In 2019 we bought an old (old, old, old) house on a hill in the middle of rolling farmland at the heart of Central Jutland, Denmark. It overlooks the house and grounds of an old manor estate in a valley ringed by forest that starts only steps from our door.

We named it Ridgewood after our old neighborhood in Ohio, and work daily on transforming it to be modern , comfortable, and harmonious with our Shire-like landscape.

“Historic” means more than charming around here. Our hill is an Ice Age mound of stone, and a short walk up the road or hike into the forest brings us to Stone Age monuments like numerous burial mounds and a standing stone estimated to have been in place for around 25,000 years.

So far we’ve rearranged the floorplan, updated systems, and begun to establish a garden designed on sustainable permaculture principles. Summer 2022 we plan to move into the rebuilt half of the ground floor and to pull off the garage tiles, replacing them with a lower green roof that will open up the view.

As a project it may never be done, but as a living and working space it gets better by the day!