Hard work and thoughtful planning guided Danielle Morrison’s latest DIY venture: a cozy Finnish-style sauna for her cottage on Lac Patterson in Quebec.
The project drew on more than three decades of Danielle’s building and fixing experience, all self-taught with some help from the internet. On previous projects, the “60-years young handywoman,” as she describes herself, learned how to replace carpets, fix drywall, and make epoxy river tables with live-edge boards. Three years ago, she even spearheaded the construction of her family home. “I was on site every day,” she said. “Sometimes, the contractors wouldn’t do things, so we would have to roll up our sleeves and do it ourselves.”
And so, after admiring her neighbour’s sauna, she decided to build her own. “Why do we have to wait till we’re invited?” she said. “Why don’t we just build our own sauna so we can go anytime?”
In the fall of 2023, Danielle chose a site for her project. Over the winter, she sifted through online plans and how-to videos. She took a blueprint for a simple outdoor shed and reworked it into a design for a full-fledged sauna, adding insulation, venting, and electricity to the plan.
In Danielle’s design of the interior, she positioned the benches and electric heater close together to embrace the Finnish sauna tradition of löyly, which refers to both the sauna’s enveloping cloud of steam and the spiritual notion of life force.
Building with local cedar and reusing materials she had on hand helped keep costs low. Danielle began construction in June and, with help from family, the sauna was ready to use in August.
Now, with the hard work done, summers at the Morrison cottage will be spent in full relaxation mode: listening to spa music, lounging in the sauna, and jumping in the lake to cool off. “We usually do two rounds,” says Danielle. “Twenty minutes inside, go for a jump, come back in, do twenty minutes, go back again.”
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