happy halloween

Wooohahahaha…

We’re going to carve our jack-o’-lanterns and go trick-or-treating tonight. I hope everyone has a great weekend!

Isn’t Freya cute dressed up as a little bear?

chimney

The dream of having a fireplace in the living room this winter continues...

The first step will be to rebuild our existing chimney. We have scheduled to have masonry workers here in November. Hopefully it won't be a snowy November. :-)

Found a picture of an old brick chimney. Beautiful. Ours would probably be less ornate, but I would love to have some detail in the brickwork.

INSPIRATION - CHIMNEY

OUR CURRENT CHIMNEY...READY TO FALL OVER

freya's first fourteener

When my dad was here earlier this summer we drove up to Mount Evans - the highest paved road in North America and the only mountain over 14,000 feet that you can drive to. The view from the summit is stunning and we were lucky to see some big horn sheep up there as well.

100 visitors

I've reached 100 visitors since September 9th this year! Thank you everyone that visit my blog!!!

cast iron stove

The weather is still beautiful here in Colorado with warm sunny days, but soon enough there will be snow and cold days. Since our house is old and not insulated well it tends to get very cold in the winter time. Therefore I'm dreaming of getting one of these stoves for our living room. I picture us sitting in our living room in front of the fire place with hot cocoa after a full day skiing in the mountains...

The stove is from the Danish company, Morsø Jernstøberi A/S, and they have both traditional and more contemporary styles of cast iron stoves. I like the Morsø 7110 (pictured above) that has a very large glass panel without any interfering bars for an unobstructed view of the fire.

This is how Morsø Jernstøberi decribes this product: "Designed with Scandinavian simplicity, the Morsø 7110 sharp edges and straight lines are combined with classical American elements such as the horizontal design and distinct profiles in the top and bottom plates...On each side of the Morsø 7110 is engraved a symbol from the Viking era. In Scandinavia the symbol is known as “Saint Johannes Shield,” and it is believed to offer the household protection from all evil. This symbol appears on numerous finds from around 1,000 AD, such as the Runic Stones in Jelling that were erected around 960 AD and refers to King Harald Bluetooth, the king who brought Christianity into Denmark."

Perfect with elements from both Scandinavia and America...fits our family! :-)

pumpkin harvest festival

Over the weekend Rick, Freya and I went to the pumpkin harvest festival at Four Mile Historic Park in Denver. This 12 acre park features Denver’s oldest standing structure, built in 1859. It was a gorgeous fall day and we enjoyed the beautiful park. Freya had fun in the pumpkin patch and was thrilled seeing the horses, chickens and a cat in the park.

irrigation and french drains

We are moving on to the next project - trenching the backyard for irrigation and french drains. Since we're planning on building the deck along the entire back wall of the house, we need to make sure we plan ahead and put in the irrigation system for our lawn before we build the deck.

Rick and Darlene working hard...

fall is here

We have had some beautiful, warm and sunny fall days here in Denver. It's been perfect weather for us to finish the paint job and we're finally done (except for some minor touch-ups...)

The apples on our apple tree are getting ripe. I made a yummy apple pie (using the apples from our apple tree) a few days ago. I used a recipe from Leila Lindholm's cookbook "A piece of cake". I'm so glad my dad brought that cookbook for me when he came to visit earlier this year. All recipes I've tried so far have been great!

Freya loves to pick up the apples that fall on the ground and throw them in a bucket we keep in the back yard.

almost done painting

We have been trying to paint as much as we can on the garage to finish the job. Tomorrow I'll post some new pictures, so you can see the progress.

Of course we do other things than work on the house as well. Rick and I went to a wedding on Friday evening, while Freya spent the evening with our friends. Rick went rock climbing on Saturday with a friend, while Freya and I played all day. I actually got sick with fever on Saturday evening/night, but recovered on Sunday. On Sunday evening we got together with some friends for dinner. Any time in between, we painted. :-)

Below are some pictures of Freya from midsummer this year.

ikea coming to denver

Finally, I've been waiting for this for a while...

IKEA announced last week that they are opening up a store in Denver (or a suburb of Denver). Jippie! I cannot wait - I'm so excited! It's actually going to be located right across the street from where I used to work. IKEA didn't announce the opening date of the new store. Hopefully it won't take several years...

raining...

It has been raining today, so we haven't been able to paint. Hopefully it will clear up during the weekend so we can finish this project.

Publishing a recent photo of Freya instead. :-)

painting...

Rick continued painting the garage today. If the weather holds up we will probably be able to finish the paint job this week. It goes pretty fast since we are spray painting the larger areas. However, since the days are getting shorter we don't have as much time in the evening to paint. Fall is definitely coming...

See the progress below.

The creamy yellow paint and olive fish scale. The next step is the trim and accent colors.


Rick also had to cut down some branches of our apple tree, since they were hanging over our phone line...


The garage from the back alley.


Close up of our color choices. The thin trim around the roof line will be painted brick red.


While Rick was out painting the house, Freya and I were inside drawing on a piece of paper...


Freya is sitting at her IKEA table she got from her grandma Darlene.

painting the garage

Hi! I ended up taking a longer summer break than expected, but now I'm back - for sure.

Our garage is done and we're painting the side facing our backyard. We couldn't be happier with the color choice. All Benjamin Moore colors, light creamy yellow for the sides, light olive green for the fish scale tiles and darker green and brick red as accent colors.

What do you think?

garage - almost done

I took a summer break from my blog, but now I'm back!

The garage is almost done. We actually had to do some additional work on our service panel. We ended up moving the electric meter to our garage, with the added benefit that we no longer have overhead wires. Jippie. Much better.

Tomorrow, our contractor will come to adjust the door and after that it's final inspection. Almost there. Hopefully we can start painting this weekend.

The Garage, seen from the back yard.

We opted to insulate and put up drywall. We could almost move in...

kitchen inspiration

Now when our garage is almost done (I will put up additional pictures tonight) I’m already starting to think about another project that I would love to complete soon – the Kitchen. It would be so great to have a beautiful, well planned, functioning kitchen. Aren’t these kitchen below beautiful? I love the white cabinets with the darker countertop. I would also love to put in wood floors in the kitchen, so we would get a better flow from the dining room – I think that would make it feel more open and large.

buttermilk scones

This is one of my favorite recipes for scones:

3 cups flour
1/3 cup sugar
1 teaspoon salt
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter
1 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup currants (optional)
1 tablespoon heavy cream, for brushing (optional)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Combine the flour, sugar, salt, baking powder and baking soda in a large bowl. Add butter and mix with your fingertips to a coarse meal. Add buttermilk and mix just until combined. Add currants. Transfer dough to a floured board and divide into 2 parts. Roll each to 3/4 inch thick rounds. Cut each round into 8 wedges and place slightly separated on a greased baking sheet. Brush the tops with the cream, and bake for 15 minutes, or until lightly browned. Serve warm, split in half with butter and marmalade. Enjoy!

piece of cake

Since I have lived in Denver for about 8 years now, I haven't kept up with the new TV personalities in Sweden. However, by browsing the Internet I came across a Swedish TV chef, Leila Lindholm, that recently published a new cookbook about baking, "A piece of cake". The pictures in the cookbook are amazing and by just looking at a sample of her recipes I instantly felt an urge to bake something. Mums!

garage - framing and walls

The construction workers are moving fast with the garage. After the foundation cured for a few days the crew started with the framing and the walls. In two days almost all framing is done and all four walls are up. Now, it's easy to picture the finished product. So far, we are very happy with the outcome.

By the end of Day 1

By the end of Day 2

By the end of Day 2 the framing for the roof - almost done

garage - foundation

The foundation to our garage is done. See below. It's going to be a large garage...