Summer had gone fast. I had planned to get the firewood shed built before mid-Summer, but the project stood half-finished in mid-August. Should I complete it before starting any other project? But last winter wasn't that comfortable as I had to struggle to keep the house somewhat warm. To improve the house warmth insulation the next step would be to renovate the floor of the main room. So I postponed the firewood shed completion, giving higher priority to the floor project.

First I needed to expose all of the floor surface. I carried all the furniture away from the main room, stacking them in the smaller room. The smaller room became so full of stuff that only space that was left was a chair in front of the computer, and half of the sofa. From that on I slept in the upstairs of the entrance part.

I started removing the old floor. It had a plastic mat on top of chip-board. Under the chip-boards it was some 10 cm of mineral wool, and under it a layer of dry sand and peat. I removed all of that and found a thin layer of concrete. The concrete was little above the level of the bottom of the lowest logs of the walls. For the thermal insulation of a log wall one of the most crucial part is the bottom of the lowest log - if there is a gap under the lowest log, cold air gets inside the floor structure making the house rather drafty. So I needed to remove the concrete as well.

On the surface of the concrete there were pieces of newspaper. The text was still readable, the news dated to August 1941, so it was mostly news about the war. Well, but that also means that the layer of concrete has been made some time in the 1940's, so I don't know how exactly was the original floor structure back in the 1905 when this house was built. But what I know is that the rooms aren't that high, and that the lowest logs rest rather close to the ground. All of that means some restrictions to what kind of new floor structure I can plan.

There was an extra thick layer of concrete around the area where the water pipe and sewer are. I planned to save that. Alas, as I was working with removing the thin layer of concrete, the thicker layer got serious cracks. So I decided to remove it, too. That caused some extra work, and I had to temporarily disconnect the running water. Under the concrete it was just soil - mostly sand and stones.

So I had all of the old floor removed. Now I could clearly see the places which had gaps under the lowest log. I filled the gaps with a mixture of concrete and small stones. Then I started building the structure for a new floor. I designed it so that it will have a 60 cm wide bank of sand next to the walls. And under the centre area of the floor it will be 30 cm of empty space. So the idea is that the bank of sand stops the cold air coming from outside the walls. And the air in the empty space under the floor needs to circulate with the air above the floor. As the room is heated, the air under the floor also gets warm, and that prevents it from becoming too moist. It is moisture which destroys timber, so it is essential to keep things dry. This kind of floor structure was used in the 1800's, but got more rare in the 1900's. But, if properly constructed, there is nothing wrong with this kind of structure, and it can be used if needed. I learnt this by reading articles about traditional building methods, and decided to give it a try.

I've already used a similar structure when I renovated the floor of the smaller room. The floor of the smaller room has never felt particularly cold, so I think the structure works. The space under the floor of the smaller room has two ventilation channels. I close the channels in late autumn and open then in the early summer, so that outdoors fresh air will circulate under the floor - again, to let any moisture out. For the main room I only built one channel connecting the centre empty space with outdoor air. But there is a connection to the smaller room, so I figured that three channels all together will be enough for the two rooms.

I made the actual supporting structure of 2" by 5" timber. I got the structure completed by Monday night. Next it was time for some sort of make-shift structure holding the sinks and the water tap. But it was around midnight and I was too tired to continue building so I went to sleep. Tuesday morning I woke up at 4am, with ideas running through my mind. What would be the quickest and easiest way to build that structure for the sinks and the tap? An idea clarified in my mind, and at 5am I gave up and didn't try to sleep more. So I got up, drank some coffee and started building. By noon I had the running water and sewer re-connected. For the rest of the Tuesday I had customers for massage.

The following night I slept for six hours, and again woke up feeling an urge to start installing the new floor planks. I knew a few friends were coming to visit for the weekend, and I wanted to get everything done before that. Also, Wednesday night it would be MÄSÄ playing at Tampere, and I didn't want to miss that gig. I worked until 6pm, but because of some minor difficulties I only got about one third of the floor planks installed. Oh well. I felt sleep deprived, my mouth was dry and I had a little head-ache. I took some painkillers and drove to Tampere. A friend joined company and we went to see MÄSÄ. Oh, it was totally worth it. MÄSÄ packs real and toy instruments and a wild energetic stage performance. Despite all the fatigue I found myself dancing and singing along. (The band members have said that it is kind of a therapy project for them - to get to play music which isn't that much about serious perfection, but all about sheer wild joy and energy. Works for me!)

On Thursday my friend came to help me with the floor project. Together we got the rest of the floor planks installed. Before going to sleep we applied linen oil onto the floor. For Friday it was still some small finishing work, which we got all done before more guests arrived. So it was time to celebrate the autumn equinox and the new floor together with friends. Cheers!