From the beginning...

For some years, we have had a dream of changing the way we live our lives. We talked a lot about buying a farm and renovating it to make a platform for our vision. To create a place for us to work with people on their mental and physical health as well as a platform for art and movement. In the beginning of 2020, we took the leap. We sold our apartment and bought a farm in Denmark.

We moved to our beautiful farm on the first of August last summer. Diana was eight months pregnant with our son, so we planned on just moving in and wait to renovate the place. But things did not go quite as planned. The kitchen and living room area had a carpet covering the floor that smelled really bad. We just had to take it off.

What we did not realise was the so-called "pandora's box" that we had opened by removing the carpet. Half of the original hardwood floor was covered with concrete, and a part was covered with a thick layer of old linoleum glue. Which meant a lot more work than we intended. Despite this little setback, we were still optimistic.

Since we were already knee-deep in renovations, we decided we might as well tear down the walls and create one ample space. Before we could really think it through the walls were gone and we needed to install a steel beam to carry the floor joints. Understandably, neither of us had any experience installing steel beams. But luckily Diana's dad knows what he's doing when it comes to this kind of work, so he helped us install it correctly.

We had one big open space and a lot of work ahead of us. Plus everything is a bit crooked in old houses, which we think is charming, but at the same time makes the work a bit more complicated. First, we had to sand the floor. It was not going to be an easy job since it was covered with ship varnish. At this point, we were so tired. It was getting hard to manage the kids, prepare for a newborn, and having the energy to finish the renovations. Not to mention settling down in a new country. There were only weeks until our son was to be born. We did not have a lot of time, so we decided to hire professionals to sand the floor to lighten the load. We could never have imagined what happened next. We hired contractors and sent them pictures and descriptions of the floor. Their offer was pretty steep but we were just so glad to get this off our backs that we were ready to pay way too much to get this done. We prepared everything for them so their work could be as straight forward as possible. A guy arrives three hours late with one little machine. He started working. A little over an hour later, he gave up. He told us that sanding the floor was too hard, and he could not do it. Then he just left. Luckily we had not paid them anything. We could not believe it, and the blissful ignorance that follows romantic dreams had quickly faded. No worries, we still love everything about our life at the farm, the countryside, and the new house. It's just a lot more real to live and realise it than to dream it. Maybe this was the cosmos telling us to finish what we had started. So we gathered our strength, rented machines, and did all the research we could on how to sand old hardwood floors. Somehow we made it work, of course, with a lot of help from our family.

Now we are in an in-between state and there is a lot left to finish. We‘re planning on starting after Easter on the second phase. This will include taking down the ceiling panels to make the wooden beams visible and get more height. We also need to take up all the hardwood floors and install new timber joints to make the floor even before laying it down again. There is an 8 cm difference from one corner to another. And then finally finish the kitchen, something we are really looking forward to.

We can‘t wait to share more of our adventure with everyone...