My brother Steve should hold the title of "Mr. Finland" in Minnesota. Everything in his life seems to revolve around the Finnish culture. He drives a white SUV with the Finnish flag arrayed upon it's sides and top. He often consumes Finnish foods. His dog is a Finnish Spitz with a Finnish name of Talvi. Steve also has made many memorable trips to Finland. With his sidekick, Dr. Arne Vaino, they take weekly saunas sessions and discuss ways to change the world and dream of winning the Nobel Prize for saunaolgy some day. Steve loaned me two sauna design books and made a much appreciated contribution towards the purchase of our sauna stove. Kiitos veli.

Steve is one of my former coworkers and best friends. He has a heart of gold and is always there to help anyone in need. Steve was also the inspiration for me to finally build our wood fired sauna on our deck after he asked me to design one for his own deck. Steve helped me pick up our sauna stove and unload the 400 lbs. beast from his truck. His construction skills were also very helpful when he assisted us in framing and enclosing the shell of our sauna. In addition, he loaned us many of his wood working tools to complete this project. He also has promised to provide us with cut and split oak! We are ever grateful for his kindness and assistance.

Bill and Amy Stanaway are some of our closest friends from the U.P. and we spent a lot of time on the phone and in person discussing the sauna design and construction. Bill's woodworking skills and insight were helpful in making this dream come true. Bill, and his lovely wife Amy, also went to pick up the tongue and grove cedar boards for the interior of the sauna from Superior Sawmill in Trenary, Michigan.

Our son, Michael Leppala and his then fiancé Emma Autio (now his wife Emma Leppala) assisted us in putting the rafters and facia for the roof on the sauna. There is no way we could have done that work without their help.

Michael also helped me with installing the pine boards walls in the changing room. 

He also collected some igneous rocks from the Duluth area for the sauna stove.

Brothers Brian and Tom Liubakka may be my distant cousins but we are close in heart and spirit. Both of them have inherited their woodworking skills from their father Dick Liubakka. The brothers have built saunas of their own and for others and offered their construction advice during the design and construction. Don't let the title of "the clueless carpenters" fool you.

I picked Al's brain for some guidance on doing the electrical work on our sauna. I know just enough about doing electrical wiring to be dangerous so we thought it would be helpful to make sure I was on the right track.