After studies, an expert appraisal and drawing the project, the demolition started. The first to go was the roof, which was covered with 5-8 layers of tar and ruberoid sheeting. The bottommost layer was partly the remains of the old wood shingled roof. Next, the partition walls built in the Soviet era were torn down because they divided the rooms into tiny spaces. The abovementioned work produced about 15 truckfuls of waste taken to the landfill.
To relieve the weight bearing on the structure, the layer of insulation on the first floor ceiling was removed - it was made up of moss, sand and clay. Since the years had buried the house deep in the ground, it was dug out and about a 30-70 cm layer of soil was removed. This revealed the foundation and the state it was in. Next, the foundation was reinforced, leaving some of the limestone and ironstone foundation visible after it was cleaned and grouted.
The facade renovations meant removing the damaged weatherboards and reusing as much of the old, wood material as possible. The main facade was covered with the original weatherboards and the other walls were covered with comparable, new weatherboards. As the walls were renovated, several rows of logs were replaced both above the foundation as well as in the walls. Unfortunately, reusable, old logs were hard to find so new pine logs were used. The south wall in the yard was so depreciated that it crumbled and a new wall was built.
Some of the original floorboards had been replaced but some of the 30cm wide original grooved floorboards were preserved. Most of the floor beams were rotten but the usable floorboards were removed and reused to finish the ceilings.
The ceiling beams and rafters had also been damaged by time. Most of the ceiling beams were replaced and connected together by using Dutch tenons, forged bolts and clamps. The rotten parts of the rafters were also replaced and new rafters added to help level the roof.
The original mantel chimney was pretty well preserved but the part that reached outside the roof was dilapidated. The chimney head was torn down to 30-40 cm from the roof and rebuilt. A new wood shingle roof was built to give the house an authentic and nice look.