Love in Theory and Practice: Chapters 1-13

Helsinki, Finland

Ville and I are busy reorganizing the house today. Everything has been remodeled, repaired or repainted. So now we have to put everything back where it belongs and put new things in new places.

While Ville had given me free license to remodel, I really wanted to keep it within the same style and feel as he’d had it. I’d kept all the furniture to dark hardwood and had new hardwood floors put in. They look vintage or antique but they’re new. It’s funny how much more expensive something can be when they’ve made it look old.

I shake my head and smile at the vast cost of the floors and step over Ville into the living room. He’s been lying on the floor with his guitar for a few hours now, leaving me to put things where I see fit.

I really could care less. I love having the control over what’s happening.

I did get some new furniture but mainly kept his old stuff. The things I did buy were a few new bookcases and shelves for the living room, a new dining set and some furniture for the bedroom. We have a bed frame now.

I’d kept all the wall colors as earth tones but I lightened them up a bit. Dark colors during a Nordic winter tend to only make you feel worse about the lack of sunlight. Most homes in this region are painted white on the interior. But I kept our house within the khaki family. It turned out rather nicely with the dark woods and darker accents.

“Ville,” I say and sit down on the floor beside him. He looks up and smiles at me.

“What is it, kulta?” he says after lying his head back down on the floor.

“I want you to help me hang stuff up.” He looks at me with his eyebrows raised.

“You want my help with something you could have all the control over?” he asks with a chuckle and sits up.

“Yes,” I say proudly. “I do.”

“Okay then,” he says and stands up. He puts his hands out for mine and pulls me up from the floor. “Where should we start?”

We begin in the dining room and make our way from there to the living room then upstairs to the bedroom. When all of our paintings, photos, and odds and ends are hung up on the walls, we slide down the wall in the hallway and sit on the floor. From here we have a clear view into the unused room we’ve talked about making into a nursery.

We’d turned the upstairs “attic” or extra storage loft-thing, into Ville’s music room. I’d had it completely redone with space for all his records, CDs, instruments, etc. He’s pretty happy with it. But now we have the empty room where his stuff used to be.

The tower is bigger than you would expect from the outside. The front door leads to a small entry way with access to both the dining room to the left and living room to the right. Straight through leads to the staircase, a small bathroom and an entrance to the kitchen. There is also an entrance to the kitchen through the dining room.

We have a fireplace in both the dining and living room. Ville and I put our brightest pictures, paintings etc, in these two rooms because they lack strong natural lighting. The kitchen, however, has bigger windows out into the side yard. It also has a door out into the yard.

On the second floor, we have our master bed and bathroom with windows that overlook the yard and are high enough to see to the ocean. There is also a guest bed and bathroom along with our empty room in limbo.

On the third floor is Ville’s music room. I managed to work it out with the contractor to make a small staircase and trapdoor that leads out onto the roof of the tower. I thought it would be fun for Ville to be able to get outside while he spends his time trapped up there writing.

More often than not, I’ll spend my time at the small desk area in the living room while he spends his time up on the third floor. It’s not that we don’t like to spend time together; it’s just that we like to work alone.

I’ve added small touches of color here and there throughout the place just to make it a little bit brighter. I managed to find some awesome colored glass bottles at an antique store in Helsinki so I set them in some of the windowsills. When the light comes in, they cast really unique patterns on the walls.

“I think we should just make that into a nursery.” Ville says after a few minutes of silence. I’m lying in his lap and I open my eyes to look at him. He’s not looking at me; he’s looking into the room with a dreamy look on his face.

“You think we’re ready?” I ask with a smile.

“Kulta, I’m almost 34. I’d better be ready. And you, you’re already the queen of organization and routine. I think you can handle it.” He says and runs a hand over my hair. “Besides I think you’ll be a fun mom.”

“Hmm,” I say and tilt my head so I can look into the room as well.

“You think we should wait?” he asks, slightly dejectedly.

“No, I think we’re ready. I’m just not sure if I’m ready to share you with anyone.” I say and wink at him.

“Well you already share me with Kulla,” he says and gestures to the dog that is also lying in his lap.

“Yeah, fair enough.” I laugh. “What color should we paint in there?”

“Hmm,” he says and molds his face into mock concentration.

“Let’s just paint it the same as the rest of the house. We’ll get the same kind of wood furniture and then based on the baby, we can add little touches.” I suggest.

“Sounds perfect.” He says and leans down. He rubs my nose with his before kissing me.

“You better get going. You said you’d meet Linde and Mige at 3:00.” I say and point to the clock on the wall that reads 2:45.

“Well shit,” he mumbles and gets up after I’ve stood up.

“Want me to drive you?” I ask. He just shrugs. “I’ll drive you.”

“You just want an excuse to drive that car.” He says with a smirk.

“Yes, I do. If we’re going to have a baby soon, I only have about 10 months or so left with it.” I say with a small pout.

“Why don’t you just keep it? We’ll get a second car for toting the baby around.” He suggests with knowing smile.

“Well, honestly,” I begin. “I was going to do that anyway.”

“I figured as much. No sane person would spend over $100,000 on a car just to sell it in less than a year.” He says and throws his arm around my shoulder as we walk down the stairs.

“Who ever said I was sane?” I ask and kiss his cheek.

“Well, you did marry me, so you can’t be that sane.” He chuckles.

Kulla jumps in the passenger seat with Ville and soon enough I have dropped him off with his friends. He has to have the seat pushed as far back as it will go or his legs don’t fit very well. Sports cars really seem to be built for short people.

I have an evening to kill by myself. I look over at the empty passenger seat that now only has a small dog in it.

“What should we do Kulla?” I ask. “We don’t have any friends in Helsinki.” He just looks at me and cocks his head to the side.

“Let’s go see Mrs. Valo and maybe do some shopping?” I suggest but Kulla just lies down on the seat.

I sigh and call Anita. She says she’d love to go shopping with me so I pick her up and we head out to Ikea. Even though we’re just wandering, we end up selecting some possible baby furniture. I buy a print to hang in the baby’s room of a mother holding a child. It’ll be the first thing in there.

Suddenly the excitement of having a baby with Ville bubbles up inside me.

Even though my own mom can’t be here for me in the beginning process of planning to have a baby, and I don’t have my best friend by my side, having Anita with me and willing to help and listen to me makes it okay.

Anita comes back to the house with me to check out our newly remodeled place. She likes all the new touches as well as the essences of Ville that I managed to keep.

We spend the evening together and around midnight I take her home. I also swing by Mige’s house to pick up Ville. Mige invites me in and I chat with his wife while the guys finish up what they’re working on.

Even though I know the wives of the other band members, we have yet to really become friends.

As Ville and I drive home, he looks at me curiously.

“What is it?” he asks softly.

“I don’t have any friends.” I say bluntly.

“I wish I had some great advice, Kulta.” He says lovingly. “But I’m sure you’ll make some soon. If you don’t become closer with the other girls, then maybe you’ll meet some people when you start at the university.”

“I’m sure I will, love.” I say and squeeze his hand.

As we fall asleep, he holds me tighter than usual. Who needs friends when you’ve got the true love of a great man?

Oh yeah, I do.