Janne and Eeva and their two children live in a detached house they built themselves. The family was able to move in a few years ago, but there's still work to do. The home is gradually being finished along the hustle and bustle of everyday life.

Fortunately, the parents aren't all thumbs; they both work in the building sector, Eeva is a civil engineer and Janne installs solar collectors. Antti goes to school and plays the drums, does rock dance and swims. Little brother Olli goes to the nursery, the music playgroup and swimming classes.

When both parents are working, the day is busy and scheduled. But when there's any time left over from building the house and work, the family takes a break together, either travelling by car or, for example, popping in at their summer cottage. Another common hobby is going to car races at the motor racing circuit.

Wednesday 2 February 2011

Janne woke up to the sound of snow thomping down from the roof. Thaw had set in and loosened the snow on the tin roof. It was only six o'clock so there was still time to have a little nap. Eeva, however, had to get up, she had to leave for work in an hour.

At seven Eeva steered her car to the motorway, heading for Hyvinkää and the building site. Janne, too, gradually got up and started to wake up the boys. Antti made his way to the bathroom and then for breakfast. Olli would have his breakfast at the nursery.

When the morning routines had been done with and the car cleared from under the ice and snow, it was time to go. First Janne drove Antti to school and then Olli to the nursery.

The previous day Janne had rented a lift he needed for installing a solar collector. He took the lift to the site on a trailer and reversed it next to the end wall of the house under construction. When everything was ready, Janne decided to take a break and have a cup of coffee at his father's house.

Eeva's day began with the orientation of a new employee. After that there was paperwork, some invoices to sort out, orders to make and memos to write. In addition, she dropped in at the construction site to determine the supplies needed.

It was story time at Olli's nursery group. First the group listened to a children's book on grief and death. Then they discussed the subject, after which they worked on it using drama. Before lunch they had some gymnastics.

At the building site Janne was at the stage where he got to raise up towards the roof ridge on the lift. The plan was to attach pipes to the solar collectors that had been installed on the roof the day before. Later on these pipes would contain a water glycol solution, which in turn would heat the clean water in the house. This way the light and warmth of the sun is put into use.

Antti's school day ended earlier than expected, because the remedial class at the end of the day was cancelled. Today they had had English, Maths and Crafts. After school Antti walked to Grandma's house: there was a heap of freshly made pancakes waiting for him and wasn't that a treat on a winter day! After pancakes it was a time to do the homework.

As the afternoon turned towards the evening, Antti called his father to ask for a ride home. Janne promised to come and together they went to pick up Olli from the nursery. Eeva was also finishing off, she closed the construction site gates and set off towards home. The weather seemed to be freezing again.

At home the snow fallen from the roof was blocking the garage, so Eeva couldn't drive the car in. Janne took to clearing the yard while Eeva went in to prepare the dinner; chips, chicken, vegetables and salad. The boys helped by emptying the dish washer. Then Olli and Antti got to play on Playstation. While Olli waited for dinner he also read the Donald Duck magazine and played with Lego.

After the laundry and other household chores were done the phone rang – it was a friend of Eeva's, who also dropped by for a cup of evening coffee. While the adults were having coffee, the boys went out to play in the snow.

Janne lit the fire and soon it was time for the boys to come in; have an evening snack and get to bed. It was nice to go to sleep with the fireplace warming up the house.

Thoughts about everyday life

"There's the most rush in the moments when you return from work, get the family home, prepare the dinner, transport everyone to their activities, and try to figure out when to go get the groceries."

"During the weekends it's mostly about getting some rest, but if there's a celebration of some kind, there are all kinds of urgent things to be done as well, but it is a different kind of a performance than on weekdays, so that way it's refreshing."

"Ecology is nowadays about things on a grander scale, we no longer have the time to examine each tin in the supermarket and calculate the global effects of buying it, but our house is built in such a way that not too much energy is spent on heating it and the whole house is heated on wood, not for example on electricity."

"We clean the house in cycles, when there's enough dishes and dirty clothes around, the need to swab out the house arises. After that it's all tidy for a moment until everything blows up again. We don't do the kind of picking things up here and there all day from morning to night. It's all or nothing!"

“It's good that at least one of the parents has a regular salary, - our life wouldn't fall apart if one of us was laid off, unemployed or for example on a job alternation leave."