In April 2018, my husband Peter and I moved to Sweden. We had bought an old large house in the community of Kalmar which is more than 250 kilometers southwest of Stockholm.
The 900 square meter large house needed extensive renovation work and we took the difficult physical and financial challenges which were ahead of us.
The house was in bad shape and needed exterior and interior renovation work. In addition to that, it needed a very thorough clean up. The house was full of old things and appliances that were left behind and we needed to classify what to keep, what to give away and what to throw away.
This large house which is located right in the heart of Loftahammar, has been a very historically integrated part of the town due to its history and its location. The four story large house was built in 1939 by the businessman, contractor and visionary man Erik Törngård.
Erik Törngård was working as a skilled mechanic building specially designed parts for large boats. Customers from large cities, including Stockholm, asked for his services. His special machines are still in the mechanical workshop located in the ground floor of the house.
People always talk with admiration about Erik Törngård. Törngård was one of the members of a team who organised connecting the town of Loftahammar to the electrical grid. People also say that he invented an electric car whose battery made the car move a couple meters forward. He was also successful in building a geothermal heat pump in the basement of his house. Stories about him building a fanboat or a so called airboat are also floating around.
We respect the history of the house. In previous times there was a post office, a bank, a charcuterie and several other shops people have been telling us about. There was also a restaurant, bar and pizzeria which many people really cherish in their memories.
Since the 1930s, the house has been called by several names. Among them are “Törngårdshuset”, “Posthuset”, “Loftishuset” and even “det gula fula huset” which means the yellow old and ugly house. Now we are calling it “Svanhuset” which means “The Swan House”. We selected that name since we changed the old and ugly yellow big “duckling” into a magnificent white swan.
Picture taken in the beginning of 2018. Extensive renovation work started in April 2018. The house reminded us of the “The Ugly Duckling” in the literary fairy tale written by the Danish poet and author Hans Christian Andersen (1805–1875).
Picture taken in December 2020, after the facade and the roof were renovated and the the old windows were replaced with new energy efficient triple glass panel new ones.
Finally, “The Ugly Duckling” now having been cleaned up and renovated , realized that it had become a beautiful swan spreading its wings.
We had lots of ideas and we moved to Loftahammar all fired up and ready to get to work.
The house which was built in 1939 had a deteriorating facade which had been covered with yellow aluminium panels in order to try to make it more energy efficient. We hired a company to discard the yellow aluminium panels, insulate the exterior walls and build a completely new facade for our home. The same company also replaced all the windows and built a completely new roof for our home.
The windows where large but their wooden frames had deteriorated so badly, we ended up deciding to buy 37 new windows with triple glass panels which would replace the old ones.
We also completely replanted the grass in the whole back part of the garden and planted numerous plants including rhododendrons, David Austin roses, a magnolia sieboldii plant, a star magnolia plant, a magnolia liliiflora plant, an apple tree, a cherry tree and numerous Syrén plants.
The front part of the house has been adorned with numerous David Austin roses which flower several times during the spring, summer and even the fall season.
After two long years renovating the exterior and interior areas of the house as well as still moving and organising things within the house, we are starting to feel that we can call our house “home”.
Regina Zepeda-Albexon and Peter Albexon
Transformation from the “ugly duckling” into a beautiful white swan.
Svanhuset Apartments