Building & Renovation
The Building & Renovation section documents hands-on experience across a range of construction and renovation projects over the years.
It begins with restoring an old house, continues with interior improvements in an apartment, and extends to building a frame house from scratch. More recently, it also includes ongoing work on a manor house project.
Alongside larger builds, this section features smaller DIY projects and practical solutions — all grounded in real-world constraints, budgeting, and learning by doing.
The focus is on process, challenges, and outcomes rather than theory — capturing what it actually takes to build, renovate, and improve living spaces over time.
Fire, Water, Burn - Goodbye Old Roof!
It was time to make a bonfire and burn wood shingle (what use to be a roof cover). At the end of Summer (2015) our bonfire place ready to be set on fire, also it was very large. I still decided…
Building a Dog house
Recently we inherited not only a bad managed rural house, but also got a German shepherd dog Bob. I have posted a lot about our home remodeling works, and in one article you can see Bob.Bob is…
The Roof Works are Done (Almost)
That August, 2015 day was a huge day - we finished roof covering works in our rural country house. It took us about a month as we launched roofing works, and it will take us few more days to…
Aerial photos from rooftop
Today we continued covering roof with metal plates, in a short break I took my DSRL camera a top on the roof and made some aerial photos.You won't get here views as nice as you could get from Tbilisi…
How To Change a Flat Car Tire
Last summer I learnt not only how to change a roof for old rural house, also I excelled as a tire guy. During last summer I changed tires for our old junk car at least six times. To this day I…
Roof Works, Part 6 - Finishing lathing and adding first plates of metal roof
Today was a big day, we managed not only to finish lathing works, covered roof with cross wind sheet but actually installed two plates of metal roof.Today was a very long working day also, by…
Beautiful morning mist
It was an early morning of August, back in 2015, I was still sleeping, tired of yesterday's hard work of unloading few tones of sand from our rural house's loft, probably still dreaming to…
Unloading Few Tonnes of Sand from Loft
For a minute it seemed that all major removal, junk unloading and demolishing works are over, but then I realized we still have that soil coving floor in loft. And I'm speaking of some 25 cm thick…
Pruning trees and shrubs
One of my biggest challenges last summer was unstoppable fight with grass (see: Lawn Mowing), not to mention larger scale works on roof replacement. But there was another major issue we faced -…
Roof Works, Part 5 - And once more let's remove old roofing
Think roof works are cool? In fact - roofing is one of the hardest works in construction and if you have decided by your own to replace your old roofing - think again! Anyway - let me…
Lawn Mowing - The Never Ending Story Continues
Our roof works were still in the middle, and I noticed that grass have grown again. It was just recently when I trimmed backyard territory, but this time I decided it's time to completely trim…
Roof Works, Part 4 - Metal Roofing Arrives
I'm continuing one of the most epic my life experiences I agreed to do - Replacing roof for an old and very bad managed rural house. It was about one week since previous roof works were done,…
Replacing Roof - Part 3: Removing the old roofing (Losing Chimney)
Now, when you are familiar with part 1 and part 2, it's time to tell the third part on home remodeling series replacing roofing. Today's roof replacing adventures were about the most dangerous…
Replacing Roof - Part 2: Beam Leveling & Crosswind sheet
It was second day morning when we re-started works on roof replacing. If you haven't already red, read Part 1: Removing Old Roof. The idea was simple - if we are going to replace roofing,…
Replacing Roof - Part 1: Removing the old roofing
In today's home remodeling series I'll share some epic experience on roof replacement works. If you have been following my blog for a while, you probably have noticed that in Spring 2015 we inherited…
Loft cleaning - Preparation works for replacing that leaky roof
It was already last weeks of July, and we had bought already our return tickets back to Tbilisi, Georgia, and there was still one urgent task to complete if we wanted our rural house to survive…
How to open a bottle of wine with a hand drill
There are many options to open a bottle of wine without using a cork screwer, last summer I tried a new method - using an old school hand drill.f you have been following my blog and especially home…
Lawn mowing in the backyard territory
If you have been following home remodeling series on my blog you might tell I'm starting to repeat - another article on lawn mowing? Yes, another article on that. After trying mowing grass with…
Common Stinkhorn (Phallus impudicus)
Let me introduce you with a really interesting fungus (mushroom) you can find across deep forests in Europe and North America - Common Stinkhorn, also known by its Latin name -…
Fixing holes in the floor with plaster mixture + second layer of paint
Welcome back to the home remodeling series, in today's article I'll show how I patched a holes in a hard wood floor using ... a plaster mixture. But before that, please take a look on More Paint Job…
Latest articles
Berlin Zoo and Aquarium: One of the Best Things To Do in Berlin With Kids
At the start of April 2026, during our roughly five-day trip to Berlin, we finally visited the famous Berlin Zoo for the first time - or at least the first time I can actually remember. There is a chance my mom might have taken me here sometime in the early 1990s, but if so, those memories are long gone. This visit felt completely new, and…
Berlin Brandenburg Airport
In April 2026, I had my first experience with Berlin Brandenburg Airport (BER) while flying the Riga–Berlin–Riga route with airBaltic. This was my first time using Berlin’s main international airport, and overall, it left a solid impression—modern, functional, and relatively easy to navigate. About a decade ago, I had the chance to travel through…