News/Info page

This page is made as a way to present and tell a little about a project that has been occupying my/our life more and more the latest year and half.

8 August 2006
Today the first official work was started on the still long project of making the "Tårnhuset" ("Towerhouse") a reality! This been marked by me adding a new page (Progress) to this site, and starting to load it with some text and pictures of what happens up here in Eidsvoll, Norway!. :-)

We got the "master permit" in early July, but summer vacations and so on have stopped us from coming further.

2 April 2006
I've updated my drawings page with the latest drawings that I have - had to put in an deck on the first floor to please the architect :-) We have also decided to just send in the application so I have redrawn all plans to look similar to the ones the architect sent me in January - and those will be handed the architect on Monday and then he uses them together with the rest he needs to send in the application for a building permit.

Hopefully that will be done in a day or two afterwards, we leave for home in the Netherlands on Monday so I can't make sure it will happen, but we hope...
Then it is the waiting game all over, hopefully we get a permit, and hopefully we get one in in a quick time, but fear it will take some months and then we only get a NO...

Till then, see you all around. :-)

27 march 2006
We had a very nice meeting with the plumber today, and he "rose almost back to the top" where he was when we came to Norway 7 weeks ago, as I wrote elsewhere, I can understand now how things took so long, but until today I had no clue and was getting more frustrated - but for us it was not even as big deal as some other people have had to go through the last few weeks, sometimes one get a perspective to things and us building a house is not even hard at all when compared to a few other problems in the world. Hope things get better for all!

Not much else happen, I wrote some more in my blog in case you are interested. The plumber seemed to like our house, so that is good news. :-)

26 march 2006
Not much is happening, I've updated the front drawings, and had hoped to do the same with the floor plans  but so far that seem to be off. We spoke to the plumber today, again, and this time he promised us a meeting tomorrow at 10:00 so I hope that it will be a good one and that we finely can get some answers about the plumbing and what to use where...

Still waiting to hear back from the guy at the city hall about a meeting there, not sure if I want any either anymore, I just want to send in the application for a permit and hope we get one...

23 march 2006
Not much to say, I've redrawn the plans in the way that I have standardize all windows to one manufactures measurements, added the "squares on glass" by their info, and made the 2 most used windows look as like as I can (50x120cm and 90x120cm) and used the same "system" on the other windows and doors.
Also added a trim to them that I like, not sure if it will end up like I draw it, the "squares" takes up a lot of space, but I can't help for the fact that I like such windows very much! :-)

We are waiting for an appointment with the "council" again, hopefully they will think the house looks better now so we can send in an formal application and hopefully get the permit we need to start building this (and go broke in the process. LOL).

We been in Norway for 6 weeks now, way passed the time we had planned for, and way over the time frame we had in mind.
It's scary to see how long things takes, getting prices from people been a nightmare sometimes, and with others it been a pleasure. Some just promises but never delivers, and that irritates me very much.
Makes me wonder real hard if they can be trusted to do a good job...

We spoke with "roof construction" company today, they makes the roof trusses (I think it is called that) and makes all the calculations and stuff needed to make sure the roof can be supported and protect the house. He said he would try to do the job quick, but I'm getting a little afraid that his quick is our slow... :-)

Just have to wait and see, I can understand how stuff like calculations of loads/bearing and such can take some time - I'm, just very disappointed in the fact that the architect we been using since February 2005 never told us that he don't do such stuff and that he either way would have had to bring in another person to do that kind of stuff.

If we had been told this early on, we could have saved money, time and hopefully been way better off then what we are now.
I so regret going to an architect!

Then again, thanks to him and all the time spent with things I today have a way better understanding of stuff, and a way better drawing then I ever had before! And, it is all mine. LOL

So, thank you Mr. Architect, I might dislike the way things went, but I like you as a person and the contact we have had, and you have good ideas, it is just that I prefer to control it all my self. :-) And I think you been good to help me get things better with your suggestions that I sometimes hated as hell. :-)

12 march 2006 (First text)
A project that is very important in our life, a project that is important to get right the first time, a project that will eat up even more of my time then it has already, and that will follow us for years to come.

No, I'm not talking about the joy of a new life, but the "joy" of house building! LOL

Almost since I moved together with my husband Tore in 1996 we been talking about how he wants to convert a cabin located in Eidsvoll, Norway (about 1 hour drive northeast from Oslo) to a house where he could spend his older days and enjoy life. - To see a 360-degree look of the area, see here, or at left. :-)

And, ever since I learned the computer well enough to play around with it I have been having fun doing plans and more plans and even more plans.
But, as it was only plans and ideas, nothing much happen in real life except we did quite a lot of work on the cabin in 2001 when we fixed it up and upgraded the electric system in the house.

Then, in end of 2004 when it became way to clear that Tore no longer would have a job where we live in the Netherlands, I had to bring back old plans and come up with a design pretty quick. Which I found hard, but I was able to at least come up with something.

But, as life happen, the year 2005 was spent doing hardly nothing useful as there where lot of troubles with getting the two brothers owning this property (Tore and his brother) to make all the so called helpers to Tore's brother (which is partly handicapped, mentally, and therefore partly under the law not totally able to make his own decisions) agree and understand that all the two brothers wanted was to rebuild the cabin into a house where Tore was the single owner but his brother was welcome and more or less still owned a part of the land so he could keep his connection to the place.

A lawyer was brought in to help Tore's brothers aunt (which is Steinar's - Tore's brother - "helper") understand some papers we had drawn up to keep both brothers right to the property but make sure that we didn't had to pay Steinar out for our investment if the day would come when the so called "Overformynderiet" (a Governmental type of department to look after people like Steinar and other that can't make their own decisions) would again come and screw us all over like they did a few years back with a apartment the two brothers had inherent together. We could have bought Steinar's part, but then he would loose his connection to the area and he didn't wanted to do that.
And we where afraid of putting in a lot of money and then later have to pay Steinar half of the value after what we had invested...

Anyway, that lawyer become a nightmare to deal with, for both parties, and it is just now, February/march 2006, 1 year later we have almost ended up where we should have been by end of march 2005...

But, this problems kept us from moving on with the house plans and we just have been getting into it for good the recent week or two.

Which of course has it own pitfalls, like getting the "city council" to accept my plans - so far they haven't as they claim the plans have to many "faces"/expressions and that they couldn't understand what the house tried telling them...

We tried to have them tell us what exactly they meant, but that felt near impossible to figure out, so I guess they don't know it them self... But, this forces me to rethink, redraw, or just give up as I feel I can't see the problems they saw.

But, I know the house is a special house, it is one of a kind, but really reflect my mind and how I am as a person - strange... LOL
There where no special idea, I just focused on getting the looks to be as nice/good/wonderful as I could - and having people suddenly tell me that the house don't fit as the sides seems to tell different stories was a strange happening.
Non of the builders, friends I had shown the drawings to had said this, so it came as a big surprise.

I know the house is complicated to build, it may not have the most perfect solutions all over, but when I add in the things I have to take to consideration I think I've done a great job!

But, so far, the "council" don't think it so...  

Of the good news, the Tower per say was not a problem, the full second floor was not a problem, and the garage as part of the house was not a problem - and those 3 things came as a happy surprise to me so now I just need to try to find someone seeing what the "council" saw and then I can fix the drawings so we can move on with our plans as we are running out of time real real fast...

Till next time...