Our heroes talked about how they built a log house on a limited budget.
Katya and Sergey always dreamed of living in a wooden house. Therefore, we decided to invest the money donated for the wedding into purchasing a plot of land. Thus, in 2015, their journey to realizing their dream began. Our heroes talked about their experience of building a house, shared all the difficulties and useful tips.
About choosing a site and starting construction
Our house is located 20 km from the St. Petersburg Ring Road: forest, almost no roads, destroyed buildings, several marked areas – a former military unit. This plot immediately sank into our souls, we came three times and as a result, in February 2016, we became the owners of 12 acres in the forest.
A year passed before we started working on the house. During this time we decided what it would be like. We really liked houses made of logs. In March 2017, we had a strip foundation installed. And in May of the same year, the walls of the house were erected.
About the layout
Our house is made of rounded logs with a diameter of 24 cm. The area of the house is 175 m². On the ground floor there is a kitchen-living room with second light, a bedroom, a bathroom, a boiler room and a corridor. On the attic floor there are 3 bedrooms of 15.5 m² each and a bathroom.
About the long construction
We didn’t build quickly. I think it’s important to tell this, because many people think that building a house means simply investing money and moving into a finished home. But this is not always the case and not for everyone.
After the walls of the house were built, the funds ran out. The house stood under a temporary roof, which soon tore. That summer was rainy, and it was impossible to leave the house uncovered.
We bought materials for the roof, and my husband decided to lay them himself. Sergey did this for the first time. I watched videos on YouTube, read forums. It took 28 days, which stretched over 15 weeks.
Now I remember it and can’t imagine how we decided to do this. It wasn’t easy. We worked at the site on weekends after regular work. Then we saved 180,000 rubles on roof work. It was 2017, and we moved into the house in December 2020.
All this time we gradually invested what we could into the house. They did some things with their own hands, and delegated others to workers.
Of course, the passion sometimes disappeared; there were even thoughts of selling this house and forgetting about the construction, like a bad dream.
It became more interesting when we approached the finishing touches: we could already feel the approaching move. 4.5 million was spent on the construction of the house before finishing.
About finishing on your own
To move, we needed to make the first floor residential.
It contains a corridor, a bathroom, a bedroom, a boiler room and a kitchen-living room with second light.
What is another incomparable advantage for us – in a wooden house we could do the finishing of the walls ourselves – we painted everything the same color. But to choose it, we needed to take four different shades for painting.
We didn’t stop there and laid porcelain tiles all over the floor ourselves. It was chosen because we have a warm water floor, and porcelain tiles have high heat transfer.
The frame wall turned out to be difficult for us to work with. She walks from the corridor into the kitchen. And here we were once again convinced that if all the walls had to be puttied before painting, we would not have been able to do it ourselves. We still haven’t brought it to fruition.
About the kitchen
The kitchen is brutal black matte, but the absence of upper cabinets makes it spacious and bright. The kitchen cabinets cost us 146,000 rubles. The kitchen is complemented by a dining area with black chairs.
About the living room
In the living room area we currently only have a sofa and a staircase frame. We also plan to place a fireplace, make a reading area and place a coffee table.
About the bathroom
I would also like to tell you about the bathroom. Despite its small size (1.2 m by 2.8 m), it is quite spacious.
This happened thanks to a narrow bedside table that does not interfere with the passage. Again, we managed to make it ourselves, since we couldn’t find a suitable size in the store. The beech bedside table cost us 14,912 rubles.
By the way, you may notice that all the faucets in our house are black. It’s difficult to choose black faucets in a store. That’s why they were all ordered on AliExpress. And you know, they are of very good quality, and delivery took less than a week. I advise you to take a closer look at products from China, the main thing is to study the reviews.
At the time of moving into the house (December 2020), 1,100,000 rubles were spent on finishing work.
About plans
We still have a lot to finish on the first floor: chandeliers, baseboards on the floor and ceiling, window frames, furniture for the corridor, stairs. It seems like construction will never end. But we are already living this. I have a lot of ideas in my head that I want to implement.
This is especially true for the attic floor. We now have a temporary workshop and building materials there. But the plans are to make cozy three bedrooms and a bathroom.
What would you like to change
I would definitely make the hallway more spacious and provide a pantry for the kitchen. I would also arrange a large terrace under a canopy so that all summer breakfasts can be held on it.