Closer to Done

The living room portion of our little house is the original 1890's log home of Sam Sorenson the original homesteader of the farm we rent.

The outside of the living room, note the flat sided log construction.

When we found out within a year or two of living here that the original homesteader was a Scandinavian American it just made everything seem that much better. My husband's grandmother comes from Lulea, Sweden and his grandfather from southern Sweden. I had already totally embraced Dirt's heritage as I was a typical American mutt. My girls have been raise entrenched in nearly everything Scandinavian.

Early in my marriage Carl Larsson quickly became my favorite artist. My living room is painted in colors that come from paintings of his life and home. It was the first room in my house that I was daring and painted in color (something besides beige) after my mom died (she thought beige was the best color to paint homes). There were other inspirations but Larsson is my main draw.

I'm not sure that knowing all of this will help you appreciate the colors in my house or not. But I have had it painted this color for over ten years and I, the queen of change, just repainted it the same color scheme. So obviously I like it, a few of my friends have commented that they do to, the ones who don't have been kind so far and kept their opinions to themselves, but its okay, I know it won't be every one's cup of tea.

The built ins in these pics, my latest painting project The Great Thing About Being A Girl, were originally closets. They became these clever little built ins ten or so years ago updated in the last four years with great sliding drawers in the lower part. Built ins were very popular in Sweden especially for beds. But that would be a different room,
This year our TV died and we had to buy a new one, which of course meant finally putting in built ins in the opposite end of the room to accommodate the enormous thing but more importantly complete the room. Many things are not finished in the room like the floor (just ripped out the carpet The Carpet Has Left The Building ), the track lighting that needs to go, the window treatment that needs to change to what?, my rolling coffee cubes and the covers that need to be reconstructed for them and many other projects but I just wanted to show you these pictures of my latest accomplishments.

Yesterday morning as soon as the paint was cured in the built ins, Bet wanted to set up her Playmobile viking ship. When I went in to see her set up I let out a little squeal of delight. There it was after a whole week of whining

my very own addition to the dragon hunt!
I love that my girls have always loved to play and continue to play as grown up girls. So many of us, under the pressure of peers, stop playing before childhood really even ends and don't pick it up again until the birth of children or grandchildren.

And just because my girls still play doesn't mean they don't work, they are very hard workers and in fact that is what we are about to do. More shearing and landscape management jobs. I'll take the camera and see you back here later dear reader, have a good day till then.