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!
We had a goal to make all the rooms ready at the basement before holidays and we almost made it! The workshop spaces are still unfinished, but otherwise. In some miraculous way also our sauna is despite some difficulties now ready, but not yet tested. We are still waiting the paint to dry. Now it's time to show our huge bathroom. We installed our new showers over a week ago and this week our electrician made the lights work. Day before yesterday we finished our bathroom furniture and now the room is starting to look a bit more ready. This year the Christmas Eve is black and rainy. Instead of going to our forest for picking a tree, we found a cute pine from our yard. We wanted to have something green in our bathroom, so the pine will do it for the holiday time. The big green blue glass bottle is also a treasure from the farm. It looks pretty nice with the Christmas pine.
Tobi made the finishing touch to the bathroom by filling the seems with black, grey and white silicon.
We have been showing sneak peeks of the bathroom already, the white tile wall Renovation news plus the floor and the ceiling Hello to new floors and ceiling. But this blue wall we have been keeping til now unrevealed. Most of the surfaces in the bathroom are black and white, so we wanted to gave a little color to the space. These tiles are Pukkila's shiny blue tiles, leftovers from another construction area. The shiny blue makes the room lively and gives freshness. It creates also beautiful reflections together with the old window. And blue is the favorite color of both of us.
We got lucky by finding these chic rain showers with a really good offer from the local S-Rauta in the town Karkkila. They are from a Finnish company Grana. They are fitting really well with the round led lights and fullfilling nicely the space. Our electrician installed this week the round retro style switches, which are looking damn good with the old brick walls.
We had some leftover wood from making of the sauna, so Tobi made a bench out of the aspen and Susanna oiled it. We wanted to have the same style with it as the restroom furniture (Smokey sauna and almost ready restroom). The bench is now on the other side of the showers for cooling after the sauna.
Now is the time for us to take a little break from renovating and enjoy of our new home. Happy and relaxed holidays to you! Hugs and greetings from Koivisto.
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.
One day we decided to visit the town Karkkila and found a charming little shop called Retro&Romu. Mostly of the products are used and from the 30's till 70's. The selection includes furniture, tableware, lights and also old bicycles. The prices are surprisingly inexpensive. We could have bought half of the things. So many cool products, that would have suite perfectly in the 50's farm house. Luckily we already have quite nice things, that we found from the house. Anyhow the concept of the shop is brilliant. All the marketing is done with Facebook, where the owners of the shop are posting photos of the products. Once in a week they are delivering the products to the capital Helsinki, where people can pick them up. Retro&Romu has almost 18 000 likes in Facebook, whereas the town Karkkila has only 9000 citizens. We were quite blown away, that there is such a cool shop in our village.
There are so many lovely retro lights. These ones above are out of glass. We have soon one similar in our kitchen. It was orginally there since the house was build.
The glassjars are from Finnish company Riihimäen lasi. We found also these beauties from the farm, but not in such a good condition. Tobi has been dreaming of making his own beer, so maybe we will buy later these cute little glass bottles.
Of course we couldn't leave without buying anything. This leather sofa was ours the moment we stepped in to the shop. We wanted it to our dining room to the corner for relaxing. The sofa is from the 60's and probably Danish. It is perfect for two and super comfortable. We need only to oil the wood parts and put conditioner to the leather and it will look almost like new.
We recommend warmly to visit the shop if you are around. The opening hours can be seen at the Retro&Romu Facebook site.
When we were exploring the oldest building of the farm, we found a lot of wood. For our surprise among with firewood were also these beautiful wooden treasures. Furniture from 1800's, old wood working tools and some small handmade products like a walking stick, coat hangers and decorational parts from old furniture. We are planning to restore them. Some of them require more work, but for example the rocking chair above needs only a little bit new paint plus it's really cozy to sit. Hopefully we will see many of them in our home and in use again after so many decades.
This gorgeous table is going to be in our dining room with the chairs. We will start to work with them pretty soon, so stay tuned!
Many of the things at the farm might be made with these planes. The people from the past knew how to work with wood.
This wooden churn for butter making is from the 1905. We needed to google the brand to figure out for what this strange machine was used. The churn has been definetily in use, because it has been once repaired. The technics are looking pretty cool and are still working. Maybe some day we will test it, when we need lots and lots of butter.
This old desk chair is probably from the beginning of 1900's. The turnable function is made with massive wooden spiral. Unfortunately some little details from the upper part are missing, still the chair is a charming piece from the past.
Also the ladybug fell in love with the chair and the old leather. Old furniture has such a characteristics and that's why we want to have these beautys back in use. We like the idea, that the founders of the farm were maybe sitting on the same chairs and eating from the same table, that we'll be using. If they know our plans somehow, we hope that they are cheering us and smiling for us.
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