DR has launched a new television series following designer Søren Vester and his family as they renovate a derelict smallholding into a summerhouse. Vester says his two teenage sons spend their school holidays working on the site.
The series, “Søren Vester bygger sommerhus”, runs on DR1 on Wednesdays and is available on DRTV. DR reports that the renovation has been under way for a year and a half. The family is turning a dilapidated husmandssted, a former smallholding, into their new summerhouse.
Vester’s sons Sigurd and Holger, aged 16 and 19, work alongside their parents. According to DR, they have taken part in both demolition and construction, including building walls and a floor in the house. Vester calls the arrangement voluntary compulsion, joking that the family will not finish unless everyone helps.
He says shared experiences as a family do not require traveling to the other side of the world. DR’s presentation of the series places the property near Agger, on the Danish west coast.
Vester argues that parents do their children a disservice by handling all the craftwork themselves. As noted by DR, he says many mistakes have been made during the summerhouse project. He describes those mistakes as badges of honor, adding that the people who make them are also the ones getting things done.
Roles have shifted since an earlier project
The two sons are used to being part of their father’s building work. The family’s childhood home in Thise went through a long and extensive renovation, DR reports. Vester says the boys are considerably older this time, and that the balance of who helps whom has changed.
Per DR, Vester says the youngest son has helped save the project. He put in 200 hours during this summer’s holiday and works on plastering and the clay walls. Vester says the family’s cooperation functions well, and that they can tell when someone is under pressure.
Asked whether there had been complaints about spending holidays on manual labor, Vester says there have been no sour faces. The work is not always fun, he says, but the family helps out when needed. They eat ice cream every day on site, and have taken breaks to hear music at the local surf bar before returning to work.
Both sons are now considering trade educations. Holger finished upper secondary school this summer and wants to train as an electrician, while Sigurd wants to become a carpenter after gymnasium. Vester says Sigurd has already begun talking about buying a property of his own to work on at some point.
Vester says he hopes his children will look back on the project as hard but enjoyable, and as a house they built together.
