Tag: trønderlån

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The building structures: Main building

We do not really know when the main building on Eid (local/oral/original name) or Eide (Danish spelling) was erected. However, we do have some clues.

The purchase contract of January 16, 1759 describes in detail the demarcation lines and all values included as Mette Christine Høyer, the widow of Austrått's owner Søren Dass, sells the farms Eide and Furunes (which both up to that point were part of the Austrått estate), with the salmon fishing rights and the island Brattingen, to "the royal bailiff over Fosen bailiwick, Johan Rüberg" for 600 riksdaler.

Old map over Stjørnfjorden, Eidsvatnet (the Eide lake) is clearly visible in the middle of the map, Eide bay is drawn just North of the N in SKIØREN.

The puchase contract states that the Furunes farm has been deserted for a long time, unlike Eide (which always had inhabitants) and it says that "...and no houses on either of these farms". This part is actually a bit ambigous, but the contract is otherwise very detailed regarding the values and assets of the farm, so one would think the buildings would at least be mentioned, had they been worth mentioning.

The magistrate Peder Sivertsen Barup also lived on Eid(e) for twenty years; he rented the farm from the Austrått estate from 1723 to 1743. It is reasonable to think that even the magistrate had to live stately. However, 16 years later the contract of purchase transferring the Eide/Furunes estate from Mette Høyer (Austrått's owner) to the magistrate's successor as the inhabitant of the farm, bailiff Johan Rüberg, there is no mention of the buildings.

Therefore one might reason that bailiff Rüberg, who is now the owner of the Eide estate (unlike magistrate Barup, who never owned the farm), decides to erect some stately buildings on the farm. At some point he sells his farm to a second magistrate, Ove Schjelderup von Hadeln, magistrate of Fosen from 1764 to 1800. Rüberg dies in 1773. Some time between 1764 and 1773 the farm is trasferred to magistrate von Hadeln, and it is not too farfetched to assume that he finishes the building project. And very likely: with a vengeance.

I am allowing a small leap of faith here, but to me it seems likely that von Hadeln was tempted to reach into the cookie jar, i.e. the tax money he collected, to finish his grand estate. Von Hadeln was suspended from his office in 1792 because of several remarks about the way he ran his office, and he was declared bankrupt before he died in 1800. In 1801 the farm is foreclosed (and bought by the forefather of the current owners).

The picture shows the family Von Hadeln's coat of arms.

We can also reasonably assume that the main building was finished by 1776. One rather artistic metal weathervane still exists at the farm with von hadeln's initials (OSvH, Ove Schjelderup von Hadeln) and the year 1776. We take this to signify the finished status of the main building.

This weathervane still tells its story from the roof top of Nordstua.

We have had this sign mounted on the western wall of Nordstua displaying the same year as the weathervane. The weathervane is small and not very visble, the sign however is very much so.

In 1821 the farm was split into two parts (cf. the post about Johan Arnt), and one half of the buildings were allotted to each of the farms. Some of the structures were thus moved from East farm to West farm (specifically from Nergården to Øvergården).

There is a whole lot we do not know about how the buildings used to look and how big they used to be.

But there are also a couple of things we do know. Everything built for human accomodation in this period is classified as a "trønderlån". This is an effect of the capacity of the Norwegian saw mills, they could only accomodate logs 6 meters long. later saw mills can accomodate 7 meter long logs, and the houses accordingly get one meter wider.

The main building on Eid was still rather special. We have pictures from 1901 and later showing that the main building at this time boasts two wings: It was build in an L-shape.

The picture is taken from East, and the road clearly goes through the yard. The main building is clearly L-shaped.

This picture displays how the road cuts through the yard, South of the L-shaped main building. The road was moved north of the main building in 1920, equipped with a new bridge. Gabriel builds himself a small house in 1924 north of this new road, thus the road still runs between some of the buildings on the farm. Gabriel's small house and the black smithy are at this point both north of the new road (cf. the painting below).

Painting by local artist Paul Grav, motif approx. 1930
This picture is taken from northwest, from Midtigården, possibly shortly before the renovation and remodelling of the building in 1947. We see the L-shaped main building to the right. To the left you can see the little house that Gabriel had built in 1924, which Borghild lived in, and that Kristin and Hans and their two little sons lived in from 1984 to 1986, when they built a new house at the location of the old smithy. Their third son, Einar, born in 1988, was born after they moved into their new house (they moved into this house just before Christmas in 1986).

Entry from "Norwegian estate" revealing a great deal of important facts about the buildings and rebuildings of the farm, e.g. the renovation in 1948 and many other pivotal pieces of information.

We also find interesting figures over the amount of people and animals living on the farm.

The picture is taken from a rather unusual angle, from down by the river delta. Compare to the painting by Paul Grav above, displaying the farm from a similar angle.

As mentioned above, in 1947-1948 the main building undergoes a thorough transformation, and several of the buildings are altered and moved. The north wing of the main building is partly moved (Nordstua), one section is demolished, and the remainder of the building is extended and made longer and wider. The roof is also lifted so the ridge is still in center on the roof top, However, the chimneys are no longer centered at this ridge, instead they remain a bit to the south of the ridge. Nordstua (yellow building on the painting below) now becomes a separete annex which is rented out to various families as accomodation for the next couple of decades.

Panting by Allan Grav ca. 1957.

The storehouse is also moved, from the river's edge to a different location in the yard. This storehouse is later demolished (ca. 1979-1980) to give way to a new tractor stall.

The main building in 1978, documented for entry into the national register over cultural heritage structures. The two pictures to the left show the south wall, the picture on the right shows the northern wall with the tiny entrance structure.

The little entrance on the south wall shown on the two pictures to the left from 1978 is torn down and replaced by a slightly bigger structure in 2001, this is used as the main entrance at that point.

The south wall of the main building after the replacement of the small entrance structure with one which was a bit bigger. This extension today houses a modern utility room (laundry), but also a shower room and wardrobes for work clothes (no odeurs escape the modern techology where fans extract the air from the cabinets).

As we started renovating the main building we wanted to replace the guest entrance at the north wall. This entrance has been used altogether about one dozen times for the last fourty years, each time for very distinguished guests.

To us this did not legitimize the immense waste of space for useless hallways resulting from this arrangement. We wanted to utilize the building structure much more efficiently. Accordingly, we submitted an application to the relevant auhtorities to demolish this small entrance and to erect a new structure for the main entrance, two stories high and also including a basement.

As mentioned above, the main buiding (like several other buildings on the farm) is registered as an entity of cultural heritage since 1978 (cf. the pictures above) and accordingly the county governor's office of cultural heritage perservation has a say in matters like ours. The official representative came for a thorough inspection (he even scrutinized the beams in the attic), and then made his official recommendation: You should construct two smaller entrance structures on the south wall, mimicking the features from 1901, and also move Nordstua back to the vicinity of the north wall, partially recreating the old L-shape of the old main building.

We considered this to be an impossible solution; this arrangement would imply an outline almost as impractical as the current one. The main entrance (or the TWO entrances!) would face the yard rather than the public road (introvert rather than extrovert!). Also, the authority for public roads had extended us the dispensation from ordinary regulations and allowed us to build the extension we wanted, but there was no way they would allow the placement of a cultural heritage building (the core of Nordstua possibly stems from the 17th century) this close to a public road. And worse: We would not want them to.

Another round of appealing, applying, providing new information and new arguments. The local authorities' views on these matters were more or less identical to our own. The result of this expensive renovation should be a modern building suited to house a modern family, not a museal structure solely suited for exhibitions and guided tours. At least not as its only function.

This is the north wall with the new extension. Planking and some windows are still missing on this picture. New pictures will come eventually, and the post might be updated.

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The slated roof

The original slated roof on the "trønderlån" (a building type very common in the middle of Norway).

The old roof on the main building (the trønderlån) was a slated roof; classical slates from Alta in Northern Norway, designet to last for eternity. We were not planning to replace the slates on the Southern side, but here on the Northern side most of the slates had to come off, and we even needed more slates, because of the extension that we built instead of this square box with a balcony on top, placed there sometimes in the fourties (cf. the painting on the front page, cf. also below).

The old building was originally built in an L-shape (cf. the post about the buildings and structures), and when this L-wing was demolished during the same renovation, the valuable Alta-slates were of course carefully stacked and stored. One might think therefore that there would be ample reserves of slates. But as luck would have it, our eldest son at the age of five was gifted a small, but truly efficient hammer by his grandfather.

Where is one to try out one's new hammer? Can you imagine how brittle these slates really are when placed in a stack like this? Do you understand how merciless and highly efficient a five-year-old can be when left alone for a few minutes without any bothersome adults around?

«To a man with a hammer, everything looks like a nail.» Mark Twain.

This treasure was therefore lost to us, and we did not have enough slates. Also, if we were to keep the old slated roof, all the slates on the Northern side had to come off and be thoroughly steamed before we could reuse them. There was a lot of moss and guano stuck to the slates after decades and decades. If we were to buy more slates, they would be old and used too, and we would obviously have to steam all of the "new" slates as well. It sounded like a terrible job. Also, it would be very expensive, more so than a brand new roof with modern roof tiles, since we needed to get hold of an expert to lay down the slates. All this would also take a lot of time.

And when do we get the necessary stretch of nice weather with no precipitation, here where we live?

Also, if we decided to remove all the slates on the northern side of the roof, the wooden part of the roof would have to be replaced as well. This would also take a lot of time, but it would not be very smart to skip this step and place the slates on top of old woodwork in less than minty condition. We do want this roof to last.

A lot of work, a lot of time, a lot of money.

Those are all good reasons to consider other solutions and to rather replace the slated roof with Dutch roof tiles. On the other hand: to be frank, all of us really wanted to keep the precious slated roof. It is really beautiful, it is old and original, and if restored correctly, it can easily last for a hundred years or more.

The people of the farm finally decided. Let's do it!

So first of all the old slates have to come off.

Hans is working hard to take the old slates off of the roof without breaking any slates.
This would be a rather high fall. You can clearly see how much dirt, moss and guano is on the slates.

Peeling off the slates, one by one, is time-consuming work, and you have to be very careful. If you are not, or do things in the wrong order, the brittle edges and the nicks where the nails attch the slates to the roof will break off. This would make that slate useless. As mentioned, it is a far drop down, so you can easily drop a slate which will then shatter on the ground. It is also a very demanding job with a lot of responsibility.

The slates must then be brought down from the roof without breaking, and carefully placed on a suited surface to be steamed, inch by inch. This has to be done very thoroughly, but very lightly, since otherwise the slates will break and become useless. A lot of slates in the first stack did not make it (it took us a while to master the right technique).

Before and after. Kristin is steaming the slates, inch by inch, removing centuries worth of moss, guano and dirt.

Luckily we already had an appropriate steamer on the farm.

This work was very time-consuming, and it took us every night for many weeks to finish the stacks. These slates have a lot of sides and edges, and all of them have to be cleaned and steamed. As already said, if you are not very careful you can easily damage the slate.

It might seem as if we put the slates directly on the ground, but they are safely resing on a sheet of waterproof plywood. Placing the slates directly on the ground would lead to a lot of dirt being whirled up.

Hans managed to buy some more used slates from a local farmer who was replacing his own slated roof with tiles. After Kristin and Hans had steamed all the slates on almost all the stacks, the slate expert roofer informed us that the slates were of the wrong kind. 75% of the additional slates were Otta-slates, not Alta-slates. Besides the fact that Otta-skifer is thicker, heavier, and more rouchly cut, the nicks are also placed in a different position. So we had a lot of clean, but useless slates.

A rahter long, frustrated and desperate silence occurred in the aftermath of this devastating piece of information.

Now, Hans is relatively optimistic by nature and has an uncanning ability to consider the glass half full. So he declared that "this means that we have slates for the roof at Nordstua (the yellow house on the painting), when we are renovating that house."

The roof slate expert acquired some more use slates from a different supplier, and here we go, start up the steam machine again.

Eventually we had enough clean slates to cover the roof on the northern side, including the extension. And then the slates must be restacked, and the stacks brought back up on the scaffolding, preferably withouth breaking one single slate.

I think we all have to agree that this is an incredibly beatiful roof, very mcuh suitable for a trønderlån. What do you think? There are still some whhite spots of guano here and there, but these are so deeply entrenched in the slate that to remove these, one would have to damage the slate.

Photo: Malene

Actually we should have had a celebration, because the roof is finally finished. Let us try to have a party in the near future!

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Old log walls, good as new

The core of the house, an old log building, is the original structure that was finished in 1776. In fact it is quite likely that this core is even older, from the 17th century. No wonder then, that there are very few straight angles in this house.

The carpenter attaches battens to the logs, so we can put the weatherboaring up on a wall with slightly straighter angles. There is quite the difference between the. depth of the batten on the top of the wall as compared to further down. This implies that the amount of insulation will also iffer, because you can only use as much insulation as there is room for. If you just stuff the available space with insulation, the platerboards will be bent. And that would not be good.

The insulation has been used before, and we got it for free from a guy who needed help tearing it down. Tihs is recycling on a high level. Speaking of high level: Looking down, this would be a very high falll. Better not look down, then.

Even if there will be less insulation material in the wall on the second floor than the first floor, I would think that the inhabitants will experience a better temperature inside the house. The old insulation was not all that... It is easy to see that the cracks were stuffed with old rags, often in bright colours.

At last one entire section of the northern wall is clad in red plasterboards. These boards reduce the noise from the traffic, which will be very noticable for the two living in the house. The cold wind from the north will also have less impact on the tempreature inside from now on.

  2. Hei, Så spennende å lese om gårdens historie! For meg veldig gøy med vimpelen av jern med initialene til Ove…

  4. Har hadd mange koselige stunder i dette paradiset av en plass, og håper på mange flere🤩🥰

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