I change my mind about going in the main entrance and decide to show the wing first, and lead everyone around the wing, down the stairs and over to the pavilion, and up the stone stairs to the pavilion entrance into the wing. This will also be the way to the greenhouse and future garden.

This door is the same as the main entrance, but with two small stained glass windows above with a feast motif, which is fitting as the pavilion will be used for feasts in the summer when we have guests. The corridor inside is short and with a single stair about a meter inside, and the overall shape of the corridor in the wing is a mirrored L, and we're stepping in through the short end. A pair of inner doors with glass, will be built about 1.5 meters inside the outer door, to act as a small entrance hall and air buffer. We should probably make the glass in the doors match the stained glass mosaic above the pavilion entrance.

Straight ahead we have a security door that leads into the main building, and its open and we can see straight through the main buildings corridors to a window on the other side, but I stop them from getting more than a peek by closing it. The long corridor to the north goes through the middle of the wing to the large 'kitchen door' on the short side towards the courtyard. Side entrance is probably a better word. There is small light tunnel above the security door too, but this corner will be a bit dark, especially when the inner doors come into place. Most of the floor here in the wings groundfloor is grey slate stone, and looks nice while being durable, but it doesn't help making it lighter in here.

The room to the south will be my workshop, but currently lack most windows which are just boarded up. As almost all rooms in the building, there is a thick solid 20cm log wall towards the corridor main building, which hopefully means that I won't disturb too much. Since I won't have any electric lights, I probably won't work really late or in the middle of the night. The workshop is above the boiler room in the basement, so the steam pipes will go up along the corner and this room will also house the battery bank, because the need will be greatest here. The room will also get water and a sink, and already have a drain just like most rooms in the wing. The room is also open to the inner roof, and a staircase leads up to a 15m² attic. I can guess what I will build here, so I need options and storage, which is also one reason for the small fireplace.

As we go north along the wings corridor, we first reach the female servants bedroom, and Elvira, Jalida and the cook Rikvi looks happily at the bedroom that will be theirs. I describe how there will be a bunk bed along each side and a small folding table under the window with a chair. By sitting on the beds, three can use the table. The upper bed is high enough that it won't be a problem. There is also space for clothes to hang on the walls facing the corridor, and there will be two storage chests under each bunk bed for their personal belongings. There's room for another maid, and this room will only be for women. The view towards the pavilion and its roof isn't exciting, but well, they're servants, and they love the room.

We continue to the next room, which is smaller, and I describe how it will get a bed, table and a chair etc, and I offer it to Caecilias as her own room if she doesn't want one of the attic rooms here in the wing. This room is just 6m², with the same view of the pavilion and its roof, but it is a separate room for her, so it will give her a higher status than the servants, without classifying her as a pure guest or taking up a guest room. I had planned that this room to have a bunk bed and be for a couple of men in the staff, and it will be used for that when Caecilia moves out.

I also explain that there are several rooms in the attic, so if its really needed, these two rooms may in the future merge into one, or be used for something else. The wall between these two rooms is a plank wall, instead of a log wall, while the wall to the next room to the north is stone.

We go straight across the corridor to the east side and the staff's 20m² common room. The common room has a direct door to the kitchen, a larger open fireplace and two narrower windows to the courtyard veranda and patio. In normal use, it will be the staff's common room, dining room and meeting place, but it will also be used when they need extra kitchen space, for larger baking or something. Should it be needed, extra temporary staff can be accommodated here at night, but I doubt that it will ever be needed. We should have enough space in the attic rooms to handle temporary staff.

The kitchen, with its 31m², is one of the largest rooms in the house and the three large windows facing the courtyard makes it quite bright. The kitchen has two fireplaces, one at each end, where the fireplace towards the staffs common room is more advanced and modern, while the other is just a larger open fireplace that is multi use and closer to the common fire pit. Its multi use and large enough to grill a whole pig on, or just heat something as simple as several large pans or cauldrons at once, or dry meat hangning from the bars up in the chimney. There's options from being completely open, using its two iron arms with hooks to swing cauldrons in and out over the fire, to using grilling mesh, several iron bars or skewers, and in different positions. A few different combinations are possible.

The more modern fireplace has a two large iron plates for frying or cooking on, a large oven and finally a bread oven that I hope can make pizza. The modern fireplace gets a lot of interest as I explain, because the plates, oven and bread oven are new to most people and I explain how the fire heats the large cooking plates directly and one plate will be hotter than the other, and the smoke circulates in ducts and heats the oven even if the ovens own fire isn't lit, before the hot smoke goes up to the chimney. The small covers on the side of the fireplace are for access for cleaning out the canals and sooting, and the large cooking surfaces can be pull out for cleaning. The plates needed to be in grooves so that they can expand when hot, and have a raised edge along the side and back to stop fat and other stuff from running down underneath. They're two to make them easier to make, install and handle, and to have a temperature difference. A single large surface would expand more, and warp more. Its possible to make a third plate to change and slide in place. The bread oven has a separate fire, but a similar systems with channels around the oven. I make it clear that they're not suppose to light a fire inside the oven, even if it is possible if they open that damper. There will be no ash residue in the bottom of the bread here.

The iron doors with easy locking and adjustable air intake, and a separate ash tray below the fire is really impressive for them when they understand the function, and they lively discuss what can be done in the oven and how it will be. Personally, I hope the heat and heat control will be good enough, because I do not want to rebuild next summer. I also hope I made everything big enough for making food for a large household.

The women, but especially the cook's reaction, is entertaining, because we warned it might be 'primitive'. No-one thinks its primitive. Pedr is very pleased with their reactions and how well it all works, and he say they have tried all the buildings fireplaces, especially here in the kitchen, which they used to make two batches of bread with the oven, and fried egg and meat directly on one plate while boiling soup on another. It all works really well, and his maid and the women who cook for the workers are completely awed by the kitchen. When they cleaned it out one had tears that she will never use anything like it again.

I've quickly explain to Jane, but she gets it way faster. She isn't that surprised. I point out: "Beside bread, I hope to make pizza, but forget tomatoes, since I believe they are from South America. Maybe in ten years, if they even look or taste what we expect from a tomato. I hope they have the same plants as in Midgard because I really want potatoes, which will be an extremely important crop to bring back, along with maize. Of the four most important food crops in our modern world - rice, wheat, potato and maize - Europe here only have wheat, and they eat a lot of it. Potato works really well in this northern climate and is easy to store. Hell, if I could plant potatoes on say 25% of the farmland here, and achive something like a quarter of the yield of modern farming in low production countries, that would still be something like 50 tons of potatoes."

"50 tons?! That much?"

"If I remember correctly with good modern yields and crop variaties, its something like 15-25 tons per hectare, and I have something like 50ha."

"Bloody Hell! Thats a thousand tons! No wonder potatoes are cheap and everywhere. So 50 tons is conservative thinking on a quarter of the land. Its just 4 tons per hectare. But with 50 tons the islands could live on potatoes!"

"It would probably only be about half the calories for 50 people, as a hardworking farmer here eat a lot of food. As a precaution we really need diversified food, although you can live on unpealed potatoes alone. Literally. There's people that lived for years on just potatoes, and its a low fat, low cost diet. Add a bit of greens, milk, eggs, fish and meat and you're golden. Man, I really miss potatoes. The Irish potato famine happened because they were so dependant on potatoes, and blight killed the crops, while in France they thought potatoes caused leprosy and was only good as animal feed. If I remember correctly the average Irish farmer ate roughly 6kg per day, which is 2 tons of potatoes per year."

"Oh, come on! Seriously?! Thats like 2kg per meal! Thats a lot of poop! And might I add; those bloody French! Escargot and oysters are 'très bien', but not potatoes..."

I shrug, and the tour of the kitchen ends with me showing the 6m² food storage room to the north. I show and explain that the room draws cool air from the basement via convection and lets out the warmer air through an outlet valve at the top of the wall. The cool cupboard inside the room has the same system, and should be cooler, and the plan is to have layer upon layer so the cupboard and future refrigerators will be colder, or less energy consuming. These are adjustable valves that can be closed both for the cold updraft and the outlet, because it can be too cold outside in the winter. I open and show the 'warm cupboard' which will be hot and dry as the cupboard acts as insulation against the large multi use fireplaces back, and waste heat through the stone will heat up the cupboard. There are adjustable intakes to let hot air into the rooom as well, if needed. I don't know how useful it is to be able to keep something lukewarm, and the only thing I could think of is keeping food warm or fermentation. They just have to experiment. Everyone's faces are just wonderful to see, especially the cooks and Iselin's.

In the future I will mount some kind of thermometers in the different spaces, but its not really important.

I pratically have to force the cook to come along for the rest of the tour.

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The rest of the wing's west side after Caecilia's room is first the large bathroom, followed by the small bathroom, but both are empty right now so nothing interesting to see except that we will have two bathrooms indoors, and the large one is 10m². After the kitchen, I guess their expectations of the bathrooms are high, but I think it will be met, eventually.

I explain and describe how the water pipes and taps will work, as well as show the drains, where the shower nozzles and bathtub will be, and that there will always be cold and warm water directly available in the bathrooms, but also in other spaces that need water, as the kitchen and so on. Their faces are gorgeous, and Jane is overjoyed. Jane's happiness at finally being able to take a warm shower whenever she wants, seems to be contagious.

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

Then comes the sauna, and it meets their expectations. An indoor sauna is another thing they've never heard of, and Jane say its no doubt I'm Scandinavian. When the rest talks, I learn that a sauna is an important part of weddings, which explains the smiling and small nudges between them. I explain that this sauna should be used when we feel like it, and I show its special little wood burning stove with sauna stones stacked on top, and its separate chimney up. They have clad the outer and corridor wall with a thinner layer of stone. I'm a little worried about moisture damage, so even though it's hardly an optimal solution, they have tried to make a moisture barrier with slate tiles and mortar on the two log walls and ceiling, and will then dress with wood paneling on the inside where you sit.

There are standing extra planks that help to hold up the slate roof from below, which are easy to replace if they rot. I quickly discuss with Pedr how I want the benches to be built.

After the sauna comes the laundry room. Washing clothes indoors is unusual, and usually takes place out in a stream or in the open yard, and many people don't wash their clothes very often anyway. But I want them to wash often, and it is easier to do indoors where they will have reasonably warm water directly available from a tap. It is also possible to install a large wood-fired vessel for washing. There is no permanent solution for that, but there is a free flue in the sauna chimney, but for now its just a hole in the wall. In the future, I might construct simpler washing machines, and beside being an interesting challenge to do, and it should be very labor-saving, but when that happen, I don't want a large stone fireplace to be in the way. The washing machines will probably just be a top-loading drum that agitates the laundry, and a simpler centrifuge to force most of the water out of the fabric afterwards, but that would make a big difference in the amount of work each wash is, and make the cloth last longer. There is direct ventilation just like the sauna, bathroom, toilets and kitchen have, and in the future there may be an electric fan if moisture is a problem. The chances are good that they occasionally will have to hang laundry to dry in here, and one wall will have clotheslines. Likewise, the sauna will have clotheslines, as it is a space that will see limited use and is located right next doot. Without water on the sauna stones, the sauna will be dry and hot, although it might smell of smoke, which isn't nice. More to experiment with.

The corridor has a couple of open doors that we pass to reach the end with the side entrance door and the stairs up and down, but I open the toilet door and show the toilet room at the northwestern corner. The toilet has an anteroom with a small window that will have two sinks with warm and cold water. Then three separate booths with doors. One with its own small window, while the other two booths share a window. All windows have ventilation to keep odors down. I hope that these dry toilets with their simple separation will work well enough, both in usage and odor.

I lift the toilet lid and show how the poop falls straight down to large barrels in the separate basement room below with its own small door outside, and the front of the toilet has urine separation that flows down to smaller barrels below. The urine barrels will relatively often be emptied into larger barrels outdoors for storage, because urine has a lot of use, but it smells and forms ammonia. One thing I will eventually try to build with ammonia, is a refrigeration system. It will be nasty to purify and might literally blow up in my face, and it will be a hell of a thing to get all the details right and build a compressor working well enough. But its one thing I have in unlimited quantities that might work. Pedr confirms that the poop barrels have many small holes in the bottom for drainage of excess liquid to the basement rooms separate sewage channel, and there are ventilation ducts up to the roof.

I explain that when the poop barrel gets half full, it must be emptied to its own compost pile, and the composting is helped by us throwing in a scoop of ash and some type of carbon source, such as sawdust, grass or other, after each use. Plus the paper we dried ourselves with. The fireplaces will provide ash, and if the separation works properly, there shouldn't be much odor. The compost will be collected in 3 month piles, and be left to rest for 2 years before it is used to kill of all patogens, and we will keep track of how old each pile is, with a plank with a date carved in. Scrubbing the urine and poop hole from time to time to keep the smell down, will not be a fun chore for someone, but the channels have been given a smooth nice surface just to make it easier, and we will make a special brush for those purposes. When the barrels are replaced, the person will also empty a bucket of warm soapy water in the sewage channel.

They havn't heard of indoor toilets before, although Ciara say that some Castles in Alba have hole to shit down from a protruding part of the wall. Most are used to more primitive things than even an outdoor toilets or outhouses with only one hole, but as I explain, I see that everyone understands. But its me and Jane that really understand, because we miss modern western toilets. This winter, it will be nice to be able to stay indoors as we go to the toilet. No need to put on clothes and shoes to go out through rain, snow and wind to a freezing cold toilet. This is as close as I can get to a modern toilet right now, although I have plans to introduce a water closet in the future. The toilet room is prepared for it with its separate sewage channel down from the basement room, which for now is just for excess urine. The major problems, is to figure out how to take care of liquid sewage with some form of three-chamber sewage well or something, as well as the water consumption for flushing, and to build a toilet chair in earthenware with a water trap and flushing function. But it is not important enough to be prioritized before winter, and its good to have at least six months experience of this system. It should be good enough.

Elvira and Jalida are the most shocked, when they understand that even servants and guards can use two of the three toilets and the small bathroom, and they won't have to run outside during the winter, or take care of night pots from us. Their faces and postures make me quite convinced that I'll have happy servants. The guards smiles and cautious congratulations to each other, and Gunhild's entertaining sound are just a nice bonus.

Kari's statement that we will live better than the King and Queen shocks more, and with the exception to the work aspect, the servants will live better than the families of Jarl's. Everyone knows that she grew up in the King's castle, and Ciara says it definitely applies to Alba as well. She has never even heard of a mansion or castle even close to this one, and she has visited many castles and large estates there. None has had these luxuries and amenities.

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On the other side of the corridor from the toilet are the stairs up and down, so we go up to the wings attic. The middle and east side of the attic is a large open space for water tanks and storage. I carefully check the water tanks that are in place, especially the tanks for warm water around the kitchen chimneys. They seem to be well shaped, and the steam boiler system isn't needed for us to be able to get warm water, but steam should make it more efficient and certainly warmer. But I like to have backup plans, especially in the beginning before the steam boiler is even built. To even the a working water system, I need to install water pipes, taps and pumps, and I have that on the ship. The level floats seem to work even though they don't control anything right now. The idea is that they will prevent overfilling and redirect water out through a side pipe. As we get some experience, we will be able to calculate approximately how many pump strokes will be needed, depending on the waterlevel in the tank. It doesn't need to be filled to absolutely 100% each time.

It would have felt better to give all the rooms their own window, but it turned out to be a stupid design in relation to the trusses. I could have changed the design of the attic for the windows, but I prefer to have the same everywhere so windows are the same and the builders repeat the same thing with the same angles. Less risk of error, and the outside is now symmetrical. It may be an unnecessary restriction, but there are higher mountains on the north and west side that make you see the mansion from above, and the wing is the first view of the mansion from the road across the island, so I want it to look good. There are only four attic windows in total on the west side, and two on the east side above the kitchen and staffs common room.

The window above the kitchen is special to be able to climb out on the roof for sooting etc, and has a work platform that goes up on the roof to the chimneys. That window has already been given a simpler hoist to be able to lift food up to the attic, which will be useful when the food supply is to be filled, instead of taking the steep attic stairs. It is just a lifting block at the end of an arm that is attached to a hole and pokes out over the roof edge. Since the builders arn't finished with the outer wall on the buildings side, I ask Pedr to mount a bracket for a block above the window there as well, so it is possible to lift up goods that way. I honestly didn't think that it is by far the best way to lift things up, because that window is higher, and there is no stupid roof edge with a gutter to reach outside of.

We check the three attic rooms to the west for extra or short-term staff. The first two rooms share a small window, and the larger room has its own small window. We can easily fit three beds in each small room, and certainly five in the largest room, but its better to have space, and I intend to have two beds in each small room, with a table and chair in front of the window. The smaller rooms floor space is larger than the maids room for four below, but the ceiling slopes, so even a lower bunk bed only works against the inner wall towards the attic, and I can only stand straight on the inside of the room and towards the window. Had it only been about sleeping places, a couple of low bunk beds could have fit in each room, but it just feels wrong, and only the largest of these three rooms will have two bunk beds. I prefer to pamper the staff and visitors, and they all seem really impressed with how nice the rooms are, and the view over the road and trees down in the slump is nice. The first room in the corner above the toilets will in the beginning be for male staff, and I don't expect any toilet odor problems in there, and that is according to mine and Jane's nose. Not what the average person here thinks. Caecilia like the rooms and the view, but prefers the room downstairs.

We continue into the food storage which is the middle of the wings west side. I hope that 32m², and almost double in cubic meters, will be enough volume for our needs, and that the food supply stays dark, cool and dry but still has some air circulation through the two nets at the ends, ventilation at the ceilings high point and a small ventilation duct in the attic window. If we really need to, the window can be opened. There is a cold air intake from the basement here as well, right now with its valve closed. The window will have a blackout curtain just like any storage space with a window, and the window is mostly to let light in when someone is here, and it gives the ceiling a symmetrical look from the outside. This space shouldn't ever reach minus celcius even when there are many minus outside, and in the worst case, the staff will just open the door to the attic, so that the waste heat from the kitchen chimneys finds its way in. I hope the food supply will be cool enough in the summer, but this is mainly for winter storage, and the similar but smaller stores in the attic of the main building will probably be better in summer, as they are on the north side and the sun cannot directly heat them. I don't really know the need and use, but the others seem to like the storage room and think it can be good for fruits and other food.

I'm quite happy that the secret exit from the guard's room doesn't attract attention, and I saw that Alith had to look closer to find it, but it just looks like joints between logs. In the future, I will check that the locking from the guards side is done correctly, and make sure that they don't do anything to block it from either side.

I'm so nervous about food storage, and along with Jane, I'm a modern person. We're used to being able to buy food whenever we want, and are used to only needing a small refrigerator with a freezer. We're not used to having to store different raw food for more than six months, without any refrigeration. I've had a hard time estimating how much food space we need, and how different raw foods are best stored, and I don't want problems with mould, pests or insects. So I hope I have oversized, while creating several options and made backup plans. The far end towards the main building above the staffs common room will be used if we need space for more food, and will be hot and dry due to the kitchen chimneys. I decide that the workers will build an wall so that the space becomes an additional storage room of about 15m², and the room can will get a cold air intake from the middle one of the light tunnels as two of the basement vaults light tunnels go up along the wall to the main building. The western one already serve as the large food storage's cold air intake.

They talk and realize that there will be a lot of running in the stairs, to get food down to the kitchen and its cupboards and storage, so I point out and have to explain that in the future there will be a food elevator that connects the attic, the kitchen and the basement. The doors in the wall in the kitchen and the corridor are to that elevator, and the hatch over there on the floor will be for the upper part, which hasn't been built yet. I have to explain more, like the lift is a 50x50cm box that is 60cm high, which is hoisted up with a counterweight, and they think a bit like the winch, but I say that it will probably be pulling a rope or crank from both the kitchen and corridor. The crank handle will connected through the wall.

I say "dumbwaiter" and quickly explain to Jane, and she giggles: "Oh my god! Is there anything you havn't planned for?!"

"Probably, but I don't know what yet, or I would have planned for it."