Swedish-born Kerstin Block relaxes with a cup of coffee in her Summerhaven home on Mount Lemmon, north of Tucson. Accouterments were found at estate sales and thrift stores.

photos by dean knuth / Arizona Daily Star

More Photos (8):

Production and Manufacturing
Pioneer Landscaping
Crushing Crew Trades/Construction
Pioneer Landscaping
Yard Person/Loader Operator Trades/Construction
Paragon Electric
Electricians General
Prestige maintenance USA
Custodian Trades/Construction
Wentz and Patrick Construction
Carpenters & Helpers Health Care
FRONT OFFICE Trades/Construction
Lectra-Serv, Inc
Electricians & Helpers

By Joan F. Barrett

Kerstin and Spencer Block's one-year-old red cabin brings a bit of Sweden to the village of Summerhaven on Mount Lemmon.

The building's exterior color and interior Swedish motif meet the goal set by Kerstin after the Tucson couple lost their 79-year-old, split-log cabin retreat during the 2003 Aspen Fire.

When it came time to rebuild, Kerstin, who was born and raised in Sweden, thought about the little red cabins where many Swedes spend their summers.

"I never had one," she says.

And Mount Lemmon reminded her of Sweden, with its similar trees, vegetation and temperature.

A Swedish summer home, insulated for year-round use, seemed like the perfect replacement for the original 600-square-foot dwelling, owned by the Blocks for 15 years.

Triumph Builders SW LLC undertook the project with a $36,000 cabin kit and $8,000 worth of knotty-pine paneling, ordered by the couple from Canada. The final cost totaled about $300,000, partly because of the expense of hauling materials up the mountain.

Throughout the two-year construction period, Kerstin looked in myriad places for furniture and accessories. She often combed yard sales, estate sales and thrift shops to replace items lost in the fire and to find pieces suited to a Swedish theme.

The 64-year-old, no stranger to secondhand treasures, founded Buffalo Exchange with Spencer in 1974 in Tucson. The couple, with their daughter, Rebecca Block, own and run the stores, which focus on new and recycled fashions.

Friends, such as Mount Lemmon neighbor Foster Kivel, donated articles. Kivel gave Kerstin a model Swedish country house that he found at an antique store.

"It is the most amazing thing," says Kerstin, who displays the gift in the cabin's unplanned basement room, accessible only from outside. The Blocks initially intended to build an 800-square-foot home with a crawl space beneath.

But the excavator unexpectedly dug out an entire basement in the hillside. This doubled the cabin's dimensions, increasing space for entertaining and overnight guests.

Above, a porch runs along two sides of the main cabin, where visitors generally enter through the kitchen door. A cast-iron model of a Swedish cabin and a charred-chile-pepper door knocker — the only item that survived the fire — hang on the wall outside the door.

Inside, an open room with kitchen, dining and living space nicely displays many collectibles, creating a lived-in look. Chairs from the Blocks' Tucson home stand by a teak dining table from Copenhagen Imports that replaces one lost in the fire.

Nearby, two long wall shelves hold mostly secondhand finds, including Swedish folk-dancer candleholders. Two brown ceramic creamers indicate Kerstin's ongoing quest to replace the original cabin's dishware.

In the sitting area by the fireplace, two leather chairs bought at an estate sale look like those that burned in 2003. A wooden bird candleholder and a hand-woven table runner contribute to the Swedish theme.

Little wooden weather houses, likely from Germany, sit on the mantel. These rely on a change in barometric pressure to indicate sunny or inclement weather.

One bedroom displays Ikea twin beds with multicolored log-cabin quilts. Wall decorations include painted wooden plates and needlepoint work that depicts Swedish dancers.

In the second bedroom, Ikea nightstands, one with a birch-bark lamp, flank a king-size bed. A small framed painting of a mountain lake scene adds shades of blue and green to the wall art.

Most of the furnishings in the large basement room came from others. A New Zealand spinning wheel, however, was bought by Kerstin at Goodwill, and it serves as a reminder of when her mother spun in Sweden.

"I must say I love this cabin," Kerstin says. "The other one was pretty primitive."