Sep 1, 2012

Welcome!

A bit more than a week ago we finally become the official owners of our new 1960's dream home. Now, it is time to transform this already beautiful place to our true dream home. It will take a considerable amount of time, money, sweat and tears, but the journey will be so worth it! 

Living room
When we first walked in we were so impressed by the huge living room windows and a beautiful brick walls. Currently, the place is mostly in its original condition. It has a lot of character, and we want to renovate it in a way that will honor the mid-century modern spirit of the apartment. The plan is to save as much of the original details as possible.


The view from the living room windows
Upstairs terrace
Some of the work (for example kitchen and downstairs bathroom) will be done by professionals, but there is a lot of work we will be doing ourselves. To give you and overview of the project, below is the floor plan, in which the numbers reflect to different projects - what will be done and where.


  1. Hard wood floors - sanding and new laquer
  2. Master bedroom - paint, new floor
  3. Kitchen - complete makeover
  4. Bathroom - remove tiles and paint walls
  5. Balcony - build glass ceiling and wall
  6. Bathroom - complete makeover
  7. Living room lighting
  8. Electricity
  9. Entrances to storage spaces

So far, the old kitchen has been removed, and the floors have been sanded and laquered, and part of the brick wall painted...

13 comments:

  1. Aivan ihana, näyttää tosi upealta! Kiva seurata tällaista projektia. Mulla oli jokin aika sitten eräällä asiakkaalla tämän tyylin talo ja oli tosi kiva tehdä sisustusprojektia joka oli aivan eri tyyliä kuin oma!

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  2. Johanna, sun pitää tulla käymään - katsomaan sekä asuntoa että pikku S:ää :-)

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  3. Mikä tila, mikä VALO! Mukana ollaan!

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  4. Onpa harvinaisen makea aikakautensa edustaja!

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  5. Kyllä sitä etsittiinkin. Kaksi vuotta, kaksikymmentä asuntoa ja viisi tarjousta myöhemmin löytyi tämä. Kun astuttiin ensimmäistä kertaa sisään niin jotenkin sitä heti tajusi, että tämä se on ja samalla huokaistiin helpotuksesta, että onneksi mikään aikasemmin nähtyihin asuntoihin tekimistämme tarjouksista ei ollut mennyt läpi..

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  6. All I can say is WOW!
    That's an amazing house you've got there.
    I'm unashamedly green with envy!

    I've just been fortuitously directed here via The Brick House blog, and will enjoy eventually looking through your journey so far.

    Love the brick work, glass...everything!

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  7. Such a kind words. Thank you! It is partly the glass, partly the bricks and generally speaking the pure mid-century modern style that is well present pretty much all over this apartment that originally made also ourselves fall in love with this place.

    The Brick House blog is one of our all time favorates.

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  8. My nam is Ofelia, Im a mexican girl and I just found your blog through another one and let me tell you I love your home, and your cute baby girl. Just I can say its such a great labor of love. Totally amazing! Im a woody fan too and a brick lover. Now Im into your style and your blog now is on my daily blogroll. Congrats for a such lovely place!

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  9. Hi Ofelia! To us it is so exiting to discover the cultural diversity of our readers. People from so many different countries interested in the same topic. You are more than welcome to follow the life behind the olive green window.

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  10. Hi, I got hint about this site from a friend of our son. We used to live in the same house (not the apartmant - G if I remember right...) from 1997-2005, although we spent most of those years abroad. We loved the house and the apartment, it was a dream-come-true for us. We combined the two upstairs bedrooms into one big Master bedroom and added another bathroom in connection with the Master bdrm. We moved away when all the kids left home and we wanted to live in the center of Helsinki. The house is well built, an excellent example of good, solid building and architecture from the 60's. Good luck to you and hope you'll be as happy as we were there! The best house in Espoo!

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    1. Hi Kaarina,

      As we are about to do structural modifications to the supporting walls downstairs we currently have the blueprints for the whole house and because of this we are well aware which apartment you are talking about. It is a small world:) I have to agree with you about the construction of this building. It seems to be in a pretty good condition even though it's more than 50years old. I'm are glad you have good memories from this building and I hope that also ours will be as positive as yours.

      You are most welcome to follow the life behind the olive green window!

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  11. Hei,
    Olen aktiivnen the brick house -blogin lukija ja löysin siis teidät sieltä. Upean projektin saitte - uskoisin, että kävimme katsomassa tätä teidän kohdetta sen ollessa markkinoilla, jos osoite on lähellä Länsiväylää ; ). Itse aloitimme -72 vuoden paritalon remontin joulukuussa tässä Friisilässä. Ihana lukea ja katsoa kuvia ja etenkin, että viitsitte tätä blogia tehdä!! Tsemppiä.

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    1. Kiitos kannustuksesta! Aika mainio yhteensattuma - puhumme varmasti samasta kohteesta, koska kotimme sijaitsee todellakin erittäin lähellä Länsiväylää! Blogista on muotoutunut meille mukava harrastus, ja on palkitsevaa kuulla, että varsin monipuolinen projektimme kiinnostaa myös koko ajan kasvavaa lukijakuntaa eri puolilla maapalloa. Toivottavasti myös teidän remonttinne etenee suunnitelmien mukaan!

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