The Origin Story: 2005 and the Week of Darkness

If you look at our garden now, you might see a peaceful Estonian sanctuary. But to understand how we got here—and why our blog is titled "Nailed It! Sort of..."—we have to go back to 2005.

We bought this house just one year after we were married. We were young, optimistic, and apparently, very naive. On the day we moved in, we discovered the previous owners hadn’t paid the electricity bill. The power was cut, and we were suddenly thrust into a version of 19th-century country living that we hadn't exactly signed up for.

For that first week, our "romantic" move-in looked like this:

• Cooking: Everything was prepared over the old wood stove. This would have been more idyllic if it hadn’t been the middle of a summer heatwave.

• Water: Hand-cranked from the well and hauled inside. It made a gym membership feel like a very unnecessary luxury.

• Hygiene: We cleaned ourselves with water buckets in the sauna, bathed in a nearby lake, or made the 30km trek to my in-laws' actual shower in town.
• Light: Candles give off a great vibe, but reading bedtime stories to a 3-year-old by candlelight while she asks "who just moved in the corner" of an empty, ancient house—with an abandoned manor house looming in the window—was... an experience.

It wasn't exactly the "basking in the sun" leisure we had envisioned.

The Treasure Hunt (Mostly Trash)

The electricity wasn't the only surprise. The house and grounds were essentially a museum of someone else's discarded life. Every room was overflowing with junk, and the garden was a jungle of thistles so thick they could be mistaken for a forest. We spent those early months hauling away mountains of trash and wondering what on earth we had done.

The Team Behind the Madness

Despite the rough start, we’ve spent the last two decades turning this place into our own. Our original idea of an "easy reno" with drywall and fresh paint evolved into using ancestral methods and giving the property back its dignity.

• Heiko: The resident perfectionist. Heiko believes that if a job is worth doing, it’s worth doing with a chisel and three times more effort than necessary. He’s the one who ensures things don’t fall down, even if it takes him forever to finish a single joint.
• Liidia: The one with the "Great Ideas." I specialize in derailing ongoing projects with new, even grander ideas. I am the person who frequently underestimates how long "just one little change" will actually take.
• Marti: Heiko’s younger brother. He joined our madhouse to lend a hand with the "day job" but has become the resident tractorist and horse-whisperer. He is irreplaceable as "the guy who holds the other end of the long beam."
• The Kids: The eldest is 24; after a stint on her own, she’s coming back and currently in charge of "dishwasher management." The youngest is 10 and is becoming a mini-me, throwing his own construction ideas in the way of mine. We are currently "planning" a treehouse complete with a stargazing tower.

The Four-Legged Residents

• The Dogs: First came Blis, our gentle Saint Bernard, who spent 11.5 wonderful years with us. Now we have Hagrid the Corgi (joined 2016), who helps with every project—mostly by cleaning the kitchen floor—and Ginny the Frenchie, our resident princess.
• The Cats: Our stress-relievers (and occasional stress-providers). We remember Josephine, Umberto, and Riki fondly. In 2025, we welcomed Joker, a shelter boy, and Mini Catstappen, a kitten whose antics keep us laughing.
• The Horses: We have four horses and two Shetland ponies in the backyard. They are the primary reason most renovations are postponed, derailed, and why our ideas just keep expanding.

Why "Nailed It! Sort of..."?

We’ve learned that in the countryside, things rarely go to plan. You start with a dream of a morning tomato and end up building a wooden masterpiece with a chisel for six months. You plan for leisure and end up with a week of bucket-baths.

We’ve "nailed" a lot of projects over the years—but usually after a few wrong turns, some lost tempers, and a lot of learning the hard way. This blog is where we share those stories.

-Liidia