Home Remodeling - End Of The Season 2
Wow, that was a ride. In this post I will write down all major tasks we performed during Summer 2016, which was second year since we started to manage and repair our rural property.Learn more how it all started: Home Remodeling - How It All StartsEach year, at the start at April we arrive to our house and put a lot work and investment to make this a livable place. In the first year, the major task performed was roof replacement, see: Meet the New Roof (Pictures Before and After)Season 2 we started with following goals: For this years plans - a water supply is a must have, in order to get water here, we need to dug a well at first. We plan to construct a bathroom (for that we…
Planting Strawberry Plants In Fall
It was at the end of September (2016), when we planted 80 strawberry plants in a field which was prepared few days ago with a tiller. See: Ground Milling With A TillerEarlier this Summer we planted about 15 strawberry plants in wooden boxes, but as we were of for a week long travels to Spain, corvine's ruined 90% of our harvest. This is the thing I worry most, probably some net should be added over plants in future.Strawberries planted under filmWe bought about 6 varieties of strawberry plants (in total 80 plants) at local plant nursery, paid for both film and plants under EUR 20. Film is strengthened using special plastic bolts. Rocks are added as an extra safety against wind.…
Temporary Window For Bathroom
This year's (2016) home remodeling works are coming to the end, though one problem were left - a window for bathroom. As just outer constructions of walls were performed, and there are still a lot to do inside, before having actual working bathroom, I was left with two options, either purchase an used plastic window and install it or be more creative. I opted for the second variant. And as a temporary window I used old wooden doors.Window box for bathroomSee complete works for bathroom.Old wood doorsThese doors will be used as a temporary bathroom window for upcoming winter.Window installed and secured from inside
Carpe Diem Cafe Bar in Tbilisi
Carpe Diem is a cozy cafe bar in Tbilisi, located between Narikala fortress and Shardeni. Here at Carpe Diem you can try tasty home made burgers and have a herbal tea in pot. Because of this place been located in a steep uphill between Narikala fortress and Old Town, I have visited this place just twice so far, both of the times after climbing down from the fortress. The good news, this cafe bar have been in business for years, and it means just one - it's a good place. Carpe Diem is one of the rare places in Tbilisi, where smoking inside is not allowed.Carpe Diem in TbilisiCarpie Diem in Tbilisi is located next to the Armenian Apostolic church. Had to make a panoramic photo…
Ground Milling With A Tiller
During the Summer of 2016 we met some new faces, and so back in July we met with a neighbor (Ok, he is actually living some 10 km from our rural house) with a tractor with tiller - I started to ask about the device, would it be possible to mill ground at our place, as we are really into growing some veggies not only in a wooden boxes, but would love to grow something in the soil. It was at the end of the September, when I got a call from the neighbor and he asked - OK, I will be at your place tomorrow with a tractor. I thought, cool, let's do it. And so did in couple of hours neighbor with a tractor an tiller did the magic - the ground was milled. Tractor with a tillerWith…
Former Archaeological Museum Building in Tbilisi
Former Archeological Museum Building in Tbilisi is a great example of the Soviet architecture in Georgia.I had a chance to discover this place and explore surrounding area, first time in February 2017, thanks to the Tbilisi Soviet Architecure tours organized by Brutal Tours: See: Brutal Tours - Explore Soviet Georgian Architecture in TbilisiThe museum was established in 1988 by the well-known Georgian archeologist, head of the Tbilisi archeological expedition, Rostom Abramishvili (1924-1996). The museum housed monuments, discovered by the archeological excavations in Tbilisi. The chronological frames of the collections were from the V c. B.C. up to the feudal times. In…
Brutal Tours - Explore Soviet Georgian Architecture in Tbilisi
A while ago with a friend of mine (another expat in Georgia) we started an online community on Facebook: Georgia Expat Photographer club.In matter of no time we gathered a critical member count and were looking to start offering some day trips in Tbilisi or Georgia, helping other photographers explore interesting and cool sites for a free or minimum charge.Like organizing these trips by ourselves between club members, kind of crowd funding for photographer travelers.Learn more: First Georgia Expat Photographer Club MeetingWe did a few day trips at the start, like Hiking in Borjomi (Georgia) or Hiking In Birtvisi Canyon (Hidden Trails Of Georgia), also we did…
Inner Wall From AAC Blocks For Pump Room
Last home remodeling works are carried out for this end, in today's article - final inner wall from aac blocks, for auxiliary room, where right now just pump is stored in the corner, but it's planned to install a boiler and washing machine at this part of house soon.See: Connecting The Dots - Water Pipe And Pump InstallationPump roomI made foundation for inner wall few days ago, also see how we demolished old walls here: Demolishing Inner Walls To Build AAC Block WallsFirst row of aac blocksNow, for the next Summer (2017), one of the first works we will start with, will be pouring in concrete floors, right now looking on these pictures it seems another epic journey. Almost…
DIY - Bookshelf From Wooden Boards
Time after time I love to excel as a Do-it-yourself guy, for today's DIY article - how i built bookshelf for our rural house from wooden boards.Let's start that we have a complete mess in our master bedroom, as we don't have any storage to store stuff. A time ago I built a king size bed frame, again from boards, see: DIY - Bed Frame King Size Rural Style, now it was time to put in order that mess.Can you find a cat there?Wooden boards for bookshelfThose boards are leftovers from roof works done in Summer 2015, see Meet the New Roof (Pictures Before and After)Almost thereLook who have found a nice shelterFinal result
Restaurant Kala in Tbilisi
Restaurant Kala in Tbilisi's Old Town actually is one of the first restaurant I've visited once set my foot on Georgian land back in April 2011. I have spent countless evenings here, enjoying Georgian red wine, listening to great live musicians and of course trying dishes.I would list Kala as a medium priced place, with pleasant atmosphere and great service.Interior at Kala restaurant in TbilisiSalmon sandwich served with French friesBasically here at Kala they serves both Georgian and European cuisine. VISA cards accepted.
Connecting The Dots - Water Pipe And Pump Installation
This day marks a huge milestone - for the very first day, since house was originally built in 1896 - house will have a fully automatic water supply. This day also marks the end of the planned major tasks for Summer 2016. Gosh, that was a mad ride - let me explain, in order to get water supply inside house, at start we had to drill a bore hole, see:Drilling Borehole , then we had to completely rebuild some walls for house and construct both pump room and bathroom. As it might sound straightforward, it involved a lot of planing, managing, constructing a of course money,Now was the day we could connect the dots, and it started with an excavator arriving in our yard:Excavator arrivesThe…
Demolishing Inner Walls To Build AAC Block Walls
In today's home remodeling series a story how I continued to build a bathroom and how we demolished an inner wall to later rebuild it from scratch, again with aac blocks.Let's start with what we got:Wall to be demolishedAll major tasks for this Summer (2016) have been done, what's left - to rebuild two inner walls, one for bathroom, second for pump room. In above picture - pump room.Demolishing guyEdgars helped a lot this Summer, he is my demolishing guy today.Wall being demolishedA very spacious space actually. If at the right - it's planned to store all auxiliary equipment, like water pump, washing machine and boiler, then at this room it's planned to build a kitchen in future.View…
Preparation Works For Bathroom - Breaking Ceiling, Demolish A Wall, Pouring Foundation
Ok, it took a long, but here I'm returning to the building bathroom from scratch worksHere is what we are going to do today:At first we will need to break ceilings or floor at the loft, then we will remove existing inner wall and then we will pour in foundation.Following works were actually carried out during two days, but for the ease of this article works from both days are featured here in one article.LoftHere you can see loft for our house, flooring (if we can call it so) is completely damaged. A year ago, while replacing roof we removed a few tons of sand from here, see: Unloading Few Tones of Sand from LoftAs you can see from image above, outer walls for upcoming bathroom…
Reading Terminal Market Philadelphia
Reading Terminal Market is an enclosed public market found at 12th and Arch Streets in downtown Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.Over one hundred merchants offer fresh produce, meats, fish, artisan cheese, groceries, ice cream, flowers, grilled cheese, baked goods, crafts, books, clothing, and specialty and ethnic foods. Every space in the market is rented out; three of the vendors are descendants of original market merchants. The market is open every day of the week. The Pennsylvania Dutch merchants (a small but significant minority) generally do not operate Sunday through Tuesday.I've been 3 times to the United States, three times I've been to…
Rock Garden Extended
It was at the start of the September (2016) - we were finishing wall replacement works and already had installed first bearing beams, there were still some things left on home remodeling works, but all the major tasks were done, and everything was done to preserve house for the winter (as we will be absent)It was good day to spend some hours in garden and continue shaping our rock garden, please see:Building a Rock GardenShaping Rock GardenFirst plants for Rock GardenShaping trail in the rock gardenGravel and soil from pond is used to form trail and on the sidewals soil for the plants.Would you believe, if I told you, there was actually a dump bellow the rock garden just a few…
Outer Walls from AAC Blocks + Installing Bearing Beams
As Summer of 2017 is approaching really fast, and I still have so many not post processed images from home remodeling works performed during Summer 206 in Adobe Lightroom library, I decide to extend articles and feature more info in fewer articles.In today's article I'm sharing a two day construction works performed at the start of September 2016. In day one I continued to construct walls from aerated concrete blocks, and in fact continued to install new rows in the day two + we finally installed two bearing beams, and it's just a matter of time and glue hardening to finish construction works for the so called "pump room" and start thinking of how to get water supply inside…
Philadelphia Greyhound Terminal
There is a super cheap way to travel across the United States using intercity buses. Back in the Summer 2013 I made a long journey from New York to Houston, Texas for about USD 200 per 2 persons using MegaBus. Last time I was in the US, we decided to go to Philadelphia from NYC using Greyhound, the ticket price was very cheap some 24 USD, again for two persons. When we traveled back to NYC, we bought even cheaper - USD 10 tickets for return way. Either you are on the budget or you just love to travel by buses, greyhound and megabus are great choice. The Philadelphia Greyhound Terminal is the primary intercity bus station in Philadelphia,…
Night Office 2016
It's in the far future I will build a fancy working space in our rural country house, for now we are still busy of replacing log walls with aerated concrete blocks.For now to perform digital nomad activities I'm left with what I have a laptop and high speed internet - and I cannot complain.See: My Outdoor Working Place During Last Summer (2015) and My Summer Office 2016It was on the cold September night, I had to finish some works online, and I opted to enjoy one of the last Summer evenings outside.It was planed to build a nice outdoor summer terrace for evenings like this, but we didn't managed this year, though it's among top priorities for next home remodeling…
Red Robin Gourmet Burgers, Secaucus, NJ
Once in the Burger bar - order burgers. That's how in short I could describe my experience at Red Robin Gourmet Burger in Secaucus, NJ.Located in the some building were La Quinta Inn & Suites Secaucus Meadowlands, in which we stayed during my latest US trip Red Robin was an oblivious choice for meal. They indeed have gourmet burgers and super delicious milkshakes. Red Robin Gourmet Burgers in SecaucusNo wonder it's called Red. Everything is so red around you.Fish & Chips at Red RobinI wouldn't order them once more. Yes they were eatable, fur far from fish & chips IMHO. Remember - once in a burger place, order burgers and not fish & chips. That's a life lesson I…
First Rows of Aerated Concrete Block For Pump Room
Let's keep building walls from aerated concrete blocks - the material I really love - it's easy to install, it's durable and it should be cost effective in combination with proper insulation.Today I was left alone, no handy hands, completely on my own - at start I was worried, but result turned out really good.Walls from aerated concrete blocksYesterday I did the soil grading, and this part of the house starts looking decent. A couple of days later, we will dig another trenches and for the first time in house's lifetime water will be inside the house. Amazing. But, not so fast, there are still a lot to do, like to finish this wall at first.View toward house