Months flew by

It's already mid October. The whole summer and also the early autumn just passed by. We have been quite busy with our company and the farm and other projects. The past months have been challenging. There has been a lot to do and almost no time to relax. The summer was cold here and the few warm days we spent at the workshop. The biggest project at the farm was to fix the barn or the upper part of it. We wanted to have our wedding celebration there. It was at weekends project, that began in May and continued till the day before the celebration. Mostly it was about cleaning and emptying. We removed 30 years old hay and other abandoned things. The floor had some damages from the broken roof and the rain water. We repaired the floor from these parts. Tobi also built a fence, that the people wouldn't fall after a few glasses of wine.

Photo: Judith Hirsch

Photo: Judith Hirsch

With many helping hands the barn turned out better, than we could have imagined. We are grateful to have such a friends and family. The process was emotional and we were quite tired on the celebration day, but happier than ever.

Photo: Özlem Gün

Photo: Marco Menestrina

Photo: Marco Menestrina

Our own vegetable garden gave us lot to eat, but also a headache. However it gave also a good reason to detach from the work, go outside and let the hands get dirty. And at the end, now we can survive from the loooong winter.
Little digging was again done. In the beginning of July new electric cables were installed for the water pump and also for other buildings, the barn and the sauna house. Later in autumn our porch got a new isolation, so that the workshop underneath would stay warm. That ment also new layer of concrete. Maybe next year, we will put tiles on the porch floor, but first it needs to try about two months.
In all the hectic we missed a lot from the surrounding nature and suddenly it was already autumn. Early summer days we saw baby squirrels playing around an old silver willow at our yard. In the Midsummer we saw the first double rainbow here. Late summer evenings there was often a fog above the crop fields. A few memorable views captured with the camera.
At the moment when the days are getting shorter and darker, the same is happening in mind. We are waiting, that the stress will turn into a success and we could have a couple of care free days. Whatever happens, after winter comes always spring.

Cheerful things

Hi there! About a year ago we started our renovation project and today it's officially over. We had a successful end control today. It means the basement is ready. Otherwise there's still things to do, for example to renovate the living room and bedroom and so on. This feels like a neverending project. However we are concentrating now on our company, which is also now official! And last but not least we are pretty excited about our brand new photo studio at the basement. Spring came also finally, although a little late. This white wagtail, which is by the way a very suitable name for the bird because of the way it moves, we saw about a month ago. There's a Finnish saying, when this bird arrives it means the summer has almost arrived. Now it's already really green here. Apple trees are blossoming and today we baked the first rhubarb pie of the year. We spent the whole Autumn without lights in the dining room. Before Christmas this beauty was installed, but we were quite in a hurry with the sauna and bathroom, so we have forgotton to show it to you. This is one of our favorite lights here. Also originally from the farm, dates back to the 70's. Ledges have been missing almost half of a year. So finally Tobi attached painted pine ledges to dining room and kitchen. They gave a finished look and made the rooms feel bigger. Project oven is our first post after our blog launch. It was about turning an old bread oven to a closet. We wanted to use the space and turn our kitchen bigger. In April we finally finished this project. Goodbye to the old bread oven and welcome to our new kitchen closet! We had already a new closet project with our bedroom closet. We moved at the beginning of the year from upstairs to the main floor, but we have been sleeping and living in a chaos. Recently we fixed the closets for our clothes to control the chaos. This is a good start for the renovation of the bedroom. This spring we had also time to concentrate on other things than only renovating. We hope, that we will have nice flowers and vegetables at summer time. This is all for now, quite good news from Koivisto. Good way to start the summer. Warm days will come with warm thoughts!

Spring feelings at the workshop

Best news for a while: we have a working workshop! Well not quite, but we are very close and already working there. We are still waiting for spring flowers and colors, so we decided to have a little color inside of the house by upcycling a little. We built also two goldsmith tables. First one out of oak board, which stood once in rain and had some damages, but still perfect for this purpose. For the other table we bought pine board mainly because of financial reasons. Third desk was made out of old kitchen board. We are happy, how it looks here! First we made the pieces for the tables. We wanted goldsmith tables with two sheets, so that the upper part is adjustable. Tobi made again good carpenter work. And it's already warm enough to saw outside! Next step was to attach legs to the boards. One pair of legs we found from fleamarket. One pair we found here and one pair we bought. We lacquered them all black to give the same look for different legs. Then Tobi started to build the table parts together. We used stain for pine parts to give them similar look with oak. Finally all wooden parts were finished with oil to protect the surface. Last we had some fun by tuning two old drawers with spray color, which was a leftover from one project. The drawers turned out really hip. Yellow chair from Asko and the retro light from Monica Strandäng were both treasures from the house and looked quite nice with the green blue drawers - really spring like colors! There is still list of things that needs to be done. But first things first, finally we have a place where we can work. For us this is the best way to start the spring - working at the workshop, Werkstatt, paja!

Finishing the basement

Spring is knocking on the door and almost half an year long winter is soon turning to blossoming flowers. Last week we saw the bravest swans coming back here. Now there's again energy to renovate. Our goal to have the working spaces ready in March is not only an illusion. The rooms downstairs are waiting their furniture, but otherwise they are ready. We installed the doors, tiled a little more and painted again the walls. Then there was finishing touches to make, like attaching the ledges and fixing the ceiling with acrylic. Now everything looks so new and there's a smell of a fresh paint floating around. Tobi repaired the old doors so we could use them again. He sanded them and fixed little mistakes with filling paste. The oldest of our doors date back to the end of 1800's and are originally from the old farm house. Now they take us to the workshop room and to the technical room. The door to the bathroom and to the office are from here and 50's style. First we were hesitating to paint the old beautiful surface, but we wanted a unifying look for the different doors. We also found a perfect paint tone from Tikkurila called Harso. It was a little bit imitating the gray greenish color, which the doors used to have. After painting the original handles were fixed and lacquered black. The combination makes a nice contrast. We got lucky also with the paint for the floor ledges. Tikkurila's tone Basaltti suited perfect for our floor. After painting the walls and the ledges we attached them to the walls. Since we still had here left over tiles from someone, we decided to use them for our workshop room. The room will be used for messy work, so with tiles it will be easy to keep clean. Next step was to make windowsills for our new windows (No longer a construction area). For them we used some rest material, that we had here. We made an oak board for the workshop and in the office a windowsill out of pine. The pine board was originally made by Susanna's grandfather and probably from our own forest. Last we painted the old window frames in the office, which made the final touch to the makeover. Next week we can hopefully show you the rooms better and with furniture. This time we had quite a lot to update. We love how the light of the spring is making its way to the pictures. We have been waiting for it - welcome spring!