Day 54c: Bathrooms and Kitchen

This is the last instalment of news from Day 54 (27th March). The toilets and bathroom taps have now been fitted, and thus the small bathroom (above) and the shower room are complete.

In the shower room, there's a sink, the shower and a toilet, which is just visible in the lower-right corner of the photo. Also lights are readily fitted here and also in the sauna.

One of the most important ingredients of a Finnish house is the sauna, and of course that needs a stove ("kiuas"). While we have seen the stove previously, now it's been filled with stones. Now everything is in place for the first proper "löyly," i.e. the throwing of water onto the hot stones and the subsequent filling of the room with steam vapour.

Finally the kitchen is almost complete. Unfortunately there was some communication issue somewhere down the line, and the kitchen has been delivered one cupboard shorter than ordered. This will be fixed in the near future as soon as a new work surface in the correct length has been delivered.

Nonetheless we are happy with how the white kitchen stands out against the dark-brown wall. Making some bold choices with colours always bears some risks, but here (and also with the green-and-white bathroom above) our ideas are spot on – at least for us, the rest is a matter of taste.

Day 54a: Bob The Builder Came to Help!

Today, Bob the Builder arrived to give us a hand with the final touches of Our House. Can you spot him in the photo above? That's his van anyway.

Let's zoom in a bit, to the centre of the windscreen. I'm sure if we have him in the team, nothing can go wrong. Very reassuring!

Today (Day 54, 27th March) the work continued on a lot of small details, and everything is very much coming together now. I shall report more over the next couple of days or so. Above a photo of one of the windows, completely assembled. Wooden strips cover the gaps between window frame and plaster boards, the blinds are released and made functional, and the window handle is installed. The blinds are operated by those round knobs on the left side.

Finally one of the most important pieces of kit was installed today: the sauna stove ("kiuas" in Finnish). The stones are still missing, but we are very much looking forward to throwing the first water onto the hot stones.

Day 49: Sauna, Doors, and Final Paint

On Monday and Tuesday (Days 48 & 49, 18th–19th March) a lot of work happened again. Following up from the arrival of the sauna stove, the sauna benches are now installed. The stove will come later since it needs to be wired in by an electrician.

Also the doors are now installed. The photo above shows the door separating the vestibule from the hallway and the rest of the house. The cable above the door is probably for the door bell. Let's hope it's not going to be a totally horrible sound – we didn't get to choose that!

Also the door to the shower room (above) and the clear-glass door between shower and sauna are now installed.

Finally, the last bit of unpainted space got its finishing: the small bathroom's rear wall is now painted in an intense green ("Lime").

More Stuff Arrived

On 15th March, no work was done at the house, and therefore we do not count this day. However,  more stuff appeared on the yard. The palette above contains a pile of doors and door frames. One of the most important items for the whole project is in the unremarkable small white box on top of the doors, the content of which will be revealed in the next photo.

Yep, it's the sauna heater, or "kiuas" in Finnish. There's also a box of stones to fill the heater with. Yes, we'd also like a bath, but a sauna is a decent start anyway for now.

More essentials were delivered on another palette, two toilets, toilet seats, and sinks. All of these new deliveries will be installed in the near future, starting next week. In between we have some more painting to do in order to finish the fireplace. More about that tomorrow.