More square meters from the old firewood storage! With an open-minded renovation, Rea and Simo created space for a bedroom and a sauna in their cellar

Above the main entrance, there’s a traditional metal awning. A side door blends seamlessly with the red brick “foundation.”

Simo Peuraniemi and Rea Kukkumäki fell in love with the atmosphere of the wooden row house. The tranquil courtyard view from the kitchen window captured Rea’s heart at the viewing. Their background in construction made it easier for the couple to take on the renovation.

What a cozy yard! There’s an inviting terrace and, at the far end of the yard, a delightful building with curved walls that looks like it once housed the sauna and outhouse for this over-century-old residential building in Amuri, Tampere. Rea Kukkumäki opens the side door in the foundation and peeks out.

“The outbuilding has a fireplace room. This building of ten apartments always had indoor plumbing, which was exceptional back in the day. Originally, you’d go through the side door to the cellar, which housed the toilet, food storage, and the firewood supply,” Rea explains.

In through the side door and down two steps.

“This is our everyday entry, where we usually come in. The main entrance doesn’t really have an entryway. From that door, a flight of stairs leads almost directly into the living room and kitchen.”

The floor of the old cellar is polished concrete, and the walls are plastered brick. Everything looks neat and like new.

“There are a few small things left to do. We’ve been working on this cellar renovation for roughly two years. It’s finally almost done.”

Beyond the entry is a short hallway, with a peek of the new bedroom and a corner of the bed at the end of it. But before diving into the cellar makeover, let’s head upstairs to see how it all began.

The cellar spaces under renovation.

The cellar walls are sturdy. During renovations, the door to the walk-in closet was moved to the center of the wall. The wall lamp is from Ikea.

the living room has a spacious feel and plenty of light. Simo Peuraniemi is bustling in the kitchen, and Pave the dog lounges on the sofa. The floor-through apartment features a spacious living room on the street side and a kitchen facing the courtyard. Rea and Simo purchased their 72-square-meter one-bedroom in 2020. At that time, the surfaces dated back to a 1995 renovation.

“It was possible to expand into either the cellar or the attic. We chose the cellar.”

The choice was easy because there were already blueprints for the cellar, and the housing cooperative had applied for a building permit and done a hazardous materials survey. Doing an attic renovation before the upcoming roof renovation didn’t seem logical.

Rea pulls out a written history of the building.

“The building was built for carpenters, so it’s very well made. Even the original exterior roof is still in place.”

Studying the building’s elevations, you start looking for evidence of the carpenters’ craftsmanship. At least the eye-catching wooden parts and decorative details seem to be a nod to that.

“This area once had a nickname, Buurienmaa (‘the Boers’ land’), apparently inspired by the Boer War taking place around the same time as construction.”

There’s a dash of the 1950s in the interior. The vintage mirror is a find from Gusta Design.

The impressive tiled stove from Turun Kaakelitehdas dates back to the year the house was built. It stands out even more now that the walls are painted dark. The light switches and outlets are from the Renova series.

The living room walls got a fresh coat of paint in the shade Happiness by Teknos. The ceiling paneling is from a 1995 renovation, and the floor has been sanded, treated with lye, and oiled.

Pave the dog enjoys curling up on the Ikea sofa. The woven rug is also from Ikea.

The beautiful tiled stove in the corner of the living room is original to 1911, the year the house was built. If there’s a tiled stove here, you might guess a wood-burning stove was on the other side of it in the kitchen. But there isn’t one—now there are just kitchen cabinets.

“We’ve visited a neighbor who still had the original wood stove. Ours had been removed, and we didn’t want to install another one.”

The reason soon becomes clear: the kitchen would have run out of space.

“The kitchen is narrow, and it used to be even narrower. We tore out some built-in cabinets,” Rea says.

Now there’s room for a dining table in the kitchen. During the renovation, the cabinets were replaced, and the logs in the walls were exposed. They chose to put the stove where the fridge had previously been, while the fridge was moved next to the door leading into the living room. At the same time, they reworked the entrance to the attic staircase.

The kitchen cabinetry, dating back to the 1990s, before the renovation. Originally, there was a wood-burning stove on the left side.

These built-in cabinets had to be removed to create more much-needed space in the kitchen.

The Jugend-era apartment’s windows are striking and large. The oven and cooktop are from Ikea.

The new kitchen cabinets came from Ikea. The chrome handles were ordered from Byggfabriken in Sweden.

The upstairs surfaces were updated at the same time as brand-new living space was built downstairs. In the roughly 35 square meters of cellar space, they planned an entryway, bedroom, walk-in closet, sauna, two bathrooms, and a laundry room. They divided up the tasks: Simo did the structural work, and Rea finished the surfaces.

“We were nervous about the ceiling height. We had no idea what we’d find under the floor. In our neighbor’s cellar, the bedrock was partly exposed.”

Demolition started with asbestos removal from the insulation around the heating pipes, as well as removing the vinyl flooring and hazardous insulation materials in the floor. After that, they jackhammered out the concrete slab.

Once the concrete was cleared away, they started removing soil with the help of a vacuum truck.

“Thankfully, we didn’t run into bedrock, but there were a few large stones that we split with expansive demolition grout.”

Stonework was done below the granite foundation as well—a layer of natural stone had been laid beneath it, and the most protruding stones were split where the new interior brick walls would go. Anything underneath the foundation was left untouched in the renovation, as going any lower would have required extra reinforcement.

After excavating a half-meter-deep pit, they spread 5–15 centimeters of gravel where radon pipes were installed. For insulation, two layers of 65 mm Isodrän drainage boards were installed, which were then topped with filter fabric before adding rebar and pouring the new slab. Electric underfloor heating was installed throughout the cellar.

The thermal insulation and moisture control of the outer wall of the old firewood storage was improved by building a new concrete block wall and leaving a gap filled with LECA behind it. For sound insulation between apartments, they used special sound-damping blocks on the side walls of the former firewood storage, which is now living space.

The cellar floor under renovation.

It’s pleasantly cool for sleeping in the cellar. The bedroom now occupies the former firewood storage area. From the small window, you can catch a glimpse of the street. Originally, firewood was tossed in through that window.

On one wall in the bedroom, old bricks were left exposed.

“We treated the bricks with potassium silicate, which allows them to breathe and lets any moisture rising from the ground pass through.”

The other walls were painted with either breathable lime paint or plastic-free wall paint.

The new lightweight partition walls were built from plasterboard, which conveniently housed the sliding door mechanisms and doors.

The sauna is just the right size for two. The ample glass enhances the sense of openness. The ceiling-mounted shower and mixer are by Tapwell, and the floor tiles are from Pukkila.

The most challenging part of the renovation was building the sauna. Space was tight in every direction. The biggest puzzle was the bathroom and laundry room ceilings, which had to accommodate ventilation, water pipes, and electrical. Fitting ventilation into the low drop ceiling was especially tricky.

“The sauna’s ventilation runs through the flue of the former bathroom, with a horizontal extension, which required a roof ventilator installed in the flue.”

Before installation, they tested that the flue functioned properly and lined it. Because of the low ceiling height, they opted for a fixed overhead shower.

Sense of space was created by making half of the wall between the sauna and shower room out of glass. The sauna door is also glass. They kept the surfaces simple: resin coating on the walls and classic terracotta square tiles on the floor.

“Matching the perfect shade of oak for the slatted ceiling was really challenging and time-consuming. Any money we saved we lost in labor hours.”

In the end, the work was finished after two years of intense effort.

“The entire project was more work than we had imagined.”

Nevertheless, the home now has more space and is even more enjoyable and functional.

Simo says he sleeps especially well knowing exactly what’s behind the walls and under the floors.

“Everything has been done properly and with care.”