Hi,
I live in the formerly well populated coastal area in the west of Finland. There are masses of uninhabited old log houses which are being demolished for firewood on a daily basis to skip property tax. It breaks my heart!
Although I strongly encourage permies to move here, next best would be to move these structures, like a flat pack, in a shipping container anywhere. Good insulation.
Check out the link for a house being given away, for example https://www.facebook.com/groups/1526511810826745/permalink/2159719027506017/ Anyone interested?
That really is a shame. I love the old Billnas and Kellokoski axes, and the traditional woodworking that went along with them. They really knew how to make cabins, that's for sure.
Awesome if someone is working to save them. For those of us who try to avoid FB, is there any information about how one of those log houses would make its way from Finland to the US? Who takes it apart and loads it in the shipping container? (Do the folks hoping to avoid Finnish property tax volunteer to do that?)
I was in Finland a few times, years ago. Nowhere else have I seen that unique blend of first-world technology and hygiene with "... but I'd rather be in the forest." Forests are everywhere there, including in the midst of Helsinki (to get from one part to another by foot, you may end up following a walking path through a forest)
Therein lies the rub. The owners are generally only interested in demolition with a tractor and chainsaw. To take down a house and save the windows, doors, floorplanks etc. is quite a job. Not impossible though and massively worthwhile. High quality timber.
I wish there were a Finnish equivalent of those folks in the US who work to save historic houses slated for demolition by people who want to build something else on the land. The houses are often extremely cheap (or even free), subject to that the taker needs to pay for the labor of moving it - which is really high for that kind of house, but might be a lot less for a simple log structure.
How cool those places are and how sad what is happening to them.
I strongly doubt that I could afford the shipping but you never know. Did we ever find out an approximate price point for shipping a whole house overseas?
Post by:autobot
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