A converted tractor shed in Sweden is a Kiwi’s happy place for weekend breaks with the family.

A former tractor shed provides respite as a year-round holiday home for this Stockholm family

Creating a holiday house near a small Swedish village has given Karl Anderson untold pleasure and, potentially, a heart attack. At least, neighbours blame his recent hospital visit on the endless series of renovation projects they have seen the New Zealand-born photographer tackle during the past decade. But the otherwise healthy home handyman swears he is fine now and is already planning the next stage of improvements to the converted tractor shed that he and his Swedish wife Lina Ericsson Anderson and their daughter Charlie escape to whenever they can.

The family’s holiday house is 160km north of their Stockholm city apartment (see NZ House & Garden October 2020) and 17,000km from Karl’s birthplace of Tokoroa. The New Zealand immigrant spent his early childhood in the Waikato before his family moved to Singapore, then Australia and back to New Zealand, courtesy of his father’s job.

Karl worked as a chef in New Zealand and Australia before retraining and eventually finding work as a photographer in New York. He has lived in Sweden for 25 years and specialises in capturing images of interiors for magazines and companies such as Ikea.

It was this work – building elaborate sets to photograph in his studio – that taught him the basic building skills he needed to help renovate the couple’s city apartment and the former tractor shed that is now their comfortable rural haven.

“It was just an unfinished wooden shed with a tin roof,” Karl says of the humble two-bedroom abode he and Lina own near the tiny town of Hedesunda.

His wife’s parents, who spend summers in the converted water mill next door, have gifted a chunk of their land to each of their two children. Karl and

Lina’s piece included the dilapidated shed, which came complete with an operational petrol gauge.

“A builder did the flooring and structural work, but at night I’d do all the simple work. Every summer for the last 10 years I’ve built something new. Put up the walls. I changed the roof. Added the little turret thing. I enjoy it. When we’re there, I’m building every day.”

This year, he designed and built a tiny house for his teenage daughter so she can enjoy some autonomy from her parents. Last year’s addition was an enclosed terrace that acts as a mudroom, where boots and coats are stored. He has also built a staircase and there is always painting or other maintenance work to be done.

When Karl doesn’t have tools in hand, he will often run or walk through the open fields of the surrounding countryside and always make time for good coffee. He relishes foraging expeditions for wild blueberries and mushrooms which contribute to nightly feasts, often shared with friends or family.

“When I go to the country I completely forget about the city. It’s like two different worlds. We try not to use phones as much, we’re away from Instagram and how many likes you have.

“And every year, my wife grows more and more veges there. This year was the best ever, it was green everywhere.”

Despite its summer house moniker the Andersons visit their rural idyll year-round, and aim to leave the city behind every second weekend.

“My country house is really a way to relax. My wife does her gardening, I’m in my building clothes. It’s about family and dogs in both places but the country house gives us so much more energy.”

Karl likes to keep busy in winter, too. On arrival, there is snow to be shovelled and timber needs to be chopped to feed the wood burner before long, snowy forest walks with Vilda the Jack Russell.

In December it is daylight for only five hours a day and temperatures will plummet to -20 degrees Celsius, but the house is double-glazed and the wood burner is supplemented by a heat pump.

“The house is toasty, it’s nice. And it’s the European dream, all that snow coming,” says Karl.

What’s more, the Kiwi expatriate has learned how to dress like a Swede – in multiple layers, with a heavy jacket and insulated footwear.

Thanks in part to formerly frequent visits back to New Zealand, he and Lina imagine one day leaving the city permanently. On their antipodean trips, the Andersons always stay in a specific bed and breakfast accommodation in Rotorua. The English owners are former teachers who emigrated in search of a better lifestyle which includes having deer, goats and pigs on the property.

“We suddenly realised we could do that. Our dream is to see if we can build a house, have a piece of land and build small cabins we can rent to visitors. It’s a big, big jump but I think it would suit us.

“You never know, we might end up in New Zealand.”

THIS PAGE Thanks to its previous life as a tractor shed, the entrance to the Anderson’s Swedish holiday home has 5m-high ceilings, which mean there is room for a drying rack. OPPOSITE Lina is learning to count in M¯aori and has posted cheat sheets above the sofa, her favourite lounging spot after working in the garden; Vilda the Jack Russell loves this space too.

THIS PAGE Produce from the garden is transformed in the simple but highly functional kitchen – Karl, a former chef, likes to plan dinner right after breakfast and enjoys making ice cream. OPPOSITE Due to the steep slope a terrace had to be built along the entire back of the house, which has become a much-loved second living room with an outdoor kitchen and barbecue; Karl chose the window frame colour, Green Umber, to set their house apart from the mainly red houses found in the Swedish countryside.

THIS PAGE The front porch was added to provide space for coats and muddy boots; the large windows were found in a shop in the north of Sweden, the squares on the floor were painstakingly painted in linseed oil paint and the doors came from southern Sweden. OPPOSITE (clockwise from top left) Lina grows herbs in pots, sitting here next to a smoking Unni pizza oven, so they can be taken home to the city in autumn. A fold-down table gives an extra dining option on the recently finished terrace. Lina with Vilda in her summer uniform: “Clothes you don’t need to worry about getting dirty”. Karl built a garden shed using an old window they were given.

THIS PAGE (from top) The Andersons love hooks and hangers, seen here at the entrance to the terrace: “We cannot live without them,” Lina says. The small bathroom is cleverly designed to fit a shower, toilet and washing machine; the sustainably made woven cotton towels are imported from Turkey by Lina’s textiles company Noy Rd. OPPOSITE (from top) The bed in Charlie’s room has large drawers underneath for storage and folds out to make a double. Her room opens onto the terrace which overlooks a creek where otters swim.