Hello and welcome to another tale of harrowing home improvement!

A lot of things have changed at Vanha Talo Suomi lately. Let me give you some of the highlights.

• Same blog theme – new colors! AND until January the snowflakes will be falling!
• We now have a YouTube channel where some of our helpful & fun videos can be viewed! You can find the link easily – VIDEOS -in the left-hand sidebar.
• Included on the main page is a Blogroll with links to important sites you might like to know more about. You can find the link to -Blogroll -in the left-hand sidebar.
• On the main page there’s now a link to our Pinterest page where we store some of our good ideas!
• We’ve upgraded our site to PREMIUM -No more silly ads! Hurray!!!
• You can search for us on GOOGLE and/or other search engines – the Vanha Talo Suomi name now has it’s very own domain. http://www.vanhatalosuomi.com!
• Improved sleek design & appearance!
• Also!! New tabs at the top of the header with our growing plant & tree specimen list, garden design plan/layout & our bloom showcase!!
• Remodeling before & after – is coming soon!

In addition to all of that we’ve been doing actual home improvement!  Pekka was busy most of November cutting and installing stringers for the upstairs TV room (our old bedroom.) After getting stringers shimmed, the drywall/sheet rock was hauled up the stairs and installed. Then the tongue & groove ceiling boards were put into place.

He’s busy upstairs today as a matter of fact finishing the doorway opening and installing the final pieces of drywall. Once that’s all in place we can start mudding the drywall!
I think we’ve both learned quite a bit more about drywall than either of us ever wanted to know. I really hate the mess – drywall dust makes its way everywhere! Yak! 😦

While Pekka was doing all of that in November, I was busy sewing draperies for our master bedroom and the guest bedroom. After selecting great fabrics from Eurokangas and reading up on “how to make pleated drapes”, I starting this project. I’ve never sewn lined, pleated draperies before and felt I was a little behind the 8-ball – but thankfully the project went along pretty well and I now have two new sets of draperies for the effort!  Trickiest parts of this project were aligning all the pattern repeats & sewing through thick layers, but my little Singer powered through!

I would highly recommend to everyone/anyone previously put off about tackling a sewing project like this…don’t talk yourself out of it! You can do it! If I can do it, anyone can! 😉

Our guest bedroom is now sporting the lovely & colorful water-color effect draperies and the master bedroom has the octagon-shaped oatmeal drapes. The lining is really helpful in blocking out the power of the sun which is mandatory during the 18hr-days of sunlight in the summertime. I hope it does the trick – won’t know for sure until we actually get beyond the 6hrs of daylight we’re currently getting. yes, we’re in the dark days here! Looking forward to 21 December when the days start to lengthen.

We had 20c of snow in November but it all melted.  It’s been rather dry and cold the last couple weeks. We had some very cold night recently -10c (14F) but they didn’t last and it’s been a bit of a roller coaster in temperatures rising and falling lately. Proving once again that Finland has some Crazy Weather!

The electrician will be back later in the month to wire up our outdoor lighting and also to connect a few more of our indoor spaces!  🙂

We have plans on paper for new gardening and outdoor projects – 2017 is going to be a busy one for us.  Some of the new improvements on our project list:

• covered driveway pergola
• greenhouse completion
• landscaping the wooden walkway
• new rose bed featuring David Austin Roses
• completion of the water feature!

Until then, we have quite a few indoor projects to keep us busy. After the drywall is mudded & sanded, there’s priming & painting. We’ve got flooring to put down and once the TV room is complete I can get in there and D E C O R A T E !!  🙂

Black Friday sales were a big hit locally and we scored on a couple new recliners for the TV room!  Can’t wait to get them in there and watch a movie! Cue the popcorn!

In addition to the Finnish, Swedish, German, English and Italian we already know, Pekka & I have been taking Spanish classes since September.  We’d like to close out December 2016 with a final post message to all our friends & followers!

Hyvää Joulua! God Jul! Frohe Weihnachten! Merry Christmas! Buon Natale! Feliz Navidad!

❤ Vanha Talo Suomi