PROJECT SUMMER HOME

  Finally we got our hands on the main cabin at our summer home! It is about time to renovate it, we´ve had it for nearly four years now. Easy does it, we´ve learned. Living in and getting to know your property is the key to successful remodeling.

  The ice finally melted off, and we were able to go there by our boat. It actually feels like summer season has started already!

Looking at this picture of our boat bay, it also looks like summer too! But in reality, it was only a bit above freezing...

Signs of spring have arrived here too.

Flag up to show summer season has started! Yay!

The project begins. This is the main room, I guess it could be called the living room. So far we´ve already taken down the old bunk beds and half paneling on the walls. The bunches of panels are awaiting installation.

Originally this room was the kitchen, which we turned into a bedroom two years ago. Now it is getting another makeover.

When it comes to survival in cold and windy weather, something´s got to give. In this case it is style... =)

It was not all springy sunshine, we also got cold rain (and occasional sleet).

An unfortunate creature on the shore...

I got a tip from a Kentuckian friend of mine to try out Jack Daniel´s. Wow, so different and tasty from the Scottish or Canadian whiskies I´ve tried before. Really yummy, and surprisingly girly. Me like. Thanks Carl!

I was actually able to be helpful!

After two days of work. We built a whole new bedroom and added a window to it too. Now there are two bedrooms, in which three of us can sleep (we´ll see where the fourth one will end up... on the couch maybe?).

This is the first bedroom after makeover (the one that used to be kitchen.).

The new, second, bedroom. Here the color of the walls is quite close to the original. We used breathable and non-toxic wood wax for finishing the wood paneled walls.

In between the bedrooms we were able to squeeze a tiny toilet. It will be an eco-friendly waterless one, but more about it later.

  Phew, that was a lot for one long weekend! Now we just can´t wait for the next one!!!  =)

RENOVATING SUMMER CABIN

  This winter has been a warm one. In our corner of the world that means that temperature has hovered only at around freezing, not below like it usually does. Therefore we´ve only been able to go to our summer home twice this year, hiking on ice.

  We have a major project at hand there, we´re about to renovate and remodel the whole cabin inside and out. It was built in the sixties, and nothing done to it since (except changed curtains =).
  So the two times we´ve been able to spend a weekend there with my husband this winter, we´ve done our best to get things started.

This has been a rare treat during the past months, a sunny day.

We have no running water there, so we need to saw a hole in the ice to get water to sauna and wash up. Drinking water we bring in canisters of course. Talk about getting close to nature!

The project. This phase is always the worst, when you´ve torn out the old and not yet put anything new back in.  It does need to get worse before it can get any better.

We´re turning the old kitchen into a bedroom. In the floor there was a small hatch leading to a cool concrete-covered hole in the ground, which used to serve as a "refrigerator" before electricity was brought to this small island.

The door will be removed and sealed, and the double-windows taken out completely. This time it was time to add insulation to the floor and cover it with another layer of plywood. Hopefully we´ll find use to the old door. It´s always valuable to preserve something from the old.

Accurate account on measures on the wall...

Luckily "these tools were made for working, and that´s just what they do"!

   We´re hoping to get the living room and bedrooms done by warm summer days, so we can all fit in to enjoy ourselves as a family! Thumbs up!

WINTER CRUISING

  Things wound up so, that last weekend I ended up on a cruise ship alone, without company. I never get to go anywhere alone, so I was exhilarated!

The boat was new, and I´d never been on it before. Taking short cruises is something I like to do pretty much every winter, as a mini holiday outside of the summer cabin season (at the moment the ice is not yet thick enough to walk on, and we´re waiting to get to the cabin).

The weather was not at it´s prettiest, but I didn´t care, I got to stay inside in the warm the whole time!

A time for relaxation. I partied up until very late, slept long, had an abundant breakfast, took a nap, watched tv, shopped, and ate again. Plus enjoyed live music by various artists throughout the cruise. How cool!

  Then I returned home refreshed, ready to do laundry and cooking again... =)
  I value it highly to take a break from the usual in regular basis, to prevent life from becoming boring. That´s a feature I wish to maintain until and throughout my old days too. Life should never feel boring. If it does, it´s time to conjure up something new and exciting!

SINGLE WEEKEND

  Last weekend I got to enjoy the company of just me, myself, and I. The rest of my family went to visit granny, and I was able to stay home alone! What a luxury for a stay-at-home-mom, who´s never alone, always putting others´ needs before hers.

  Time flew by, and I was more busy than ever, still not finishing everything I was hoping to get done. But most of all I wanted to do things I usually don´t get to, in peace at least.
  I started the days with an extra long session of jumping on my mini-trampoline. I did an hour both mornings, when I usually do half an hour.

Then I enjoyed a tranquil brunch, the whole house all still and silent.

A brunch of delicious fruits with rice cakes and green tea.

   Then It was time to go shopping! Especially bras and jeans, because those are the most horrific ones to try on with kids along! I did find a nice bra, but jeans always fail me. So no jeans this time either. But a whole lot of other things, including beauty care products from Avéne (no financial interest here, I just love their products), makeup, and some fabric for my upcoming projects.

On Sunday, when I´d finished with all the shopping, I wanted to do something cultural. I found this little exhibition of hand-crafted dolls I found interesting.

The dolls were about a foot tall and looked so sympathetic! Here´s their version of Hugo Simberg´s Wounded Angel.

Fish market in the 1800´s.

This couple reminded me much of myself and my daughter. =)

This display is of the independence ball thrown by the president annually.

The best part about the party was the food!

    By now I was getting a little hungry myself, and hit a raw-food cafe. The very first I ever try, and the only one I knew was open on Sundays. What a disappointment! They had nuts and seeds in all of their cakes and desserts and their salads were quite ordinary so I didn´t want them either. What I was left with was smoothies, but it turned out they used hemp powder, chia seeds, and almonds in every one of them too. Well, I chose a cherry-chocolate smoothie without the almonds, but I can´t say much about it without complaining, so I´ll just say I could have done a much better job. That´s pretty much the way I feel about almost everything I´ve ever had eating out, so I don´t do that a lot. Good old traditional pizza is the only thing better in a restaurant than at home. I rarely bother with anything else these days, and pizza is so unhealthy that I do that very rarely over all.

In the evenings I watched movies over a tray of healthy munchies. First I saw "Thanks for Sharing", which I found was okay, and it´s cool that they make movies about sensitive issues, tabus even. But for someone like me, who watches only a handful of movies whole in a year, I would have preferred something more entertaining. So on Saturday evening I watched "Noah". An impressive but rather dark tale. But golly was it a great change to our daily Spongebob Squarepants!

  It is liberating to be alone every now and then. Being able to do what I want, when I want, without taking into consideration anyone else. Sounds selfish, and maybe I am, but darn did it feel good!!!

WELCOME 2015!!!

  Yay, the year has changed! Think about it, a whole new year to be happier and more content than ever! What an opportunity!

Wait... let´s see if this new wine is good...

Totally, party on! (For the record, this is my first glass. So don´t blame it on the wine, this is just how I am... life is a party.)

HAPPY HAPPY NEW YEAR!

  I have thoroughly enjoyed this Yule. Ever since Christmas we have staid home a lot with friends and family, eaten well, played lots outside, and today it is New Year´s eve. That means more friends, goodies, even some sparkling wine, and fireworks!

There is some magic about winter solstice, because (it seems) every year after we´re pass it, the sun slowly starts to reappear again. The days are still very short of course, but the clouds recede from the sky little by little, giving room to the sun.

So bottoms up, it´s time to celebrate the new beginning year! May it bring peace, happiness, and love to us all!

  Happy, happy new year 2015!

THE LONG EXPECTED DAY

  What a great first day of Christmas we had!

It actually begun yesterday by getting a nice spruce out of the forest. It´s a great tradition we have had since childhood, and continue now with our own kids. The natural trees are far from perfect, which only adds to the excitement! This is the one we chose.

Year by year I have cut down on decorations, and enjoy the tree itself more and more.

It snowed all day long.

And we took all the fun out of it!

My son doing a front flip into a pile of soft snow!

We also had time to play games inside together.

Heating up our old traditional log house sauna, which was built after the WW2. Sauna is an essential part of our Christmas tradition. When I was a kid I would go roll in the snow, but no more baby! =)

In the evening we had a Yule feast, and Santa came to bring gifts to us all, and we watched a bit of Hobbit 2 (a good reminder before hitting the movies to see the final part).

  By midnight we were all ready to hit the bunk. What a great day, and the party continues tomorrow!

P.S. The parkour outfit I made for my boy was a hit! He wanted to wear it immediately, and even wanted to sleep in it! That makes me so happy!

PROJECT GUESTHOUSE, PART 2

  The sea has not yet frozen, which means we´ve still been able to spend weekends at our summer home. Remodeling that is.
  Our guesthouse has proceeded nicely (you can see the starting point here):

Insulation in process. Although this is a summer house mainly, we want the guesthouse to be warm for winters too. Hopefully in the future (when the kids are older), we´ll spend weekends here year round. Preferably with friends.

We used ecologically friendly insulation, made of old recycled newspapers.

The walls were covered with timber panels and then colored using wood wax. It is breathable and non-toxic. At home we´ve used the same stuff on our floors, and fallen in love with it. It feels nice and warm against bare feet, and when it wears off in places mostly used, you can just rub a little more wax on where needed. Awesome and practical. The old door in this picture is an original one used when the place was built in 1967. It is older than that, solid and very heavy timber you no longer get anywhere. It was in a relatively good shape, so we wanted to save it for a new purpose...

View to the door. This guesthouse is a studio, there´s only one room and a little kitchen nook.

 

Here´s what it looks like right now. Still missing finishing touches, but it is starting to take shape. The pic is taken standing at the door coming in. There´s a bunk bed and the small kitchenette in the back. The old door we preserved, now serves as the end of the bed/kitchen "wall".

Obviously the place is in need of an electrician... And I must point out how I hate the faded yellow pine table & chairs there (original ones from the actual cabin, probably 80´s style)! But we have not yet bought new furniture because we need to store all the stuff from the actual cabin somewhere while we tackle it in the near future. So I´m gonna have to stand this for some more time. Poor old me...

We installed big windows on every wall, except in the back, to create a feeling of space in this otherwise small space. The couch is also evacuated from the bigger cabin, and is ridiculously too large here, and we will replace it with a smaller one one day. Patience, patience...

  My husband and I have staid here for three weekends so far. We designed it to suit two people, and by far it has proven to be a cozy little sanctuary. I can´t wait to get it finished!