Building a Log House in Winter

Hello and welcome back to the 13th installment of my series, Beyond the Image, where I share the story behind the house featured in Super Finnish’s marketing. In this series, I take you through the inspiration, the five and a half months of building, and where the house stands today.

In this post, I will share the excitement of receiving the logs. My little Legos for building the cottage of my dreams.  I hope you enjoy hearing about it!

Beyond the Image: Part 13

So far, everything had gone smoothly. The groundwork was completed just in time before winter hit, and when the first heavy snow arrived, the foundation was already in place - exactly as planned. We even managed to get it done during a snowstorm. In Finland, schools don’t close for snow, and neither does construction! 😎

It was a freezing cold morning when we started building the foundation. It warmed up a bit later, but that was soon followed by a crazy snowstorm.

Trusty Tarp

Once the foundation was ready, the groundwork team returned with their heavy machinery to fill in the surrounding areas and the foundation itself with gravel. Let’s just say that using an excavator is much faster than a shovel!

My biggest job at this stage? Making sure snow didn’t pile up inside the foundation or around the sauna’s pillar foundation. And that’s when my trusty tarp came to the rescue once again!

The foundation is such a simple structure. I know that the way we build foundations in Finland is very different from how they are built here in the U.S.

The Log House Delivery Process

I had already locked in the delivery dates with the log house company. Their process is surprisingly fast - if I remember correctly, it took just seven weeks from the time I placed my order. That may have changed by now, but that’s how it worked back then.

The log house company delivered the logs, windows, doors, and roofing, while everything else, like the gutters and interior finishes, I sourced myself. While gutters weren’t my top priority, it was important to me that I could personally hand-pick all the interior elements, sourcing them from wherever I wanted.

It’s possible to order a turnkey service, but I wanted to do as much as possible myself. Not just to save money, but also to fully experience the process.

It was yet another early morning for me when the logs arrived. I was so excited that I was more than happy to get up and be ready to receive the delivery of a lifetime (so far).

Unloading the Logs: A Logistics Challenge

The morning the logs arrived was yet another VERY early one for me. I had made arrangements with some farmer neighbors to allow the truck and the trailer to park in their yards while we unloaded everything onto my property. My driveway was way too tight for a full-sized truck and trailer to get through, so we had to unload the truck first, transfer the logs from the trailer to the truck, and then haul everything onto my property in multiple trips.

It took a few trips to get my "Legos" to my property, but the driver was extremely experienced, and we managed to get everything done smoothly.

Despite some hydraulic issues with the crane, we managed to unload the logs without too much trouble. However, the most stressful part of the entire build was about to begin: keeping the logs dry.

By this point, we weren’t just dealing with snow - we had rain (!!), and as I’ve mentioned before, water is far worse than snow when it comes to log construction. The logs arrived tightly packed and wrapped in plastic, but I had to carefully seal any small holes from the delivery process to make sure everything stayed dry. No one wants to build a log house with wet logs!

The only damage from the delivery were the torn sections of the plastic. It wasn’t a big deal, but it was important to fix them to ensure the logs stayed dry.

A Log House & Sauna Built in Just One Week!

After a short wait, my miracle team arrived to begin the real magic: assembling the log house and sauna building. Incredibly, these three guys built two buildings in just one week!

Stay tuned for the next chapter, where I’ll take you through the next steps of this exciting build.

Jussi-Pekka Kajaala

Nordic Visionary, Creative Entrepreneur