Sunny side

Half a year has passed since we started the blog. Everyone who has been renovating knows, how the reality is. The stress, running out of money, mistakes, lousy planning and compromises. The fact that everything takes more time than expected. In the blog we wanted to focus on the positive side of our project. Taking beautiful photos from the unfinished work makes the chaos easier to handle. When tiredness and moodyness hits it's easy to forget, what we've managed, what we've experienced and what we've learned. The most mind blowing thing has been the tens of visitors - friends and relatives, that came all the way to visit us and gave their support.
One of the biggest changes for us was moving from the city to the countryside. It has open our eyes in many ways. One thing that made us really think our habits, was the water system. When the water is coming from our own well and the waste water is going not further than our yard, it has made us think more, how we use the water. Is it necessary to use so much water and what kind of washing agents we use. As we were renewing the system we had some statistics, how much is the average water usage in Finland. The amounts were unbeliveable, so it was about the time to think and make a change.
The thing we can't get tired of is the surrounding nature and the peacefulness. It's giving us energy with its beauty and surprises. We don't have the same feel in the city. The stars and the moon are brighter here and the air is better. Swimming in the river almost every day is an experience, that's not so likely to happen in a city. We are the most delighted about the life around us. For example this special deer has been visiting our garden every day and made its way to our hearts, such a cutie!
In this half a year we have learned many things from the rough work til the finishing touch and construction terms, that were new to us. Now we have more respect towards this work with the knowledge, how many hours of work is behind all. All of you who are renovating, we wish you a lot of strength and give our respect. The project has made us step out of our comfort area. We have been struggling, but still some way managing. The best thing for us is to see the progress and have the feeling - wow we actually did this!
And you guys - some of you got insprired to visit us because of the blog. We should have had a guestbook, that we would have a mark of you all. Some point we found an old wooden covered guest book here, which is started the day, when Susanna's grandmother turned 20 years. Now the almost 70 years old guest book is again in use. We had a lovely time with you here despite the stress and chaos. The journey has been so far succesful and we hope, that in the end we are happy with the project.