Not achieving goal number two

Yes, our second goal to have the building planning application ready before we leave wont happen. We wanted to have it so that we leave the application before we go on our trip and while we are gone it would be looked at in the planning office and then when we would come back we would have the permission to build (or just small alternations needed).

But this was too much to achieve in the time we had. We got close but not ready. Mick drew all the sketches for the house and we gave them to our construction designer. He drew them almost ready on the computer but gave us some good suggestions to change the floor plan. So we started rethinking the layout and thats what we are still doing. With a small house it is crucial to have everything planned right. And planning takes time.

Well, our new goal is to decide what we want and then have that drawn up by our designer. When we come back we will do the rest that needs to be done for applying and then we will apply as soon as possible. This new timetable will delay our plans but we hope not too much. And at least we will have a better floor plan in the end!

Achieving goal number one

We have all along had two main goals for before we go on our vacation trip to Ireland and Holland. Those two goals have been to get the building permission application in and to have the road cleared. We have since made our goals smaller or more realistic: to get the building application ready for our house (but not for the outside buildings) and to get the road cleared so that there fits a machine to come to gather the trees that we have cut down. This machine will also gather the trees cut not only from the road but also bigger trees up a ridge. Those big trees will be used for the main structure of the house.

We (or maybe just I) were having some panic thoughts that we wont get to those goals until we had our second helper and friend Oopi over for more than a week and he really was the right guy in the right moment. Thanks Oopi! Oopi and Mick had almost all of trees needed cut down from up the ridge and Oopi cleared with a brush saw the part of the road that we had not cleared yet. Oopi is a lumberjack so he really did know what he is doing and Mick learned a lot from him.

Oopi clearing the road with a brush saw

Oopi raivaamassa tietä raivaussahalla

After that my dad has also been a huge help clearing the road starting from the other end of the road. He has been clearing the road almost every day now for a few weeks and thats a great help for us. He has also been up the ridge cutting trees down. Most of the trees cut down from the ridge have a disease that spreads from pine to pine and kills the tree (but the tree is still perfect to use). It makes me happy that we are using trees that would have died anyway pretty soon.

So we have achieved our goal that the road is now ready for the machine to come next week to pick up all the trees lying around. He will get all the trees down from the ridge and all the ones from the road and bring part of them to a pile near our coming house and part of them to a pile for a mobile saw to cut to boards.

Why are we building a round house?

One reason is that in a circular house there is the maximum floor area for the least wall area. Because we are building under 50m2 we feel every square meter counts. But there are other reasons as well.

It is not at all unusual for people to live in circular habitats, most cultures have them or have had them at some point in history. Me and Mick might be getting the influence from old celtic and Saami cultures. Both have or have had round dwellings, permanent or movable ones.

We also think a round house will be beautiful and that it will suit well in the forest where we will build it. The beauty one might see and harmony one might feel looking at round houses could be because in nature curved shapes are everywhere, there are no squares. This way a round house blends in nature better. We don't want our house to stick out for miles, we are more looking for solutions how we could 'hide' the house in the nature.

Here is Mick's play dough house, big windows to the south

The house from west

Main roof structure

Not the final floor plan but this is a good way to see what works and what doesn't