Tømmerhus
My house was built in 1926 in the for those days traditional Scandinavian way, as a log house. ("tømmerhus" in Norwegian – "tømmer" is timber). Building a house with  three inches thick massive beams makes a very stable and strong construction, and that is not a bad thing to have, because of the many storms in this part of Norway. The house was altered several times, for the last time in the seventies. The house then was enhanced, and the windows were replaced. The outside was covered with plastic, which may be very practical (no painting), but not very nice to look at, and not really watertight.

Renovation
In 1999 it was decided to tear off all of the plastic covering as well as the old outside planking. This job took from May til August 2000 to complete. The house is now well isolated,  has new outside planking, and all the windows are renewed. The house was also given back its traditional Norwegian ornamentation around the windows, and  the gable board has a been given a simple embellishment, a common practice in Norwegian house building. (Scroll down for photos of these details.)

At both ends of the roof ridge a more Dutch than Norwegian element found its place: the "gevelteken", which is a symbolic sign, traditionally used to crown the façades of farms in Twente, a region in the eastern part of the Netherlands. These signs had different shapes, all with their own symbolic meaning.

The sign on top of our house has the following meaning, according to the manufacturer, Frans from Ootmarsum:
The whole shape expresses the tree of life, with the cross at the top. The anchor is the symbol of faith, the moon phases symbolise the rhythm of the seasons, as does the sun wheel with the seven days of the week. The "thunder broom" (donderbezem, in Dutch) should keep evil forces and lightning away.

According to Ans Groener on the website 't Noaberschap "the sun wheel is a general fertility sign. Originally, it has its roots in Germanic mythology: here it is called "the wheel of Odin".

"gevelteken"

Other signs you find on farms in Twente:

more pictures below

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