Things happens at times

It feels as we should celebrate since in the last weeks there are some of our projects that have made great step forwards.
First of all, I have finally completed the work on the attic window and I have put it back in its place after almost 2 years.
This is absolutely great as I can feel much more comfortable when it rains/there is wind/anything else. Finally, we have back a window there!

Bellevue got its window back

Of course, meeting relatives to the Pehrsson family boosted the historical investigation part and we have got also additional information. The textile that was weaved by Ellen Pehrsson for the stairs is long 4.4 meters and wide 95 cm.

The textile that was placed along the stairs

Additionally, I have actually carried forward the "torkvinda" (the outdoor dryer) project, by starting to oil it and paint it with the first layer. 

We have "just" to mount it somewhere in the garden and after that I have to give the final paint layers.

Oiled pieces

And this period is always signed with the "gardening" struggle (the garden is awakening and I simply don't manage to follow it up) and an illusion that there would be some spring cleaning. But of course, April means Easter and Isabella's birthday. The weather this year was great and we prepared a little jugend corner for our adult guests.

Coffee in the garden

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. 

A rainbow of colors

After anayzing all possible data, we have come to the conclusion about which colors we should paint the metal in our roof. According to the sources the roof has been always green to emulate copper (Chris Freeberg, living in Bellevue 1952 - 1958) and the tower for sure was always green (Lars Edler, living in Bellevue 1958 - 1974, he painted the tower himself!) although the roof during that time period was in clay.
When looking at the postcards, it is evident that there were at least two different shades of color. One darker and one lighter.

A piece of old metal with the "original" dark green

We only know that the roof was "redone" at the end of the 70s. This doesn't mean that all the metal was changed. Infact, we have come to the conclusion that just the dormer windows and the water boards have got a nice layer of extra new amazing innovative coated metal during that time frame (pity, they left the old metal underneath!).
Possibly, in that occasion they had also repainted the majority of the metal. When looking at it, we can see that the bottom layer is often a dark green color.
Our conclusion is therefore that dark green were many details as the tower (confirmed also by our neighbour).
We can't know when the roof was redone before 1976. But the metal was cut in small pieces as it was normal before 1960, when the metal was available just in the 60x120 size. So, what we had must be at least from 1940-1950.
I believe that most likely that metal was there from the very start and that, maintained properly, it had lasted very long.
Unfortunately, such maintainance has not bee carried on successfully for at least the past 15 years, with the result that rust has attacked the metal making it prone to get holes and it is very few pieces that we could save of it.

Still looking at the postcards, and trying to scrape off color from the metal details like the cornice, it looks that the green there was of a lighter color. Closer to the color that it is there today (and that today is "pestering" also other details which should be darker, instead).
We have therefore decided that the cornice, the gutters, the chimneys foot and the angle chute should be of this lighter color.
Of course, it is a guess, it is very hard to be sure, but we have good data to believe that we are at least getting closer to the original.

During the work that has been taken place on our roof, some boards have been removed since rotten. This includes some piece of painted beam that is "under" the roof in several points.
Since we had to go and buy paint for the roof, we went and buy also the color for the beams.
But, when taking up the piece of beam that was lying in the trash pile, I have noticed something very interesting.
Under the white coat there was another layer of color. Pale yellow.

A rotten beam showing the color layers

Once at the paint shop we have confirmed that the layer is the original color and once home, I had the opportunity to study pieces of the facade that point out that everything was pale yellow.
And if everything was pale yellow, the roof was still green... then the windows must have been english red. At least for 2 years! Why did they change to light grey/white? That is something I keep not understanding.
But, this also raises the question (again!) of which color we must choose for the windows and to me, it seems obvious that when the facade will be repainted, we will choose that pale yellow above.

Anyway, with all the information at hands, we went to the paint shop for linseed paint. Ottossons offers a great selection of linseed paint which is what we will use to pain metal, windows and also the boards.
The smell at the shop was fantastic (possibly also because they were selling very fancy soaps) and it was very interesting to be able to shop the paint we needed bringing the samples we had.

Our purchases at Ottossons

Now, we have just to start the paint. But still, I personally haven't decided that the windows should be light grey and I am getting closer to paint them. Mattias... please, make up your mind! That is, listen to me ;-)