A fresh start in an abandoned house: Ilkka and Asta pay rent by restoring their home
Before Asta Aalto and Ilkka Arvola could clear out the abandoned log house enough to move in, they spent two months living in a shipping container. It was quite the experiment.
Finnish Savonia’s rural scenery spreads out before you. The main building, coated in yellow earth paint, still stands firm on its rocky foundation after sitting empty for years. A log outbuilding, some tens of meters in length, divides the yard from the forest behind it. A thrush built its nest there twice over the summer. A small flock of ducks bustles near the woodshed, right alongside a thriving garden full of potatoes and red currants.
A father and daughter size up some old wagon wheels in the rocky yard. These weathered finds are about to get a new chance at life. Ilkka Arvola’s and Emma Arvola’s plan is to turn the wheels into a table and a ceiling chandelier. They’re thinking the main room might be just right for the chandelier.
The sun beats down, and nature is bursting with green. The head of the household can’t recall such lushness in years. The old pastures leading up to the house buzz with insects, the trees teem with small birds and hawks, and the nearby waters provide a haven for various lake birds: loons, ospreys, red-throated divers, mergansers, swans, and grebes.
Fish from Lake Saimaa also catch the attention of 44-year-old Ilkka, who works as a food specialist. He knows how to cure roach, ide, and whitefish so skillfully that each bite is a genuine treat.
Near the border between Ristiina and Puumala, on the old Anttila estate, fish recipes and bird nesting make perfectly natural conversation topics. After all, it was the surrounding nature that drew Ilkka and his partner Asta Aalto to this clearly timeworn, abandoned farm.
As soon as the lady of the house nears the duck enclosure, the birds let out loud quacking. Meal time!
Ilkka is an entrepreneur in the food sector in Mikkeli, with a mission to showcase local cuisine internationally alongside Mikkeli’s tourism organization. His work often takes him to neighboring communities, and he’d rolled past this house multiple times. Its beauty impressed him, even though the outbuilding’s roof was in danger of collapse, and the yard had grown wild. Without urgent care, the outbuilding might have been lost.
In early 2021, fate took a hand. Asta, 46, was studying to be a nature guide and was interning at Restaurant Kallioniemi in Ristiina. Ilkka was there, too. They met, they clicked, and so began their shared path of bold, inventive ideas.
“We drove by the house that spring, wondering what might become of it. We wanted to see who owned it. The idea of reviving the place and living in a bygone setting really appealed to us. We like old houses,” Asta says.
They soon stepped inside for a closer look.
“It was mostly in its original condition and not messed up by incorrect renovations. We thought about pitching an idea to the owner. We knew that many old houses in Finland sit empty on inherited land, but heirs often aren’t keen on unloading them to outsiders,” Ilkka says.
Asta searched the Real Estate Register for the property owner. The surname Himanen was so common that they made several calls before finally reaching the right Vesa Himanen. He was thrilled to have anyone show interest at all. But Asta and Ilkka had bigger plans: they wanted to rent the place. So began an unusually structured rental agreement covering both the house and its surrounding land.
“We set up a deal where we ‘pay’ rent by fixing up the property. The landlord covers the big material costs—like lumber or sheet metal for the outbuilding’s roof—while we handle smaller expenses. In return, we promised not to modernize the house but instead preserve its old charm,” Ilkka explains.
In March 2022, landlord and tenants finalized the three-year agreement, with a possible two-year extension if country life suited them. They moved in around May Day—after a huge cleanup, of course.
In the roomy main living space stands a robust bread oven. Meadowsweet blossoms rest on the stove, drying. A wooden butcher’s block awaits repair in front of it. Ilkka, who has spent years honing his craft as a chef, says it was once used to chop and pound meat.
A long bench runs along the wall. It might have seated a few foster children, as discovered in papers left behind in this 1938-built house. Orphaned children joined the household here, bringing just a few personal items—an axe, a sleigh bell, an ice chisel—all carefully noted in inventory lists.
Asta has since painted the pink cardboard on the main room’s walls to match the original shade. The window trim got a fresh coat, too, thanks to the lady of the house. Slowly but surely, the home reflects its new occupants’ style.
“The kitchen counter is from Italy,” Ilkka jokes.
Even though Ilkka really is a culinary pro, the kitchen itself is fairly modest. The house has electricity and workable broadband, but it doesn’t have running water. The residents haul drinking and cooking water in containers from nearby villages, and fetch dish and wash water from the lake. No dishwasher here—just hand-scouring. No shower either, only a lakeside sauna.
A door leads from the kitchen to the couple’s bedroom, where the original handwoven curtains hang in the windows. A cowhide from Asta’s previous apartment sprawls across the floor. A masonry fireplace awaits winter weather and a full refurbishing. The couple has yet to handle every detail—plenty will keep them busy for some time.
Through the bedroom lies another small chamber, where 16-year-old Emma stood moments ago near a sunlit log wall that was uncovered once Asta removed the cardboard concealing it.
“We used flax to fill the gaps between the logs—there’s nothing else insulating it,” Asta says.
How do they stay warm in winter? There’s nearly 100 square meters to heat!
“We heat with wood. That’s how it’s always been,” Ilkka says.
“We don’t buy new stuff; we reuse the old.”
Because of that, the global energy crisis doesn’t stress them much, although they do need a few cubic meters of firewood. Most of their wood for the main room oven and sauna stove comes from trees toppled by the wind on the property, so they rarely have to fell a tree just for heating.
Most of the house’s furniture and fittings belong to the property. Asta and Ilkka rolled up their sleeves and cleared out decades of hoarded possessions. They hauled away old couches and countless glass bottles in trailer loads. The amount of refuse shocked them, but then they realized that back then there were no real waste services, so people stored unwanted items in attics or out behind the shed.
A life aligned with who they are, meaningful daily tasks, a focus on sustainability, and genuine respect for nature—this sums up Asta and Ilkka’s guiding principles and shared goals. They both say the shift from their former lifestyles has been significant—and for the best.
Asta left her interior-design career and moved to the countryside, founding Uhkua, a nature service that leads visitors on hikes around northwestern Lake Saimaa or hosts them overnight on a floating raft.
Ilkka left the city of Lahti for rural life. He continues work as an entrepreneur, shining a spotlight on local foods. Together, they inspire each other and offer memorable nature and culinary adventures. As a chef, Ilkka can prepare a simple yet delicious open-fire meal from fresh pike and new potatoes, followed by meadowsweet pudding—hence the blossoms drying on the main room stove.
The change from their previous lives has been huge, and both feel it’s for the better.
Before guests arrive to enjoy Uhkua’s offerings, Asta and Ilkka take a moment to show off their lakeside sauna. Ilkka just finished building a new sauna stove—something you don’t see every day.
“We try to do it all ourselves. We don’t buy new stuff; we reuse the old,” the stove builder points out.
Constructed from both new and old parts, the stove burns wood. Even unheated, the sauna has a captivating aroma. You can only imagine the gentle hiss of steam it produces. The master of the house is a believer: he claims to enjoy the sauna all seven days of the week.
Down by the shore, sturdy black alders let their branches dangle over the water. Tellu, an eight-year-old English Bulldog–Old English Sheepdog mix, splashes in to fetch a stick, momentarily forgetting her sore tail in all the excitement. Uhkua’s sauna raft floats ready for bathers, and canoes rest by the shore waiting for paddlers.
Here, Asta and Ilkka live among ringed seals and moose, gathering wild greens and other natural bounties, and sharing them with others. Nature is now their livelihood.
“It’s so rewarding to give people great experiences in nature,” Asta sums up.
They themselves get to enjoy those moments every day. It feels good. The same satisfaction comes from a responsible way of living and slowing things down. They believe personal choices matter—and they live by that.
