That’s were the idea set off from. From the love towards nature, hiking, fresh air and Northern wood. The selection of a house type for our nature-loving family has always been clear. Wood offers us something important and close. Its presence calms and creates well-being, as well as takes your mind off hectic everyday life. Therefore, why shouldn’t we include it as part of our everyday life, in other words our home?
Once we managed to find ourselves a plot we like, it still had an old 1950s veteran house. Over the years, the garden had developed into quite a jungle, although we had heard that enthusiastic horticulturists had once lived at the property. We were told that half way down the garden, there had once been Arctic raspberry bushes, and after further exploring the garden, we found all sorts of flowers, such as white and yellow wood anemones. The yellow wood anemones were moved to the neighbour’s flower bed to be saved from the construction work and await the completion of the new house, the “Kultsi log home”. That’s the nickname we gave our future home.
Good to breathe, pleasing to the eye
In the summer of 2018, we sat down at the garden swing we had acquired together with the architect and a familiar responsible site manager to discuss the specifications of our future home. To my husband and I, the selection of a log home was an obvious one and, for example, none of our friends ever questioned, why we wanted a log home. The more topical question was, what did we want the log home to be like. Our architect said that the interior design of his daughter’s home was wooden, and while sitting on the swing he considered that as a material, wood is the type of material that entices you to touch it. The surface of wood is lively and rich in nuances, and its pleasing to the eye.
For us, the greatest drive in the selection of a log home was however the good indoor air. I have personally been exposed to poor indoor air at various workplaces and apartments, so I definitely wanted a home where it would be good to breathe. Log is said to efficiently balance the temperature and humidity of indoor air, and various harmful microbes do not survive well on log surfaces, so in practice a log home was the only interesting option. The environmental friendliness of log construction is also discussed, so that also felt good during these times of climate change. We just couldn’t anticipate how many different options log offers!
A dream of a modern log home
I have browsed through hundreds if not thousands of log home photos on Instagram. I am clearly pulled towards a modern style and interior design as well as beautiful light-toned surfaces. Although our initial idea started with solid wood, our final choice focused on modern laminated spruce logs. In actual fact, the exact reason for us choosing Kuusamo Log Houses as our supplier was that an acquaintance of mine recommended Kuusamo Log Houses as a supplier. He had even visited Kuusamo Log Houses’ factory to check out the premises and logs, and he was impressed with what he saw.
To begin with, we began to map out log home suppliers who were able to deliver a house made of planed logs. There aren’t even very many in Finland, if we talk about the delivery of full-size detached homes. But what happened to our original idea was that our sales representative provided us with further information about the functionality and options of laminated log, although he didn’t seem to have anything against planed logs either.
Safe and healthy laminated log
We underwent several discussions with our log home sales representative, Jaakko, about the adhesive of laminated logs, which naturally concerned me. It was important to me to clarify various issues concerning emissions and materials, so that our home would be as toxic-free and allergy-friendly as possible. Jaakko provided me with information about the adhesive Kuusamo Log Houses uses in laminated logs. The adhesive is a wood-based PUR glue. It was important for me that the adhesive did not contain formaldehyde, and that is something Kuusamo Log Houses does not use in its laminated logs. I also read about the emissions of laminated spruce logs from various sources and I was satisfied that laminated log could work in the construction of our home. Laminated log was certainly also pleasing in terms of its modern appearance and its possibility to design our future home in the style I wished. My husband, on the other hand, did not want any major settling which is typical for planed logs. I also considered that we would a achieve an airtight and energy-efficient home with laminated log.
In addition to adhesives, we also considered the suitability of insulation for between the logs. Kuusamo’s options included polypropene or flax insulation. I wanted to also further familiarise in them and I was sent a sample of both of them by post to be seen and smelled. In terms of insulation, we read reports online and they were both found to withstand humidity at approximately the same rate. Our final selection focused on flax. The decision was made purely on the basis of feelings – the natural flax material just seemed like a more suitable option for the log home. Perhaps our future carpenter will “thank” us for our choice, as our sales representative Jaakko, who is also a carpenter, was able to explain that due to the resilience of the flax, it is slightly tougher to install between the logs when erecting the house.
A 150-square-metre piece of love
Our family has dreamed of a log home for about three years now. The house has been planned and designed, photos and models have been searched online and from friends. It has been drawn and drafted, both by us and by professionals. Now it is finally true and on its on its way, that 150-square-metre “piece of love”. We trust that the slowly-grown wood of the north will provide our family with a good home, “Kultsi home” or “Casa de la Skutsi”. As they say, a dear child has many names.
We welcome you to follow our building project and journey towards a new log home!
Taija
The family is building Kuusamo Log Houses’ modern log home in Central Finland according to their own plans. Blog posts are published about the different construction stages.
