Owners list, rev.2

The information we had about who has owned our house has been definitely very limited.
We have thought that just few families had been living here since 1908, when the house was built.
But, after contacting Kathleen Cook-Frieberg's son and realizing that they were living here for only 6 years (1952 to 1958, he states), I was struck by the evidence that there must have been someone more living here after the Ingemanssons.

I finally found that, although Burlövs Kommun (the municipality of Burlövs, where Åkarp belongs) doesn't have any relevant information on the house, one can pay for searching some archives through this website.

I made a request to know all the owners of Villa Bellevue and few weeks later I got scanned copies of documents, from 1879 up to the digitalization era.

The page where it is stated that Axel Ingemansson bought the area

Owners from 1928 to 1952

It was also funny to see that I could spot who owned some of the houses that are located nearby ours!

Finally, this is Villa Bellevue owners' complete list.

•  The mythical figure of Pehr Pehrsson (or Per Persson) owned half of Åkarp land, it seems. He has been a quite relevant figure in Åkarp history and I can see that 1879 he bought the land that includes the area  belonging to Villa Bellevue. 
• Axel Ingemansson bought the land the 30th of December 1906. He built the house.
• Anders Nilsson lived here from 1914. He died 1918 and his wife, Agnes, sold everything to Lars Larsson 1919.
• Lars and Mathilda lived here just 9 years. 
• Edvard (?) and Alma Berggren bought Villa Bellevue 1928.
• Ellen Persson came and lived here from 1944.
• The next Villa Bellevue lady was Kathleen Cook-Frieberg. She lived here from 1954 according to the papers.
• Inge and Karin Edler owned it between 1958 to 1971.
• Bengt and Britha Svensson have been the ones living the longest here. From 1971 to 2004.
• Thomas Bachrach bought it from them and sold it to us 2012.
• And here we are, at the bottom of the list. 

So, counting from Axel Ingemansson we are number ten on the list. It is a quite impressive list of owners and I am amazed the house is in such good shape considering. Or maybe, afterall, there are not that many original details left, but just patches and layers from everyone :)

The thing is, it has been hard enough to catch who has been living here from 1952. I don't think I will manage to get the hands on anyone before Kathleen's son, Christer. Pity, though!

IKEA's 1700 serie

During the 90s IKEA launched on the market something very unusual, considering their products: the 1700 serie. This serie is still sold, but through other brands (for example Flora Linnea, Move), with some variations respect to the original items.

The different items are inspired by old Swedish furniture and reproduced as copies, but still with the same quality.
IKEA sold not only furniture, but also lamps, plates, glasses and cutlery in the same style.

For some time now, I have been drooling over the trågsoffa (a wooden couch) and few days ago, I finally saw one on Blocket. I had an image in mind of how our veranda should look like and I can say we have been very lucky that the family who was selling the cough, had also many other items of the same collection.

Our veranda finally got some furniture

 I have been looking around for other similar items, but I was definitely stuck for this specific couch. Why? Because the wooden work is so beautiful and has the same style as
the one we have on our staircase!

The couch details

The staircase banister

Dream plan

I write the dream plan I have in my head down here, so I can maybe see in 10 years or so how much we will end up really do and how much we will really want to do still.
If we'd had an infinite amount of time and money I would like to:

• Isolate the attic and make it an extra guest room with a bathroom and a lot of storage place.
• Renovate the tower room, by fixing the floor and isolate it properly. I would also like to set back the windows in the tower. I would love to remove the radiator that has been put there (which would mean removing the pipes in our bedroom), although Mattias doesn't agree at all.
• Shorten the balcony to its original dimensions (nicer proportions with the rest of the house).
• Remove the built-in wardrobe in the guestroom and the treetex from the wall. 
• Put back the floor over the pine tree layer which we are using as floor today. That is not supposed to be the floor! 
• Rebuild the ensuite bathroom. It would be nice to have it in a more classic style, better organized and following some smart rules (the floor should not lean towards the bedroom!)
• Isolate properly the wardrobes in Isabella's and Oscar's room.
• Put back the original windows where there are the ones from the 70s and the ones from 2005 by making an inventory of what we have in the attic.
• Renovate some original window that we have so that they will survive other 100 years and for some create an inner-window so that the environment can be better isolated (e.g. in the attic).
• Remove the structured wallpaper from the stairhouse and the entrance.
• Place back the swinging door between the entrance and the stairhouse.
• Recreate the frescos on the walls in the entrance.
• Renovate the little toilet next to the entrance.
• Remove the treetex from the "red room".
• Place back the door to the veranda.
• Remove the stone window sills and replace them with the wooden ones (but I think this will be quite an utopia since it will require a lot of mess with wooden strips - but I really don't like the stone window sill!!!!).
• Fix the chimneys with the rain protection.
• Write back the name "Bellevue" on both facades.
• Renovate the kitchen.
• Renovate the basement, by lowering the floor and removing the "krypgrund" (some unused space under the tower room which has no floor and no isolation of any kind) and make the access to it more comfortable.
• Refresh the tool shed and the garage.
• Remove the "cocktail bar" and build instead a changing room and a shower next to the pool.
• Rebuild the floor around the pool so that we don't get weeds constantly and that the floor is stable!
• Finish to paint the pool shed.
• Reorganize the garden by removing plants we don't like and are in the way and moving back the meridian to some more visible place.
• Recreate the white fence in front of the house.
• Renovate the roof, as we are planning, by keeping the tiles (but this we know we will do!).
• And....

I am crazy, am I not?

Villa Hemmet

Last week we had the opportunity to pay a visit to Villa Hemmet thanks to its owners' kindnenss. This villa is also located in Gamla Åkarp, not too far from ours and it is incredibly beautiful.
We took this as a great opportunity to learn on how also other families have renovated their house and get some inspiration for ours.

A picture from 1997 of Villa Hemmet

Villa Hemmet was built 1915, based on some drawings by an architect more accostumed to churches than villas. The current owner had the opportunity to meet Hans Ingemanson (who lived in our house when it was built) who defined Villa Hemmet as "the new one".
Luckily, not so many owners have lived there and that has made it possible to preserve a lot of original details.

There is a story behind this house: two sisters fell in love with the same farmhand. Some sources report that the one that was not so lucky in love decided to use the  inherited fortune to build this house and move there, other sources instead that the one who had the chance on the man, built the house and moved there with him and a maid. In both cases, the maid inherited the house after the couple's death and after her the house was bought by a priest family.

The house is full of very nice details. From the little niches on both sides of the entrance, to the kakelugnar (a tiled stove). What strucked us mostly was that the floors are original in most of the house and look very different from our pine tree floor, which is the "under floor"!
On each threshold there were some metal bars with decorations. When looking at our threshold I can see that there are some "holes" and I wonder if such metal bars (I suppose to protect the wood to get consumed) were there as well.
The owners have decorated the house with very beautiful wallpaper and site-built bookshelves that melt in between the original windows. Between the inner and the outer window, considering the season, they had put some material that would prevent drafts. That is a smart way to have a better indoor climate! It is not necessary to change such windows into modern ones!
The presence of a little steep stair nearby the kitchen made us also realize that there must have been one like that in our kitchen too, to reach the maid's room, which was probably the room that today will be Oscar's. I had wondered many times about the pipes rests we found in that room and it is clear that the bathroom we have newly renovated didn't exist from the start.
Their kitchen has been renovated with a checkboard floor and a new furniture in old style. It looked definitely more practical than ours and despite the years (about 10) in a much better state!
They also renovated the maid's room, changing the planning of it, to a bathroom with the laundry facilities. It is a pity since the "maid stairs" now are the only way to the attic (and this is possibly an obstacle to use the attic as additional room) but on the other hand, the bathroom is comfortable and one doesn't have to go down to the basement to wash clothes.
Very nice also the new banister on the balcony: as it is possible to see in the picture above, before it didn't exist, but the new one looks like it has always been there.
Also Villa Hemmet has a veranda, quite similar to ours in style. The difference though is the access: there are additional windows between the adjecent room and the veranda. So, I went and looked at the drawings of Villa Bellevue from 1953 and saw that between our veranda and the "fireplace room" there was a door. And I think I know where the rests of some part of that construction are: in our attic, hopefully!
We also visited the basement and noticed that one didn't have to be a dwarf to go around there, differently from ours! This gives me hope that it will be possible to fix the basement so that one can walk there without too many problems.

The room that was absolutely breathtaking though was the dining room. Original wallpaper is still there from 1915 and looked very close to something that is called gyllenläder (Cuir de Cordoue/cordovan). On one side of the room, there is also a table with benches around three sides of it. Textile work typical from Skåne is decorating the wall just behind the sits. The whole room is a masterpiece!

I couldn't stop to stare at details like the doors handles (although I think some have been changed during the years - there was some clear funkis one!), or even the radiators (and the fact that the thermostat looked very old) and by being there, I got so many ideas and dreams on how villa Bellevue looked like and could still do!