The lodge at Hovfjället

A dream lodge...

I am not the kind of person that goes around with hidden agendas. I open my heart lightly on what I aim for. That too aplies to my dreams. I often dream of having a house or lodge in the Portuguese countryside, especially in the mountains. 

I put a lot of effort and time to look for houses for sale and design different possibles ways to recover those houses. They are often on sale as ruins. I would love to be able to recover old houses in Portugal and then sell them. However I am not ready to quit my day job. Not yet, anyway... 

While dreaming is great, living a bit of our dreams is even better. I had the change to live a bit of my lodge dream although in the Swedish mountains in Värmands, at Hovfjället.  

We stayed in this lovely lodge halv way up to the skiing facilities and way in the woods. We shared the house with a couple of friends and their kids. Together we were 4 adults and 5 children, ages 2 to 9. The house seems little but it has 9 beds. 

                         We had a functional kitchen, a widen living room space and a functional bathroom. The kitchen was full equipped, even though somethings had been there since the lodge was built in the 1980's. 

Actually we had more coverts, plates, glasses (even champagne glasses) and much more than we expected when we booked it. 

We were there a week around New Year's eve and the owner had fixed the lodge with Christmas' decorations which made it somewhat family friendly and cosy for us. 

I really love a fireplace! I do not appreciate skiing so when we were booking I said that I could take care of practical issues and accept a skiing trip if, and only if we had a fireplace. I sat there a lot on the afternoons while the others were skiing.  Besides it was very practical because as you can see we could dry our clothes over the fireplace. So we came all home for lunch and while we ate and the kids rested and played inside their and our clothes would dry and got warm. I usually went up to the skiing facilities on the mornings to help the other adults with the kids. 

                    

 

 One feature that I really loved and feared in the lodge was the loft rooms.
The use of the whole attic roof space is not only smart, it is playful and a bit romantic.

The thing is those ones were not safe, because the were wide open with no kind of gates or barriers and the ladders are quite steep... Ad 5 kids from 2 years to 9 years old and you have a recipe for disaster if you're not on the top of every climbing and playing near the edge of the lofts...

 Still I loved the lofts and I dream of a house or lodge I can recover where I can build (or plan and pay someone to build for me) a lodge and my own designed bunk beds. 

Anyhow if you are in the mood to ski or just to do like me and appreciate the Swedish mountains and the warmth of a fireplace I truly recommend you to take that trip to Hovfjället and seek for the lodge number 10. Have fun!