Author: Björn Wallentinus

Time flies! It’s already November 20.

Winter is close, below 0 today and dark outside at 4 in the afternoon. We’re trying to finish things that can’t be done in the winter. Mortar does not like freezing temperatures. Finished the leca blocks for the smaller “water” house at least. It will house water techie stuff and part of the water recycling system. More blocks are needed below the green house walls, we’ll see how the weather stays. It’s possible to mix the mortar with anti freeze and warm water but it’s difficult and expensive.

On the house we are almost finished with the logs, it’s been more difficult the higher we get. Now there is only one log still to put in place. Great to start seeing the finished shape of the house. Currently working on the roof joists as well.

Sad days in the world, terror and hate everywhere, Paris burning. So many people on the run. Sweden is apparently running out of space to house refugees now, some have to sleep outside or in tents. Up to 2000 ppl has been arriving per day, the rest of the EU (some exceptions exists) is mostly fighting about keeping the refugees out. Is the european idea failing? Society is becoming more polarized.

Anyway, onwards to the pictures.

The last log, ready for lifting. Lifting straps attached at each end to balance it.

Hoisted to the roof, finally!

Hamering a dowel, a bit difficult high up on the ladder.

View to the pasture outside. First broken window, probably due to preassure on the side of the window from the frame. Another one has broken next to it as well now. Monitoring the situation, can’t replace them yet anyway.

More dowels, difficult, one-hander high up on the ladder. Open space to the bottom floor. The 5 meter timber wall is quite impressive.

Some corner details.

Drilling holes for electrical wires before assembling the logs.

The kids are decorating some of the rooms.

Some outside views.

Never ending leca blocks.

View from the pasture.

Our neighbour have gotten their house a few weeks ago. Prefab, so it already looks finished, Linda is envious.

Autumn has arrived, time for an update. Crisp autumn days have replaced the summer, some frost has even turned up. Nice and warm in the greenhouse, today over 25 degrees.

The roof of the garage is almost finished, now we need the panelling to continue.

We’ve done some colour tests for the panelling on the house and garage, with unconclusive results. More tests needed but we’ll probably use an oil based stain.

Log walls continue to grow slowly, we’re up to level 29 in some places, 34 is the final layer. Not so many logs left!

Staircase and opening to downstairs.Lova’s room on the second floor. I’ve put some boards across the windows to increase safety a bit.Living room on the second floor and Saga’s room. The door to the bathroom to the left.The second floor terrace.View to the downstairs living room from the top of the stairs.I’ve continued with the LECA between the greenhouse concrete fundaments.Finally a tour around the house from the outside.New grass covers up the clay mess left by the excavator.LECA from the outside.I have to continue the recycling house made of LECA before winter arrives, it was hard work with mortar in January/February like a did this year 🙂 Frost protection, hot water etc. The walls will be almost as high as to the bottom of the greenhouse doors.View from the north. The last five logs still laying outside under the tarpulin, need to get them in soon.

Some quick pictures of the status so far. Working on the second floor now and made some good progress today. At some places there are less than 8 logs to go. A few more logs in the garage then we get to open the last pack of logs.

Another excellent day to havet the greenhouse, it has been pouring down today but we are unaffected by the rain.

Got the garage doors installed too, nice to be able to lock. One did get slightly damaged in the heavy winds during the week, will have to replace some screws the got bent. Oiled the doors with linseed oil from ekologiska byggvaruhuset, nice stuff.

Switching to english for our international visitors… Short recap of the project: Green house with a log house inside. Eden project in small scale. Positive sides are environmentally friendly, recycling of waste water, less energy consumption, home grown veggies, large living space as soon as the temperature is ok, cool house. Negatives: Risk of too high temperature during hot summer days, expensive.

So, 5 weeks of vacation has come to an end. The greenhouse was finished in early July by Drivadan and we could start building the log house. The first 12 shifts went up in a week but then it became harder. Especially the 10 meter long logs became too dangerous to lift high so we spent more than a week building a winch/hoist/traverse system to help lift and secure the larger logs. After that it was a little difficult to “tie” together the different pars of the house, i.e. over the doorways. The walls had shifted a little during construktion so we had to use a jack or winsch to push or pull the walls to the correct position.

Eventually we made it up to level 16/17 and could lay in the floor joist for the first floor. Now we could build a temporary floor to be able to continue the logs for the second floor. Nice to see the house become a reality! Many tonnes of wood moved.

The longest logs, 10 m, a bit dangerous to handle. One bit my middle finger, still swollen

The kids helping out.

Logs around the staircase taking form.

Relly nice to follow the wildlife around the house. One morning the barn swallows had left their nests and the young sat in our birch begging for food. Other days the pied wagtails and common buzzards left their nests.

Acrobatics in the ceiling while setting up the winsch. Hot and cumbersome to climb around with a harnes on.
Alot of interresting moths find their way into the greenhouse.

Got myself a quadrocopter, fun to fly in the greenhouse.

The winsch holding one of the large logs while we push it into position..

Hamering the wooden dowels that hold the logs together.

The master carpenter or something like that…

First plants, a bunch of tomatoplants. They seem to like it!

First floor joists going in.

Staircase growing, one of the few things I designed. Somewhat proud.The stairs will go up between the first two walls, turn around and land on the first floor behind the middle section.

Finally one floor up and a temporary floor finished.Now onwards with more logs for the walls before it is a little safer upstairs.