Rongahuset is a guesthouse and also the home of a lively young family. We moved into this house in April 2017, after living for many years in another house nearby, where we hosted on Airbnb only. Rongahuset is ideal for us, as it is a spacious and welcoming house - it is old and charming and well-loved. We will never run out of projects and things to fix! We have three pleasant and comfortable guest rooms for two/four people on the 3rd floor (UK 2nd floor), with access via old-fashioned steep stairs (!). Most of the facilities shown do not apply to the room, but to the house - the rooms are quite simple. PLEASE NOTE: If you would like to book a longer stay, but find that the room is not available, please message me. I often close the guest rooms on days that are busy for us as a family, as I like to have time to welcome new guests. This often applies to Mondays and Tuesdays, when it is hard to welcome last-minute guests. If the room is available, I can make the reservation manually, or simply open the room(s) for the days that you wish to book.

You are welcome to share our kitchen, living rooms and music room, to look at the books in the bookshelves, and to interact with us as much - or as little - as you like. Like many Norwegian homes, we use air conditioning for heating only, as we live in a cold climate and want as much heat as possible – we have fans available in the summer, but there is no air conditioner on the guest floor. Parts of the house are cold in winter, but the living rooms, bathrooms and guest rooms are always heated. Outside the house, we have a small garden with flowers and herbs. We have a very friendly young dog who is still highly excitable, and only allowed contact with guests when we can supervise him closely. Born in the UK and raised in Norway, I am fully bilingual in English and Norwegian, and I also speak French and some Arabic. I have seven, also bilingual, kids aged 13-37, some of whom live at home, and I work as a language teacher. My fourth child has Down syndrome, and has especially enriched my life, making me more aware of the process of learning life skills such as communication, self-care and independence. We are an active family with many hobbies. Most of us play one or more musical instruments, and we have a piano and other instruments at home. In my free time I play in an amateur symphony orchestra in Voss and in the village brass band, and I am also involved in local politics.

Evanger is a tiny, quiet village near Voss in Norway - exactly one hour by train/car from Bergen and 20 minutes from Voss. The railway station and the E16 highway are both just a few minutes walk from the house, so access is very easy - yet we hear little noise. Some people sleep lightly and have remarked that they heard the trains passing by. This is something to be aware of, especially with open windows in the summer. The village lies by the lake "Evangervatnet", at the mouth of the river "Vosso", and the sounds of nature and the rushing water are always heard. There are lovely park areas by the lake, where you can barbeque, and even swim, when the weather is good. Evanger was a separate municipality from 1885 until 1964, but is now a part of Voss municipality, with Vossevangen, "Voss", as the nearest small town. The architecture of the village is very distinct, as the houses were all rebuilt in 1923 after a fire destroyed the entire village - only the pretty, white, wooden church from 1851, next door to my house, was saved. Evanger has a grocery store, a garage, a sausage factory, a good cabinet maker, and some other small industries, in addition to the café in my house. Apart from hiking and sitting by the lake, there isn't much to do in Evanger. In Voss, there are a lot of indoor and outdoor sports and activities to try, as well as concerts and festivals.