Our Second Danish Home
In 2007 on the 1st November we took over the keys for our new house. Now we had to plan the move!
By then the whole family (minus cats) had thoroughly explored the house and garden and we had all decided on a few minor changes that would be needed, the main one being that we would build a luxurious cat run! ONLY on nice dry paving and completely roofed over. We were able to borrow the keys on request through the last two weeks in October, so Christian collected all the materials and Tony started work straight away. That work was completed late in November so the great cat (and bed) moving day was planned for the 24th November using Kathrine and Christian's new, large, car. Loads of room for all the fourteen cat boxes and our bed etc travelled on our trailer. But before we go on, we must tell you something about the place.
We now live in an even smaller village, and this one is right in the country with farm vehicles going right past the door. The village is called Vormark, and our road is Vormark Bygade - literally, Vormark's High Street. This is 600 m long and has 26 houses. In theory there should be 44, but over the years (centuries) some have just disappeared and not been replaced. Altogether the village has 98 houses spread over seven roads. Originally on our land there was a an old house used, some years ago, by the local bus 'company'. By the way, the local bus still goes past the door and can be stopped right there if we need it! An aerial photo taken when it was still there shows it with an arrow.
This first photo (north at the top) is a general one to show the whole village - going from top to bottom (past the arrow) is our road. Across the photo from left to right is the road from the nearest main road (Nyborg to Svendborg, the main towns this side of Fyn) and two miles (3.2km)along that road is the sea. Near the bottom of the photo, also from left to right is a narrow road. At the end of it, just where the green starts again, is the Damesten which is a famous and large, glacial stone. As you can see, many of the fields are bigger than the village!
Now a zoom of the same photo. The old house is arrowed, and the bus garage/workshop is the larger building close by to the north. Those are number 46; across the road is number 35; directly behind 46 (to the east) are 42 and 44.
It became very interesting when about two months later we found that the aerial survey had been updated and looks quite different!
Obviously a sunnier day, but that is not what we mean! Now the old buildings have gone, and in summer 2007 the new foundation slabs have been laid - to the right and above the blue dot. (Ignore the other, bigger and paler blue dot - that was a neighbours trampoline!)
As it happened, in 2007 there was another aerial photo taken when most of the house was finished - here can be seen the complete roof. Some of the builders equipment is still on site, and the garden is not yet grassed over. Unfortunately, this photo is from a different source and the resolution is not so good.
From all the photos you can get a clear idea of our surroundings. The house number 35 is owned by Steen and Margit who until 2011 had a business there called Country Home. Their house is thatched and was built in 1850. Behind us are two houses, 42 and 44. They are both owned by David and Ulla. 42 was built in 1867 and is now converted to a stable. 44 is much older (1777) and is still thatched. David is an Englishman who has lived in Denmark for longer than us - about 24 years. They have some goats and two horses, so when the weather warms up into spring there will be endless entertainment for our cats!
For now they have to make do with some horses in a more distant field on the other side of David and Ulla's driveway, and the birds on our back terrace who greatly appreciate the new bird table that the family gave Tony for his birthday, plus the old one from Skt Klemens which came along in the latest load from that house! Christian and Tony still have a couple more loads to collect in the middle of January 2008, and then a good cleanup will have it ready for the new owners (Jan and Hanne) who will take it over on the 1st February.
When we were only halfway through moving we started to wonder where we would put everything! Then the fact of having plenty of roof space at last struck home! Now we happily sort out the cardboard boxes into "in the house" and "up in the loft"!
We will finish by giving a brief description of the house. The entrance from the road is over paving direct into the double carport. From the carport, and also under cover, is a door into a workshop and in that there is a loftladder giving access to the entire roof space. Opposite the workshop door is the "front door" which, as in many Danish houses goes into a laundry and "dirty shoes" room. That leads in to the central hallway which has four other doors. One goes into the bedroom at the front of the house, and another into Tony's room also at the front. The third door goes into the bathroom and toilet which started with only a shower, but now has a corner bath.
The final door is glass panelled and goes into the L-shaped living room and kitchen. There is one more room - from the living room at the back of the house is Myrtle's room. The cat run wraps around the house from the workshop, past the kitchen's outside door (and our access into the run) and round the back corner to just past Myrtle's window. A cat door from the kitchen is for most of the cats, but the two elderly ladies who spend the day in Myrtle's room have their own cat door to their private part of the run.
As we write this, four five week old kittens are getting used to the beautiful lacquered wood floor throughout! The older cats use the floors as a skid pan - marvellous fun!
There is so much to tell about the house and Vormark so there is another page where you can read more, together with later photos.
Jump to us and Vormark.
