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!

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!

PROJECT GUESTHOUSE

  Needless to say, we have spent a lot of time at our summer cabin in the past few months. Mostly it is about fun and play, but we have also been productive.
 We have been restoring and building a guesthouse there. Since the cabin is located on an island where you can only get to and from by your own boat, our guests often stay overnight. So there is big demand for an updated, quality, up-to-date lodging.

  Here´s what we´ve done (so far) this summer:

The starting point. An old tool shed from the sixties. We wanted to conserve the old, instead of demolishing it and building a completely new one, out of respect for the history of the place.

Emptying it was a huge task in itself! Under the floor boards there were old bird nests and 35 abandoned, rotten, eggs...

Only one window in the whole building.

Don´t they say it always has to get worse before it can get better?

Roof under construction, plus bits here and there too.

Floors, walls, the roof, everything was strengthened and rotten wood replaced with new. And the whole building lifted up higher a foot.

Then it was time to start rebuilding. Now light begun to show at the end of the tunnel.

Now the inside feels fresh and good to breathe in.

And after installing more and bigger windows, the space seemed to triple.

Some of the old boards and beams are still visible, but not much is left of the old shag.

The outside begins to form.

Especially after getting painted.

We wanted it to match the new shed-outhouse we finished earlier this year. (Needless to say, the buildings are not crooked in reality, the camera lens is to blame here!)

This is what awaits for us next: insulation. And it is about time, the temperature has dropped to near freezing in the past couple of days!

  The style of these buildings I drew from old fishing sheds, which I imagine having stood by the sea for a hundred years. Something like this.

  Project guesthouse will continue until the sea freezes around the island. And then we´ll see what the winter will be like, whether or not we´ll be able to drive there by car.
  Projects keep life interesting. Highly recommendable I say!

DARKENING NIGHTS

  It is always an inevitable sign of fall approaching, when nights begin to darken. Summer nights are unbelievably light here in Finland, as the sun sets only for a couple of hours (or not at all further North) leaving the sky beautifully lit. But now darkness is creeping slowly back in.

In a way it feels calming, after a hectic and super energetic summer.

And it feels cozy to use light bulbs and candles again.

My zen.

As a bonus the solar lights I installed two months ago in our summer home´s brand new outhouse come in use, finally.

  I count these murk nights as the first sign of autumn.

DISCONNECTED

  I have just returned from an eleven-day retreat to our summer home. I staid, while the rest of my family came and went as they pleased. No computer, no internet, virtually no cell phone, and only three tv channels. I deliberately took no books or magazines, or any pass-time with me, so I could concentrate on summer, nature, and being lazy!
  While all alone there, I came to the point where I actually had hard time figuring out what to do after soaking my toes in the water. Should I lay in the hammock or have a drink? Tough.

The number one reason for going to our summer cabin is relaxing. Being able to do different things than at home, or not doing anything at all! I always enjoy sunshine. It charges me up and gives me positive mental energy. Recently there has been a lot of it, thank goodness!

The weather overall is an important factor when deciding whether to head to the cabin or not. Especially when the kids are along (which is almost always), only occasional showers are allowed. Lately it has been so sunny, warm, and nice that the only time spent indoors is when sleeping. All meals from breakfast to supper are enjoyed outside.

The cabin itself is rather small and needs renovating. Originally built in 1968, this little cutie has served three generations before us, and now awaits for our gentle care and remodeling (quite severe plans have risen in our heads so far). My husband is a carpenter, so only our imagination (and the county´s regulations on the size of the cabin) sets the limit to what we can do.

Nature and the sea is the reason we bought this place. Being on a small island, surrounded by the sea, right off the coast creates a magical atmosphere. It´s like no harm can touch us while out there. Like we´ve entered a sub-universe, only available to us. A safe haven.

One day, when I had the privilege of staying there alone, I decided to go rowing our smaller boat. This is initially meant for my husband and son´s use for fishing, but there has been so little fish around the past two years, that the boat does not smell fishy at all. I hate the smell of fish...

The waters around here are difficult to navigate in. This is what it looks like under the surface too. Big rocks everywhere. I have yet no desire to learn boating any more. I´m happy to get to the cabin and back, and row a little occasionally. But I do dream of a kayak!

This pretty little decorative lighthouse stands in our neighbor´s property.

Seagulls are so pretty when in their natural habitat! (And so disgusting in cities and dumpyards. But I do recognize it´s our own fault they go there, after a free meal.)

And then it´s time to enjoy the sun again, doing nothing.  =)

On a hot day it is essential to hydrate oneself properly! This drink only consists of grapefruit soda and lime wedges, but would well take in a splash of gin too.

Every perfect summer day ends with a gorgeous sunset.

  I´m totally loving this summer!!!