Had a meeting earlier this month with our rakennusmestari and went over the things that need to be done soon. We also delivered the plans for the foundations to him as well that had arrived a few days before from the foundation planner. The main things are that the foundations will be a bit more expensive than a normal house because the ground is quite soft. But mainly that will be extra concrete. The worst case would have been if they had to drive in stone piles, but we don’t need to go that far. Probably the foundations are a bit hard to explain, so I’ll scan one of the plans sometime and put them here. Our rakennusmestari has gotten quotes for the foundation job and will select a contractor for that soon. We also looked at the details of the building permit, but he will meet with the county council next week to go over that with them as well as part of the “starting meeting”. He also suggested we find a contractor for the well, and Pia has last week found someone who seems quite good and has already given an estimate.

This week we have a meeting with the interior planner and the electrical planner to go over the lighting and other details. That should finalise those changes and we also have to confirm the plumbing needed. Speaking of the electricity we have the bills for the installation of that already. The distribution box they put in the yard came to 1000 EUR along with another 1000 EUR for installation and cabling! Then they sent us an estimated power bill for 250 EUR (2 months)!

Also during this week we have a meeting with the land registrar (I think that is the closest translation) to officially get our piece of land separated from the other land of the original owner. Once we do that it becomes an independent section registered to us. And it also appears that we have to give it a name! Suggestions welcome, but the frontrunner is a Finnish translation of the original Swedish, Vårgårda. The Finnish would be Kevätkartano or “spring mansion”.

Got a loan of a chainsaw last weekend as well. Now that things are getting a bit close we thought we would clear the last of the larger trees in the location of the house and waste water drainage area. Saturday was fine, but about -3, so quite a nice day compared to the last few weekends. Days are quite short though now, sun is hardly above the horizon at about 10am and it is gone again about 3.30pm, it barely gets above the trees at the end of the section though the whole day. But we managed to spend nearly 4 hours chopping things up. We did get a bit of a surprise when we arrived at the section for the day. Just after we got out of the car Pia noticed conclusive proof that we have a moose infestation! Later during the day I almost stepped in further proof.

Pictures, left to right. Moose print at the end of our driveway (about where the back of the car is). Our ever growing pile of wood and the pile of clippings the moose was eating. The interior plan the designer came up with.