Making a Vihta

Our Homemade Vihtas ready for Sauna.

I'd been eyeing our neighbor's birch tree all summer, ever since we finished our sauna. However, those neighbors never talk to us, so I hadn't gone to ask if we could use any of their birch branches.

Anyway, last week they trimmed their tree. Although it's a bit late in the season and the leaves are starting to fall off, I picked up some of the clippings and we made two Vihtas. The second one is in the freezer for Christmas.

First Sauna!

It's been a long day of sauna assembly, but it's almost done. (we still need to do a couple pieces of trimwork and put shelves and things back in the laundry room).

Anyway, the stove is now heating up and we're eagerly awaiting our first sauna .

We wanted to say thanks again to Sami's mom for the beautiful bench linens. Also, we want to thank Jussi and Karoliina for the tar scent and the little hedgehog diffuser.

Tomorrow is Sauna Day!

The paint is on, and the window trim is up... although most of the window will be behind the sauna anyway.

Sami had quite a tough time with the painting this past week. The tape we used to keep the wall paint (very light green) from getting on the ceiling (white) ended up pulling off the ceiling paint, so he had to do some areas twice.

The lights are in and the washer and dryer are stacked to make room for some sauna benches. That door goes to the back patio. Some day I'd like to build a greenhouse with an extra shower out there.

The Sauna is Home

We bought a modular prefab sauna from Finlandia Sauna.

Although they import the stoves and rocks from Finland, they build the panels from local wood at their factory - only 15 minutes from our house.

View inside the shop.

There were lots of guys working in there, but I didn't want to intrude, so I didn't take pictures of them at work.

Sami decided this must be the best smelling workplace ever.

Sami finishes loading the sauna parts.

Both Sami and the guy helping us load the pieces looked a bit nervous, but I knew everything would fit.

The sauna is home.

Unfortunately our drywall mud didn't dry as fast as we'd hoped (it was a cold night last night) and I still have at least two coats to do before I can prime and paint the walls.

It will probably be Saturday before we can install the sauna in the laundry room - it's in the garage right now.

The Ceiling is In

Sami and I celebrated Easter by putting the ceiling in.

We had hoped to get it taped and put at least one coat of joint compound on it too, but we ran out of time. We did manage to replace the old home-made hack of a duct with a new (somewhat ugly and circular) one.

We also cut the holes for the speakers and got the lights in, which will be very useful for us when we're mudding late tonight.

The Floor is Finished

We finished the tile floor last sunday night.

Today Sami is working on the wiring for the speakers and the lights. We'll start drywalling as soon as he's done with the wiring.

Drywall, ready to install.

We went to the Farmer's market this morning and then to pick up the materials for the ceiling and to patch the parts of the walls we had to cut out because of flooding and wiring.

Bathroom Floor Removal

I could have ripped up the bathroom floor a couple months ago, when we did the home theater room, but decided to wait until closer to the time we could actually tile it.

So, last night and this morning I ripped up 3 layers of nasty old floor. I still haven't done the area by the toilet yet, I don't want to disconnect it until after the inspector has been here on Wednesday.

The Plumber is Done!

Finally!

Now we can start work on:

- tiling the floor
- electrical work for sauna
- painting the foundation wall
- replacing the light fixture
- repairing the drywall
- painting the walls
- installing trim
- installing sauna

New shutoff valve

This one is much nicer than the old one.

Also it's located inside the wall instead of sticking out of the floor.

We'll add an access panel later.

The hole awaiting inspection.

I had been hoping to pour the concrete for the hole this evening. I forgot that we couldn't do it before the inspector comes on wednesday. Maybe we'll try to tile around that area.

Well, I'm off to see how much of the vinyl tile I can get removed from the bathroom tonight!

The Plumber is Here!

Finally!

It was something like 5 months ago when we first started contacting plumbers. Anyway, he's here now and hopefully the water heater and the shutoff will all be moved by tonight.

So... anyone wanna help rip up the vinyl tile in the bathroom and lay real tile in the laundry and bathroom? Because that's going to be our main project for this weekend.

Superbowl Sunday Staining

Nearly a year ago, we went shopping for a dining table and chairs. We looked at a lot, but Sami had something particular in mind and didn't like any of them. Finally, we went to an unfinished furniture store and Sami saw some he liked. They've been sitting in boxes in our garage since last spring.

After the flooding and subsequent floor removal, the home theater project was seriously delayed. However, it did provide a convenient (and warm) place to assemble and stain the dining room furniture.

When we were looking at houses, we saw a new house with dark red cabinets in the kitchen. Sami fell in love and decided that he wanted his kitchen cabinets to be that color someday. So, the dining table and chairs will be mostly dark red. We started working on them last Sunday just before the superbowl.

BTW, the home theater won't always be so red. The red sealer on the concrete will be covered up when we put the floor in, and the red blanket is covering up the screen which is too big to remove from the room.

In anticipation of the plumber's visit, I repainted the part of the concrete foundation wall that will be behind the water heater. The rest of the wall (color to be determined) will be painted later after we've repaired the drywall.

My beans and peas are doing great! I've got some peas, some scarlet runner beans, some purple hyacinth beans, and a couple yin-yang beans. Hopefully it will stop freezing so I can put them outside soon.

Looking forward to Sauna

We had hoped to have the sauna installed in time for a Christmas sauna, but because of the difficulty scheduling the plumber, we didn't make it. Anyway, we're starting to get really excited about it.

Sami's mom, Anneli, sent us these beautiful sauna bench linens. They just arrived yesterday. Thank You!

Also, Sami managed to find some tar soap (not common here in the US) and it smells delicious!

Sauna Project - Flood!

Friday evening Melissa and Erica came over to help remove some more drywall in the laundry room (to prep for plumbing work).

Yesterday Sami and I worked on installing the tile in the laundry room. We marked out the layout, cut the edge pieces and tiled the corner where the water heater will be moved...

We woke up to find our pretty tile job underwater... Don't know if we have to rip it up and start over, or if it will dry out ok.

Our bathroom and our home theater room flooded too.

Unfortunately, the carpeted home theater room was packed full of stuff since we're in the middle of several projects. We had to move everything upstairs.

After we cleared the whole basement out (and turned the rest of our house into a huge mess), we found this crack in the foundation wall under the stairs.

We're hoping it's the only one, but actually it seems like the water is coming from the joint between the foundation wall and the slab.

Unfortunately I think the only thing we can do right now is to buy a sump pump and get the water out of our crawl space so it won't keep flowing in.

Sauna Project Delayed

Last weekend we bought tiles for the laundry room floor. They're a neutral sort of sandy color and were the best option for the price.

Today, we had everything ready to tile the laundry room floor, but when we took the seismic straps off the water heater and removed the last bit of the closet surrounding it, we found the main shutoff valve for the whole house.

We were really surprised to find it there. Before today, if we had a leak somewhere in the house and had to shut the water off in an emergency, we would have had to do it at the water meter on the street because we would never have found it inside that wall.

Unfortunately that makes moving the water heater more difficult and we may have to rethink the location for the sauna. We'll find a plumber on Monday and wait to see what they say. Hopefully we'll get to start tiling next weekend.

Sauna Project - Drywall Demo

Last week I managed to pull up all of the old floor tiles. It took an entire day longer than I'd hoped. The 2nd layer wasn't bad, but the first one was stuck on with a sort of asphalt based glue that contains asbestos. The only way to get it up is to scrub it with mineral spirits then scrape it up with a razor blade. So it' time consuming and smells horrific... even with my Darth Vadar mask... er respirator. So I'm still working on that bit by bit.

My friend Melissa came over Friday evening and we pulled down the drywall on the closet surrounding the water heater. I used the saws-all to cut down the studs yesterday. There was a bit of mold on the wall behind the washer. We wondered if the pipes there might be leaking.

We planned to just cut a hole in the drywall there to take a look, but unfortunately the people who owned the house before must have put drywall directly over wood paneling, so it will be very difficult to get to. We can't use a regular drywall saw, and we don't want to use the saws-all because we could accidentally cut through pipes or electrical wires. So, we'll have to figure out what to do about that.

Next I'll cut out the drywall in the ceiling along the joist bay where the plumbing for the water heater will go.

Sauna Project - Nasty Floor Removal

You probably couldn't tell much from the previous pictures, but the vinyl floor tiles in the laundry room were peeling up, and not laid well. There were gaps between them and all kinds of dirt caught between.

Since we're taking down the closet and moving the water heater, we figured we might as well take the old floor up and put down a new one (currently there is only concrete below the water heater).

Things seemed easy at first. Look at that nice clean corner! But as I figured it was too good to be true. The rest of the room (I think) has an older vinyl floor and nasty adhesive under it. I've got my work cut out for me today. At least it's a job I can do (mostly) sitting down. My ankle is much better today, but I'm still supposed to stay off it as much as possible.

Sauna Project Begins!

Since we decided the hot tub would be too difficult to fix, Sami decided it was time to get a sauna.

We discussed putting one in the backyard, but Sami decided the best place would be in our laundry room. There is a bathroom with a shower just next to the laundry.

We measured the room and figured out that we couldn't fit the sauna into the current configuration. The water heater closet is in a very inconvenient location. The closet in in the middle of the wall and leaves two awkward corners.

Sami got very depressed.

I was still pretty sure we could work something out, so I did a nice scale drawing of the room. I figured the washer and dryer had to stay in their current location and the hot water heater would have to be relocated.

I started putting boxes the sizes of various sauna kits in different places on the drawing and figured out a fairly reasonable solution.

First, this built in counter for folding laundry would have to go. Later we can move the water heater to this corner.

After I took these photos, I disassembled the counter and put it on the street with a sign saying "FREE". Less than 15 minutes later a car came by and they took it. Very convenient.

Previously we had my sewing machine in front of the window. This corner to the left of the water heater closet was completely useless. We had boxes of craft materials and other stuff stacked here.

Aside from removing the folding counter, I didn't get any other work done in the room today. After I took it to the street, I ran downstairs to get the camera and sprained my ankle again...

It was pretty bad this time. (I also sprained it two weeks ago hiking, but I'd stayed off of it most of this time and thought I was nearly healed).

Anyway, I had X-rays today. There's a sprain and maybe a small fracture, the picture didn't come out very well because of all the swelling so I have to get another one on Friday. I've been told to stay off my feet for the next few days, so I'm a little disappointed. I really wanted to get going on the sauna project.