We did it!

Back in London after visiting the land, we did nothing but weigh the pros and cons of that investment. Although it was neither burdensome nor unsustainable, it was essential to invest well the few resources we had available.

Even today we are aware that we have jumped into the void and we cannot know if everything we are planning and dreaming of, will come true. What we do know, however, is that we haven't stopped believing and working hard to achieve one goal at a time.

A month had passed since our first trip to Finland and we decided to give ourselves a few days' holiday in Scotland to celebrate our birthdays and have time together to think, away from our busy London life.

And it was in Edinburgh, as we strolled through enchanted streets and buildings steeped in history, that we made perhaps the most important decision of our life. We would buy that wonderful land that we already felt was ours.

So we contacted the agency informing them of our decision to buy.

After sending the deposit and booking the tickets for January 2019, we just had to wait.

On January 31, 2019 we found ourselves walking the same Odyssey we had undertaken months before, this time, however, with a little more awareness and knowledge. And perhaps even more courage.

Here, what we weren't really prepared for was the freezing cold and the meters of snow that welcomed us. Not that it bothered us: one of the many things we have in common is a love of cold weather. We had simply never breathed the frozen air that enters your lungs at -20 degrees.

Our real estate agent was waiting for us as always at Jyväskylä station. Driving the 40 minutes that separated us from the agency, we were, if possible, even more delighted at the sight of those immense evergreen trees frozen and covered with snow. Until then, we had only seen such a landscape in postcards.

We found a notary waiting for us in the office (term used for convenience. In reality, this professional figure does not exist in Finland. Signing the official contracts, usually it costs  60 euros by both parties in negotiation). Sitting next to the notary, an elderly gentleman, who we later discovered was one of the owners of the land. 

They welcomed us with coffee, pastries and various sweets. The old owner told us, in stunningly correct English, the story of the old property, of how four generations had lived there and made it what it is today. There were greenhouses, animals, hives, fishes in the lake and crops. In short, he described what we intended to build. As soon as he became aware of our intentions, he could not hold back his emotion. The land was owned by him and four other brothers. Their mom was too old and weak to stay in her old home and the land required too much maintenance and physical labor. Unfortunately, none of the brothers had the opportunity or the time to devote to returning the property to its former glory. He gave us several photos of the property dating back at least 50 years, with a promise to help us if we ever needed it.

After the papers were signed, they all accompanied us to see the property. More than a meter of snow awaited us, and the beauty of seeing that dream place, in the muffled white silence, and knowing it as ours, is still indescribable today.



Once again, we took advantage of the trip and stayed at the Hotel in Helsinki where we went back to our new favorite restaurant. That evening we happily celebrated the beginning of the dream that seemed, absurdly, more real then ever.