They bought an old, crumbling cabin and spent two years bringing it back to life 🌲 🏡 The transformation is unbelievable—this once-ruined house is now something truly special! See more photos in the article below ⬇️
We all choose our homes based on our own needs—some dream of medieval castles, while others are happy with a small cabin. And some are even willing to completely rebuild an old, run-down wooden house.
One family wanted a home of their own, so they decided to buy an old rural school building. With a lot of hard work, they managed to turn the dilapidated structure into a cozy cottage. It took them three years to buy the land and another two years to renovate the house.
Before they bought it, the house was in terrible condition.
Marina, the owner, really loves the area. Before purchasing the house, she and her family often visited to admire the scenery. Wild animals like hares and wild boars are frequent visitors to the area.
At first, they wanted to buy a regular house in the village, but the prices were too high. Then a friend showed them the old school building. Surprisingly, they had never even noticed it while driving by. As soon as they saw it, they decided to buy it without hesitation.
The house was so old that they had to lift it up just to replace the rotten logs.
In winter, the house looked especially gloomy.
If the owners had inspected the house more carefully before buying it, they might have noticed a lot of problems. In fact, it might have been easier to build a new house from scratch than to repair this one.
Maxim and Marina spent a long time tearing down parts of the house. Most of the work was done by hand. They put their hearts and souls into the renovation. Although there were some imperfections, they did everything themselves. When people have a dream, they find a way to make it come true.
Take a look at how the house and the surrounding land look now.
Maxim took on most of the construction work himself. He only consulted Marina on the color scheme for certain parts of the house. They replaced almost everything—walls, floors, ceilings. The amount of work was enormous.
They did all the finishing work themselves, even planing the boards by hand. They tried to save money wherever possible but made sure to invest properly in heating, plumbing, and ventilation, knowing how important it is to do those things well. They even set up a heating system that only works on weekends—on Friday afternoon, the house starts warming up for their arrival, and it turns off automatically on Monday morning.
Originally, there were four stoves in the house, but they removed them and built a beautiful gate instead. Everyone pitched in to help with the gate—Marina, Maxim, their children, and even in-laws. There were so many bricks left over that they were able to build a cellar door as well. Maxim spent countless hours working on their future home.
The house has a cellar that was once used to store apples, but the smell was so strong that it attracted bats. So they decided to only store canned goods there instead.
The furniture in the house isn’t designer or fancy—it was all bought from IKEA during big sales.
On the first floor, there is a living room combined with a dining room. They decided to keep the original old floorboards.
Even though they are a bit different in color, it adds character to the space. Most importantly, the family loves how it all looks.
The kitchen furniture came from a furniture factory in Bobruisk. It’s usually made for the Netherlands, but they managed to get some pieces on sale.
