Hello to new floors and ceiling

Step by step our home is coming together. We waited over 8 weeks to start with the floor tiles of the bathroom, sauna and the toilet. The new concrete floor (more in this post Basement stories) has to have a certain humidity level for tiling. If the tiling is done before the floor is dry, the concrete is still shrinking and moving under the tiles and can cause uneven end result. We had some difficulties with our floor, but in the end it turned out pleasing and the best thing is, that we have a bathroom soon. We had a better succes with our new wooden ceiling with the help of Susanna's father. On the photo above is the bathroom. Under the panels is an aluminium foil, that the steam won't go through and make damage to the structures of the building.
First step with the floor was to seal the drains and the edges. Then all the surface was covered with a waterproofing, the blue looking paint.
It's said that the first point, where people look when they are showering is the drain. So this spot in the bathroom needed to be well done and it was the starting point for all the floor tiles.
As we were filling the floor, we noticed that the walls weren't quite straight. We would have actually needed to straighten them, if we would have wanted a perfect end result. This time it was already a little late, so now the floor has some oblique lines, but the house is old and some beauty mistakes makes it only more appealing.
Last the gaps were filled. Filling with a black grout was a messy work. For the finishing touch we might have used a little bit too much water. Next time with a drier sponge and less mess.
For the ceiling in all the rooms except the working spaces was chosen panels. We are not such a fans of the traditional Finnish wooden panel ceilings, but we had the material lying around here. The main reason was the financial side of it and it's also nice to use the material, that is already here. First the panels were cut in the right length and then painted with a white transparent lacquer. The idea was to make it look fresh, but still keep the feel of the wood. The wooden texture gives a little warmth for the rooms with only concrete and bricks.
The panels were attached to the frames with a nail gun. The holes were sawed before attaching. They are for the lights, that will be later embed to the ceiling. Because of our low room height, we wanted lights, that are hanging as little as possible. We will show the lights to you soon!
The new ceiling looks nice and it suits well to the other surfaces by bringing warmth. It's also same time modern and classic.
We made some mistakes with the floor, because of our inexperience and with choosing inexpensive tiles. The quality of the tiles and how they were glued togehter could have been better. The gaps should have been 3mm, but now some of them are bigger or smaller. Our mistake was to attach some of the tiles higher and some lower. Anyhow the main thing is, that the renovation is going further and all in all we can be happy with the quality of our work.

Our winter greeting

The weather forecast said, that the snow will disappear this week, so we need to hurry with our winter greeting. We love the winter here - the beauty created by the ice and snow. Our greeting is captured in two cards and it's dedicated to all, who have been following our journey. Thank you for the lovely comments and plenty likes on Facebook. They have been helping us to get through the times, when we were thinking, that this renovation project is not making any sense. And thank you for visiting us and giving a helping hand.
Koivisto is the name of the farm and it's coming from the word "koivu", which means birch. We don't know, what is the history with the name. We like to think, that's because of the many birches, that growing at the farm.
The card: Into the frozen woods. Our frozen fields and forest photographed by Tobi.
The card: Flowers of the north. Susanna captured the ice flowers from a window.
We hope, that the snow will last still for a while or come back again soon. It's giving us light and energy for the renovation in the darkest time of the year. If you want to have the Koivisto winter card, please contact us via koivistoblog@gmail.com. Lovely winter time for all!

All white

The brightness is now surrounding us outside and inside. The winter and snow has arrived. We are still using the sauna house by the river as our bathroom. The river is surprisingly already frozen. So the newest thing is to break the ice in the mornings, so we can take refreshing baths in the cold water. But the shower in the house is also almost ready. Maybe still a one week to go. Among the bathroom we have been fixing and painting the old walls at the basement. First the brick walls were covered with a thin layer of plaster to make the surface better and close the tiny holes. All the rooms are now painted with the first coat. The white color of the paint made all rooms look new and bigger.
Once again we had lovely helping hands here. Simone was helping by painting the bathroom and toilet walls. Thank you!
We didn't want to overdo the walls by making them flawless, but keep the original feel of them - the charm from the old house. Slightly better surfaces and the white paint makes a huge difference. We are happy with the end result, rough and classy.
This is our future office space. Quite a transformation already! The next step is to fix the doors at their places.
The white paint makes nice little details pop up and turns ugly things prettier. For example the waste water pipes are looking now better against the white pure wall.
White is the color of the moment in the form of paint and snow. It's nice at the almost darkest time of the year. On the photo above is Tobi's first time in the ice water. He has still a smile on his face, so it wasn't that bad. Anyway it's easy to smile, because of all the progress we have made.

Koivisto praline

And other Aronia treats. The last berries are now in good use just before the first snow, which arrived yesterday. It's really pity, that this berry is at least in Finland so underestimated. Maybe this post will open the eyes. The aronia bushes are quite common in the gardens, because they are beautiful and they can manage in the cold atmosphere. Furthermore they are also healthy and tasty. We wrote already earlier in the post Delicacy from our garden and the forest about our aronia jam, which didn't quite fullfill the expectations. Afterwards we have been drying them and made juice out of it, which both worked well. But definitely the best creation was Tobi's aronia pralines, which we named Koivisto praline.
This is the leftover from the berries after we made juice out of them. We mixed them with sugar and dried them few weeks. First in the oven and then just in the room temperature. The berry plate was drying so long till it turned firm, but remained moist.
We cut the plate in small square formed pieces and covered them with white and dark chocolate. The dark makes the taste of aronia even stronger, whereas the white makes it softer.
The newest version of the pralines is with our dried aronia berries on top. They turned out tasty and also beautiful. Maybe we should start a delicacy shop at this farm!
Despite the promises we are still keeping the renovation update to ourselves. We will show the updated situation very soon. We just thought, that these treats were more worth to see. And if you are around, come and taste the juice and the pralines before they run out. Probably the best sweets in this town!

Renovation news

We have been silent for a while, still we made some progress. Our bathroom has tiles on the walls, the future workshop space has a new ceiling and our technical room has a sink now. That means tomorrow our washing machine is moving away from the porch. That is the best news for a while. Some thanks are belonging to our plumber, who finally made it here. Now the basement is warm, because the floor heating is turned on. Luckily it has been the driest Autumn in a history with many sunny days. These sunny days have been keeping up the spirit here. Otherwise the motivation has been few and far between.
Susanna covered first the bathroom walls with this blue color, which protecs the walls from getting moisture damages.
Tobi was working for a long time with tiles. That was this time the most enjoyable work here. Some of the tiles needed a little cutting, that they fitted perfect with the showers. We are going to have two showers, so the happiness will be twice as big, when they are working.
Like often with the things we enjoy to do, the end result turned out pleasing. Two walls will be covered with these white matt tiles from Pukkila, but for the other walls we have made other things. We will reveal them for you later. Stay tuned!
The electrician installed some of the cables, so we could work further with the ceiling. Susanna's father fixed the plaster boards and we finished the ceiling by covering the seems with filler and then by painting it.
Our technical room is almost ready. On the photo above Tobi is finishing legs for a table, where our sink is placed. We wanted to have one part of this wall with tiles to protect it from water splashes. The tiles were leftovers like the board for the sink (a leftover from our kitchen board), but they suited really well together. Also the legs for the table we found here. We were happy how it turned out and how inexpensive the solution was.
So this was a little update, how we are doing here. The main thing is, that the things are going further. We are trying to keep up the good spirit and make more progress. We promise to post new things soon. This week had a good start and already a lot happened.

All the life around us

The starting point for this post came from the Facebook challenge, which was going on couple of months ago. The idea was to photograph nature and its wonders seven days. Instead of the seven days, we have been photographing here almost every day since we started the renovation project. Sometimes we have seen beautiful, funny and even odd things happening around us. This post is dedicated to all the creatures, that are living with or around us.
Susanna likes to photograph insects. They are somehow interesting, maybe because they are so different from us. Because of the little details, that you are able to see only through the lense of the camera. Because of the life cycle, from larva to an adult insect. On this photo above is a cockchafer, also called May bug, which we at May. This one is a lady, because she has only six pieces on each antenna, whereas the male has seven.

We met hundreds of these flying insects at the end of May. They were flying in the same place and just going up and down and then up again. In one week they were gone. In German they are called Eintagsfliegen, one day flies, and this was the mating ritual. Some point they were taking a break and then it was possible to see them close and yes they were beautiful.
This spider was living under the garden table. She was a little bit shy, but she loved the sun and came out every now and then to bath in the June's warmth. We saw this spider so often, everytime we had lunch or dinner there, so we became attached to it.
This view was taken in July from the river, that are crossing the yard. It's a crab lying on a stone or more like what is left of it. The river is full also with the living ones. Maybe some bird or bigger animal had a nice lunch.
This photo was taken at the end of August, when the frogs were searching a place for their winter sleep. We had a deep hole dug in our garden for a water pipe. From this hole we found over ten frogs during couple of days. We needed to rescue them. All in all we have seen tens or almost hundreds of frogs this year. That's a happy sign. They are growing strong at least here at the countryside.
This little fellow was the first we got to know, when we moved in. Tobi named it Mika (as an inspiration was the famous Finnish formula driver Mika Häkkinen). Well maybe this is not Mika, but some of his friend. In September the squirrels were collecting the acorns and hiding them all over the place.
And last but not least, today we saw white-tailed deers on our field, a mother with two children or we assume so. We didn't dare to go near and decided to took some photos from our roof. For us the new thing was, that they have such a long tails! Usually we have seen them only in the dusk or dark, but today they were enjoying the last rays of the sun. The fact, that we are living so close to all living creatures, is one of the best things here.
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