The last couple of days have proven to be very rewarding in regards to the progress I made. It took me 2 days to prepare and finish the foundation and properly level it.

The foundation consisted of wooden 4 poles (each 6 metres long and 15×15 cm thick)

Always measure couple of times before you cut or drill 🙂

Make sure all pieces will fit…As shown on the picture above some work required a bit of manual skills and precision. The first hole I made took me with drilling and chiselling around 20- 30 minutes. But I got better, the last holes took aroung 5-10 minutes (there were 16 holes overall)

The next step was to nicely fit the second layer of wood to the foundation poles. Again measuring and fitting couple of times before cutting the wood to avoid silly mistakes.I learned another golden rule ‚if you measure anything with a measuring tape always have a pencil within reach, if not you will have to measure again’.

At last – the first part of the wall framing. I think this was the most rewarding part of the work. Measure, cut, impregnate and instantly see the effect. The wall framing took another 2 days (worked nearly 12 hours a day)

Speaking of impregantion. Until 22.06.2020 I already used 2.5 bottles of „Tytan” (5 litres each) and 2 cans (0,75 l each) of Varnish (Pokost).

Things started moving quickly from now on and the effects were immidiate and it felt really good to see the construction apearing.

Here is the first window I ever framed, a small one (60 x 60) as this is the bathroom window

Another wall framed (this time with a decent window – 120 x 100 cm). On the right hand framing for the terrace doors (140 x 200) which will also be used as the main doors to the house and the third window (120 x 100).

And that is it for now. I went back home for couple of days to recharge my batteries but I am back on the front on 23.06.2020.

The next phase is the hardest one – buidling the roof. Before I started this project I thought that 1) first wood layer with the foundation and properly leveling it and buliding the roof would be the most difficult phases still I have to admit that the sewege system really kicked my butt. Given the first one went smoothly I am hoping for the best whilst tackling the roof construction. Hopefully after couple of days I will be able to order the roofing sheets.

The wooden boards for the facade have also arrived. They look really good (boards are more than 2 cm thick and 20 cm wide). Still this will have to wait until I finish the roof….

You know this feeling… when you plan something, everything seems to be pretty straight forward and there out of a sudden you realize that something is going not according to plan? To make the story short digging out a ditch and laying down pipes was a bit more complicated and a bit more difficult then I expected.

To make the short story long here is what happened:

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Since the start I screwed up – I did not measure the lenght of the tank, therefore started digging up the hole too early (prematurely…). At the end of first day I had dug out roughly half of the ditch and I was completely exhausted, due to strong sun I had headache for whole night. Still I managed to wake up before 6 o’clock and set my goals (which I called the untils). Dig the rest of the ditch until… lay down the pipes until… Burry the pipes until… cement the pipe to the tank until…

If any of the above ‚untils’ are done earlier then I can rest. What a dumb -ass idea? Well it worked, I guess that dumb-ass ideas work, especially well for dumb-ass people.

The last picture below shows the finished project. Not perfect if you’d judge in a professional scale but pretty decent for an amateur.

Yes, I thought about hiring an excavator multiple times and yes I thought about hiring a professional to lay down the pipes with proper slopes (1,5%-3%) and yes I thought that digging out a nearly 16 meter ditch (counting all branches) approximately 1 meter deep might cause some muscle pain. And yes I was thinking to give up.

I managed to overcome all of the above (starting to soung like that „you are the winner’ videos on youtube :)) and I am very happy about the end result but next time I will be digging out the sewege system I will do things differently…

On weekends I try to prepare the ground for builidng the house. The only thing that I did not wanted to do were the concrete pillars to suport the wooden construction.

The pillars were really nicely done by local workers and they are very stable (I checked them professionally – by kicking each and every one of them) .Unfortunately 2 of them have not been properly leveled, therefore will need to be corrected by the workers.

I have prepared the ground – digged a proper hole in which I layed down agrotextiles. Also put some isolation on the pillars so that wood does not get moistured.

Next step is digging a canal from the cesspool…is that really the correct word? you know what I mean I mean pooh tank. So digging a canal from the pooh tank to the house and lay down the sewege system to support the future bathroom (toilet, shower and a small sink) and a kitchen sink.

Yes even tough the house will be relatively small (28m2) it will have all you need to live comfortably: seperate bathroom, kitchen with a dining table, big bed, and something that I called a hollow – a small entresol with 2 additional places to sleep – designed for children.

After a year of planning, reading a lot of more or less wise articles on how to build anything from wood. After completing the tool collection with indespensable ones (I did not even had a proper saw). It is time to start the practical part. Before starting the do so called „wooden house project” I managed to screw up couple of other projects. Which I am more than happy to present (not in chronological order).

1. Wooden fence (nice?)

2. Wooden terrace (shown nearly finished on the picture)

3. Small toolshed (the only cutting tool I had was the fretsaw. Yeah I know it is not perfect)

4. Wooden fence (another one)

5. Pergola

6. Bench (better designed than the one from youtube, unfortunately a bit worse in terms of the attention to detail, but who cares as long as you can sit on it and drink your favourite…whatever)

As you can see my experience is nearly on level 2 (2/99) but my mana is half full. It should be enought to build a house, right?