Beyond the Image: Part 1
My Journey of Nordic Inspiration
Hello and welcome to the first part of the series Beyond the Image, where I share the story behind the house featured in Super Finnish’s marketing. This series will take you through my inspiration, the five and a half months of building, and where the house stands today. In this post, I’ll delve into the inspiration for the house and how my passion for functional spaces ignited when I was eight years old. I hope you enjoy it!
The Spark of Creativity: My Early Design Journey
I was eight years old when I started rearranging the furniture in my small bedroom. I absolutely loved the feeling of creating something new and fresh. Whenever I got bored with the arrangement, I simply redid it. I've always been quite the visionary, and I'm very thankful to my mom for allowing me to express my creativity in my own little space.
Fast forward to when I was 23 years old. From that initial spark, my inspiration was ignited when I bought my first apartment—a beautiful one-bedroom condo in an old building in Tampere, Finland. I completely gutted the place! This naïve 23-year-old thought it couldn't be that hard to renovate a space and manage the project on my own.
I completely renovated the kitchen, bathroom, all the surfaces, and every little detail in the apartment. I worked tirelessly, day and night. Rather than feeling overwhelmed, I fell in love with the process of renovating and creating. I couldn’t understand why some people complained about it so much—I felt liberated, and I LOVED it! Eventually, I ended up buying more apartments to renovate.
Unlocking Possibilities: My Real Estate Adventure
Everything fell into place when I started working in real estate. I was in the front row to discover properties that no one else wanted. I bought them and transformed them into something beautiful, envisioning the potential the moment I stepped inside.
I've always had a knack for seeing the potential in a space as soon as I walk in. This ability has helped me in real estate, during my own home renovations, and now as a creative entrepreneur.
There Was Always Something Missing
As we often find, when you gain more, you want even more. That’s exactly what happened to me. I loved renovating and working within the cozy confines of a condo, but my dreams grew larger. I wanted to create something entirely new: a house built from scratch!
Around 2015, I began to entertain the idea of finding the perfect piece of land to build my own house.
I also visited some older houses, only to realize that renovating them required more effort than building a new one. I shifted my focus to searching for plots of land with potential. I never envisioned finding land in a city; my thoughts naturally gravitated toward dreaming of a piece of land in the countryside or any off-grid location.
The playful ideas began to take shape, and I started to get more serious about making them a reality.
My life took new directions when I realized and decided that I wanted to move abroad. I had always known that one day my home would be somewhere other than Finland. I sold my apartments and became truly serious about the plot hunt. I visited some amazing locations until I found exactly what I was looking for—I had the place where to build our home in Finland. It's incredible how that happens!
Jussi-Pekka Kajaala
Nordic Visionary, Creative Entrepreneur
