Party guests...

There are some people you just don’t want to invite to your party...like the people working at www.dinside.no ... On their economy pages you can find a calculator that estimates how much the cabin costs you every day you use it (http://www.dinside.no/13110/hva-koster-hytta-deg) Curious as a cat I had to punch in the numbers and get the verdict. Value of cabin, running expenses and such, divided by number of days you actually use it. I put in 35 days of use annually and that might be on the ambitious side even though it doesn’t sound much. Anyway, according to their killjoy calculator, each day of use will cost us 3000,- kr! Now why would I want to know that?? Hello people!
For those 3000,- multiplied with 35 days we could, with all 4 kids and maybe even the dog, have 20 days in a 5 star hotel in Thailand, including the flights, every year!! Umbrella drinks, snorkeling, lazy day on the beach and cheap massages. But on the other hand:
• skiing conditions there are terrible
• the fishing is a matter of catching the fish before the fish eats you
• I have yet to see a grouse or even moose down there
And:
• We wouldn’t have the pleasure of on more place to shovel snow at in winter
• We wouldn’t get the pleasure of worrying about how the cabin copes through that awful snowstorm
• And shouldn’t the cabin really be painted one more stroke before the fall?
• And when are we ever going to get time for using that sauna?

You can’t put a price on those things! You have to do a whole lot better to discourage us DinSide!! Party killers…

Essential planning...

I asked my dad the other day if he wanted to come along and help out when we get that far. Told him I would buy a case of beer in hope to boost his motivation. His reply was very positive but then he added; "But I suggest you buy more than a case of beer as I guess we will be working more than one day..." Even though this was a joke from him it raised an essential question... After building 2 houses and a garage I feel safe I can pinpoint the building budget fairly accurate (and I still have fresh in memory that everything always gets more expencive than what I plan...) But I have left out this one very important thing: The Beer!!

After building my current house I, just for fun, tried to calculate how many hours I had put into it (I knew I lost 10 kg, that was easy to measure). I think I calculated close to 2000 hours, now the cabin is a lot smaller and I really have no idea how many hours it will take, but let's just say 1000 as it is a nice a number as any other. If not nicer (depending on context of course). And how much beer do I, and any so called volunteer workers need. 4 for every 8 hours of work? 6? More than that might result in too creative solutions and we do not want a cabin that could be displayed at World Expo or anything. Better say 4. 1000 hours divided by 8 = 125 times 4 = 500
Thats more than 20 cases of beer and I really don't have any idea what a case of beer costs these days? Anyone? 400?

Ok, out with the fire place and in with 8000 NOK worth of beer in the budget...
99 bottles of beer on the wall...

Choice of cabin

As everyone else, we have been looking around for the right cabin. As we both have two kids, size matters! But so does the price... All in all with dog and cat we'll be a familiy of 8 (would have been 9 but "Doffen har daua":) and we hope to be able to invite friends and familiy too so we need a lot of beds... We first looked at cabins that would accomodate all needs, but have decided to rather build something smaller and cheaper now, and leave room for an anneks later. So as several other cabin builders blogging these days (www.vibyggerhytte.no) we have ended up with Familiehytta. Although they don't know it yet, so we are probably losing the upper hand now that the news is out there... Anyway, we are going for their model called Rondane with some adjustments here and there. We plan to get the guy who sold us the land to arrange everything with putting it up, plumbers, electrician etc. All of the interior I will do myself. As my mum said; "yes it is only 2 years since you worked your a** off to build your house, so it is about time you start building something again." Truth is I enjoy doing it. Building something is very satisfying, use my hands (and head), and the results are very visible and lasting. Therapy for a guy that is normally stuck in an office...
So this is what we will end up with (but don't tell the people at Familiehytta before we have signed the contract :-)

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More pictures of the area

Language

As already mentioned my girlfriend is american. Now, her norwegian is perfect, and being a teacher and all probably better than mine. When it comes to grammatics anyway. But with familiy in the U.S and New Zealand and a list of friends, that makes the phone book seem like a small leaflet, all over the world this blog will be written in english.

However, I do claim the the right to swap to Norwegian when I get stuck. It is hard enough to know all the Norwegian terms and I am not bothering to try and find the translations for knevegg, møne, tilfarere and whatever might come up.

So to all you english speaking; if you don't understand me, I am probably just writing about some boring technical stuff anyway that I probably will have a hard time to fully understand myself...

I hate to admit it but it took an american girl to show me the dream place to build a cabin. As it turns out she had been spotting this place long before we met, dreaming of one day having a cabin there. I had been dreaming of a cabin for years too, but I had trouble knowing where I wanted it as I couldn't seem to find a spot that was close enough to home while still providing the genuine feeling of being up in the mountains far away from the overcrowded areas with 250 sqm palaces and double heated garages. And anyway it was just a dream for both of us, as our accounts were still waiting for that much wanted transfer from the Lottery.

Well, short story kept short, we met, fell in love, drove up there, looked at each other and said; oh yes!

Only after that did we actually calculate whether we could afford it or not when we moved together. Luckiliy we can (Lottery money still welcome though....). So this summer we will start living togehter and start building our dream cabin:-) Sweet!

So where is this place? Well don't tell too many as it will ruin the great tranquility, but it is in Austbygde, Tinn kommune, Telemark. Just below the tree line and with great access to Hardangervidda.