It happened at the end of the summer of 2022 that we sold our bikes and went to an auction site to look for snowmobiles.
Then we came across a plot of land on the banks of the Äkäsjoki river with a dismantled log cabin.

We started digging for more information about the surrounding areas.
One hundred meters to state hunting grounds!
4 km to the Muonion River to catch salmon!
40m To my own beach to challenge for bass!
30 minutes to Ylläs, one hour to Pallas and 25km to Sudden Slalom.
To the train station by car train 16km, Airport 70km!
Not every day you can find something like this!
At the end of the road!
After a couple of days of fussing and shouting, we soon found out that we were the owners of a “cottage”.
For a moment we wondered how this could have happened.

“Unbreakable” for the over-optimist

The feeling was so strong for both of us that this is ours.
For a long time we had dreamed of a hideaway in the wilderness of Lapland.
In the picture, the river landscape peeking out from the top of the hill impressed us, even though the couple of pictures from the auction didn’t give us a very accurate picture of the place.
Nor did you get a good view of the cottage, for that matter.

As over-optimists, we thought that the log cabin could always be repaired.
We took our overnight stuff from Tahko and drove to see what we could buy.

When we got there, it was immediately clear that yes, the cottage was indeed “in a state of disrepair”.
To our delight, we discovered that there was a spring under the cottage.
What we were not so happy about was that the cottage, which had been sitting empty for 20 years, had fallen into the spring.
Nature had taken over and nailed the tubes of the cottage to the ground.
The cottage floated in its canoe and half-floated in a gaily flowing mountain stream.

Time had stopped 20 years ago

Inside, on the other hand, it was as if someone had just left the place, thinking they would be back.
It would be interesting to know what the story was.
There were coffee cups on the table and an open magazine from 2003 and the dishes were not washed.
It was as if time had stood still.
As a result of swimming in the fountain, the floor of the cabin was somewhat rotted and the slipper didn’t quite go through yet.
It was immediately clear that it would not be a good place to spend the night.
The mice had had a party.

Noooh – say the Norwegian.
After a tour of the cottage, the host said “I guess this is going to be a bit bigger project than I thought”.

Designing a new cottage

Well, the plot was gorgeous and immediately after the shock of the wine bottle, the host started planning how to build a new cottage by the salmon river.
They called an old friend, Sepo, who builds hand-carved log cabins for a living.
Seppo lives in Pyhäjärvi, from where it’s not that far to Kolari.
If the old cottage doesn’t turn out to be a bargain, we’ll make the dream we’ve been dreaming of our own.
The old cottage can be made into a woodshed.

It didn’t take long for the beak to turn up, when there was already a plan for a new cottage.
The healthy logs from the old one would be salvaged and used to build a storage room.
Let’s also rent it out so we can cut down on expenses.

It took some time with the permits, and more than six months later in May 2023 we were looking at the location and direction of the cottage, and at the same time Seppo had already cut down a few fir trees so that the magnificent view of the Äkäsjoki river began to open up better.
The place was even better than he remembered from his first shock.

During the winter, trees were already cut and felled and logs were carved, from which the dream hideaway is now beginning to be built.
It will be ready in autumn.
The cottage will be available for rent and can be booked from October 2023.

Your own spring – a year-round open space!

The private spring was a great surprise that we didn’t know about and it allows for fresh drinking water from the cold mountain stream and an opening!
As avid open-air swimmers, we have dreamed of a year-round open-air pool that flows from the spring and is conveniently located next to the cabin so that it is easy to access directly from the sauna.
Above the spring, we draw drinking water from the spring, and direct the overflowing water to flow downwards so that the opening has a continuous flow of water.

Now you can book the Äkäsjoki hide for half price from the beginning of October.
Check the booking calendar here and make your reservation, or send an email to: jani@wanhakoulu.fi!

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