Progress

I'm in Dallas on a business trip but that hasn't stopped me from getting a few things set.

• Stefan has confirmed our August 5 delivery date (although he hasn't mailed us the contract just yet)
• Ann and Dave have graciously reconfirmed their generous offer of their house for our use during construction
• I bought the SAS tickets for our trip, we'll stay with Margaret on the weekend before and then head off to Aspö on Monday

Janne's still working on the electricity and water, and he and Willie will firm up the plans for the foundations, which are (hopefully) only 7 weeks away!

Willie just called

...and he says he can do the foundation work, probably early July. He's going to call Janne to go over details. I'm still planning to go over to help if possible. This gives me a couple more months to work on my cardboard model!!

A scale model

It was a rainy bank holiday today so I thought I'd use up some of my 'I wish I was building' energy and made a little scale model out of cardboard.

Obviously I'm not an architect, but it doesn't look like it was made by someone with serious motor disorders, so I'm happy.

It does have a practical use to help determine placement of things, especially electricity. I may make little scale furniture and tiny Cinderellas and Rubrik cabinets, too. Or maybe not.

Talked to Janne again...

...this sunny Sunday afternoon. He really is backed up with work as described before, and although he would and will do the foundations if necessary, it would really help him out if Willie could do the work.

I sent Janne's contact info to Willie and the two of them should talk this week. Janne will have the electricity and water up and working by June 1. We need a couple of weeks for the foundations to cure, so we can do them as late as mid-July.

Grant and I still plan to come out and help once the work gets scheduled. It's probably good that Willie would be able to see the site before the home delivery day so he can be better prepared for the big assembly on August 5.

What's next

Margaret emailed me today. Basically Janne's looked at his calendar and he is really swamped with work. Many of his other projects are suffering delays of some sort (imagine that!) and his schedule is very tight.

Janne is still willing to do the foundations at some point but he suggested perhaps I contact Janne W. (aka Willie), our home builder, to see if he could do that work as it might be easier for everyone. So I called Willie and he will look at his schedule to see if he could do that work in advance of the home construction, which he's set for on August 5. I also sent him all the drawings.

Our Janne would still get the electricity and water in place, and he'll probably continue to do a hundred other small things that I haven't noticed or fully appreciated yet.

I'll update after I talk with Willie next week.

So what's next?

I talked to Janne last night about our good news. He's going to follow-up on the electricity provision; he's also making an order for water pumps and will add one more for our house to the order.

Janne's also busy with a number of projects, so we need to fit the foundation work into his calendar. It's probably going to be late May or early June, which is pretty much what I thought, and in good time for our planned August 5 delivery date.

I also sent Stefan an email about the permit, too. He's going to mail us the written contract so we can sign and get the house set in the production line.

Woo Hoo!!

Just received an email from Margaret:

"Here is the news you've been waiting for ;)

Janne just spoke with the powers-that-be and your building permission is approved and ready!

It should be in the mail within the next few days. Congratulations!"

Still no cigar

Just talked to Janne- he's out repairing a dock early this morning, it's beautifully sunny out on Aspö (as verified by the webcam!)

Anyways, no news yet. There's no point in hassling the kommun any further. Janne's quite sure the permissions will be approved and in the mailbox any day now.

Patience, grasshopper, patience...

Insulation, Pt. 3

I spoke to a wool insulation provider on Friday; the company is in Dublin but the plant is in north Wales.

The cost they quoted for 60 square meters at 300mm thickness of insulation, delivered to Stockholm, was about 50% more than I had budgeted. Given the kronor's strength these days, I am very budget conscious, so that's a disappointment.

However, I'm not sure I need the full 300mm because this is quite an efficient insulator. They provided a lot of info about thermal conductivity and 'U values' and other technical matters. I will talk to Stefan about this further, hopefully next week. I will also talk to both Jannes, too.

And there are a number of other types of eco-friendly insulation; the X-House people have used flax as an insulator successfully in the past.

Nearly there

Talked to Janne today. He spoke to Per on Monday as promised, who told Janne that our permission was "almost finished". And yesterday, Janne received the official permission for the handling of our 'grey water' (which is the runoff from showers, sinks, etc.) The full building permission usually follows this by a few days, so Janne is quite confident now.

We'll organise our calendars and shoot for the end of May to build the foundations if at all possible. Stay tuned!

Let's hear it for the ECB!

LONDON, April 14 (Reuters) - European Central Bank complaints about exchange rate volatility are getting louder.
After what sources said were heated and tense discussions, the Group of Seven rich nations toughened its stance on exchange rates on Friday.
And while the first change in the G7's language for four years is significant, it will be an ineffective dollar-boosting step without the ECB backing up its exchange rate concerns with compatible monetary policy.

Perhaps the dollar will get just a wee bit stronger in the upcoming months? One can only hope...

Insulation, Pt. 2

The wool insulation people (from my earlier post) responded to my email very quickly, and I also inquired to Stefan about its suitability in an X-house. He replied that it was very suitable, and that there was 300mm space available in the floors and ceiling for insulation.

We've been investigating other eco-friendly insulations as well, and there is a diverse marketplace out there, to be sure. Be prepared for more on this subject! Who knows, maybe there'll be as many insulation posts as there have been on toilets.

I plan to talk to the people in Wales soon about details, and I'll report back.

Mini-update

Just talked to Janne. He says it's cold and snowy on Aspö. Go figure.

Per has only a few 'phone hours' each week; next opportunity is this Monday and Janne will call then. He's still optimistic, and in fact has ordered the electricity. Hopefully my next update will be good news!

Sheeps Wool insulation

We were on holiday in Wales this past week and saw about a million sheep in the fields. To finish our trip, we visited an organic sheep farm in Wiltshire.

It got us thinking of using natural wool insulation in our home. A bit of investigation and looking at a few websites has us intrigued at the possibility of using this type of eco-friendly (and efficient) insulation.

We love Wales, and the thought of having a little bit of that country in our Swedish home is very appealing. We'll look into the practicalities.

An update!

I spoke to Janne last night. He called Per at the Kommun on Monday who had to admit, to his embarrassment, that the 'new build' map had not been done as promised. Janne expressed his unhappiness with that lack of progress, and lo and behold, he got a call the next day from the kommun's surveyor!

The surveyor showed up on Aspö the day after (Wednesday morning) to make all the measurements and he indicated to Janne that he saw no issues at all.

So Janne will call Per back next week, and Janne is optimistic we'll get somewhere then. Assuming all is OK, Janne will order the electricity and the water pump so we can do the foundations, probably later in May. Phew!

My audience is growing

I received an email yesterday from Scott Hedges, an expatriate American living outside of Stockholm, who's familiar with the X-Houses and is a big fan of Swedish building and design. He found my blog through Stefan.

Scott pointed me to the website of Gregory La Vardera, an architect practicing in New England. Greg keeps a blog, and Scott has posted a few 'letters from Sweden' there which are much more informed than my ramblings here.

Scott's emails have made my day, and I plan to read Greg's blog regularly. I'll put up a link so all my other readers can, too.

A (non) update

Janne called Per today- but Per's on vacation this week, so no news. Janne will call him next week.

Our hope is that we will get from Per the preliminary OK to do the foundations- or get an indication when we will get that OK. Stay tuned...

A funny aside

We were in Brussels this weekend, visiting friends. While at the Grand Place, a family came up to me and asked- in Swedish- if I could take their photo. I did, and used my tiny Swedish vocabulary to conduct a very brief conversation, all in Swedish.

I was feeling fairly proud of myself until I saw the look of mortification on my son's face. And here I thought I was going to be a 'cool dad' when I became a father...

A sort-of update

I talked to Janne this morning; just hearing his voice brightened my mood. Anyways, he will call the kommun next week as most everyone is away for Easter. We hope there will be progress when he speaks with them as the 'new building' map should be done by now.

Janne has also delayed ordering the electricity just yet. There's a monthly charge and he doesn't think it would be smart to pay for power for a couple of months if we don't need it. It should take only a couple of weeks to get it installed after we say 'go', so once our schedule firms up, we can do that.

Still planning towards a late-May foundation build and an August 5 house delivery...fingers crossed!

Taking my lumps

I just transferred over another chunk of change. The exchange rate I got was exactly 6.00. Sigh.

What's annoying is that six weeks ago, it was 6.40. Here I am like a sucker, waiting for the dollar to rise when I should have stopped complaining and just moved. Oh well. At least I made a good decision when I got married. The rest is just details.

Sweden selects

Charlotte Perrelli has been chosen as the winner of the Melodifestival with her song, "Hero". She came second in the popular vote but the expert panel put her through to Eurovision. Details (in English) are in The Local and Swedish Television.

Personally, I thought it was the best Eurovision song of the finalists. And she easily had the best costume; to me, anyways, her dress was fantastic. Only 69 days to the final.

Mobile Blogging

I visited a tile store in town to get a few ideas. We're going to tile the bathroom and I want the floor to look like the granite the house sits on.

The room is small so I don't think it would be able to take anything too dramatic. The tile pictured here is about the right colour but it has a subtle linear pattern too, which I think would look good.

Blogger has the ability to make posts through email so I snapped the photo with my iPhone and sent this post in right from the shop. Cool, huh?

Island webcam

The boat operator, Waxholmsbolaget, has a great English-language website. They have webcams at the bigger islands, one of which is Sandhamn, not that far away from our little Aspö.

Here's a direct link for their Sandhamn webcams. There are three views, changing every seven seconds. I'll put this as a permanent link, too.

A song for Europe

The UK has chosen its entry for the Eurovision song contest. It was a 90 minute show, as opposed to the six-week traveling extravaganza held in Sweden. The song wasn't too bad, though; at least it wasn't a comedy routine. I did vote over the phone, although not for the eventual winner. I'm not very good at picking winners in the contest.

P.S. I saw a video of the Slovenian entry. Looks like a winner to me!

A new drawing

Stefan forwarded a new drawing of the foundations. They've decided to add an additional support beam right down the center of the house. It's not strictly needed per the building codes, but Stefan said they are now adding the extra support as a matter of course.

It's a bit more concrete for me to carry, and two more pilings to make, but better safe than sorry. I appreciate Stefan and his team thinking of us even during the quiet days of winter.