Lately, we've been on the lookout for a used additional large traditional wardrobe, a "karlekammerskab" (Danish) or "drängaskåp" (Swedish), at the right price and a few days ago we did indeed find one. T.'s sister and her husband were nice enough to pick it up today and they report that it looks really good. We're planning to use it as a storage space for tablecloths and towels and we're very much looking forward to getting it home.

Yesterday we also managed to get hold of two baskets, the long one at the bottom in the middle of the photo, which was used as a sowing basket and we will be using as a storage space for logs for our fireplace, and the large laundry basket bottom left, which we will use to store bedspreads and cushions. I think it's really nice to be able to reuse old objects and, since we need a bit more storage, I believe this is the perfect way to achieve this.

Not sure if any of these epithets are nice per se, but I think I'd prefer beggars to thieves — especially in the view of recent experiences. Last monday there was a break-in in our home. We were away for only a couple of hours and when we came home the door was slightly open and I tentatively asked T. if he had left it like that by accident. He denied this and when we got closer we saw the mess inside and realised that there had been a burglary.

My computer and my back-up harddrive were both gone, and with them all the work I have done in the last fifteen years as well as most of my photos. Our oldest son's computer was gone as well, together with his new video camera and a bunch of games. What left me completely heart-broken was the loss of my grandmother's jewellery, which was all I had from her. It hurts. I realise the chances are extremely slim to get any of this back, and it makes me both angry and sad to think about the physical as well as emotional mess thieves leave behind.

We have now moved in to the new house and it does look pretty nice as we're slowly getting rid of all the boxes and transform it from a house to our home. The window in our bedroom has looked like this from the day we moved in, so I thought it was an appropriate image to start with. More images will no doubt follow, showing our home in different lights and from different angles.

And here it is... our brand new Skoda Superb. A joy to drive and a joy to ride. Don't you think Gandalf the White is a fitting name?

No fog today. There was a gorgeous sunrise around 7 am and the sun continued to shine as we went to the annual check-up on our old car before lunch. A few things need to be fixed on it, but it's nothing major. The inspector doing the vehicle test said that our car on the whole is in very good shape, the issues that need to be fixed will be so next week, and then we plan to sell it as soon as we can after that.

The reason for the sale is that we picked up our brand new white Skoda Superb yesterday — it's beautiful and we've decided to name it Gandalf — and I plan to post a photo of it here as soon as we get the opportunity to take one.

It has been pretty cold the last few days and we begin to feel sorry for the birds. Today we decided to buy some food for them, both in order to provide nutrition but also to be able to watch them. They've already found it and we're thrilled.

Image by Steve Dahlfors at Sveriges Ornitologiska Förening.

The first one of my two white amaryllis has begun to bloom and it certainly looks amazing. Otherwise today is a rather slow day. T. doesn't feel very well. He has a cold and a headache on top of that. Outside there is a storm, but it's nevertheless quite cozy to stay inside and we have managed to make knäck as well as some fudge. We'll see what else we'll come up with.

We've done a bit of Christmas decorating at home today, had a really good meal, have watched the Danish Christmas calendar on television, and are planning to make some Christmas candy tomorrow. A lot of candles have been lit and we're relaxing on the couches for a while before at some point deciding it's time to go to bed. It feels great right now.

Today T.'s parents arrived with the other one of his sofas and many other things and as evening turns into night we're happily relaxing in a living room that looks far more inviting. The dining area looks really good too, and we're slowly finding spaces for most of our stuff. A mountain of boxes has turned into a smaller and far less daunting hill, but there are indeed quite a few boxes left.

It's funny to realize that every house has its own quirks and characteristics and that even a new house might require something different from the place you lived before. One of the quirky things that caught our attention when we moved here was the lack of storage space in the bathrooms, the broken roll-down curtain in the bedroom, and the number of additional lamps we need to buy since the house is so much bigger than our previous apartment.

In order to address these issues we have bought a LUPO chest of drawers and a shoe cupboard that have been placed in each bathroom and hopefully will contain all the things that need to be in a bathroom but does not necessarily need to be seen, and we plan to buy a new roll-down curtain from Rusta, as well as two reading lamps and a lamp shade for our bedroom from IKEA.

This is what we woke up to early, early on our first morning in the new house: a soft pink and apricot sunrise. The fact that we have fields to one side is truly great and it definitely adds to the feeling of spaciousness we're experiencing having moved from an apartment to a house. I hope to show you more images of the inside of our house, but that will have to wait until we're done with decorating and moving things around.

Everything was in boxes and we hardly had anything that we needed except for the bare necessities on our first evening in our new house, but we nevertheless had the time to find a vase for the beautiful flowers we found by the road. It felt like a really good way to quietly celebrate our move.

The last few weeks have been busy and we're now in the middle of packing all our belongings for the move on Friday. There will probably be a few journeys to and from our old apartment and the new house, but I'm really looking forward to the change. A lot of things still have to fall into place, but it feels good to get started.

Soon we'll have a garden! Our small balcony has been wonderful, but it doesn't beat a real, large garden and we are certainly looking forward to getting our hands dirty. Gabriella Dahlman's Gabriellas trädgård provides plenty of inspiration.

Since the house we're moving into is a rented property this means that we will not be able to put down roots properly, but some potted trees and plants will hopefully thrive nonetheless and give us the feeling of home we crave. The olive tree has just received a new pot, one of our older pots is crying out for a new white hydrangea, and various herbs have already either begun to grow on the balcony or in the kitchen window. We were lucky enough to get an entire tray of herbs at T.'s sisters work as well and these will be replanted outside soon — on the balcony, since we don't have access to the garden yet. But we'll be happy to bring it all with us when we move.

We'll be moving on July 1st and it feels great. The contract has been signed by both parties and we've begun to think about how to decorate the new home and where all our furniture should go. Soon we'll begin to pack things up at our current location as well. I really don't think we'll have to buy that many new furniture at least (since we do have plenty in that regard), but today we decided to buy an olive tree. I think that's a wonderful addition. :)

We've just been offered the possibility to rent the house we have all fallen in love with. T. and I visited it last Friday and really liked it. The boys have seen a bunch of photos, showing for instance some rather large rooms which would be theirs, which they really liked. The house is definitely big enough for us, the area is really nice, and school is only 200 metres away. It feels great and we're just hoping that the contract negotiations will go well, too.

UPDATE: T. and I have now signed the contract and sent it to the owners of the house. They will hopefully sign it as well and then send one of the copies back to us. If this all goes through, we will have access to the new house on July 1st and move out of our current apartment on July 31st at the latest.

We're dealing with a lot of practical stuff at the moment in several different areas of our lives. Since I'm about to finish my big five-year project at work there is plenty of things happening in this regard and I have a deadline for the finished artifact on April 14. Another smaller project has to be done by May 1. My "big day" is then coming up in late May and we have just found and rented a place for the big dinner, which we are discussing whether to prepare ourselves or go for catering. For the same occasion we have rented a house nearby for our entire family to stay in — cheaper and more fun than hotel rooms. To further celebrate it all, T. and I are discussing taking the children on a short trip to Berlin the week after, which means that we're also dealing with bookings there as well.

In the middle of it all we are also thinking about where we should move to on a more permanent basis, and the two houses above are at the top our list. One of them is fairly newly built and beautifully decorated. Its location is perfect, but on the downside it is slightly smaller than the other. The other is thus larger, approximately ten years old, and equally beautifully decorated, but the location is not as good from our point of view. Both of them are fairly close to the sea, however, and the costs are also similar, which doesn't help much in the decision-making process. In a little more than a week's time we're off to have a look at them. It would be great to have this settled as well.

It's Saturday morning. The sun is shining from a clear blue sky. The building is quiet, although that wasn't the case last night. Several of the residents in this house saw reason to call in "störningsjouren" (people in charge of talking to someone who disturbs the peace) due to a couple fighting and arguing rather violently in what seemed to be the apartment beneath us. I hope nobody got hurt.

The last week has been a difficult one. The more mundane aspects involve a persistent cold and a sore back, but our main focus has been on the events unfolding in Japan and in Libya. None of these situations have been resolved, in fact the situation in Libya is escalating as I write this. Nevertheless, it has become clear that the situation at Fukushima Daiishi is indeed a serious one affecting people, animals, and crops in its vicinity. I'm really sad to see these developments and think about the repercussions this will have in the years to come.

I'm enjoying the peace and quiet of this morning, however. T. and I are watching the birds feed, reading the news, and watching a documentary on television, and the boys are busy, but content, doing their thing in their rooms. Some practical stuff needs to be adressed today, and since I don't have a temperature anymore it might even feel really good to be able to spend some time outside in the sunshine. A good weekend to you all!

I admit that this feels rather mundane considering the last few days' events in Japan, but I just wanted to spread the news that TowelsRus have really nice, extremely soft bamboo towels at 40% off right now. We bought some for T.'s grandmother a while ago and when we saw this offer we decided to buy a few for ourselves as well. There seem to be more left...

On the lookout for a new place to call home, we checked out a house yesterday. Theoretically it looked really good (and in the pictures on the Internet, as well), but when we arrived we realised that there was far less space than expected. It only had one bathroom, a tiny kitchen and several other small rooms, and the second floor was barely usable since the ceiling was pretty low. Although the livingroom was wonderful, there simply was not room enough for the four of us. I guess we're back to square one. We'll just keep looking...

I'm rather tired of the way we live. Apartment life has never really done it for me. In a way it has to do with space, not necessarily more of it but rather structured in a better way, and primarily it has to do with direct access to the outdoors. Our balcony in our current apartment has been great, but I miss having no wall-to-wall neighbours, whom to risk disturbing and be disturbed by, and the silence that comes with living in a house.

I also miss not having a big kitchen. I would like to have one where everything works, where everything is practical and functional — and where there is space for everything both T. and myself have managed to gather over the years. A few new additions would need to be accommodated as well, for instance the somewhat unusually shaped cookie jars and the heart-shaped pie dishes from Sofias hus. Let's hope this dream of mine is not only a pipe dream.