After 50 years, she changed her life. The pensioner showed how she lives

After 50 years she completely changed her life!! She sold everything she had and bought an old and delapidated mill. Now look what the mill looks like now. You will be amazed when you see the before-after photos.

The story of this woman has not left my head for days now.
Her house is not my style. There’s nothing Scandinavian about it. But the journey she has taken to live here is impressive.

She is 71 years old. She lived most of her life in the Finnish city of Turku.
She worked as an artist in various companies, quit her job closer to retirement and began independently selling her unusual paintings painted on pieces of glass.

Earnings from creativity have always been small (even now her paintings can be bought for 8-10 euros, but this income was enough to cover basic expenses and also pay off a loan.
This woman’s name is Hilkka. And in the early 2000s, when she was 51 years old, she surprised everyone she knew by deciding to radically change her life.
Hilkka sold her apartment in Turku, borrowed money from her brother, took out a loan (and then another) to buy a mill in the town of her childhood and turn it into a gallery house.

Turn it into a place where you could live, paint your paintings and welcome guest buyers.

This is what the mill looked like when Hilkka saw it. An abandoned old building built in the 1920s, surrounded by a fence, meter thick thickets everywhere…
No one believed that she would be able to do it. Although the mill stood idle for many years (the building was not used in any way), it was quite expensive.

Plus, serious money was still needed for reconstruction. Hilkka sold absolutely everything – her apartment, car, jewelry, furniture.
I left only a bicycle and one set of clothes.

This is what the building looked like at the beginning of reconstruction. It was uncomfortable and cold here, there was rusty equipment everywhere…
By the way, a clarification: until 1964 there was a sawmill here, then it was only converted into a grain mill.

This is a true story. Many articles have been published about Hilkka.
I even found a newspaper clipping from 2005 with the headline “One Woman’s Dream Home.”

And I also spent a lot of time on Hilkka’s personal page on a prohibited social network.
This woman’s love of life, of course, is worth learning from… She skis, does yoga, still draws pictures, constantly meets with her friends (either they have a picnic on the beach, or go to the bathhouse).
And it seems that such an active life runs in the family. Hilkka’s mother passed away just last year; she was 93 years old.

Today I will show you the house for which Hilkka once went into major debt.
I don’t know whether you will like it or not, but I hope the story of this woman itself will light some kind of fire inside.

This is what the building looks like from the inside now. The owner (by the way, she is the one sitting on the chair with a newspaper) divided the former mill into two functional zones.
On the ground floor there is a workshop, which is also a gallery. On the second floor there is a real house.

The living room and kitchen are one space. Hilkka decided not to build interior walls (she separated only the bedroom and bathroom).
Something interesting: homespun rugs were made specifically for this house. And the kitchen cabinets are retro.

They were found at a furniture flea market in a deplorable condition, but Hilkki’s sister helped restore them.

The upholstered bench was also made to order (if I’m not mistaken, such benches are traditional for the area in which Hilkka grew up).
The reconstruction of the house dragged on for 10 long years. The first year was spent just clearing the site…
And there was a lot of work in the building itself. Part of the structure was dismantled from the inside.
The roof has been insulated. There are heated floors throughout.

Many people joined in converting the mill into a residential building.
Not only the workers who received this salary, but also volunteers, local residents and even Hilkki’s childhood friend, who constantly came to the construction site with his handy son.

During this time, Hilkka experienced many adversities. One day she broke her ankle, and then suffered, one after another, two ischemic strokes.

But this, as you see, did not break her.

In the room under the stairs there is a storage room and a small kitchen-bar, which was previously used during exhibitions in the gallery.

There is a lot of creativity in the house. Look how cool these gnomes are!
And Hilkka herself looks at the drawing, which to some extent is a tribute to the past.

It depicts a lumberjack with a saw with logs and then a miller with sacks of flour.

The owner admits that over the years of reconstruction she has often thought about the rationality of her purchase, but in the end, now that she is 71 years old, she does not regret the journey she has taken.
She says that the old mill became her real home, which she always dreamed of.

On the ground floor, where the owner sometimes works, there is a fireplace.
This is a warm and cozy room, and at one time it was filled almost to the middle with water.
By the way, the bricks for the fireplace were taken from a dismantled mill.

Directly above the workshop with a fireplace is the master bedroom.
On the chest of drawers are photographs of young Hilkke, her parents, and also her son (what happened to her husband and why she lives alone is unknown, I have not found such information anywhere).

“I thought that I would be satisfied if at least three or four visitors came to me…
But in the first four months of work, several thousand people visited the gallery.
“I was shocked by such interest from local residents and tourists,” says the owner.

Of course, not everyone bought Hilkke’s works. But the demand for her work still grew.

In the courtyard of the house there is a veranda that also serves as an exhibition space.
In the summer, the owner exhibits her works here. People can come and look at them even when Hilkke is not at home.

This is what Hilkke’s home looks like now.
I would like to end this article with Hilkke’s words. She said them in an interview with a local magazine.

“When a 50-year-old woman takes on such an absurd project alone, she faces many problems and prejudices.
For example, women are often undervalued in the male-dominated world of construction. But I’m lucky that I’m so silly and brought it all to the end,” says the owner of the mill house.
“And to everyone else, I want to say this: when you believe in your dream, you can achieve what seems impossible.”