Introduction V

It's been over a year and a half since my last introductory post, so I thought it time to update the introduction series on this blog. New readers should click on that link first to get a concise summary on what's happened over the years.

I had bragged in my introductory last post the blog had over 60,000 visits. As of today, that figure is nearly 110,000! Many of those new visitors are thanks to the link from the very cool website Cabin Porn.

We've done a few things to the house over the past 18 months. Most significant is the painting of the exterior with linseed oil paint. I also built a large deck this summer which gives us a significant new living space.

I made a list in 2008 of all the things I wanted to do to the house. With the exception of a fireplace or heat pump, the list is now complete. We are definitely moving from 'building' to 'living' in our little cabin!

Personal circumstances have made that transition easier. I stopped working this year and have found myself sliding a bit towards retirement. I'd like to get back to work, but I haven't yet found the right thing. So Sooz and I took advantage of all my free time to spend most of this past summer on Aspö. Being there for a month is a lot different than a week or two! We were able to connect a lot more fully with island life and our friends there.

I've been keeping the blog updated 8-10 times a month, with my usual mix of practical, cultural, and especially toilet-related information. Given my greater free time, I've tried to make the posts a bit longer and more polished. Feedback on that is appreciated.

Grant has graduated college and he's working at a job he really likes. Ollie is fully settled into Texas life. I haven't yet driven Sooz crazy from being constantly underfoot. Life is good.

A thousand posts!

This is a momentous occasion: my 1000th post. From a humble introduction in August 2007, my blog has exploded over the past half-decade into the internet's go-to source for information on building kit homes, Swedish archipelago life, the Eurovision song contest, and incinerating toilets. Especially incinerating toilets. Google tells me Cinderella is the most commonly-visited subject here by a wide margin. (Google also reveals my blog has been viewed by 60,000 people! Wow!)

I have made 4 introductory posts; I suppose I can add to the canon with a fifth. Sooz, Ollie, and I are happily back into the swing of Texas life. People ask us if we miss living in the UK, and we truthfully answer "yes", but that doesn't mean we are unhappy here; it's not a binary choice. Let's face it, life in the USA is pretty easy and we enjoy that ease. Grant is still in college in North Carolina, a junior now, and doing well at school, both academically and socially. Ollie is also doing fine, a bit slower of course, but since the dark days of his back surgery, every day that he is still happy and healthy with us is a joy.

We're still adjusting to being 5000 miles away from our little stuga. But we've settled into a pattern of being there three times a year- all the seasons except winter! Given the Texas heat, Sooz plans to be away longer in July/August, and I will join her, for two weeks if I can. A one week visit is OK, but the jetlag makes a 7-day visit less desirable.

It's a good thing the house is done. Maintaining it and bringing small things out is do-able from so far away. I sure couldn't have built it from the other side of the world! Fortunately, we have great neighbors in Olle and Annika who keep an eye on our home for us, which is a great relief.

The internet also makes it a lot easier to keep in touch. Olle and Annika send us photos when they're on Aspö. I can see the hourly weather and the Systembolaget specials on my iPhone, as well as the local news, and Rutger is always a FaceTime call away for advice!

It's around this time of year that I really pine for Aspö. The weather is starting to get nice; March here reminds me of June there. So I start itching to go. But we will be there soon enough for our spring visit. And longer-term, I will admit the thought of retirement is starting to creep around the borders of my thinking. Sooz and I know we couldn't live there year-round, but the thought of an April-October residence is appealing. And all that time would lend itself to a great deal of blogging!

Who knows, my next thousand posts may come much more quickly.

Introduction IV

It's time for the fourth in a series of sort-of-yearly recaps and introductions. My last such update was about 9 months ago and lots has changed.

• Sooz, Ollie and I have indeed moved back to the USA at the end of the year. We're now in the middle of resettling into our home in Texas after nearly 12 years away.
• Grant is now a university student, happily settled into college life in North Carolina. (Perhaps too happily, but I digress).
• Living 5000 miles from our stuga, as opposed to only 900 before, will necessitate some changes to how we live there. Long weekends are out, so we'll be there for a few weeks at a time when we go. Sooz plans to escape the Texas heat as much as possible this summer, for example.
• I have a few projects still to complete. I want to put in a drop ceiling over the big deck, and to get a shed at last. But I think the focus of this blog will be moving away from building and more towards living in the archipelago.

I still plan to blog on Swedish culture, and of course posting will increase when we're all actually on-island. I may well post a bit on issues of repatriation, but I will keep the focus on island living. No need to worry about too many off-topic ramblings, promise.

Introduction III

I realise it's been 18 months since my last introductory post. A lot has happened since then, so it's time for an update. (Before last week's finale of 'LOST', a two-hour recap show aired to catch up viewers before the big finish. My island doesn't have electromagnetism, time travel, or polar bears, but there has been plenty of entertainment nonetheless!)

In the past year and a half, we have finished our house, so now, when people ask "is it done?" I can answer unequivocally, "yes." (I get asked that a lot, actually. Not sure if it's politeness or an underlying mistrust of my building abilities). The bathroom and the water system were completed in May 2009, and the majority of the snagging items were finished in June.

I had a metal roof installed in October '09, just in time for a harsh winter a few months later. Our house weathered the heavy snows just fine.

My big midsummer/50th birthday was a raging success. The weather was magnificent the whole time, and I was joined by many friends for a great day. In fact, we're doing it again this summer for my 51st, although it will be a much more modest affair; after all, 51 is not nearly as significant a number. (Unless you're Dick Butkus, that is).

We're doing lots of little projects around the house now. A colourful rug, new window shades, a TV set; all of life's luxuries off on a little island in the archipelago.

Grant is off to university in the fall, and I think Sooz, Ollie, and I will be leaving London for the US sometime as well. So there will be big changes afoot. But not just yet.

Introduction, part 2

My first post was well over a year ago. I thought it'd be a good idea to recap what has happened since then, so new visitors have a place to go to catch up, rather than just starting cold with seemingly random stories of swimming moose and toilet technology.

So, in a nutshell:

• I'm Don, my wife is Sooz, and our son is Grant. We're Americans who lived in Sweden 1989-91, and we've lived in London since 1999.
• We all love Sweden, and have many friends there. It's common for Swedes to have a summer house, often on one of the many islands in the archipelago. We were able to buy land on the island of Aspö in the summer of 2007.
• I like modern Scandinavian design, and found a Swedish company, X-House, who make very square and clean timber buildings from glue-laminated wood. We designed two homes, a large (62 sq. m.) house and a smaller guest house, and applied for permission to build.
• We received our permission in April, and built in August 2008. As of this writing, the house is essentially done, save the bathroom and interior plumbing.
• Building on an island, especially in another country, has with it many challenges, to say the least. Our friend Janne, an island resident, has been essential to this process, although, frankly, I've leaned on many friends, both old and new, to get this done. You'll find many references to all these people in the blog.
• In fact, there are many posts about Swedish and island culture, as well as asides on related topics. This isn't just a building blog, although I have tried to give realistic and practical information.
• I have many photos of the building process, which are arranged in galleries, along the right side of the blog. I've also been careful about tagging my entries, so you can easily find posts related to building, people, culture, etc.
  
• For the next few months, the winter weather will slow work on the house, but I'll continue to post on a number of related topics. Our big push will be towards midsummer's day 2009, which is an important day on the Swedish calendar, particularly for island residents, and also especially for me, as it's my 50th birthday.

I welcome comments and feedback. My goal is to make this blog useful and amusing, and I can always use help from readers to accomplish that!

OK, here's the deal

Sooz and I lived in Stockholm for nearly three years, 1989-1991. We made a lot of good friends there, and we've visited Sweden almost every year since. Of all the places we've lived, we all feel a stronger connection to Sweden than anywhere else.

One thing most Swedish families have is some sort of a fritidshus, or summer house, out in the country, or on an island in the Swedish archipelago. We've stayed at a few with our friends, and always had a great time. It's long been a fantasy of ours to have something like that of our own, a place in Sweden that we can always go to, no matter where work takes us.

Recently, we've found a little plot of land, and the timing was right to start working on our little fantasy and make it a reality. We'll be posting over the upcoming months, detailing what we'll be doing to build our little island summer house.

Comments, ideas, words of encouragement, or words of warning, all will be welcomed!