Frame House

As the sun rose over the picturesque landscape of Latvia, I found myself immersed in a fulfilling day of both physical labor and creative expression. With the mission of enhancing our frame house, I embarked on the task of installing hardwood flooring. But Thursdays are not just for construction; they're also for sharing insights and knowledge with the TerraMatris community. Join me as I recount a day filled with craftsmanship and content creation.The rhythmic sound of hammering echoed through…

In October 2023, we enjoyed a week-long school break from the British International School in Tbilisi, Georgia. Seizing the opportunity, we made plans to travel back to Latvia to advance our DIY project involving a Frame House. In preparation for our trip, I had already placed orders for OSB (Oriented Strand Board) and hardwood flooring from local suppliers. We had coordinated the delivery, with an agreed-upon date of the evening of October 18. As soon as we landed in Riga, we wasted no time…

Just after we finished most of the framing for our frame house in Latvia, we left for a weekend in Riga. After spending good 4 or 5 days in the nation's capital we found a huge surprise when returned - high wind, the storm has damaged our building and the looks were not good.  Our frame house has suffered significant damage due to the strong winds I called to my assistant and together we fixed most of the damage in just a few couple of hours. We started by removing roof constructions Once the…

At the end of June 2023, we traveled to Latvia for about two weeks, during which I continued work with our frame house and installed both walls and rafters. In this article, I'm sharing notes and photos from the construction.  It was a huge surprise when arriving on site I saw a lot of overgrown grass. It was just a few months ago, we come to Latvia to install this foundation on the grounds crews. The Cost-Saving Way to Build a Frame House in Latvia: Our DIY Project (Screw Foundation Piles)…

Over the past few weeks, I have been fully engrossed in the laborious task of constructing our frame house from the ground up. Unfortunately, amidst the hustle and bustle of the construction process, I have been remiss in updating our progress on this blog. However, I regret to inform you that our endeavors have taken a devastating blow. This past weekend marked a significant milestone as we completed the roof installation and eagerly commenced the placement of the crosswind sheet. With each…

Welcome to another interesting blog topic series - Frame house, where I'm going to share almost in real-time our endeavors of building a small 60m2 1-storey holiday house in Latvia.  I decided to build it myself as much as I can, hiring only local people to help with lifting, digging and similar work. The labor cost and services can add a lot, especially in Latvia. For the below described works I spent about EUR 2,000 and two days in March 2023, while firms were asking me EUR 4,000 only for…

This Spring we are planning another awesome DIY project - to build a Scandinavian-style house in rural Latvia. A simple, one-storey building, with a total area slightly under 60m2. The local construction law in Latvia classifies buildings under 60m2 as Group 1 buildings, which requires fewer loosened rules, just a description of the construction plan, and a minimal building plan is required to be submitted at bis.gov.lv I'm planning to build this house myself, thus saving a lot on…