Guns Livs is no more

I've written many times in the past about Guns Livs, the grocery store on Nämdö. Its been in the same family for over 50 years. People's options about Guns on Aspö are divided. Some of us find its slightly worn-out store and spotty service part of its charm. Others long for a bit more professionalism and modern service.

This past summer was the last one for Guns and her family. The store, restaurant, and marina has was sold to new owners, who stayed mysteriously quiet until the end of the year. 

It turns out that the transaction took longer to complete than planned, but now the new owners have published their vision on the Gunslivs website. The key statement is this:

In the coming years of 2018 we will of course keep the store, the restaurant and the marina open as usual. But a little change will be noticeable already next year - we will clean, paint and freshen up. We want to get to know Nämdö, its conditions, residents and visitors.

From 2019 onwards we want to further develop the existing grocery with expanded range and better service and accessibility. The bar will have a facelift - both interior / exterior. Here we want to create a meeting place in the archipelago where everyone can socialize and enjoy the amazing environment, good food and drink. We also want to invest in archipelago leisure activities and offer a modern and interesting range. Together with the municipality we want to continue to develop accommodation for more year-round accommodation and accommodation for tourists. This in order for Nämdö to be an obvious centerpiece in the archipelago - a unique place for reflection and recreation as well as adventure.

The general approach is that the new owners want to expand Nämdö to become more of a "living" archipelago. They stress that this is closely in line with the kommun's plan to maintain a sustainable archipelago. It's an interesting balance between keeping things simple and charming but perhaps a bit shabby, and offering more modern amenities to draw new people to the area and allow it to thrive.

This will be an interesting development to watch over the next few summers!

The Robot Garden

I written about a little device, the Click & Grow, which I bought to see if I could grow fresh herbs at the stuga. In 2014, I had a bit of success growing coriander.

I was going to grow basil this summer but I had a problem with the device. I was sent a new growing cartridge, but it arrived too late for me to start this year.

The Click & Grow people are working on a new product, called the "Smart Farm". The idea is to grow a whole lot of greens at once, in theory feeding a whole family.

I really like this idea. Sooz could have an extra countertop surface in the kitchen, and we could have a whole bunch of fresh greens year-round!

Right now, though, it isn't practical. We're back to spending just a week or two at a time at the stuga, not the longer periods we've spent the past few years, let along the whole summers of our retirement.

Another drawback of these products are the grow lights. The LED's used are very power efficient, and great for the plants, but they are bright. We one in our Texas home, and it's been banished to the laundry room as it fills the whole downstairs with light in the evenings. I'd probably have to keep it in the guest house, or the shed, which is a bit besides the point.

I am sure this technology will improve in the next few years, and it will be easy for me to become an indoor gardener!

A prefab cabin in Norway

The fine folks at Dwell have an article on a little jewel of a Scandinavian prefab home.

The 'Woody' is quite a bit smaller than our house, only 35 square meters. It is designed to be a true cabin, not a second home. For example, the shower is outdoors, which is traditional for a summer home. It also reduces space (and water) usage.

In such small homes, things with more than one purpose are valued. For example, Margaret and Janne's Aspö house had a cutting board that hinged up during meal preparation. It was out of the way the 95% of time it wasn't needed, but was up in a heartbeat when it was.

I am looking at doing something like that in our own kitchen; more to come on that as I develop ideas!

A new kitchen gadget

Sooz bought one of these today for our boxed wine usage. I think it goes against the "island simple" aesthetic somewhat. But I also love my gadgets, and anything that keeps my Wildboar's Rock nice and chilled is OK with me!

Other house work

Sorry for the lack of posts. Things have been pretty busy on the Texan front. We've just had our kitchen here refurbished, which went pretty smoothly, overall. Having a huge building store down the street and a bunch of eager tradesman in the neighborhood makes it a lot easier than building on Aspö!

In some ways, though, it was more difficult, for two reasons. First, this is our main house. We were able to gloss over things to some extent in our stuga by thinking, "it's only a cabin". We also didn't want anything too nice out there because we want the rustic lifestyle, and pratically speaking, we will only be in the house a month or two a year. That doesn't apply to our house here. We're living in it most every day, and we also have resale value to think about.

The second problem is that, frankly, we had too many choices. There are hundreds of kinds of countertops to choose from, just at our local store. What material? What thickness? What color or texture? Sooz must have looked at fifty different sink/faucet combos. Our new fridge, stove, and dishwasher were each winnowed down from dozens of candidates and vendors. (The issue of paint colors will deserve its own post in the coming days).

Recent research is finding that having too many choices actually lead to stress and dissatisfaction. When one has many possible choices, it's easy to think "did I make the right one?" Having fewer options makes one much more likely to be satisfied with one's decision. After our kitchen project, I can say the theory does indeed work in practice. Nearly three years ago, Sooz knocked out our whole kitchen (plus a lot more) in one day at IKEA.

The good news is that we're happy with the way it all turned out, and our experience of building on Aspö made us far more educated clients this time around.

Christmas Eve Eve

A beautiful, cold, clear sunny day in Stockholm. We visited the National Museum to see an exhibition called Lura ögat (The Deluded Eye), and then had lunch on Kungstragården. Sooz and I hit IKEA just before they closed to pick up a few things, and I scored 3 black and 3 green Rubrik cabinet fronts for a total of 42 kronor! At that price, we can experiment with the look of the kitchen a little.

We also bought three simple lamps for the house, because it's going to be darned dark! We got a Melodi for the ceiling, a Jonisk for Grant's room and a Vreten floor lamp.

An administrative point: I'm going to blog mostly on the house-related part of our vacation. I'll make a traditional family page about our Christmas on our website, www.langfords.net.

UPDATE: Ollie had a good swimming session yesterday and he is relaxing happily in front of the fire at Ethie's house with his pal Dino this evening.

Error in the October photo gallery

I noticed the photo link on the right was faulty, it's fixed now so the photos should be available again. My apologies.

Leaving Sweden once again

Another airport post just before we take off. Apparently this flight is oversold, they're offering €300 each to take a flight through Oslo arriving at 9:30PM. That is tempting but we all really need to be back earlier than that.

Anyways, we went to Bauhaus and IKEA first thing this morning to return/exchange/buy more stuff. There was a pretty good scrum at IKEA right when they opened. By 11AM, it was packed. One annoyance is that I need special long screws to attach the door handles. Nobody has them in stock so I will have to try to find them.

Rutger helped me finish the work Janne started on my tax form and that will be mailed off. We believe my bill should be about 6000 kronor a year for a freshly-built småhus like mine.

A last few photos in the webgallery. We are planning to make a 24 hour visit in December when we return for Christmas, so more photos then, but plenty of posts in the meantime.

Another productive day

Although the weather wasn't that great, we still managed to get a lot done. Grant tended the fire diligently all day and we got rid of all our paper and wood scraps, plus we made a dent in the brushpile.

Inside, we finished a lot of kitchen details, and Janne and Tony stopped by; they provided a lot of insight on a bunch of questions regarding plumbing, storage, woodworking, and electricity, among other disciplines.

And outside, I cleared up a lot of building scrap. Most everything is in one big pile as opposed to all over the place. We're going to carry as much garbage as we can on the Waxholms boat tomorrow, but I am starting to fear we will need to contract Sten to do a garbage run for us in the spring.

Another nice dinner with Janne and then back tomorrow noontime. We're going to see Margaret at her shop, which will be great, but I really hate to leave!

A few photos in the webgallery, including the best shots yet of the house.

Just as planned so far

We spent the day clearing up and completing lots of smaller tasks. I put handles on the drawers, which took me way too long, but at least they're all straight. We successfully finished the wardrobe (which had 44 steps in its instruction book and about a half-million parts), and put all the beds together. We also changed the hinges on the fridges so they swung the other direction.

It appears our whole IKEA order arrived complete, with only one tiny damage, which is amazing.

Grant started a fire to burn the paper and wood scraps. He also cleaned up a lot of the building material left around outside, and also ran our well-water tests, all of which were fine.

The October webgallery is of course updated.

UPDATE: I called Johan; no baby yet.

More Kitchen info

It's the next morning and we're about to head back to the house. We had a successful day yesterday, indeed. Johan was an amazingly skilled worker and he whipped through the kitchen in quick order. He lived in Northern California for a couple of years and became an Oakland A's fan. He's also a water polo player, and most excitingly, is about to become a father any minute now. Jenny, his partner, is 11 days overdue so we all jumped when the phone rang.

At the end of the day, we finished up in near total darkness, with only one lamp, and then we all hustled to the dock with Johan's gear, Grant leading the way with his flashlight. The boat needs to be called with a flashlight in the winter, so we waved with all our might, and Johan was rescued to return to his impending fatherhood.

Winston if it's a boy and Leila if it's a girl. I'll be sure to report back once we know.

The kitchen is done!

I contracted help for the day, who arrived on the morning boat in the form of Johan. He was a super-nice guy and very efficient. He was able (with our minimal help) to complete 90% of the kitchen today. Grant and I spent the equivalent amount of time making a table, 4 chairs, and most of a wardrobe.

It's late, so more info (and new photos) in the morning.

Phew!

I'm back to end the evening and I have to say I am as tired as I can ever remember being. (And I run marathons for fun!)

The IKEA delivery made it to the dock right on time, two pallets, 850kg just as promised. Janne came with his ATV and we loaded goods on it, and he made 6 or 7 runs to our house. The path up from the Waxholmsbolaget dock is quite steep, so we had to carry everything up a hill that got worse as the afternoon wore on.

And then we had to carry everything overland through the mud the last 300 meters. Man was that tough, I literally ran out of gas and physically couldn't carry any more.

The good news is that everything is up to our house, ready for assembly, with the exception of the fridge, which we wrapped up safely for the last push tomorrow morning when Grant and I get our strength back.

And we will have a helper tomorrow, Johan, who I've contacted to spend a day with us. He's a kitchen assembly expert so we should make good progress under his direction.

Much more to post about but I'm too tired to work the keys. Photos will be updated in the October webgallery.

A small delay

Wille wasn't able to go out this week due to a family emergency. He plans to go next Tuesday to do the floors and finish up some small things, so we should still be OK for our big kitchen delivery the week after.

UPDATE: Rutger talked with IKEA; our kitchen order is set to be delivered to the Stavsnäs as scheduled next Wednesday.

Sooz received a text from IKEA

...telling her that our order is being completed and that we'll receive a phone call shortly when it is ready to ship.

That call should go to Rutger, who's coordinating the shipment to the storage in Stavsnäs, for shipping to us on October 21st.

So far, so good, but the logistical chain has many links...

A text from Rutger

Apparently IKEA called him today because I received a text that said "1,311 packages, 850 kg, 5 cubic meters going on the wheelbarrow".

I wonder if the helicopter is available that day??

Sooz is home

Sooz is safely home, with her bag full of pepparkakor and many catalogs of various descriptions. She showed me the furniture she ordered for the kitchen. For those of you who like the names IKEA gives everything, the chair is Gilbert, and the table, Docksta.

Sooz's new kitchen

A big day for Mrs. Langford. She was at IKEA for over 8 solid hours, but she finished the day by placing the order for the whole kitchen, plus beds, a table and chairs, and our bedroom furniture. Impressive.

She made some adjustments (pictured here) with the help of a great kitchen planning assistant. The plan is for an October 14 delivery to the depot for delivery a week later to Aspö. Overall, a very successful day, with more details to follow.

Update from Sweden

I talked to Wille. He's stuck being alone again this week; Mikael is in a hockey tournament in Linköping, and Mats is unable (or unwilling) to come down to help. So he's a little frustrated, working hard, and things are going slowly. He is also having problems with changing the swing of the bathroom door, he's going to confer with Janne and Stefan tomorrow.

And I talked to Janne, too. He's still suffering from his cold, although the weather is good there. He has ordered the grey water system. In fact, he's ordered four for various homes, which gives us a collective price break. My neighbor, Olle, is getting one, and he's in charge of receiving them on the dock. He and Janne plan to install these systems pretty soon.

And lastly, I spoke to my darling Sooz over at Marcia's, and she is having a relaxing evening, getting ready for the exertions of a massive IKEA purchase tomorrow.

Sooz is on her way

...to Stockholm, where she'll spend the next couple of nights with Marcia & Rutger and her days at the local IKEA, finalising the order for the kitchen and bedroom furnishings.

She'll also meet with Wille to talk about the floor finishes, and also find a lock and handle for the front doors on both houses. I'll post updates as I get them from the shopping floor.