp sand element to it, with the small bits of sand falling off slowly over time. I’m not sure if they got the mix slightly wrong back in the 1940s, but there were no cracks. I applied a watery layer of Husfix repair cement over the top. Once that was dry, I skimmed a thicker layer of Husfix to give a flat-ish surface. I then painted it with some remaining interior paint from when we first decorated the house.
We also took down the gypsum on the adjoining wall. We agreed that if it what was revealed was bad we would simply put new gypsum back up. Underneath was a tongue and groove (råspont) wall from the 1940s using 65mm wood.
One mistake here was sanding too much. Because the wood was quite dark and rough-surfaced I started sanding to see how it would look. I also wanted to see if we could get the woodwork a little flatter. It came up like modern softwood, which maybe gave it less character in that it began to look too uniform. In hindsight this was going to be the obvious result. Instead we decided to lightly hand-sand the rest so that some of the colour and surface variations remain. I’d like it to keep this colour so it doesn’t become golden with oiling.
There is still a lot to go but we are hoping to create an area that is useful to us while remaining authenticate to the age and character of the building.
Sewing Cabinet
We also were moving the cabinet project forwards – renovating an old cabinet removed from a shop.
We drilled out some of the larger holes and fitted wooden dowel plugs in, cutting off the protruding areas with a saw. I would not have thought to have done this, but my partner had been watching a lot of similar projects on YouTube. I liked how the end result looked.
We took apart the drawers and started sanding them down. There are many drawers and each one has 10 faces that need sanding, so this will take a long time.
Tools
Over the past year I purchased various tools for different projects only to not get to use them. Usually due to other demands on my time. As a result of all the projects however, I have been quite proud of seeing my partner learning how to use them all, like the bandsaw, circle saw and router.
Visit to the National Park
We really enjoy visiting one of the national parks nearby. The wooden walkways lead to viewpoints over the area.
We also got a little adventurous and tried some of the signposted routes. For these, snowshows (snöskor) are ideal, and we’ll remember to bring them next time. In winter there is always an igloo that gets built which is fun to visit, and you can go inside by crawling through on your hands and knees.
Learning Swedish
Over November and December, I had had some time off work and put a lot of additional hours into my Swedish study. For me, repeated 1-hour sessions seem to have an effect and putting another 80-100 hours in felt like it was paying off. The most I managed in a day was 6 hours of study, and 4 hours was a good day (stopping the timer for interruptions etc). In conversation with friends, I have found I am more likely to be able to successfully use different tenses and struggling a little less to express myself.
