Everything was just so perfect!

> To Villa Anna & Emil

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"When we arrived at Ross' beautiful new office at Drottningholm in early June, none of us knew what to expect. What had we actually said at the interview? Would they understand our dreams? Our wishes? Would it be our dream house Pål showed us? For months we had been waiting. Dreaming. Drawn our own plans. Collected pictures and walked for hours on the plot to think about where the house would stand. Where the rooms would be. What would our view be like? After all, we had bought the plot for the beautiful view. The meadows. The lake. The mountains in the background. Like white rolling hills against the sky. Beckoning to us. A constant reminder of why we live our lives the way we do. Why we love skiing so much. And why we are building our dream house. Our house that will take us to new successes on the slopes.

Paul Ross has a dramatic streak. An ability to drag things out to infinity. Making us tremble like aspen leaves in anticipation mixed with a little worry about what our house would look like. We looked at each other and just wished he would bring out the pictures of our hope. Our dream.

-"Paul says it's like seeing your first baby." We don't have children, but somehow we could understand what he meant when he showed us the house. It was our baby. It was a picture of ourselves, but in a house. A house reminiscent of one I designed many years ago, but with the reflection of our current life. Our baby.

During the whole tour of the house we were on pins and needles. None of us said anything. We didn't dare. We didn't know what to say. Because everything was just as perfect as we had dreamed.

Despite all the difficult building rules ("like building a house inside Skansen itself"), Pål had managed to design our dream house. With Emil's dream of a courtyard. Double garage. My kitchen. A walk-in closet for all my shoes. But above all, an entire floor dedicated to our profession, that which will make us even better, take us to bigger goals and dreams. A gym with everything we need. A track where, on cold October days when the snow is in the air and the roads are icy, we can do hard intervals on roller skis indoors. To prepare ourselves in the best possible way for the coming season. To make life easier as a professional cross-country skier. A ski handling room: waxing, fitting, adjustment.

And if that wasn't enough, we got our view in the best possible way: a roof terrace. We had worried unnecessarily. Because the house that Pål showed us, that Pål had designed, was and is our dream house. A house that blends into its surroundings without blending in. Just enough bold, just enough humble. Where we can invite all kinds of people. Where we can do our interviews without being ashamed, but instead be proud of how beautifully we live. If we've been restless before, it's nothing compared to what we are now. We want to put the spade in the ground and start. Today. Preferably yesterday. But skiing comes first. We'll try to do the 2014 Olympics in Socchi first. But we can't promise anything.

Because our dream house beckons us."

Construction started! In November 2012 we received planning permission and since then we have been trying to decide which company would build our house. At first we heard a lot of opinions like "oh, what a difficult house" and "hm, wonder how we're going to do this?" and "maybe we could change a few things here to make it easier", until we found the right one with AS Construction. With them it sounded more like "this is a simple house, one of the simpler ones we build". And you can imagine that feeling! From wondering if our house would not be built the way we wanted to "a piece of a cake". Having a construction company that you trust, that you know can handle the whole process of building, is important. Otherwise it won't work, we learned that. We started looking at house suppliers but we ended up with a construction company, and I think that's the way to go when the houses Ross designs are so beautiful and often original. In October 2013, construction started in earnest and we are now watching the house grow before our eyes. Every day new things happen, and yesterday we got to take the first, if somewhat stumbling, steps up the curved staircase to the first floor. It was a powerful feeling. Having knowledgeable people around you is essential. We have no experience whatsoever in building houses, we can't do that. We know how to ski. So getting help from people who know, who have done it before, is the biggest and most important tip we can give. To know who to turn to when it comes to everything from the simplest questions to the actual construction. We have chosen to have an external construction manager here in Östersund, who checks on the building a couple of times a week and ensures that all deliveries are made on time. He in turn has a dialog with us, but above all with the construction company building the house and the other contractors involved in the construction. It's been a huge relief for us to have someone who handles what we know nothing about. How will it feel when we get to put the key in the door. By summer 2014, we hope our dream will become a reality. How we long for it! But before that, we'll put on our bibs and racing suits and travel the world to compete in the World Cup in cross-country skiing and in February the highlight of the year is the Olympics in Sochi, Russia. We both hope to be on the starting line there." Anna & Emil