Waar vorige zomer de oplevering van ons huis en de verhuizing centraal stonden, was het deze zomer de beurt aan het exterieur. Het verven van het huis, de garage, de terras- en balkonvloer was een hele klus. Zo ook de afwerking van de trappen en de buitenkant van de fundering.
We zijn ook flink in de weer geweest met het afvalhout van de bouw. Op maat gezaagd en de houtschuur in, kunnen we daar denk ik wel drie winters de sauna mee aan de praat houden.
I live in Mäntyharju, between Lahti and Mikkeli, and arguably the most beautiful little town in eastern Finland.
My commute to Espoo stretches about 200 km, equivalent to a 2.5 hrs. drive by car (summer conditions) or 3.5 hrs. train-metro-bus journey.
I’d like to get in touch with other commuters between eastern Finland and the capital area (okay, yeah, Mäntyharju is not the only beautiful place around there 
).
Who knows, maybe we can leverage some hidden economies of scale.
Following up on my exploration of OpenLaszlo and Google’s maps beta (see my previous entry), the picture you see here is a satellite view of Mäntyharju, the village I live in.
Google’s map search had never heard of Mäntyharju. No problem though, I "browsed" there through the global satellite picture interface. Starting from the default map of the United States, scrolling all the way East over the Atlantic, and up north into Finland. When I zoomed in close enough, I could just follow the motor way from Helsinki.
If you click on the image, you will get to the latest satellite picture of this location on Google.
As per first of October, we are officially Mäntyharju citizens.
It’s been a year since we moved from Helsinki to the Finnish countryside. No regrets. Why? In one phrase: QoL (Quality of Life).
Space, fresh air, clean water, fantastic sunsets over lake Pyhävesi. A great place to grow up.
One of the attractions of living in the countryside is that you can truely live with the seasons. Like in the old days.
We hebben ons huis geschilderd. Op verzoek van Mieke, mijn moeder, hierbij een handvol recente kiekjes.
(Photo: Sat, Nov 20, 2004, 11:59 GMT+02:00)
The view from the top of the hill in Pietarinpuisto was rather grand.