Motivation

I decided to buy a house in the region where I grew up at the end of 2021. One might ask why since I left Finland over 15 years ago. Well, there are several reasons:

  1. I still have a lots of stuff in Finland and I needed a place for them. Renting a large enough storage space would be really expensive in the long run.
  2. I’m likely going to move back to Finland when I retire, so having a place to live in which is fully paid off and completely owned by me makes a lot of sense.
  3. Investing in real estate is usually a good idea. When I bought the house, the interest rates were still negative. Naturally, having a mortgage now is not so appealing, but since the Swiss Franc is currently very strong, the situation is not so bad for me.
  4. I want to build a private sound/recording studio, so a house is an excellent solution. An acoustic drum kit in an apartment is not a viable option.

Overview of the House

The construction of the house started in 1976 and finished in 1977. I bought the house from the original owner. The building has only one level, no basement. The sauna and the garage are integrated into the building. The total indoor area is 187 m2 (2013 ft2), and the piece of land 559 m2 (6017 ft2). The ventilation is gravity based, and the house is heated with electricity, i.e., with radiators containing an electrical resistor connected to the power grid. The same applies also to the water boiler. However, there are a fire place, a masonry oven, and a traditional sauna stove, so one can also burn wood for additional heating if desired.

The original owner had already done quite some renovation:

  • The water pipes were renewed in 2014.
  • The roof was converted from flat roof to gable roof in 2020.
  • The kitchen was renovated in 2020. All kitchen counters and appliances were removed.
  • The bathroom and the toilet were renovated in 2020.
  • The sauna and the shower room were renovated in 2010. A floor heating was installed in the shower room.
  • The inside walls in most rooms were painted in 2020.
  • All large windows were replaced in 2021.
  • The outside walls were painted in 2021.

Upgrades

Since the house remains uninhabited for an undefined period of time, the most important factor for any upgrade is energy efficiency to keep the maintanence costs low. The annual temperature variation is roughly from -30 °C (-22 °F) to 30 °C (86 °F) in the region. This means that one should improve the thermal insulation as much as possible to avoid thermal leakage, but one should not forget proper ventilation to ensure a good air circulation inside the house. Furthermore, the heating system should be upgraded and supplemented to enable a better temperature control and to reduce energy consumption. The temperatures in different indoor areas must be kept at a level that prevents excessive air humidity to avoid mold growth.

Based on the abovementioned considerations, the following upgrades have been done so far:

  • All original radiators that were in use were replaced with radiators supporting WLAN based remote access for temperature control.
  • The original front door was replaced with a modern-day double-insulated door.
  • The original twin garage doors were replaced by a high-lift garage door with remotely controlled automatic garage door opener.
  • Remotely readable temperature and air humidity sensors were placed in every room.
  • A contactor controlled three-phase power feed to the water boiler was installed. The contactor is controlled by a smart power plug enabling remote control and scheduled operation of the water boiler.
  • The standard floor heating controller in the shower room was replaced with a remotely controllable and programmable version.
  • An air-to-air heat pump suitable for operation at cold temperatures was installed to reduce the electricity cost due to heating during winter.
  • Several ventilation window doors were equipped with an air vent that automatically adjusts itself according to the outside temperature to improve indoor air circulation without wasting energy.