Litengard

It's official.

We have bought the house next door!

"Litengard" is being created at 44.

Litengard is Norwegian for "small farm", which was the name of my 1700's family farm in Orkdal, Norway. The barn with attached "home" is still standing. In 1996 we had a family reunion in Norway and visited that farm, stood on the land, touched the wood of the barn that my ancestors had lived and raised a family in, tended flocks in and worked the land hundreds of years ago. It was amazing.

Now Litengard Bed and Breakfast will be our new business, right here on Main Street, USA.

For years I have want to decorate a home with Swedish design. At first I thought if we ever built up at camp I would create something Scandinavian up by the water. But when we decided to buy next door, after thinking and looking at houses for years, I thought this was a perfect opportunity use our Scandinavian heritage, both Norwegian and Swedish, to bring a bit of Scandinavian flare to the North Country. The house will be filled with soft grays and whites, accented with blues and touches of red. All traditional colors for "Swedish" design. There will be lots of painted furniture, crystal chandeliers and mirrors (the Scandinavians were big on light and anything that light could reflect off of) and hopefully a mora clock, a traditional wedding trunk and perhaps a corner cupboard.

After weeks of thinking and planning bedrooms and baths, I think we have the perfect arrangement for guests upstairs. And in one week, the second floor is now almost totally gutted; carpets ripped out, the old bathroom gone and plaster dust everywhere. Elizabeth, Rob and I spent five hours on Saturday ripping out moldings, prying out hundreds of nails and staples from the floors, and removing the remnants of an old chimney. The framing will be done this week and the plumbing will be started along with the electric.

Rob and I took a trip down through Vermont, Massachusetts and Connecticut two weekends ago, stopping into several Swedish antique stores we had researched, along the way. We met the owners and received lots of ideas, drooled over beautiful antique sideboards, armoires, clocks and art work; and developed a wish list. We ended up in New York City and took Ethan out to dinner at Aquavit, the only Scandinavian restaurant in Manhattan now. Absolutely delicious food but with European portions. They took pity on Ethan and brought him an extra bowl of something that had to be described with flowery words by the waiter that was assigned to our table but never carried a plate of food to us. It seemed to us that his only job was to describe what we were eating! Funny! Years ago my mother, grandmother and I would go to Manhattan to a musical matinee once a year. Before every performance we would eat lunch at a Scandinavian smorgasboard in the theater district. Boy, that was yummy and it brings back wonderful memories of delicious food and great performances. Sadly, that restaurant has disappeared.

I hope to post some pictures of our progress from time to time. And now that we have this particular name, perhaps it might mean that chickens are in our future, right behind our 1885 barn!