As usual, we planned our spring around the school break at BIST (British International School of Tbilisi). This year we again split the time — one week in Latvia working on the frame house in the west, and the other in Berlin for business meetings related to the translation company.
Returning after winter always comes with surprises. This year didn’t disappoint.
The biggest “welcome back” moment: a broken bathroom faucet. Not a minor drip — water was shooting out from the side under full pressure. That turned into an emergency replacement before anything else could move forward.
Not exactly how you want to start a work week, but typical for a house that’s still in progress.
This year we finally upgraded our toolkit — bought a cultivator (ground tiller) from Ksenukai.
Good decision.
Instead of manually fighting the soil, we could properly grind and prepare the ground. It’s one of those purchases that immediately pays off in time and energy saved. Also a good excuse to learn something new — operating it efficiently is not entirely trivial.
It became obvious very quickly: the kitchen had to be finished now.
No more postponing.
Before ordering anything, I had to wrap up the base work:
- Installed missing drywall panels
- Plastering (not fun)
- Sanding (even less fun)
Messy, slow, but necessary. Once done, things started to feel like actual progress again.
Good news: all pipes were already connected. That removed a major layer of complexity.
Then came logistics.
We ordered kitchen cabinets from IKEA, which turned into a 2-day operation:
- Drive to Riga
- Hand-pick everything
- Load and transport back to Western Latvia
Not glamorous, but efficient. Doing it ourselves meant no delays, no missing parts, no surprises later.
One of the more satisfying tasks: cutting the sink opening.
Spent about 2 hours with a jigsaw making a precise cut. Slow, careful work — but the result was surprisingly clean. Those small wins matter more than expected on projects like this.
After one week of physical work, Berlin felt like a reset.
Different pace, different environment and honestly, necessary. Alternating between manual work and city life seems to work well for us.
Another spring, another step forward.
Not everything is fun (plastering proves that), but progress is visible — and that’s what matters.
