She wanted a café, he built a castle: “With hard work, even the most incredible dreams can come true”

My home is my castle—this timeless phrase still adorns the walls of many Finnish homes. For Olavi and Ann Mattsson, it became a literal reality. Their castle wasn’t inherited through royal lineage but built through unwavering determination, craftsmanship, and hard work. Their journey is nothing short of remarkable.

“We spent two years searching southern Finland for our perfect log house. Everything we found was either beyond our means or too close to major roads. Then one spring day in 1982, while crossing an old bridge in Perniö on our way to view another property, we both sensed this would be where we’d find our dream home,” Ann recalls.

Instead of a log house, they discovered a deteriorating 1960s box-like home. The neglected garden was buried under pyramids of debris with everything from hosiery to toilet bowls. To illustrate the scale of these refuse mountains, one later revealed an entire sauna building hidden inside it. The garden was also littered with tombstones, remnants of the previous owner’s business.

Yet Olavi and Ann weren’t deterred, having spotted something that captivated them both. The 18-hectare plot, nestled between rocky outcrops, reminded them of Black Forest in Germany. The vista was so compelling that they decided to purchase the property.

Their first challenge was clearing the expansive property.

“Remarkably, we removed 18 full semi-trailer loads of junk! We spent a decade in that box house, improving it as best we could. I built a natural stone fireplace, and we repainted the surfaces. The house had numerous structural issues: the floor sloped so severely that drinking coffee was precarious for anyone with balance issues, and we discovered mold in the walls,” Olavi recalls.

As Ann and Olavi continued dreaming of a log house, they took on a new project: organic farming. They were among the first organic farmers in Finland.

Ann has been collecting rustic furniture for decades. They have found their place in the dream home.

This massive fireplace complex is the centerpiece of the main room. The couple sought the shape of the fireplace using a butter package butter package to help visualize its design. Natural stone was sourced locally from nearby villages for the fireplace interior. While the fireplace and baking ovens see regular use, the main heater of the building is an efficient wood boiler in the cellar. It can hold half a cubic meter of wood.

The robust tables are essential, as the couple rents out the space for celebrations. Olavi made the dining room chairs from pine, following 1890s designs discovered in the Boman furniture factory archives.

Although they both came from entrepreneurial families, Ann and Olavi had little farming experience. Nevertheless, they boldly began farming their extensive land, committed to growing chemical-free potatoes and oats.

Olavi learned to navigate a tractor across rocky, sloping fields. Curious yet puzzled neighbors observed the couple’s efforts through binoculars, and when they found out about the budding farmers’ struggles with sowing, they helped out.

Ann and Olavi did everything as it would have been done a hundred years ago, starting from scratch. They sold their produce at markets, and Ann supplemented their income by selling sweaters made from the wool of their own sheep. Despite their hard work, organic products weren’t valued then, and with poor sales, they gave up farming in 1987.

After that, Olavi pursued various ventures to support the family, from managing a music store to selling real estate. His musical background led him into entertainment, which nearly proved disastrous. The industry environment led him to drink more and more, until he eventually faced severe anxiety and the threat of losing his health and even his life.

Recovery began when Olavi had a spiritual awakening. It then emerged that Ann had experienced the very same thing a decade earlier but had kept silent, knowing his previous skepticism toward faith. This spiritual change saved the entire family, giving their life meaning beyond material pursuits.

Their dream of a log house moved closer to realization when they discovered something new: the Nokka farm’s original main building in a Häntälä valley in Somero, which was already being dismantled for firewood. Olavi and Ann quickly inquired about purchasing and relocating the log structure to their property. After some consideration, the owner agreed to sell, and the couple began dismantling it together, now joined by their two children.

“We preserved everything salvageable, including the exterior cladding. I developed a meticulous marking system for the bare frame, beginning with color-coding the outer corners. I did wonder if we’d ever manage to reassemble this puzzle.”

It took two truck drivers two weeks to load the logs piece by piece onto timber trucks. One early morning, the trucks arrived, and the logs were spread out over nearly a hectare of land.

A portrait of Ann’s grandfather, Nikolai Boman, oversees the dining room festivities. He is considered one of the most significant pioneers of modern furniture manufacturing in Finland. Artist Lundberg signed the painting in 1881.

A talented musician, Olavi now primarily performs for the enjoyment of himself and guests. Besides the grand piano, he entertains café visitors with saxophone performances on the wall. The original double doors feature delicate, paper-thin glass panes. The painting of a girl by a campfire is by Albert Edelfelt, who exchanged it for a Boman dresser. The unsigned work depicts Edelfelt’s lover.

Olavi, who dreamed of being a sculptor as a child, carved a pony with its head held high for the staircase out of a piece of log using a chainsaw.

During the early stages of construction, Olavi’s father was an invaluable help. Some of the logs had rotted due to over a century of lye washing and had to be replaced. The frame, measured with a hay pole, was also not square, meaning adjustments were needed from the foundation up.

Olavi and Ann did most of the work themselves, aided by a tractor and trailer. They vividly remember how Ann, who had recently given birth, was equipped with a weightlifting belt, and then they lifted a log together. Ann pushed herself to the limit with the log hoisted onto her shoulder, risking a six-meter fall into the rock pit inside the foundations. Meanwhile, Olavi supported the log while shaping a dovetail joint to the right size with a chainsaw.

They later discovered each log weighed 300 kilograms. Fortunately, they completed construction without accidents.

“Our travels in Germany inspired both our fireplace designs and the decision to clad the house exterior in stone. We found suitable cobble at Muurla’s sand pit. In addition, we needed over ten thousand bricks to complete the fireplaces.”

Olavi’s father helped making the doors and windows. They sourced period-appropriate machine-made glass from Poland. The house has 1,500 windowpanes, with glass that is just the right amount of bubbly and colored green and brown.

While the original structure was single-story, as was typical at the time, it became part of a three-story building in its new incarnation. Olavi built a 17-meter-high chimney with ten flues. The two-and-a-half-month project was so demanding that he lost over 30 kilograms. The chimney services two fireplaces, two baking ovens, and a wood stove.

Olavi commends the basement’s 60-kilowatt Arimax wood boiler with its 3,000-liter water tank for heating the entire house. They, of course, harvest their own firewood, using approximately 70 cubic meters annually.

The canopy above the bed enhances the bedroom’s castle-like atmosphere. Olavi built the bed from salvaged roof beams. The angel statue is a gift from their children, while the ceiling light came from an antique shop. The water radiator system is covered by paneling.

No castle is complete without suits of armor. Drawing on his blacksmithing expertise, Olavi made them himself from black sheet metal.

Ann, a textile artist who has gained some international recognition, has her winter shop and studio in the castle’s upper floor. She primarily works with linen and Finnish wool. The walls and ceiling are waiting for Ann to create paintings on them.

The luminous bathroom stands in striking contrast to the house’s darker tones. They discovered the magnificent clawfoot tub at a bargain on an online marketplace.

Their vision for furnishing embraced Central European aesthetics, prioritizing pieces that pleased their artistic sensibilities. With few ready-made options available, they made most of the furniture themselves. After all, craftmanship was in their blood.

“My parents were interior architects. My grandfather, Nikolai Boman, established a steam-powered carpentry factory, initiating six generations of woodworking tradition,” Ann explains.

Boman’s legacy includes manufacturing furniture for the Royal Palace of Sweden and the court of St. Petersburg. In 1952, the Boman Company was granted the title of Royal Court Supplier of Sweden. Olavi’s family heritage includes crafting distinguished coffins in Åland.

“With these backgrounds, it’s no wonder we ended up making furniture for our home in our own workshop. I’ve also been collecting rustic furniture for decades, and they eventually found their place here,” Ann notes.

The castle in the rocky valley is not only Olavi and Ann’s home but also their workplace—an unexpected evolution from their initial vision.

“Ann’s family enjoys spending time together, and since we had plenty of space, parties were most often organized here. Gradually, people began suggesting that we turn this into our profession. We didn’t need much convincing, so at the turn of the millennium, we started a manor house rental business.”

Their castle has hosted everything from team-building days to weddings and funerals. They’ve expanded their offerings to other activities, too, including river adventures and “young at heart” days designed for adults.

Their creative vision continued to evolve. Olavi had always dreamed of building towers, though they wouldn’t suit the main house. When Ann expressed interest in adding a café space to the house, Olavi saw an opportunity to combine both ideas. Over breakfast, he sketched plans for a wall connecting two 11-meter towers. With Ann’s approval, he began construction.

Ann and Olavi’s residence was built from the historic logs of the Nokka farm. While originally single-story, it has been transformed into a three-story building.

Ann and Olavi approached their project with determination rather than dwelling on the workload or their expertise. The process itself became their teacher.

The impressive wall spans 40 meters in length and 5 meters in width. The heavy block structure is treated with ML500 coating. Completing this project single-handedly in six months is a remarkable achievement.

“The work had to be done quickly so that our business wouldn’t be disrupted too much. I used heavy blocks as material, made stairs from logs, and welded the railings. The workdays stretched to 15 hours. The whole project took only six months,” Olavi says.

The tower café opened its doors in 2015. Weather permitting, guests can enjoy refreshments on top of the wall. During summer months, Ann’s handicraft shop occupies the second tower.

Ann and Olavi are grateful that they have been able to realize their dreams.

“With hard work, even the most incredible dreams can come true.”