One clever idea, three big wins: Heidi and Arto add an indoor toilet, storage, and a second entrance
Finnish couple Heidi and Arto solved their old summer cottage’s storage problems and lack of an indoor toilet by building a porch in front of the cottage, which also provided a much-desired second entrance.
Starting point
At just under 30 square meters (about 323 square feet), the summer cottage had no storage space at all. A renovation added kitchen cabinets, but there was no room for new closets. Clothing and bed linens had been stored for years in the sleeping hut.
Heidi and Arto got the idea to expand the cottage with a porch that would feature a second entrance, storage space, and an indoor toilet.
Work phases
Arto designed the roughly 10-square-meter (about 108-square-foot) addition himself. Because of the bedrock underneath, the new section’s lacquered pine floor is slightly higher than the rest of the cottage. They also wanted underfloor heating in the space.
Arto built the porch under a felt roof so the structure would remain dry. Eventually, that felt roof stayed underneath the new metal roof, because they wanted all the roofs to be metal.
During construction, the partially built porch was kept separate from the cottage with the old exterior door so cold air wouldn’t enter from the worksite. Now the old door has been replaced with a glass door.
At one end of the new space, Arto built a roomy bathroom, a cleaning closet, and a linen closet. The bathroom and cleaning closet are behind handy sliding doors.
The bathroom walls were fitted with the weathered wall panels from the old dressing room, which Arto had saved from an earlier renovation. They weren’t enough for the entire space, so the end wall and the other walls are pale plywood.
Arto also installed several outlets in the space: even the cleaning closet has one, for charging a stick vacuum. A narrow gap left in the wall became a mattress storage area.
The result
The porch is the only new, self-built space at the cottage. Now it’s easy to come straight from the parking area with belongings without having to go around to the veranda.
The cottage stays neat because shoes are left in the porch, half of which functions as an entryway. The pair can conveniently put their kitchen scraps in the composting toilet.
“The cupboards gained a great amount of storage space, which is now starting to be enough,” Heidi says.
Lessons from the builders
- It was worthwhile to reuse the weathered wall panels from the old dressing room in the bathroom, because they bring a 1960s cottage feel.
- Arto nailed the panels to the wall using the old nail holes. The row of nails isn’t straight, which bothers Heidi a bit. On the other hand, the panels weren’t damaged by new nails, and the uneven row of nails adds character.
- Think carefully about everything you need storage space for at the cottage. Proper planning before building makes cottage life smoother, and items stay organized.
- You can turn an IKEA wooden fruit bowl into a small indoor sink by drilling a hole for the drain. A glass jar with a spigot is handy for storing handwashing water.
- The old locks on the bathroom and cleaning closet doors no longer work, but they were left in place as handles.
- If needed, the plywood on the walls is an excellent surface for wallpaper later, which we know from before.
