This Old Russian House

Renovation and remodeling are a part of life for pretty much everyone in Russia at some long point in their lives. Many Russians inherit or buy relics from the Soviet and Tsarist periods that definitely need a fresh coat of paint, and I, Tim Kirby, am no exception. Faced with the choice of going into debt for 30 years or buying something I could pay for with a bag of cash, I chose the option #2. But anything “affordable” near Moscow is cheap for a reason so I have a lot of renovation work ahead of myself. In this first episode, I’ll show you around the home that I bought, the overall plan for it and tell you how Russians typically insulate their walls. Technology is evolving and This Old Russian House from the 90s needs a ton of work before it can be a place worth living in.

In our last video, Vadim vanished due to tragic reasons leaving me to carry on with the siding by myself. My tiny house is going to get some extra help in this episode as doing the windows DIY may yield horrible results. Putting up vinyl siding on a straight wall is easy, making a window off of which rain flows perfectly… well, that is another story. The quest to build my dream home around Chekhov, Russia continues and as a bonus feature, I will show you plans for an expansion that I will make as soon as I am done renovating/remodeling the original house… if I can scrounge up the money. Anyways, enjoy the DIY adventure because there is lots of stuff to cut with an angle grinder this time around, so no matter what I’ll be having fun for sure!

Well friends it is time to celebrate the one year remodeling anniversary of my Russian tiny house. The first season is over and the house is now functional. The DIY dream has come true but season two is starting soon. Thank you for all your support and warm messages.

In this episode of This Old Russian House we may finally get water into the house but the question is at what price. The floor in the kitchen is destroyed. Trenches have been dug. Money has been spend in large amounts but finally after drilling our water well and lots of renovation we may just start drinking tap water. The DIY nightmare continues!

In this episode of This Old Russian House I am drilling for water so I can finally take a shower at my house. This is no simple process. It requires a massive bore to get it done and Vadim promised me that somehow he can do it all by himself. So are we going to start doing some plumbing soon and drinking fresh well water, or am I going to keep having to push that wheel barrow to the public well? You’ll find out in this DIY renovation packed episode. Enjoy!

Now that the infrastructure of the house is finished it is time for me Tim Kirby to finally make a darn place to sit down already! Since I have a lot of extra wood I decided to try making a sofa-bed out of scraps. Hopefully, this custom furniture adventure will not blow up in my face. House Renovation does not stop with getting the water turned on friends!

It's BBQ time friends because as they say if Russians weren't willing to go outside in bad weather they'd never go outside. So Tim, Misha, and friends are going to Chekhov to show you how to party Russian style by making shish kebabs in the snow. Be forewarned this video is full of culinary fail. It's outdoor shashlik action for you friends as we await the start of season 2 of This Old Russian House.

Well, now it is time to go inside because cold weather is coming soon and there is no point in heating the main room if all the warmth will just leak out through the paper-thin plywood floor. So in this episode, I am going to be doing the flooring as part of my old house renovation. For my home, I have bought a lot of OBS and 50cm mysterious blue insulation foam which will be the base for the floor. I need to get the basic “subfloor” in place so that way later on a future episode I can put down a ton of laminate flooring in my tiny house so everything will come together and look awesome. Guys, remodeling is fun even if you don’t know what you are doing so enjoy my journey towards building a mini palace worthy of a Russian Czar!

Renovation of my Russian dream home continues! This tiny house needs to get protected by vinyl siding before winter comes or all the rock wool insulation that I have put up will probably get ruined! In this episode, I'll show you how we are getting the siding around the PVC window frames. Doing siding on walls is a breeze but putting protection around the framing of the windows is much harder. So let's get this house ready because winter is coming!

Living in a DIY home gets better when you get your second one. The neighbor wanted to sell his horrific pink house so I decided to grab it while the price was cheap. This means we have plenty of home renovation adventures coming up. So let's take a look at the new territory and see just how broken and battered this tiny house has gotten over all the years of being devoid of life.

Well, it is time to get back to work as there is tons to do outside of the house. DIY starts but it never seems to end and now the muddy land around my house in Chekhov, Russia needs a big renovation itself. Spoiler Alert in this episode some former guest stars will make an appearance as we push forward despite the Coronavirus quarantine.

In this video, you will see how I and my loyal band of Russian laborers turn the rotting porch into a pleasant mudroom as well as take a look at other parts of my tiny house. And at the very end, we'll begin the renovation adventure they call off the grid plumbing. Remember this is an ongoing DIY tiny home project so don't forget to check out the previous episodes.

Big time plumbing and massive failures in delivery await in this episode of This Old Russian House. The “fun” part about doing a tiny home in Russia is that there is always some unexpected twist and in this episode, Tim will get disappointed and frustrated yet again. However, plumbing is moving forward and we are approaching the time when there will actually be water in the house. Sit back and enjoy more DIY renovation in the former USSR.

It's time for this renovation project to get stinky as we are finally putting in the septic tanks. DIY has its dangers and the Coronavirus is definitely having an affect on my tiny house. Let's just say I found a very "creative" way to show you where this tiny home remodel is going.

The budget of my Russian tiny house may have just hit a snag. I wanted to enclose the porch completely but as you will see in the video that idea is not going to work. So let the destruction begin because time is money and I am running out of both of them. The best part of DIY is the demolition that happens first. So let’s get some demo going and make a plan to fix this situation. There are plenty more videos about remodeling my Russian tiny home on my channel.

Well sadly friends DIY does not stop at the front door so in this episode mostly due to the Coronavirus we are going to have lots of outdoor action. My backyard transformation dream is to have my own football / soccer field for my son to train on and for dad and his buddies to use. We have a lot of cool projects but this program may be starting to expand, more on that at the end of the episode. Enjoy the show!

Nothing brings joy to a man's heart like s new septic tank but can I get it going all by myself? Plys what other problems could arise with this DIY project? Watch the video about my tiny home adventures to find out.