La Quinta Inn & Suites Secaucus Meadowlands

23 February, 2017 | Hotel reviews | 12 seen

La Quinta Inn & Suites Secaucus Meadowlands was our first hotel in United States, during our latest trip here. We booked this hotel as a secret deal on hotwire, as we wanted to get a reasonable price for a hotel with easy access to the Manhattan, New York city.

Our booking price was about USD 140 per night here.

Once our reservation was confirmed, it turned out to be located in the New Jersey, we paid for a limo service about $140 to get here from JFK airport, after a long flight, see: About Tbilisi - Kiev - New York Flight by Ukrainian Airlines

Just off I-95, this Secaucus hotel offers easy access to Manhattan attractions with a bus stop right at the hotel. It features spacious suites with free WiFi and a cable TV.

Our hotel room at La Quinta Inn & Suites Secaucus Meadowlands

We got two king size beds, which in fact is nice. At this hotel we stayed for about 4 nights at te end of 2016 and start of 2017. From this hotel it was easy to access Manhattan (Port authority) using a bus ride for about 6USD per ride. Bus stop is located some 200-300 meters from this facility,

A refrigerator, microwave and coffee…

Grading Soil Around Foundation

22 February, 2017 | Home Remodeling | 15 seen

I could probably come up with an article How to grade soil around foundation, but I'm not an expert on this topic.

In today's home remodeling series I will show with images how I leveled soil around foundations using just two tools - a shovel and a rake.

Technically speaking, here is what you should know about grading soil around foundation:

Proper grading around the foundation of your home keeps many potential issues at bay. Without the right grade, water collects at the base, causing erosion, foundation cracks, mold and unhealthy vegetation. To ensure a proper grade, slope any landscape additions away from the base of the structure, so water flows farther out into the yard.

Let's start with what we got:

Newly poured foundation

After intensive couple of last weeks, major foundation works are done, with even one wall been constructed (in the background)

See: Constructing Foundation From Fibo Ceramsite Blocks For Pump Room and The Last Row of Aerated Concrete Blocks Masonry

Grading soil around foundation

After couple of hours work was done. It was originally planed to build a…

Zen Ramen and Sushi House, New York City

21 February, 2017 | Restaurant reviews | 11 seen

Nestled in the middle of financial district, New York City, we discovered this place by an accident. After wondering around Manhattan, I took the wrong subway ride and once we left subway, we were in a cool neighborhood somewhere in Midtown.

This place promised some 50% discount on some select sushi and we decided to go inside.

Zen Ramen and Sushi house in New York City

if you don't read Japanese you should take a careful look around, as it was bright banners that attracted our attention, and just then we notices this might be a sushi place.

Sushi set at Zen Ramen and Sushi house

Wow, that was something really great. I would say the best sushi I have tried (though I haven't tried them too much). But sushi here, was defiantly 200% better than I have tried before. 

More sushi

Spending $4 Per Day On Facebook Ads - Case Study

20 February, 2017 | Blogging | 66 seen

When it comes down to the Facebook Ads, I have love it / hate it relations, let me explain - I believe Facebook Ads are one of the simplest ways for small business to spread the word, while, at least, speaking about my experience the results are questionable.

I'm spending on Facebook ads regularly, my spending/promotion habits are pretty simple - I can spend actively for one month, then stop for some two months and start again.

Generally I'm promoting blog articles related to tourism activities in Georgia. For the better (cheaper) results I'm targeting local Georgian audience as well. Though, during my latest Facebook ads campaign I experimented with targeting other countries as well, and got some decent results.

Facebook Ads reach

For the record, population of Georgia is about 3.72 million. Making my reach of Georgian audience to stand at about 2.6% in January 2016. Awesome.

That's in fact I'm trying to achieve here - build some brand recognition about myself and mine services offered to the people of Georgia.

Now, about two years ago I did come up with and idea: …

Constructing Foundation From Fibo Ceramsite Blocks For Pump Room

19 February, 2017 | Home Remodeling | 8 seen

The long story short - we are continuing to build a pump room, a room to store inside pumps and other aggregates, earlier this Summer we drill a bore hole and we are looking to draw in water to the house. For that we need a pump room.

Unfortunately the old log walls have been rotten and we started to replace them with aerated concrete blocks, prior to that we had to strengthen foundation. During foundation works we found out that there are parts were there are no foundation at all for house, it has been sitting just on few stones for more than hundred years. We had to change that.

The task is neither complicated nor hard, it involves a lot of dealing with different things, planing, leveling, organizing materials and so on.

Constructing foundation from fibo blocks

Fibo blocks are sitting on foundation footing. See: Pouring Concrete Footing

Few days ago we finished pouring footing for this part of house and some week earlier we demolished wall.

Pouring concrete

Concrete is poured over and metal rods are added to strengthen foundation

Support for roof

Yup,we actually…

How To Open A Bank Account in U.S., As A Non-resident Non - citizen, Wells Fargo Bank

18 February, 2017 | Doing Business | 156 seen

Long story short - after the long and painful check operations, originally sent from the U.S., and redemption in Georgia (or probably in any country except USA), which takes at least some 40 working days and huge bank fees for check procedures - I decided enough is enough, I'm going to the United States and I will open a bank account there, in order to receive direct payments to my bank account instead of checks.

Yes, there are companies in U.S. which sends checks instead of direct payments for international partners, Amazon Associates, for example

If you are looking for a way how to open a bank account in the USA without actually visiting USA, this guide is not for you, as to make it work, I actually visited a Wells Fargo branch in Manhattan, New York City.

Now, the U.S. has been on my radar since 2012, when I first headed there to scout my options on how to incorporate a LLC there. I didn't incorporate after all, though made another trip in 2013. As it might happen when you explore the World around you, and if you look around and listen, you will start notice some things. And so, during last 4 or 5 years I have heard many times that non U.S.…

My Start at Investing on Mintos Peer to Peer Lending Platform: Depositing Funds

17 February, 2017 | Peer to Peer Lending | 46 seen

I first heard about Mintos.com peer to peer lending platform at the start of 2016, later that year I decided to give it a try, as I was looking for investment opportunities especially in Georgia.

Back at these days Mintos operated already in Georgian lending market. I even made an article later that year, see: Invest in Georgia - Peer-to-Peer (P2P) lending - Mintos.com

Both individuals and entities can invest through Mintos. Individual investors must be at least 18 years old, have a bank account in the European Union or third countries currently considered to have AML/CFT systems equivalent to the EU, and have their identity successfully verified by Mintos. At the moment, US citizens or taxpayers cannot register as investors at Mintos.

Affiliate link here: Signup to Mintos.com here. By using this affiliate link for registration both you and I will receive — 1% of our average daily balance which should be paid in 3 installments for the first 90 days.

Unfortunately, or for good, it took me some 8 more months before actually starting investing in peer to peer using their platform. The…

When Foundations Crumble - Home Remodeling

16 February, 2017 | Home Remodeling | 11 seen

When the foundations are being destroyed, what can the righteous do? Psalm 11:3

Today was meant to be an easy day, we had to continue foundation works, pouring in concrete, nothing complicated in fact, just a manpower to carry gravel with wheelbarrow for some 100 meters from the pile to the concrete mixer. I had two workers helping me out today, what could go wrong?

It was planned some visitors will arrive in the evening and we will grill some meat and look on overall progress of home remodeling. 

See: Home Remodeling - How It All Starts

Work in progress

Author of this blog standing next to the concrete mixer.

And then it happened:

Rock fall on the foundation

A minor landslide and rock from the old foundation felt in the free flow. Concrete was still fresh  it was just a matter of removing that rock and making sure there is no more landslides around foundation

Somebody had to remove that rock

Visitors arrived but I was still busy managing rocks out of the foundation.

Central Park, New York City

15 February, 2017 | Tourism objects | 18 seen

Central Park is an urban park in Manhattan, New York City. Central Park is the most visited urban park in the United States, with about 40 million visitors yearly, also it's one of the most filmed locations in the world.

Central Park should be on every travelers, going to the NYC, bucket list, I first visited it in the Spring 2012, and was really amazed of an elegant urban/nature solutions in the middle of... New York. At the end of 2016 I had a chance to visit New York again - this time I was prepared with a tripod and camera.

Central park in New York city

Originally park was established in 1857 on 778 acres (315 ha) of city-owned land. 

Central Park was designated a National Historic Landmark by the U.S. Department of the Interior in 1962. The Park, managed for decades by the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation, is currently managed by the Central Park Conservancy under contract with the municipal government in a public-private partnership. The Conservancy is a non-profit organization that contributes 75 percent of Central Park's…

First plants for Rock Garden

13 February, 2017 | Home Remodeling | 4 seen

Last summer we not only concreted a lot and demolished walls, but planted some plants and trees in the surrounding territory. 

See: Planting an Apple Tree (Doch Melbi / Daughter Melbi / Дочь Мелбы)

After we shaped a little bit our rock garden it was time to plant first plants.

First plants at rock garden

For the record - thyme and rosemary

Short Day Trip To Kiev, Ukraine

12 February, 2017 | Travel guides | 12 seen

Long story short - we had a chance to spend in Kiev couple of hours, during our latest flight Tbilisi - Kiev - New York city, after our flight was delayed for about 10 hours at Kiev's Borispol airport we decided to use these hours by exploring Kiev, instead of waiting at airport's transit area.

Out of the airport terminal at Borispol, there are buses taking passengers either to Kharkivksya or Vokzalnaya. The ticket prices are really cheap there. Since we didn't had any clue which station should we go, we asked just a bus going to the city center. We were taken to the Vokzalnaya from which we took a taxi and headed to the Khreshchatyk street to try some Ukrainian cuisine, see the Maidan square. At the end We did some metro ride to the Kharkiskaya station, from which we were taken back to the airport.

Despite harsh weather (end of December 2016) I really enjoyed Kiev and was surprised to see that city is not at all expensive (taxi's, metro and even meal on central street were under USD 10). Amazing. Kiev - I will come back for more, most probably during Summertime.

Shaping Rock Garden

10 February, 2017 | Home Remodeling | 13 seen

It was on the same day when guys and I demolished walls and poured in concrete for home foundation, while the better part of me, decided to shape a little bit rock garden we recently formed from stones used at cowshed's foundation, during pond excavation works. See: Building a Rock Garden and Pond Digging - Part 3 - The Result

The idea was simple, we are looking to plant some flowers and plants into rock garden, we should make a good soil there, and also we should give some shape and trails inside, so we could enjoy our evening coffee's while sitting on the rocks and watching amazing sunsets, probably playing with cats. See: Red Sunset in our Rock Garden - Cool Evening Mood and Cats on The Rocks

We agreed to lay film on the ground and at some of the parts of rock garden add gravel (the same we are using for concrete) while in other parts (flowers and plants) the soil from pond. It was just a matter of some 50 wheelbarrows (both gravel and soil) and we got something like this:

Gravel for rock garden

Smaller stones are used to shape outer borders of rock garden. For the record, in Spring we still had a…

Independence Square in Kiev

9 February, 2017 | Tourism objects | 17 seen

Maidan Nezalezhnosti (literally:Independence Square) is the central square of Kiev, the capital city of Ukraine.

One of the city's main squares, it is located on Khreshchatyk Street in the Shevchenko Raion. The square has been known under many different names, but often it is called simply Maidan ("square").

I had a brief chance to visit and make one photography of Kiev's Maidan Square at the end of 2016, during unplanned short Kiev city tour after our flight to NYC was delayed for about 10 hours at Borispol instead of waiting at airport's transit area for our flight we opted to have some Kiev tour. At that included a trip to the heart of Kiev.

So here I was, for the first time in Kiev, standing in front of Maidan Square. Weather was cold and I really didn't wanted to take camera out from my backpack, but after all I made one shot here:

View of Maidan Nezalezhnosti from Khreshchatyk Street

Since the start of Ukraine's independence movement in 1990, the square has been the traditional place for political rallies, including four large-scale radical protest campaigns: the 1989 student "Revolution on Granite…

Rooms Hotel Kazbegi

8 February, 2017 | Hotel reviews | 56 seen

Located at the base of Kazbek Mountain in Stepantsminda Village, 7 km from the 14th-century Gergeti Trinity Church, Hotel Kazbegi features a lobby bar with a library (I even got local Georgian Forbes magazine in English) and free Wi-Fi.

We booked our stay at Rooms hotel Kazbegi in the middle of December 2016, and were accompanied by friends of us, who luckily had a ground transport and were able to take us there, as speaking of public transport, I have no idea is it actually possible to reach this place (probably by some marshrutka). Anyhow, seems Rooms Hotel is mostly visited by those who have a SUV car and who can afford to spend about USD 120-150 per night in a hotel. 

Although as stated on hotel's booking.com page:

Kazbegi bus stop, offering a link to Tbilisi, is 10 minutes’ walk from Rooms Hotel Kazbegi, and Tbilisi Airport is 185 km away. A shuttle from the airport to the hotel is provided at surcharge. 

For our 2 night stay here we spent about USD 300 + some USD 50-80 at hotels lobby bar. I decided to come here mostly for one reason - to make some photography, which I did:

View towards mount Kazbek and…

Let's Keep Demolishing Walls, Construct Foundation From Ceramsite Blocks And Pour In Some Concrete

7 February, 2017 | Home Remodeling | 12 seen

Yeah, let's do that - another day on steroids from my home remodeling adventures during late Summer 2016 (August)

Frankly speaking, by now, browsing through the images from last Summer works I'm getting a little bit dizzy - it looks way too dramatic.

On the other hand, we already had experience and knowledge about demolishing walls, see: Remove a Wall to Finish Foundation Concreting, also constructing missing foundation from fibo blocks, not to speak about pouring concrete footing. 

Today I had two guys helping me out Uldis and Guntars. We did a lot today.

Demolishing log wall

Just look how enthusiastic this guy seems.

Now the bad thing, at this part of house we were missing foundation completely,so it was tricky to demolish walls without having some ground support, but we still had to pour in concrete footing, on which later to add fibo ceramsite blocks. We did a footing thing a few days ago for the part were log wall is hanging in the air. See: Fall Through The Ceiling, Dig a Trench Around Foundations, Stone Wall Concreting. 

Idea for…