There are some advantages to living in a summer house where everything has already gone wrong...
The prospect of visitors to our little island idyll is always exciting until we turn on the water in the guest house for the first time after a hard winter. This evening my husband ‘yowled’ as the pump in our guest house exploded and spit, and the water tank on the toilet burst, all within one short minute. No matter how meticulously you shut down a Swedish summer house in the autumn, there will always be some sort of surprise like this waiting for you during the next warm season. OK, so I’m coming clean after weeks of singing the praises of this place: maintenance is a fact of life on a Swedish island holiday.
Why is it that everyone else seems to be so systematic and handy when these sorts of things happen? Are we the only ones who don’t seem to be able to master the art of nuts and bolts when the water pump goes? Just as we were lamenting the fact that plumbers are an extinct species after Midsummer in Sweden, our wonderful, practical, kind, capable electrician neighbor popped in with just the tool that we were missing. I stood by with a mop in hand but began to feel like this was like putting out a fire with a water pistol.
After a couple of hours our wonderful, practical, kind, capable electrician neighbor had solved the problem – all except for the burst dunny. My husband had in the process somehow committed himself to 8 hours of free painting services for the electrician who was in the process of repainting the interior of his home. My husband is more of an artist than a domestic painter so that should be fun.
Once I had set aside the peripheral mop and turned my attentions to the honey I had harvested on the previous day, I felt suddenly relieved of that awful feeling of incompetence. There in my kitchen was an enormous barrel of thick, sweet honey that was like goodness itself all harvested by Yours Truly. The children stirred it for the three or so requisite minutes required each day so that it doesn’t candy before it is bottled on the fourth day. The wasps hurled themselves at my kitchen window in suicidal acts of desire: all just for a taste from the sweet barrel. I must say, I do understand. There are few things that are as enticing as a luxurious barrel of self-harvested honey.
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For more island adventures visit www.lettersfromtheisland.com.
Have really enjoyed this series of posts but this one about maintenance made me laugh as reality often makes itself known at the most inopportune times.
Our family retreat in the redwoods is idyllic like your island but now that farfar is unable to do the maintenance work the son in-laws (at least one) have had to step in to start paying back past idyllic weekends and vacations.
Reality is a small price to pay to have such a life experience in these wonderful surroundings. Hope the dunny gets fixed in time for your guests and I will fix the front steps this weekend in the redwoods.
Cheers
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Hej Julie, sorry to hear about your troubles. Hopefully everything will work out before your guest’s show up to stay.
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Hi Friends,
Everything did get fixed, amazingly. Things seem to work themselves out in the end.
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Nah, maintenance is part and parcel of a holiday. Especially if you have a summer house.
Hel, for those with office jobs, that very maintenance is actually quite theraputic. Instead of endless papers (or excel forms these days I suppose) you have a clear goal, job you can do with your hands and you can see the result of what you do directly.
Of course, sometimes things have broken or break that is above your competence to fix, in which case you have to call in a neighbour or aquinatance, but the principle is still there.
I’d go so far as to say that quite a few people actually look forward to do a some maintenance, as long as it isn’t all you have to do.
Congrats on getting a good solution to the problem, and the rich honey harvest.
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I love your post Julie!
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