Bellevue

For quite some time, if one wanted to address a letter or a postcard to somebody living in our house, they would have written "Name Surname, Bellevue, Åkarp".
Back then the houses were identified with a name, not with the street and a number.

I don't know why, but Axel Ingemansson baptised his house to Bellevue (french for beautiful view), maybe because it is a bit higher up than the rest of Åkarp and one could enjoy a nice view?

1909. Bellevue

Said this, for several decades the house name had been on the front facade, also the side facade had the name on it, but that was not from the start, from 1906. It came later, possibly around 1915.

Work is ongoing. The line has been filled in and now it is being putty

Having the house name on the facade has been one of my obsessions from almost the very beginning (I don't know why). And after got the opportunity to check the pictures from the first years of the house, we got the right font and we started the process for it.

The weather gods had been merciful to us, for once, during the work

Bellevue is now written back on the facade. Sadly, it was not an immediate thing to do (apart that we had a very talented painter who managed to get out from a picture the text and the proportions) because, possibly during the 60s, the upper windows got a decorative line in the plaster and that had to gone off again. The "filling up the line over the windows" operation turned out to be more painful than expected.

Work in progress. Picture of Maria Attström

What wonderful details!

 On top of that the scaffold had been mounted in a very peculiar way, so that Maria, our painter, could not reach the right top most corner. I improvised myself her pupil and I have probably messed up forever her work...

Putty on the plaster. The first painting attempt without it turned out to make the line too visible

It is freshly painted. Mmm. I am not very convinced of the result.

 Nevertheless, the result is amazing. The facade has gained so much with such a relatively small detail. I love to stare at it against the nice sky we can enjoy these days.

We just need to remove the scaffold

2016, Bellevue.

Bellevue, spring 2016. 

It's "home"

Although, its home has been in Italy until two days ago, I am finally reunited with my (baby grand)piano after 14 years.
I can't describe how it feels - not that when I was studying/playing I would have thought it would have felt like this and not that I have ever played that incredibly well either.
But every day, for many years, I was glued to the chair (not very willingly) and now I wished I would have not stopped. Because now I can't play not even the pieces that I could consider "easier" to digest.

Its new home is in the tower room

The transportation was another piece of history. From a wrong "order" (in English one says baby grand piano and not generic piano specifying the length of the tail), to pure rain when the piano went out of the house.
Of course, it arrived the only day I was away (quite far off) for the whole time.

Essie Freeberg, with her grandmother and the pianist Jack Bagner

I wonder how many of the previous owners had put the piano there. We know that a grand piano was there during the 52-58 period (when the house was owned by Kathleen Cook Freeberg).

It survived transportation quite ok. Just some bumps on a side that hopefully will be fixed without too much problems.

Now, I just need a rehabilitation course...