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Sunday, March 4, 2012

Welcome to Our House!

Finally, a post about our new house here in Stavanger.  I guess new is relative because it was actually built around 1840 or so.  I love thinking about all the history this house has seen and the lives that have called this house their home.  Now we can too!  Of course some of it has changed (wait until you see the bathroom.. pretty sure that's a recent update) but the wood walls on the first floor are all original along with the fire place (one of our favorite features). Let's take a tour!

First, we'll start with a quick visual of our location on a map.  We live in an area called Gamle Stavanger (or "Old Stavanger").


In short, its a preserved area of wooden houses all built in the 18th century.  If you're interested, read more about it here - see the couple looking up at the white house with the blue gate??  That's our house!

We only just realized this recently and are still pretty excited.  Anyway.  The neighborhood is very charming and full of character. It's no wonder that tourists come to this area to look around on their visits.  I'm already preparing for some awkward eye contact through our front windows because we hear they'll peer in. Should be interesting!  Here are a few more shots of the neighborhood.


And there are some great views between the rooftops of the harbor.


Now for our house!  We enter through the side door through that blue gate because there is a mud room there.  No one wears their shoes inside because it's usually raining so most houses have an area for you to put your shoes and coats when you walk in.  Okay, so after taking your shoes off, step into our kitchen.







 Cozy right?  I'm adjusting to less counter space pretty well and the storage space hasn't been too much of an issue thanks to the hutch near the dining room table (remember the piece of furniture that was too tall but we had to make it work?  That's it!)  It's been very easy to adjust to the heated floors, the airy windows and the wood fireplace (love love love).  Next stop? The living room and the study.


We absolutely love our sectional, and I was so happy when I knew for sure it was going to make it into this room (it was taken completely apart and put back together again).  I knew it would fit based on measurements but I wasn't sure if it would be too big for the room.  Turns out, we think it's perfect!  Not pictured is Jeff's TV which the couch is facing - thanks to our 2000 watt transformer, it's worked like a charm too!  And the study...


About 1/4 of this room is not in the picture so it's not ALL chair.  We had to have a good reading chair though and a desk or course.   Let's go upstairs!


Pistol's excited too! There is a spare bedroom up here but lucky guests will get to stay in the loft up that ladder :)  Next is the bathroom - the most modern room in the house.


Also quite possibly the largest room in the house. Not sure why but I won't complain.  Shower is a bit of a tight squeeze - just more motivation for evening runs! Gotta love those heated floors and windows though.  The spare bedroom has a good windows too.


The windows overlook our backyard. We can't wait for a little warmer weather so we can bring out the grill.




We have a good view of the harbor from the top of the stairs too.  Sometimes all we can see is an enormous ship though - still not quite used to that!


And finally, our room.  The light's not as great on this side because we really close to our neighbor but this will actually work out great in the summer when the sun is only down from 11PM to 3AM.


Well, there you have it!  The grand tour.  The room that I forgot to take a picture of is the basement downstairs.  We call it the dungeon because of its stone walls but the most exciting thing down there is the washing machine, a deep freezer, and our summer tires for the car.   Come on over a visit sometime and stay a while!

4 comments:

  1. It looks so homey and very put together all at once! Fun seeing the chiminea in your backyard. I can't wait to visit.

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  2. Oh my gosh I LOVE IT!!! It looks so great and Norwegian. Heated floors??? Very jealous!

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