Today and yesterday have been filled from morning to evening with what I consider, pretty hard physical work in the garden.
Most of yesterday was spent moving a pile of soil and spreading it around the garden where the earthmovers gave either cleared or driven their machines and left tracks, then spreading grass.
Today had been more of the same withe the addition of lifting 6 meter beams through the window onto the second floor and beginning the process of removing, cleaning and painting the basement windows. They are in terrible condition and will need to be replaced eventually, but it was just too expensive, so we only did the top living floors.
They look really dodgy now, but at the end of the week the painters will come to finish the plinth in the same color grey and we are hoping that the windows will blend in and be only noticeably bad up close. My painting job is pretty rough too, because it is not worth spending the many hours to sand back as well as reseam them.
What an awkward shot that one is. My wife took it with my phone and put it on wide angle, likely to fit me in. But the awkward comes from Smallsteps and I looking like we have no idea what we are doing - which was only half true.
We should have waited a little to plant the grass, but witg so many other things needing to be completed this week, we decided to do it while I had some time. The soil needs to be kept moist, which meant buying a hose extension to reach the other side of the house.
We only have one tap outside which we installed, so there were none prior. It is this cool system that doesn't freeze and burst in the winter. At some point later, we will probably get a rainwater tank with a small pump for watering the garden instead - as despite there being 200,000 lakes in Finland, water is quite expensive.
The exterior of the house looks very different to what it did a few short months ago and I am looking forward to moving more to the insides, although I am not so keen on the walking everything up the stairs.
The neighbour and his friend helped get the 6 meter beams upstairs, which because of their length, was easier than expected. It helped that the neighbour is also 190+ centimetres tall himself.
The friend lives in a similar old house near Helsinki and after seeing what we are doing with the attics, is now considering doing similar, as it makes the area far more useful.
The beams are to support the roof and will give us the maximum width we can safely have. The other option was to have pillars, but they get in the way and limit furniture position options. Once done, I think it is going to be quite a nice area.
We were crazy to think we would be finished with the upstairs floor by this time and will likely be 3 months behind when we can move up there. The only thing that would drastically cut that time frame down is if we win the lottery and can pay someone to do all the surfaces. Unlikely. So it will be room by room with whatever scraps of money we have left from our salaries.
Today was probably the last hot day of the year too and while we didn't really do anything fun like go to the beach, we did finish off the work with a little barbecue. There is still time for more grilling of course, but it is unlikely that mid 20s and up will be seen again until next June or July.
It is funny how little I thought off Summer in Australia, but when the warm wet at her is as brief as here, it definitely becomes "a thing" that affects thinking. Scarcity kicks in.
I will now try to catch up on what's been happening around here today, as I feel I have been very absent. It is weird, but life gets in the way of all of us sometimes.
Taraz
[ Gen1: Hive ]
This caught my attention. I could simply google but am curious to hear your opinion on why it is
Why it's expensive or why there are 200K lakes?
Lakes first - During the last ice age, there were 100s of meters of pack ice on top of the country and it slid off over time, digging into the earth down to the rock. There is a lot of granite here. The country coast is still rising.
It is expensive because everything is here. But I have always found this one strange. The water quality however is very good these days since they have cleaned up after the last 200 years of dumping industrial waste from paper factories. Maybe they over charge to cover the costs.
Yeah i meant why is it so expensive. I understand things are quite expensive there but water...
Well, you have tom remember that apart from you creating your lifestyle house, you are also creating a solid investment. House prices continue to escalate every year and if you keep your house up to date, the value could treble in 20 years time.
That "Braai" is just the thing needed after a hard days work.
And, now that the major things are done, redoing parts like the painting are far easier and the bathroom is designed to be easy to update, if we ever need.
Exactly and you planned it well.
Always get the big jobs out of the way so that the time consuming finishing jobs can start.
Owning a house means that there is never ending small things to do, but it keeps one busy lol.
First major job waiting for me here is to pull the hot water geyser out of the roof and to mount it upright on an external wall. Leaking geysers cause much damage below them when they are installed in the roof. Besides it's easier to replace the elements when the geyser is outside.
I have to say Good Night here my friend.
Hope that the new week will treat you guys well!
Our hot water service is in the basement. Do they mount it in the roof for water pressure reasons?
I hope that's not the case for us here in Toronto. I want to have a couple of days where we can go to freshwater lakes to enjoy hot weather. We are trapped inside the house for the whole of 2020 due to the pandemic and the winter kicked in last year in October. That means we have to been out for almost a year now. The pandemic messed with us real bad this year as we cancelled our three holiday trips already. 😌
Crazy, isn't it?
The pandemic messed with us real bad this year as we cancelled our three holiday trips already.
Yep, we have had the same happen, plus family were meant to visit us - it is very rare to have visitors so it was the biggest kick to have my brother's trip cancelled.
I have never had a house with a garden. In many parts of the world it is actually difficult to own such a home. maybe impossible. but my wife's family has a beautiful tangerine garden and a house inside. and a garden is never done. If you live in such a place, you will definitely air the soil or sand somewhere. Being in nature is worth all this fatigue. It's a great idea to end the day with a barbecue. take care of yourself. I heard that restrictions on covid19 in Austria are on the agenda again ....
In Australia it is near impossible these days unless one has parent support - Finland is getting that way too. I am somewhat of an anomaly in Finland, as many foreigners will never own a house as they generally don't have any parental or inheritance support. I have been fortunate to buy low, renovate and sell high on two apartments which gave us the deposit.
What I like about it is the fatigue is physical, not all mental. It is very different to getting tired in my workplace. Working on the home is refreshingly tiring.
Those tangerines must smell great when in bloom :)
smells perfect. maybe one day you will plant a tangerine tree in your garden. appeals to both the palate and the eyes :)
I am not sure they will grow here - we have apples, cherries and a pear tree, as well as raspberries, gooseberries, redcurrants, strawberries and mint. We also found some oregano growing under a hedge the other day!
If apples and cherries are grown, tangerines will love that garden. Don't look at the technical details :) And some wild thyme is perfect. how lucky your family and you are. A garden of beautiful fruits!.
I haven't heard of much citrus fruit here and I am guessing it is because of the minus 30 degree winters. But, I can look into it :)
Looks you had quite a busy Sunday but the place is looking great!
The outside is getting there and I am looking forward to seeing it "finished" (it won't be completely finished for a long time) so we can sit and relax out there - just a little :)
Is the pad by the basement windows going to be a patio area or spare parking space? Just curious. Also the onions on the grill is that a little bit of bacon to help fry them? They kind of look a little bit behind the chicken and corn and shrimp.
Patio. Since they were here digging, we asked them to level it off and put in the insulation. They dug another hole out of shot where we will put the glasshouse. Eventually, we will remove that window there and put double doors that open to the patio.
My wife threw a bit of left over bacon in there, plus butter. The bacon was mostly for the mushrooms packed with cream cheese, that got put on a bit later.
Bacon just makes things taste so much better. It looks like it will be a real nice spot for BBQ's in the future, and a door heading out to it would make it easier for those..."Opps I forgot"...ingredient so and so, than having to wander around to the other door.
I love stuffed deep fried mushrooms, I'm not sure I have had them with cream cheese on a BBQ before, they do sound good though.
I was raised vegetarian - I count it as child abuse to deny bacon.
The creme cheese or soft cheeses are good. This one was pepper.
Congratulations on a productive weekend. I think after such days you have no problem falling asleep :)
Lol no. I am lights out in seconds instead of a couple minutes lately. I feel like I have been beaten with a bag of oranges.
Feels great. It turns out that work is the best sleeping pill.
I really admire you for doing the work yourself. Not many are willing to get their hands dirty and let's face it, you need some courage as well. But when you don't have the money to pay for it, it becomes a DIY. Get some rest as you deserve it.
My real jobs are so clean, that it is nice to do something real around the house. Though, I wouldn't mind being able to pay for someone else to do a bit more of it ;D
You are doing a great job! All the value you're creating adds up.
I hope so. It has been quite a dramatic change from the outside in the last weeks and feels like a completely different place. Looking forward to getting the upstairs done so we can start to get the feel of the interior going.
I think that the value we've added will be quite significant considering all of the big ticket items.
Absolutely. Everything you've done if outsourced to tradespeople would've cost you thousands. Have an estimate how much?
Will find out in January or so, when they evaluate for the loan.
You'll have your expenses tallied up plus a list of things done, the cost of which can be estimated.
Yep. We have gone well over what the reno budget was, but we have added things that we wouldn't have likely managed to do for years using our own resources, so it is kind of like saving money later :)
IM just here for the bbq damn that looks good, can we get a close up of the corn with a little butter melting on it, #foodporn
:D I have thoguht about doing some food photography to test my camera skills a bit - Generally I just eat it all too fast though.
LOL i have the same issue, like ill make something and eat it and be like dammit why didn't I take a photo, oh well next time
I always call it stuff getting in the way because all the silliness is part of life 😆
Ergh you reminded me the bathroom window needs to be replaced, the frame broke while the renovations were happening and it’s currently being propped in place with a long thing of wood.
Did you double the time estimate of the reno project? I’m sure there are some that run on time or less but I haven’t heard of them yet 😆
Love the awkward shot 😝 house is looking good and so does the food on the barbecue 🙃
Ah, the highly technical and precise "long thing of wood" :)
It hasn't quite doubled, but it is getting pushed out at this point. Though, if they finish insulating upstairs and we can get the surfaces underway - with a little help from friends - we might be able to squeeze it in.
Cheers - it was delicious. :)
Well it’s so weathered now I can’t tell if it was a support post or a fence post once and I don’t know where it came from, like many things around here it just appeared at some point 😅
The food looks really tasty, it feels like your hard work on the house paid off in terms of good food.😆
Good food is reward enough for most things - my belly gets rewarded too much I think.
lol🤣
The house is looking gooood! It's got to feel good for you to see the positive changes,
Hot weather is of course relative. I don't know exactly how long it's been since we've seen a low of 25C but it's certainly been since I got home from my trip on July 5. Phoenix set a new record today with 24 days over 43.33C in 2020. It's 44C right now and will probably make 45.
That's a nice looking grill to end the day on.
A neighbor from a couple houses down dropped by 20 minutes ago to introduce herself and say how good it is looking. Doesn't sound like a big deal - but in Finland, that is massive. :D
I don't think I will survive those temperatures anymore. Might be nice for a week or two though on holiday :)
Here's a picture of our yard while spreading the gravel.
Looks much nicer now.
It looks great! They are the rounded stones by the looks. We will eventually have to put those in some places too, but for now we have a decent base :)
Love seeing renovations and the outcome. Your barbecue looks amazing too. Hard work never goes unrewarded.
We are about !73rd of the way through so far, the inside is a disaster zone :)
The barbie wa delicious - I am getting better cooking on coal.
I look forward to seeing the progress - and yes, nothing like food cooked on a barbecue
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