Every house has its story. What's yours?

If you have ever read any of my previous blog posts you'll be familiar with the large backyard deck I built a couple of years ago. I completed it pretty swiftly, but it took me a couple of years to decide how I wanted to build a place for a cozy fire. Sweden can have some chilly evenings in the summer (not even going to mention spring and fall) and it's also a handy way to keep these damned mosquitoes at bay. Anyway, I'd left an open corner in the deck for just this purpose and my neighbor had lovingly welded a metal container for a fire pit for my birthday a couple years back, so I finally decided what I would do with my fire space.

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So my neighbor made the plunge and bought himself a hot tub. Not one of those fancy ones with jets, but a rustic fire-heated hot tub that looks like a large wooden barrel. We gave it a test run the other night before he gets it positioned up on the hill where there is more of a view to enjoy (and mosquitoes to be had).    » read more »

Now that spring is almost here (mid May in Sweden), it's time to stop thinking of things to do around the outside of the house and get to it.

My first project was to rip out the 2.5 x 5 meter deck that was attached to the back of the house. It wasn't very nice and it was built too tight to the side of the house so moisture has managed to rot the vast majority of the siding (the replacement of this will be in a post on down the line).    » read more »