Monday, March 24, 2008

The hidden meaning of my name...

Just so you know!!




What Liselotte Means



You are relaxed, chill, and very likely to go with the flow.

You are light hearted and accepting. You don't get worked up easily.

Well adjusted and incredibly happy, many people wonder what your secret to life is.



You tend to be pretty tightly wound. It's easy to get you excited... which can be a good or bad thing.

You have a lot of enthusiasm, but it fades rather quickly. You don't stick with any one thing for very long.

You have the drive to accomplish a lot in a short amount of time. Your biggest problem is making sure you finish the projects you start.



You are the total package - suave, sexy, smart, and strong.

You have the whole world under your spell, and you can influence almost everyone you know.

You don't always resist your urges to crush the weak. Just remember, they don't have as much going for them as you do.



You are friendly, charming, and warm. You get along with almost everyone.

You work hard not to rock the boat. Your easy going attitude brings people together.

At times, you can be a little flaky and irresponsible. But for the important things, you pull it together.







You are well rounded, with a complete perspective on life.

You are solid and dependable. You are loyal, and people can count on you.

At times, you can be a bit too serious. You tend to put too much pressure on yourself.



You are a seeker. You often find yourself restless - and you have a lot of questions about life.

You tend to travel often, to fairly random locations. You're most comfortable when you're far away from home.

You are quite passionate and easily tempted. Your impulses sometimes get you into trouble.

Birthday on two adresses

Today is Kristians birthday!

He has been celebrated on two adresses - we started out with breakfast table with presents and flags, and then Bruno went to work in the new house. In the afternoon we took our coffee table with rolls, cookies and a cake-man and packed it in the car, and had a birthday-picnic with the hardworking hubby in the new house.

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Bruno had a much needed break, and Kristian had a good time - at least he looks like he did :-)

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We got to check out the latest progress - all that had happened since yesterday. The latest was that the bedroom changed colours from salmony orange to the loveliest blue colour that matches the white trimmings beauuutifully (and also the white wardrobe that we have our eyes on for the bedroom).

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Bodil checked out her new room, and also looked quite content.

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It is showing now, that WE live there ... well, we almost do! We have moved many boxes by now, and that is a good thing, as it will make our final move on saturday easier.

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So it goes fast and it goes well ... now our vacation is almost over, and fortunately we made a lot of progress in the course of it. More pictures is visible on my flickr, if you are curious. The coming week has the work-kind of busy in stor for me - a project workshop on monday, and a seminar wednesday and thursdag. Wednesday will be a late one for me as the schedule runs until 8 at night. Friday I've taken a day off - I will probably need it too :-)

So if I don't update my blog much this week, you'll know why...

Have a lovely working week!

Thursday, March 20, 2008

You harvest what you sow

And I sowed a bad crop yesterday.

Like I mentioned earlier, my shoulders have been just fine with the work in the house. So yesterday, while Bruno was working on Bodils floor, and Kristian and I had finished painting the brush-work in his room, I was a bit annoyed at not being able to move on. I figured, since things are going this well, I might just as well grab a paintroll and finish the job.

I paid dearly for that last night. Half a bottle of red was not enough painkiller for me, so I had to take som pills and go to bed. It hurt like a bitch in my shoulders!

Today it is better, but I guarantee that I will keep away from the paintroller. :-(

Tuesday, March 18, 2008

Another little bit...

Today we got a bit further again!

Kitchen and livingroom is now ready for us to move in. I painted the last edges, and the foot panels in the kitchen - they needed it badly.

In the afternoon we went to the lawyers to sign the papers on the house. It was easy, because the lawyer we use for the buy is right on Høgevej - not very far from Fasanvej.

On the way back I got a snap of the streetsign - in one end of the street you can see a nice old streetsign, hanging on number 1. I don't know for sure, but my guess is that it dates back from when the street was new - back in the twenties. I have been told that before there were houses, the area was named Rosenvold, and the city dwellers had picnics there on sundays... a funny thought, as the house is now in a central part of the town.

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The street is quite small and narrow - there is no sidewalk and the houses are quite close. A few houses are alike, but ohterwise it's mixed - some look like ours, there are a couple of two family houses, and a "skyscraper" with 3 stories, containing apartments - and in the middle of it all, there is a single house dating from the sixties.

Otherwise todays status is ... I got started at painting the edges for Kristians room. Tomorrow he is coming along to help. These colours certainly need replacing...

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Down in the basement Bruno was working hard. He has the supporters for the floor sawed out, and he has put down the plastic to keep damp out. Tomorrow he has to do the precision work of making the floor level - good thing I don't have to do that! ;-)

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Suddenly it was after six, and we hadn't anything planned for dinner. Fortunately I was just out of paint, so I washed my brush and drove by Føtex, where they have so much food they sell it to anyone who has money.

While I was in the kitchen rinsing my brush, I enjoyed the view from my kitchen window ... pretty, huh?

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The sun poured gold over the whole thing and I considered how different things look on a day like this, compared to when the clouds hang low and the rain soaks everything.

Monday, March 17, 2008

I guess it just takes hard work!

I visited the physical therapist today - I was a bit worried what he'd say to me because
* I haven't really made as many of my exercises as I should have
* I've painted and cleaned like mad half of saturday and all of sunday
* I haven't thought as much about having the right posture as I should
so I thought he'd be rough on me.

Much to my surprise it was better than it has been for a while ... good enough for him to cancel my appointment this wednesday.

So I guess it just takes hard work!

I went to the hairdresser today too, so now I have a summer hairdo!

Bruno had to work today - a meeting with a client in Horsens - so all in all the work on the house was suffering today.

Instead I packed a few boxes - we have an AWFUL lot of books, and we can't spare a single one! well ... actually ... we have just sorted them and are ditching a big box of them.

So now we only have about 10 boxes of books left...

We did make a short working session in the house late afternoon. Bruno got the livingroom painted again, and I readied Krisians room for painting, and also filled holes in the walls of Bodils room.

Tomorrow we start off the day by a shopping trip to Germany. We're all out of cola - and the will NOT do, when we have to work hard on the house! We leave early, so we can get back and get going with some more painting.... I'd really like to give Kristians room the first coat of paint tomorrow - let's see if I make it.

Sunday, March 16, 2008

Labour of love

We worked hard today.

I woke up - just woke up for no reason - a bit before seven. It's unusual, but as soon as my mind was near waking, my brain got active ... what are we doing today??

That way we were actually in our new house before 9, and that was fine! Status tonight is that we got all of the kitchen, the dining area and the living room painted with the first layer. This is how our kitchen looks like. It is fairly new.

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There were still some cleaning to do ... I think there had been a lot of cigarette smoke in that house. The window was yellow, but some serious scrubbing with heavy soap water made the wood go back to a pretty white. There were a couple of pipes that were in need - of paint, Bruno thought, but my experience with the window made me try the soap water and knuckle grease solution. Note to self: Pipes need cleaning sometimes ... otherwise they get REALLY gross...

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It's easy to see how far you get.

Because of my shoulders i frequently have to take breaks from painting. Then I do other things. Carry stuff in from the car and put them away. Wash the dishes from our last coffee break. Clean a bit here and there. And sometimes just walk around the house, enjoying the lovely rooms of our new, wonderful home.

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This is a favourite room of mine. The room with the panorama window, where we will have our den - with our computers, some easy chairs to read in - and it will also be our spare guest room, but it will have to have room for bookshelves.

Next to this room is our future living room. It needs a layer of paint on this picture, but we allready fixed that.

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Later we will do things to this room. We want to pull down the ugly ceiling and restore the old stucco hiding underneath. Between the dining area and the living room is a weird opening. We want to make it square ... and we have tons of other plans, too!

Meanwhile my sweet Bruno painted. He is untireable.

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We have a good time. We work well together. Sometimes we talk. Sometimes we dont. Sometimes we have a conversations across rooms or floors. Sometimes one of us start whistling or singing, and it turns into a duet.

We take breaks and drink coffee and weaves dreamwebs of our new home. We talk about the neighbours we allready met - they all seem really nice and open.

We talk about how it will be to wake up for the first time in there. On Fasanvej, in our big, bright bedroom in that beautiful old house.

It'll be great - and it'll be in less than 2 weeks!

Saturday, March 15, 2008

The name of the house is Rosa

The big day finally arrived. It was getting-the-key-day - the red house on Fasanvej (meaning Pheasant St.) was finally to be ours!

We started the day with an early trip to Bauhaus - to buy some building material and paint. We packed a box of things useful to make coffee etc. in the house, and we dug out our painting gear and other stuff.

We got our new mailbox ready - put names on it and all.

And somehow the arms of the clock crept to twenty to 12, and we were bound for Fasanvej. I had a tummyache, all from the exitement - literally - and I managed to pass it on to the kids (and to Bruno - of course he wouldn't admit it!)

Just as soon as we had gotten the key, read off heat etc, and the former owner was gone, I started up with the camera! We wanted before-pictures - given some time the house will change, and it will be fun to see what it looked like when we got it.

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Yeah - I know I cut off part of the roof, but there was a limit to how far I'd venture into the driveway of the house across the street to take the picture...
The windows will be replaced. Maybe this year - otherwise they'll get a layer of white paint. They are actually healthy enough, but the house would look so much better with the old style windows it was born with.

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The name of the house is Rosa. And someone took the pains of depicting it on the house. Later on, someone slathered red paint all over it - a pity, but fortunately it is reversible.

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An easy, small and cozy garden. That was an important factor in deciding for this house. The tree is said to give a good harvest of pears. And I can easily imagine myself sitting under it with a book on a warm summer day.

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This our house from the back. The former owners changed one window - it leads to the kitchen, which has been replaced within the last 5 years.

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This room means a lot to Bruno! This is where his shop will be - I can allready see him tinkering with his bikes down here - it is a nice, good sized room - and the picture gives an idea of how bright the cellar is.

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When coming up from the cellar, you can enjoy the cute hobbit window in our hallway. It is right next to the front door - symmetrical with the name plaque.

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Upstairs this door leads from the stairway into the hallway, that is on the upstairs floor. It is there because the house once was two apartments - it is actually an old outside-door. There used to be one downstairs just like it, but the former owner gave it away - pity, I really find it very pretty.

The first floor has three good rooms and a bathroom. The room facing the garden will be our master bedroom. It will be a step up from what we had, it is rather small.

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The stairway doesn't stop here, on the first floor. A small stair leads up to the nicest attic - a good, easily accessible one with a stable floor all over. I couldnt take good pictures there - but the stairs were easy to photograph. :-)

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The stairway is, as they are in houses from the 1920'es: absolutely charming and very solid. With a twisting railing and real landings - it will be lovely once we get to renovating it.

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There is plenty to start with. Today we took the floor out of Bodils cellar room - there were four layers, on top of a floor that was bumpy because it wasn't finished. Sometime in the closer past, someone put a rough layer of concrete. The top layere was never put in, though - there was just put 4 layers of carpet on top, probably over time, without a damping shield underneath.

We are going to finish the floor - or rather, Bruno is - good thing I am married to a handyman!

Other than that Bruno got the living room and the kitchen ready to paint - and I cleaned the kitchen thoroughly (I just had a clear example of how NOT to leave the kitchen, when we move - yuck!).

Tomorrow we start out by painting the living room and the kitchen. We can barely wait to go back in there and start up again!

Wednesday, March 12, 2008

When I nearly killed a dear colleague...

Yesterday I nearly had a dear colleague harmed in an accident.

Well - actually it wasn't my fault - I blame Lene from Liber Vin for it.

She was the one that wanted me to taste some of her REALLY good wines - in order for me to sell some to my colleagues. So she set on the table a very fine St. Emilion, and right next to it - there it was - that 2002 Maison Louis Picamelot, AOC Volnay 1er Cru "Santenots".

It had an incredible scent. And when I tasted it, I spontaneously cried: "I'd sell my body for this wine!"

Helge is normally a very level headed guy. It takes quite a bit to shake him up, but that outburst sure did it, even if it wasn't meant literally.

Poor guy had just filled his mouth with the good red stuff, and he sat there with an odd look, making half-choked giggle-sounds, whilst trying not to spew the expensive and exquisite drops all over the room.

Fortunately he did not choke on the wine. Even though I believe he would find it a worthy death*) to choke on an outstanding burgunder, he is a bit too young to pass away.

Later we agreed, that even though we like to use the spontaneous comments we make on wines in our sales-email, this comment was best omitted. But who knows - maybe it could sell a couple of bottles, even at the going rate of 450 kr. a piece...




*) As W.C. Fields put it: "Drown in a cold vat of whiskey? Death, where is thy sting?"

It's getting close!

The day is getting close ... this coming saturday we take over our new house!

From then on we have 3 weeks, where we have 2 houses - our plan is to move on march 29'th, and that leaves us with a one week margin. Plenty of time to clean the old house properly for the new owners.

Someone asked me if I was not the least bit sorry for leaving this house, and the answer is: no, I am not.

I've had some of the happiest years of my life here, but that is not due to the house. I would have been happy in almost any house.

And now I am moving to a house my love and I picked out together - far from ex'es, old neighbours and all of the history that in time has gone bad on us.

I can't wait to see the house - just with us in it! To look in closets and peek under carpets. To own it!

Last weekend was well spent. We went out on friday with some of Brunos colleagues, and saturday was the big Bankdata party - nearly 800 people in Forum Horsens. It was a fine party, allthough the food was somewhat lacking in quality.

Sunday I was ... well, indisposed. Hung over.

Now I have some busy days until friday, when my vacation starts...