Useful modernities

 As we have this incredible controversial relationship with the wind, last year I tried to pragmatically buy a "Weather station" that could support, at least mentally, our handling of extreme weather situations.

I will never be tired to repeat that, as every project for us, things take its time and now, one month and one week later, we are finally able to have the "weather station" up and running, to enjoy being obsessed about temperature and m/s when the wind blows.

The main interface of the weather station: you can read indoor and outdoor temperature, how much it has been raining, what time is it, and how strong the wind is. It also predicts the coming weather

It is of course something that does stick out a bit in the structure of the house. But I doubt i would have ever managed to find something "jugend" inspired ;-)

We need to get happy we could sacrifice the "pumps" house, that has an half painted door, odd tiles and well, it is at least placed in the most wind sensitive part of the garden (that is why we have mounted the wind sensor there).

The wind sensor

We also sacrificed the look of the balcony. Well, that balcony has nothing to do with the original balcony, really. Plus, since it has been probably built in some cheap/fast/unorthodox way, it does look like it would need a hand of paint, or two, or some love and care.

Anyway, I must confess that the rain sensor is just horrible... 

Rain sensor on our beautiful balcony

Now, will all of this help us out to defeat the worst storms that will ever attempt to lift pool roofs and slam trees on the ground?

Let's see if this is just a toy or something useful...

We stand here with the poolhouse

Progresses do happen slowly, sadly, but there are.
Thing is that although there is vacation there is also a garden to attend, food to prepare, kids to raise, laundry to make, and all the other projects that take bits and pieces of time and sometimes the energy is not there for the sprint that would be necessary to make a difference in this project.
But some things did happen...
1) We got electricity!

One of the switches 

But we miss the outdoor lamp...
2) We got the most of the metal sheet work up and running (and painted).

Freshly mounted gutter and downpipe

However we miss the window and door ironwork as well as the flinger...

3) We got the composting toilet mounted, with the pipe through the roof

The composting toilet is "ready" to be used

but as we don't have doors and windows we can't plug it in as the rain would create problems with the electricity

4) It can be used...

It's "ready" :P

but it lacks doors, windows and a lot of painting on top of all the rest and that is taking its time.

The shelves are waited to be mounted and we need to find also some other small accessory. 

ETA 2030? :)

Not always fancy, not always jugend

Sometimes we need to look also for things that are not really matching the house style, but they are "needed" and practical.

One of the latest upgrades is a minor item that though makes a lot of quality difference in our lives. We have of course a ringbell at our main door, but if the gates are closed, noone will ever manage to catch our attention.
The previous owner had mounted a wireless ringbell, but the ringbell per se' has been standing under the rain a little too match and with humidity, the batteries have given up very easily.
We basically have never had it working in 7 years that we have lived here. Maybe a glimpse of life for the few seconds I have tried a pair of new batteries. But that's it.
I then saw a "beautiful" ringbell that use kinetic energy and hence, it works without battery. IP44 certified (water resistant, basically!).
Yes, it is a gadget. Modern. Nothing jugend. Nothing from the ancient time. But very very practical, I'd say.

Outside the gate. Yes, the weather is amazing here....

On the left lower part of the picture, the receiving part is plugged (in the kitchen) - note the fantastic woven wallpaper...

We have otherwise, always things ongoing. Mostly, cleaning, fixing, windows...
One of the things we have prioritized has been the basement. Not that we are "fixing" it properly, but we are at least ordering it a bit.

An unsorted part of the basement

Our basement is quite spacious and has several rooms. The laundry has in a semi ok status, then there is a small corridor that I use for planting when the weather outside is still very Swedish.

A big room where we have the ping pong table and the fuzzball table, with thousands of boxes I save (!).

A food cellar, that is now a storage of things to sell, some food, a lot of apple juice, some plants. It is dark and as most of the places in the basement, the cats have not had mercy and left a lot of trails that makes everything unfresh and smelly.

Finally, we have a small room with the heat pump and a small workshop. Though the ceiling has fallen and we really don't use the room.

The big room one reach when coming down has been used as a wooden workshop and repairing workshop. 

So, it has been messy also because when sawing there has been the highest particles generation that has spread generously everywhere.

Making it impossible to paint... (so we have entered in a evil loop where I have been blocked in the windows renovation, while Mattias was working on the wooden outdoor dryer).

Still a lot to do, but a bit more order

So, we have started to move things around, to make more space and to avoid this stall situation. The sawing equipment will be moved in the heat pump room and I just need to sort out all the mess I have in the painting area. And actually paint...

The repairing station

We have though successfully found a better position for the repairing corner. We have a tendency to seldom throw items, even if they are in a quite broken status. We do our best to fix them... sometimes we give up. More often we can use them a big more.

Our basement is not exactly "cosy" or hyper fresh. We would need to fix it. But for the moment at least we need to clean it and make it functional.

Let's see now when we can continue with this operation....