Building a "Sommerhus"
I do not really have time for this, but as I have learned when I was a professional
if there is no documentation, it has not happened, and I really want this to happen.
We have bought a little plot on the northern tip of the island Als.
The Island has a very
brief history of being independent (in machine english), but isn't any
more, otherwise Peters sister Margit would have been the Queen.
These days it is part of Denmark and they already have a Margit.
We signed for the property in the beginning of March and all of March was used
to prepare the drawings for the house. Peter did everything himself, using Qcad
on one of his very few computers. You can see the full application
here, you can even have the dxf-files if you want to.
The application went through the Danish Bureaucracy (a sociological concept),
in just 8 days (5 working days)
Pictures
I know everyone wants pictures, If you cannot wait for this page to be updated, or
want more pictures, you can find current pictures here
On June 1st
The property was all in our hands, below you see panorama pictures of how the property looked
from the four corners
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Panorama as seen from the southeast corner
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Panorama as seen from the northeast corner
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Panorama as seen from the northwest corner
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Panorama as seen from the southwest corner
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Monday the 2nd of June
The building process startet. Well actually we had got a surveyeor to plot where the houses
should be on Thursday, on Friday the authoratives rejected it, they wanted to have the house dug
into the hill. That gave Peter something to do the first day, and happily he got his way.
At the end of the day, the trenches for the foundation was all done.
Tuesday the 3rd of June
This was not a cheap day, A big concrete lorry had to make its way three times
to our property, at the end of the day the lower part of the foundation was done.
Wednesday June 4th
The foundation was finished up to the final level, and the sewer pipes inside the house
was done.
Meanwhile home on the Ranch
Our new Au Pair - Cindy Lou - took these really nice pictures.
Niels Andreas claims that Dad is not building the sommerhus, since he has not been seen on a single picture, we will have to address this tomorrow. But as you can see from his sad face it really bothers him that dad has somehow disappeared.
Grundlovsdag June 5th
On the grid!!, water, sewer, electricity, telephone and broadband, pipes and cables was layed from the house to the road. I had to include a picture of myself, and I did a little bit of work, linking the two houses up with a big pipe for furture use.
Friday June 6th
Nothing happened today, that is I forgot to put the memory card in the camera.
I did take pictures of the Milktank that is now dug down under the kitchen counter,
The tank will act as an acummulator tank for the solarheating system I am going to
play with later.
And the pitures of the first woodden construction on the garagage didn't make it.
The garage is now 3 inches above the foundation, at this rate it will be finished August 10th.
Saturday June 7th
A very good day. Henning Bo, Hanne and "lille Peter" arrived with some spare parts for
the milktank directly from my niece Laila.
We build all the walls for the garage, and Margit and Kurt came directly from Dusseldorf, just in time to help put the last board in. The evening was spend at the beach in a one of Kurts boats, this is supposed to the
first boat which hasn't sunk, Hanne got wet though.
Sunday June 8th
Pipework and duct was put in between the Garage and the Sommerhus, and a lot of nails was shot into the garage.
And because we just had too much time on our hand, we started a en extension on Marget and Kurts Sommerhus, The best was to start is to begin.
Monday June 9th
Four truckloads of washed small stone gravel (sorry I do not know the English term for "vasket grus") was poured all under the floors so that water cannot creep up through the floors, and the foundation was insulated, in the middle of picture you se the milktank which is dug down under the floors.
Tuesday June 10th
The project is getting along fine, The sommerhus and the garage is almost ready to have the concrete for the floors layed, today the insulation and the wire-mesh went in.
The drains for the gutter was put in today, also the ground was leveled so everything looks very nice.
Unfortunately I hurt my food when I wrickeled on an uneven surface, I heard kind of small crack as I feel, and immidiately a big ball grew on the ankle. Ofcourse it hurt like hell.
I couldn't really walk but I could stand and thought and hoped that it was properly going to be OK, the picture is taken just after it happened. So I sat down and watched the building proces. A few hours later it really hurts like hell, so I drove home, cursing because our car is not an automatic transmission. but I made it home.
We are just back from the doctor. He said that he couldn't rule out that something bad had happened. If it would be worse tomorow, I had to go and get some X-rays done. But the health-system in Denmark is on strike, so only lifetreathening things are handled, and for X-ray, the local hospital is shut, so you have to go to the next one.
Wednesday June 11th
My ankle is better, but not much has happened today, Kurt and I put down the pipes
for the underfloor heating, and the house now has running water (we did have some rain too), and the driveway was done as you can see on the picture.
Thursday June 12th
Forgot the camera today, again a slow day, and my foot is getting better all the time.
I build the two doors for the car entrance to the garage.
Tomorrow 6 o'clock in the morning the first truckload of concrete will arrrive 17 cubicmeters has been ordered,
so that the floors can be layed.
Friday June 13th
The floors are done, When I arrived at the buildingsite this morning at 8 o'clock, the floors had all been done,
and the guys were already gone to their next job. My day was spend making sure the dimensions of windows order were the right,
and submitting the final order. A temporary door was made for the garage, so that the garage can be closed, for
storage of buildingmaterials. And a truckload of wood arrived so now the buildig of timberframe for the sommerhus can start.
Now I am on my own. I hope to get all walls in the sommerhus erected before I head for home, I have got 11 days.
Saturday June 14th
The garage doors were installed today, and all tthe wood that came yesterday was moved into the garage.
We have had quite a few showers today, enough to not work, but not enough to go home.
Sunday June 15th
Forgot the camera again, so no pictures. It was very vindy today, ao there was no way I could handle
the plywood, so made all the frames around the doors and the windows in the sommerhouse.
Monday June 16th
I remembered the camera today, unfortunately, I forgot to put in the memorycard, and the camera does not tell.
The southern and the Eastern wall on the sommerhouse was erected today, so now can start to feel the house,
it feels like a big house.
Tuesday June 17th
All the outside walls on the Sommerhus is up now, the picture on the left is the view through our bedroom window, yes the window is 12 foot wide, but there is three of them.
Wednesday June 18th
I got dates right, somebody very dear turned 40 today. But a major disaster has happened, There is no more battery on my camera,
so no more pictures from me. I brought at lot of stuff for this project, but no chargers !!!!, so now I have got
two unsable laptops, and a dead camera too. Just yesterday my beautiful wife told me how nice it was with the
pictures at the end of day. I am sorry this is the end of the pictures ;-( for now.
Today I installed plywood on the outside walls, So now I only need to fit the inside walls, before I can go home
for a short break, the wood wil arrive tomorrow.
I got the drawings and the order for the roof-construction
(spaerplan.pdf)
finalized, so according to plan it will go up on Wednesday July 9th. If you have a chance please come, your help
will be appreciated, and there will be beer and sausages, according to the customns in this little country.
Thursday June 19th
I got four of the internal timberframe walls done, now there is only the two big internal walls left, which will will go all the way to the roof, and which should hopefulle have the same slope as the roof-construction which will arrive on July 9th.
Friday June 20th
Got half of the internal walls that goes all the way to the roof done.
So I have every reason to believe that I can finish all the walls
before I go home on Tuesday.
Saturday June 21th
I borrowed a camera, so there is pictures again. All the timberframe walls are done now (except a small bathroom wall). You can begin to get a feeling of the middle room with the cathedral ceiling, I have made two big doorframs into the attic in the hope that one day I will install a "hems" on both sides (there seems to be no English word for a small loft sleeping space).
Sunday June 22th
Most of the OSB boards on the inside wall are up now, There are rooms and they do not feel small.
On the picture to the left you see the sun shinning low into our bedroom.
Monday June 23th
To night it is "Sankt Hans", The Danish midsummerparty, I am going to Bajstrup, the town I grew up in.
Not much happend at the office today, it was very windy, almost stormy today, but I finished the internal walls, and the sommerhus is ready to have the roof construction put on
Tuesday July 8th
I am back doing the last preparations so the roof-construction can go on tomorrow, I am almost ready.
The thing I need most of all tomorrow is hands. The truck will arrive around noon, and although I will
do my best it will be very difficult to do it all by my self.
I have got hold of beer and sausages, so not everything is out of control.
The windows have arrived too, so there are suddenly plenty of work to do.
With a little luck there will pictures here tomorrow night from the "Rejsegilde"
Wednesday July 9th Rejsegilde
The morning started fine, I had untill noon to get the final detail fixed before
the roof construction would arrive.
Well until my phone rang, it was the truck driver, he had just finished his job in the neighbooring town, and would be on site en 15 minuttes
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Hmm. suddenly everything was a little bit hecktick, I rushed out of the house and cought up with the truck just outside town, luckily he took the long road, so I managed to take a shortcut and was on site before him. By 8:31 he was ready to unload the truck.
40 minuttes later all the wood was on top of the two houses.
Kurt just managed to quit work and arrive just in time to help to get the timber in place on top of the houses.
Around noon Laila and Bo arrived from Voerladegaard, and Henrik and Helga arrived from Bajstrup, so the fun could begin.
First we tried our luck on the garage, so that we could get through our errors on a smaller scale, and it worked, the first end took quite a bit longer than the last one.
It was allready getting late when we had the first end of the summerhouse stable, so we hurried on the last section before we ran out of energi.
We must be very fast learners, because that was even faster than anything we had done that day.
So now that we are done we now all about how to on a roof-construction.
Margit and Helga had prepared a a "krans" and a "vimpel" as is customn on major buildings, as our are.
Thank you very much to Margit og Kurt, Henrik og Helga, Laila og Bo, Dea, Sture og Theis for all your help, without you this would not have been posible.
We are all a little bit tired, and are hoiping that we will not have a too windy night.
Thursday July 9th
Not much happened today, at least not compared to yesterday, I rained quite a bit, but in the afternoon I managed to put in the missing two rooftrusses on both sides of the midle room, yes I know you have to look closely at the pictures to see a difference since yesterday.
Tuesday July 15th
I have not been close to a working internet the last few day, We are all in Koebingsmark, which is quite far from civilisation (at least a mile away).
I have been working on the roof construction since the "Rejsegilde", it is now all in place and secured, The only thing missing is a little work on the roof of the center room, which I hope to finish tomorrow.
The battens, under-roof and the roof tiles have all arrived so with a little luck
we should be ready to put on tiles sometime this comming week-end.
Also the doors and windows have all arrived so within a week the house should closed.
I have not been close to a working internet the last few day, We are all in Koebingsmark, which is quite far from civilisation (at least a mile away).
Friday July 18th - Monday July 26th
The family finally arrived Friday. A long day which started with them getting too late to the airport and they missed their early morning plane,
Deborah, Laure, Niels Andreas Cindy and Jeff finally arrived late in the day via Copenhagen.
Deborah, Jeff and Cindy went home early Monday, but the children are still here.
John and Anne Magrethe kom forbi og hjalp med at laegge undertag og laegter paa midt i ugen.
We got a lot done during the week, the week started with rain, but now it is almost too warm, around 30 degrees Celcius.
The house is now almost closed to the weather, just one roll of under-roof is missing, (will only arrive on Wednesday), and all the windows
and doors have been put in, The camera was full so the last pictures are missing, maybe I will get them on tomorrow, since I now am connected
here at the "farm" in Koebingsmark.
There is plenty of new pictures from the last week
Thursday July 31th
Look no skyes and the setting sun is smiling at the "Sommerhus", It is finally closed, and it is very nice sitting sheltered looking out.
Wednesday August 20th
We have finally got the roof on the garage, and the "Sommerhus" is ready to get layed ("why is the garage roof smiling ?" - "it just got layed"),
As you can see on the pictures we have not been blessed with the best of weather, rain almost everyday.
Thursday August 21th
Deborah is in Florida this week - that is was - since she was sent home early to avoid beeing cought in the middle
of the Tropical Storm Fay.
I used the day together with a Torsten and a Nufield turned into a forklisft, to shift tiles up onto the roof. So now we are ready to have some good weather so we can get them put in order.
Saturday August 23th
Heavy rain all day, but we managed to get a few hours work done late in afternoon.
Tuesday August 26th
Henrik and Helga came with their new caravan (1971), and were imidiately put
to work.
Thursday August 28th
We finaly finished the roof, so now both the House and the garage is happy.
Elaine has been here for the almost two weeks, looking after us and the children,
Now we are taking the week-en off.
Friday August 29th - Sunday August 31st
The last week-end in August we were all (Deborah, Laure, Niels Andreas, Peter and Elaine) going to the "Tonder Festival",
to relax and enjoy a week-end with friends and music.
When we invited Elaine over, Deborah send Elaine an SMS, asking her if she wanted
to attend the Folk Music Festival in Tonder.
Elaine replied back: Yes I would very much like to go to the Beer Festival.
Wednesday September 3rd
We have got bycycles, which we use everyday, Laure almost has got her balance right, but is
still not sure she can do it without supporting wheels, Niels Andreas is doing fine too, except
that he is not so confident braking, but who need that anyway.
Workwise, 500 m2 (5000 sqr feet) insulation arrived today, packed in big, yellow plasticbags, So Laure and Niels Andreas
has been playing int the hay
Also the first gutter got up - They are plastic, and I am afraid my neightboor who is a plumber will
never look my way again. You can see bycycles and gutter on the picture to the right
Saturday September 6th - Friday September 12th
Mormor arrived and stays for two weeks.
She has been busy insulating the walls, I did take pictures of it, but once again I for got to put in the memory card
Lately Mormor has been busy painting the boards which goes under the roof overhang, she is almost finished paining
the 1400 feet of boards, if she looks exhausted it is probably becaus she is.
Saturday September 13th
Henrik and Helga came by with a new bycycle for Deborah, and were immidiately put to work, we got two doors in
and prepared the walls for the cladding to go on.
Deborah got control of the saw, and managed to get a quarter of first wall done, so now there
is only 1 km of of boards left to in the big pile.
Tuesday September 16th
It feels like we are making a lot of progress, There is many hands, Deborah is here, Mormor is here, and
there is two small helpers. Mormor has been painting, painting and painting, and we just finished cladding the
garage - Hurra.
Monday September 22th
The outside of the Sommerhus is almost finished. The cladding is on, the boards for
the underside of roof overhang is painted and put on the garage.
Torsten came by on his red Massey Ferguson 35, and worked on the garden.
The days are now shorter than the nights and we can feel it.
Sunday September 28th
We will make a small farewell parti this Sunday. So this is the last chance to see us in
Denmark this year.
Plans for the immidiate future
Deborah will be back on Friday, and
we have scheduled our departure, we are here until October 4th., then we will take a ferry home and spend the
winter in sunny England....
We have ordered plasterboards, and ceiling boards so we can start a little on the inside, so there is still
a chance to participate, even if it is too cold outside.
I have Danish phone it is +45 4144 1184
Best Regards
A settler in Denmark
