August 2021: For three years, Tor-Evert Grøndal Johansen has fought to build a farm – and a life – high up in a hut in Valdres. The Høgdegarden he moved to in 2018 was unmovable. And the young man lacked both money and installed electricity, sewage and water. Many would have given up, but Tor-Evert has persevered, just barely. This Saturday morning, Tor-Evert is standing in a steep meadow in full bloom. He is wearing a blue linen suit. It’s not exactly weekday clothes here on tired Øvre Brekkebakkane. Tor-Evert thought this would never happen, but 506 days after love fell into his life, in the strangest way, he will be the groom. Tor-Evert thought he was going to become part of the statistics of single men in rural Denmark, but the pandemic wanted it differently: He met the Danish engineer Line Raunkjær at a meditation center in Sweden. They kissed, both got corona and had to go into quarantine – together. It would change everything, for both of them. Today is the wedding. The groom only has to braid a flower wreath for the bride before the wedding. Ole André RekkedalTor-Evert thought he would remain single at high altitude. In March 2020, things changed: Tor-Evert suddenly met the Danish Line in Sweden. They kissed on a Thursday, got corona on Saturday and had to spend two weeks in quarantine together in this vesle leilegheita. Torje Bjellaas / NRKLine went with Tor-Evert to Øvre Brekkebakkane. The simple, down-to-earth life agreed with the values of Line. Torje Bjellaas / NRKTor-Evert is the drøymaren. Line is the realist who drags Tor-Evert down when he is flying high in thought. It has gone quickly for the two who are getting married today. Since Line and Tor-Evert were quarantined together on 20 square meters, they have been together every day. – While most other couples gradually get to know each other, I went from zero to a hundred, and then I just figured it out gradually. Tor-Evert picks a priest’s collar and tries to weave them into the wreath, but doesn’t quite succeed. – We have had our relationship on this farm. This has become our playground, where we have argued, become friends, realized that we have made a mistake, stood up and persevered, but made the same mistake again. Gradually we have started to understand each other, so it only seems right to get married early. The playground is more of a construction site. The restored loft bed that Tor-Evert thought he would finish quickly is far from finished. The bride and groom still live in the 90-year-old barn on the farm. Ole Andre RekkedalKomforten was even simpler at the start, before Tor-Evert met Line. Then he had to wash himself in the stream. Ole Andre RekkedalHeimen was a tent in the barn. When the winter cold came, Tor-Evert had to insulate the tent with Glava mats. NRKHe managed to build himself a warm crawl space in the barn for Christmas. In 2019, Tor-Evert started the restoration of the dilapidated farmhouse. Torje Bjellaas / NRKHe did much of the work the old-fashioned way , and for hand. Although Tor-Evert also got a lot of help, it took time. Almost two years later, Line is going to work – heavily pregnant, in one meter of snow and minus 18 degrees. The snow-covered barn is still home to the two, who will soon be three. March 2021: Something has happened to the barn, which was absolutely not supposed to happen. Tor-Evert, who is to become a father in three weeks, is writing over the ridge. The snowplow he holds in his hand is small, and the barn roof is large. And the roof is covered with a lot of heavy snow. In the constant changes between mild weather and frost, the snow has stuck to the steep roof and will not slide off the corrugated ink. That’s why Tor-Evert has to scrounge, whatever he can get his hands on. Line looks up at the man who is struggling with the snow on the roof: – A couple of days before it happened, Tor-Evert asked: What should we do so that everything is ready for baby coming? I answered: I feel everything is clear. And then this happens… All the snow on the roof was too heavy for the old barn. One of the beams holding the building together snapped. With a crash, the walls began to slide away from each other. Inside the barn were Tor-Evert and pregnant Line. – That morning my adrenaline was insanely high. It was disgusting. Suddenly our safe home was gone, says Tor-Evert. Line was no less scared: – I stood with the mobile phone in my hand, ready to call 113. Tor-Evert went up to the barn loft and tried to fasten jack straps around the studs to prevent the barn walls from giving way completely and the whole building collapsing. ALMOST COLLAPSING: – It felt as if the whole world collapsed. It wasn’t good to be here, so we just wanted to leave and leave the farm, says Tor-Evert. Photo: Torje Bjellaas / news The jack straps that Tor-Evert fastened held the old barn together. And on this day, help will come. The experienced carpenter Harald Jevne looks at the damage and explains to Line and Tor-Evert how he and the carpenters he has with him will repair the barn. – The barn should be safe now when the baby arrives, says Tor-Evert. – Yes, it will be exciting, with the birth, replies Harald: – They don’t have the fastest way when they have to go down. Harald thinks of the long, steep farm road which is covered in snow and impassable both for ambulances and other rolling vehicles. – Maybe they can slide down on a toboggan board, laughs Harald. – We have a nice neighbor who says he can pick us up with a snowmobile if there is a crisis, says Tor-Evert. – I’m betting that I can walk, says Line. When Harald goes down the steep slope in deep snow, Tor-Evert is still in the barn. – I feel a bit stupid that I live here, but I have always thought that it is just an interlude. Then I get the answer: When the weather is out, things can go wrong. No, it’s the last time I live in a barn. I promise! The farmhouse is 30 meters away. – We long to get there now, to get into a cozy home, in which we can feel safe. The loft has come up, but the interior is still there. Tor-Evert thinks he will have the house ready by late summer. Line doesn’t think so. Maybe for Christmas, she says. On 25 March 2021, a handsome boy will be born. Vesle Emil is the first noble boy to come to Øvre Brekkebakkane in 77 years. If he wasn’t born in a stable, he at least grew up in a barn, which has now been put in place. ODELSGUT: Wesle Emil in Brekkebakkane grew up in simpler conditions than many other children. Photo: Torje Bjellaas / news December 2021: The gardeners should have been in a new house long ago. But late summer became autumn, and autumn became Advent, and the new world is still not ready, so far from now. – No, it wasn’t such a big job to finish this, Tor-Evert laughs self-deprecatingly. He stands by the miter saw and bevels a panel for the gable on the living room wall. – I don’t think I have ever made such a thorough mistake as this year, says the time optimist. No one should blame Tor-Evert for putting in the effort. While he has been working on the house late and early, Line has taken care of little Emil in the barn. Autumn has been difficult between Line and Tor-Evert. – There was a distance between us, and I was on my way to a place I didn’t like at all. I have heard enough stories about relationships that end while you are building a house. In such a large project as this, it is easy to forget each other. – A few weeks ago, Line… didn’t exactly have a breakdown, but she cried, and it was difficult. BUILDING CHAOS: Tor-Evert gets so absorbed in finishing the house that he loses sight of Line and little Emil. Photo: Torje Bjellaas / news Thirty meters away, Emil sits at the table in the barn with a bib around his neck. On the table in front is the spout, and soon Line comes with the porridge and starts feeding the boy with the fair hair. Where Line has formed a strong bond with Emil, Tor-Evert has been swallowed up by the house building. – Tor-Evert was so intent on moving in for Christmas. It sort of stuck in his head and made him blind in one way or another, all of which he forgot about us. Then slowly my frustration grew until it exploded. A major breakdown, tell Line. Inside the farmhouse, Tor-Evert nails the beveled panel table up on the wall. – I have to get better at listening to Line and Emil’s needs and spend more time with them. Because suddenly they are gone from my life, because I disappear into a project. I get so involved. I always have projects I dream of bringing to life. Tor-Evert hammers in the last nail. In the new year he will go on paternity leave, and then he will have the house finished, he thinks, at least before Easter. FINAL: Line, Tor-Evert and weasel Emil can move into the new farmhouse Photo: Torje Bjellaas / news July 2022: Winter, Easter and spring have passed. They have not yet moved into the newly restored house. For today. Long after Tor-Evert’s plan. Line and Tor-Evert ask for a chest of drawers between them, from the barn to the new home. In front of them stands Emil, nearly twelve years old. – A great relief, says Tor-Evert. – It’s lovely to live here now. It has been a long, long process. So it’s almost impossible to understand, says Line. The two sat down at the coffee table. All around them, newly painted doors and paneling shine, the wooden floor has been planed and laid – and the home, which was rotten and dilapidated, has been furnished with both new worktops and cupboards, but also with the old lath clearly visible on the end wall. – As long as we’ve been together, this house has been the focal point. I have spent more time building this than building our relationship. So it will be strange that we will now spend time on each other, laughs Tor-Evert. – Now I will have the weekends off and go on trips, adds the optimist. – I’ll have to look at that now, replies Line. Tor-Evert became engrossed in the house building. So engrossed that he almost lost sight of Line and Emil. – Sometimes you can get frustrated in what you fall in love with, says Line: – We are very different, and he is the dreamer and the creative one, and that was what I found fascinating and fell in love with, but that is also which is frustrating. The saving grace was that Tor-Evert managed to change, in time. – He tries very hard. He’s not like: “I’m doing the right thing, and what you’re doing is wrong.” He always wants to talk about things. He will admit that he has done something wrong, and try to change it. Line thinks it saved the relationship. – If he had been like me, we would not have been together anymore. FINAL HANDS ON LIFE’S WORK: Tor-Evert fixes the last ceiling molding in the nystova Photo: Torje Bjellaas / news Tor-Evert has moved 25 times in his life, and often broke up and escaped when he ran into difficulties. But on Øvre Brekkebakkane, he has persevered, even though the easiest thing many times would have been to flee. At Høgdegard, the 41-year-old man has managed to put down roots, and together with Line he has got the home he has struggled for so long to prepare. But the house is not completely finished yet. A ceiling molding on the kitchen is still standing, and it is not just any kind of molding. When Tor-Evert moved into Øvre Brekkebakkane in 2018 and was going to take down the blackened walls in the farmhouse, a wedding photo suddenly fell out from behind a ceiling molding. The picture was of the married couple who were the last to live on the farm, in the 1930s and 40s. Tor-Evert took care of the photo, and now he will complete something that has been done at least once before on Øvre Brekkebakkane: put a wedding photo behind the molding and hide it for future homeowners. In his hand, he not only holds the old wedding photo that he found four years ago, but also a brand new one of a woman and a man, each with a flower wreath on their head. THE KISS: Line and Tor-Evert get married 506 days after they kissed for the first time on a bench in Sweden. Photo: Ole André Rekkedal / news Tor-Evert stuck the two bridal cars into the gap where the ceiling meets the wall, and as he nails the molding in place, his thoughts turn to the big day last August: There by the bank of the lake Vangsmjøse, between seven mighty valdresfjellet – Grindane, Bergsfjellet, Skutshorn, Vennisfjellet, Hensfjellet, Slettefjellet and Hugakøllen – stands Tor-Evert with the wreath of flowers that he managed to weave together with the help of a little steel wire. While the fiance straightens his tie knot, Tor-Evert suddenly sees Line walking down the grass towards the water, leaning on little Emil. Line is dressed in a deep blue, simple dress. She gives up Emil, and arrives at the man she met in Sweden and chose to cross national borders for. And there the two stand next to each other and hear the mayor who is marrying them, speak: – What I am involved in today is also a great adventure: From the day Tor-Evert was allowed to buy Øvre Brekkebakkane, construction started there , got Line as a lover and then came weasel Emil. Korkje Asbjørnsen and Moe – or for that matter, HC Andersen – could have written such a wonderful, romantic and vivid fairy tale, like your life. Tor-Evert places the flower wreath on Line’s head, and Line places her wreath on Tor-Evert’s head. And 506 days after they kissed for the first time, Line and Tor-Evert kiss again, this time as wife and husband, mother and father. WATCH NEW EPISODES: Tor-Evert gets his own family – Line and weasel Emil. He has dreamed of that for a long time.
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Tor-Evert Grøndal Johansen gets his dream fulfilled at the high garden Øvre Brekkebakkane in Valdres – news Vestland
