REVEALING the Past I Summer House HISTORY I My History I Ep.9

Hey, if you don't know me, I'm Benita and I live in the city center of Stockholm. But a year and a half ago my son Bille, his girlfriend Victoria and I bought a summer house in rural Sweden. The house was built in the 1850s and we don't have central heating or indoor plumbing. And this being Sweden with cold winters, we can only stay there comfortably in the warmer months, so from around this time of year until about mid-October. I've been itching to go back pretty much ever since I left in fall and these past few months I've been planning for the coming season and also working on some projects in my city apartment. In this video I thought I'd share a bit of our house's history and some of our future plans for it. Over winter I've done some research about the house and its previous owners. When we bought the house I didn't realize that the barns across the street from us used to belong to the property as well as quite a bit of land and that our house was the farmhouse dwelling for a farm with cows and other animals. We kept the name the villagers call it Aunt Mary's house. Mary's husband passed away almost 20 years before she did and she ran the farm until she grew old and it was sold. The buyers back then only wanted the land and not the house so they ended up selling the little parcel that we now own and before us it changed hands quite a few times as a summer house. I've dug around in the local archives for information about the family that owned the farm, the farm itself and the village and revealing the history has been so fascinating that it sparked a deeper interest in my own past. I think I've shared briefly that I was adopted and only about nine years ago I found out that I have three siblings in Finland. We've since learned to know each other and have met up several times over the years and I now know quite a bit about my maternal side of the family. I know nothing about my father though. In one of my birth documents there is a brief mention that he was Swedish but I've always wondered if that's actually true so I partnered with MyHeritage to take a DNA test and hopefully find out more. It's a super simple process that takes just two minutes. They send you a kit, you swab your cheek and send the test to the lab. Oh and don't worry MyHeritage has committed in its privacy policy to never sell or license genetic data. While you wait you can start building your family tree and also enhance, colorize and animate old family photos. So fun! I started on my tree and my maternal side goes all the way back to the year 1694, eight generations back which is quite mind-blowing. When my DNA was ready my son Ville came over to find out the results as he was as curious as I was. Turns out I am not Swedish at all. I am pretty much 100 or at least 98.8 percent Finnish. A tiny 1.2 percent Swedish is all I am. So much for that half Swedish which was what I expected because it's the only information I've had about my biological father. So looking at the map most of my DNA comes from the Norra Österbotten area of Finland which makes sense because I know that my biological mother is from there. The interesting bit is this sort of more in the middle of Finland area and I now suspect that my father came from there. I'm so excited to discover more through MyHeritage DNA matches. I can see I have one close family DNA match and over a thousand extended family matches which is so exciting. If you're interested in discovering your origin and finding new relatives MyHeritage has a promotion right now. Click the link in the description box or scan the QR code and use coupon code BENITA to receive a 10 percent discount when ordering the kit. Aside from doing research about the farm the house really is sharing its past with us in so many ways. I started a house archive with all the little bits we found on the property that gives us glimpses into what life was like back then. I can totally see Aunt Mary taking a little break from farm work and having fika and drinking from this cup I found in the ground outside one of the outbuildings. I'm also imagining what went through her mind when she chose the wallpapers we keep finding everywhere. I cut squares out at the house as I'm working on Over winter I've been busy prying the thick layers apart. I wet the wads of wallpaper, place them in a plastic bag overnight so the wallpaper paste gets damp again and then I carefully separate the layers. I place them each on a piece of parchment paper until they're dry. I mark them in order on the back and then tuck them into a folded piece of acid-free paper before marking that with where we found them. They do get a bit more subtle in color than originally but Aunt Mary and her ancestors were not shy in their color choices and combinations that's for sure. And speaking of color choices something else we've been doing over winter is to plan for this coming season. Ville and Victoria are the design leads on the house and there will be more color than what you're used to seeing from me. For example here's a mood board they made for the entry and this is for the downstairs bedroom. I'm super excited that they're taking the reins on the color and decor choices for the majority of the house. It's going to be amazing. That being said I've also been working on a mood board and that's for the upstairs bedroom. That room is essentially mine although of course used by any guests they might have staying over. I did express that I would love for it to be calm and simple and they gave me carte blanche in there. It is for sure going to be the least exciting room in the house but I can't wait to get rid the floor of wallpaper in there and put my drab stamp on it. All three of us love the look of raw clay daubing. That's what the house was plastered with from the start and what's under all those wallpaper layers closest to the timber. I did already bring it out in the downstairs bedroom and part of the entryway and staircase but will continue that upstairs too. Although it looks beautiful as is it's a bit too crumbly to keep like that so we will re-plaster with reused and new clay daubing but will most likely keep it unpainted in some areas. We have a lot of other projects planned too. Lille and Victoria will be creating a small enclosed area near the house so we can let Saga their greyhound walk in and out as she likes. We do have a huge question mark concerning when municipality will get back to everyone in the village regarding potentially hooking us up to the main waterline and sewage. It's not something we want but we might not be able to avoid it. So until we find out we've paused running water in the house because we don't want to pay twice. We wanted to fence the whole front yard in for Saga but if they do decide to go ahead there will be a lot of digging from their side on our property and all along the road and we'd have to take the fence off again so we'll pause any major groundwork too until we know for sure. And it's not like we don't have a ton to do anyway but it would have been fun to do a bit of landscaping this year. I even made a little sketch. Aside from keeping some of the lawn we want to add graveled areas, meadows and a few raised planters at the back. The fact that we can't do any major landscaping won't prevent me from sowing some seeds though. And I will continue restoring windows. None of the ones in the main house are as urgent as last year though so I can take it a little bit easier with them but I will have two or three sashes going at a time all summer long. I'll also continue on the window casings. The ones on the ground floor at the back need doing and all the ones on the top floor too. We'll see how far I get. A priority on my to-do list is to continue work in the entryway and staircase so our electrician can finish his work inside. Over winter we've also picked up some exciting pieces of furniture for the house and I so look forward to placing them. We got a desk at auction and I got a couple of chairs for my friend Sanne as we've been decluttering her attic storage space. She got them at auction a long time ago but never ended up using them so when she offered them to us we thought they might be a fun project for the house. The chairs were in a pretty bad state. Sloppy earlier paint job, dated upholstery and broken in places. I tackled one so far and I'll save the other for later. I stripped the upholstery off which revealed the plywood seat which is most likely not original since there are remnants of caning still in place. I took this project as a test run in using paint stripper. I've always wondered how effective it is and what it's like using it. There are a few spots in the house where we might want to use some so this was a great opportunity to try it on a smaller project. Would you believe it if I said I picked the paint color for the chair? It's English red and very close in color to our traditional red house paint here in Sweden. I painted with linseed oil paint and while it takes longer to dry it's such a great natural paint. For two coats and a bit of touch up on the seat I barely used a third of this tiny can. We're also hoping to have a new front door installed on the house this summer. The one we currently have was added in the 1970s and it's just not the vibe we're looking for. Switching the front door to an older style one will also be part of the entryway and entry porch makeover. It will make such a huge impact when you arrive at the house. We also hope to start painting the house. We're keeping it the traditional red but will most likely also paint all the bits that are now white in the same red color. The windows and doors are the only parts that won't be red so we're going for more of a barn look than quaint cottage. Before we can start painting we do have a huge job in removing hundreds of nails on the facade and that's another thing Villa and Victoria will be working on first thing. It's going to be so exciting to see Aunt Mary's house painted. Summer 2025 goals for sure! As I've mentioned in previous videos I hope to spend more time at the house this summer. The plan is to work from there so I don't constantly need to go back to the city after a few days. One thing I need to revisit this summer is the shower situation. Last year I rebuilt the existing outdoor shower stall and it worked okay using a camping shower and heating water in a pot on the stove but we will move the shower to a different location this season. The existing stall is awkwardly placed outside the kitchen window and that's fine when you're alone at the house but when you have company it's a bit uncomfortable as you feel overlooked from the windows on the top floor and the kitchen. We have our well on the other side of the property from where the shower is today and we want to set up our outdoor shower on that side instead. It's a very sunny spot and we'll get a solar heated one that hooks up to a hose connected to the tap by our well. There are no tall buildings and with a proper door and not a shower curtain it will be a much nicer setup. Now that I aim to stay for longer I also plan to take full advantage of the fact that there's a lake with a small beach and a jetty not far from the house. I'll be able to ride my bike there and take a dip in the evenings. I'm so so excited for this coming season at the house and I hope you'll stick around for that in video format. Don't forget to check out my heritage and use my coupon code BENITA and get 10% off when you order your DNA kit. You'll find the link in the description box. Thanks so much for watching, I'll see you in the next one.