The eye catcher on property Lidhem 2:3 is the beautiful mansion house from 1897. The history of this place goes back to 1400, when Jöns Slatte lived here. Lidhem is one of the 5 smaller goods in the region. Klingspor is maybe the most well known person that lived in Lidhem in the beginning of 1700 as he set up Toverum's ironworks. Lidhem has been a family home until 1943 when the forest management board took over and started a forestry school. The old school bell and the blackboard are still in place and close by -near lake Gersjön- you’ll still find some remainders of the ironworks. In the early 2000’s the house became a family home again and in 2009 me and my family bought the property.
Besides the mansion house (with 3 B&B rooms) there are 2 annex buildings, the former principle’s house (were we now live ourselves summertime) and the building with student rooms, that nowadays contains 2 apartments and a guest room. The buildings are surrounded by a garden of 1,7 hectares with a large pond, vegetables gardens, a polytunnel, a small shed/ chicken coop and a duck house near the pond. There is a raft to the island in the pond and hidden in the woodland there is little tree house.
Nowadays we donot have domestic stock anymore but the fence for sheep is in place and electric fencing for pigs is available as well as a mobile pig shelter. We use the sheep shelter as an outdoor kitchen now, but your sheep will still like it here. There are 2 mobile hen houses and a permanent chicklen coop.
Besides the B&B we have had a small eatery and café mainly for overnight guests and welcomed conference and course groups.
In Lidhem you can still enjoy silence, peacefulness, starry skies and live a down-to-earth live. Even if it feels like living in the middle of nowhere -far from all the stress- it is still close to small towns as Vimmerby and Västervik where you can find all the services you need. A school, gasstation and a small grocery store are ’around the corner’, only 7 km away. Kids can take the schoolbus to Frödinge or Vimmerby.
We have the forest on the other side of the road, a bathing lake at walking distance and are situated 20km from the ‘famous’ Astrid Lindgrens World and about 50 km from the archilpellago.
For me it is a place that evokes both creativity and curiosity. Part of the furniture, decoration and lighting is made of 'old Lidhem stuff' we found in the shed opposite our house before it was demolished. On the first floor old windows and door are reused in the new wall that divides the library form the living room.
Our style is a bit eclectic, we combine old and new stuff, reuse and upcycle. We did not try to ’undo’ the funtionalisme of the 50’s, just adapted it more in our style.
The garden offers possibilities for keeping chickens, pigs or sheep on a small scale. For vegetable gardening - both annual and perennial vegetables - and forest gardening. Alternatively you can give a part of the garden back to nature and see what the natural succession gives you. There is already a high level design for a garden that is selfsustainable on water, fertilizer and soil that I am happy to share with you if you like. If you want to be selfsustainable on vegetables, eggs, fruit, berries and meat that is abolutely possible. I sold plants, meat, honey, eggs and vegetables on the REKO ring in Vimmerby for a while and feeded a family of 5. Running a B&B was my way to share this beautiful place with other people and making an ncome at the same time.
We moved in in 2009 and have renovated since then. A lot I can tell you, every penny we earned was reinvested in the house. We used the ground floor of the mansion house as a Bed and Breakfast as well as the 2 annexes and lived on a part of the 1st floor and part of the loft of the mansion house, the south side. With a beautiful view over the surroundings and 2 balconies to enjoy the morning and evening sun. On the first floor there is even a conferencerooms with amazing views.
As our dog got almost blind and could no longer climb the stairs, we took the opportunity to move to one of the annex buildings and save some energy during wintertime as well. In a hurry, having to change the 2 apartments in the former principle house - we had turned in 2 apartments- back to a familyhome again, we moved/ reused everything including the kitchen and washbasins from our home in the mainbuilding. So now the first floor of the mansion house looks somewhat sad but I am sure you will see the potential of those rooms! The principles house can easily be split in 2 aprtments again if you like.
There is still some work to do -like painting the annex buildings and changing the dormer windows and installing solar panels at the same time- but the main job is done.
Lidhem B&B has been a family business untill the Corona pandemic. At that time my husband decided to return to his former jobb and I continued with the B&B, vegetable gardens en all the livestock on my own. After getting my permaculture design certificate and an inner transition course* it became clear to me that I wanted to focus 100% on my passion for permaculture design and Active Hope. That I rather wanted to transform a lot of smaller gardens in sustainable places than create one large one.
*A course I can highly reccommend if you want to change your lifestyle is Sam Nygrens course ’självhushållerens inre resa’, Vimmerby Folkhögskola.
So now we are looking for some enthusiastic, energetic people that like to live on the countryside and preferably continue the work with the B&B and permaculture garden. That like to pick fresh eggs, berries, herbs and vegetables and enjoy them for breakfast or dinner. Or, as we have an approved kitchen, restart a café or restaurant. I plan to continue the business on a small scale and with limited opening hours -as I am starting up www.permalund.se as well - until a buyer shows up.
If you would like to share the place with likeminded people and use the house and garden together (sambruk) I can advise to follow Liselot Abel from Sörby retreat.
Price idea 500.000 euro for the property, opportunity to take over inventory as well. For more information sent an email to paradiseforsale@lidhem.com
Some more snabbshots of the place in summertime, inspiration how we used different rooms and history you will find down here. Check on hemnet for the current situation.
Here you’ll even find pictures of what the kitchen, living room and bathroom in the main building (on the first floor) used to look like.