Our first days back in Bodbe
Hello! Welcome to my blog! Here I plan to write about fixing up an old house that belongs to my wife and her family in the village of Kvemo Bodbe(ქვემო ბოდბე -- Lower Bodbe), Georgia (that's the country between Turkey and Russia, not the U.S. state), also known as Saqartvelo (საქართველო.) It is in the Kakheti region, which is known for it's wine. The nearest town that tourists might be familiar with is Sighnaghi and near it is the Bodbe Monastery. In addition to writing about the house renovation, I will be taking over my father-in-law's vineyard and making wine (and maybe jams and other things) this fall. Since my father-in-law passed away last year, we have been paying someone to take care of it for us until we could make it here.
We arrived in Bodbe on Tuesday, July 8. A few things have changed. In the place of one of the old shops we went to before is a Magniti (chain grocery store.) There is now a paved road leading up to the gate to our yard. There is now running water in this village! There is a meter just outside the gate with a line running to a spigot in our yard. No more going downhill to get water and carrying it back up!
One of the first things we want to work on, since there's now water, is to run the water line into the house. Probably the first thing we will add is a kitchen sink. Sometime in the near future we'd like to convert a room to a bathroom to have a toilet, shower, bathroom sink. First though, we need to get a septic tank installed. In the beginning, the kitchen sink water can just drain out into the yard somewhere. We'd just really like to have this first so that we don't have to take dishes outside all of the time to wash them.
There is some structural work that will need to be taken care of soon on an exterior wall. There is a huge crack across the back wall in the upstairs bedrooms. One person advised us that there needs to be work done at the foundation. My wife's cousin, who works in construction, said he will look at it and help us with it. He has just recently fixed a wall in his family's old house which is just next to ours in the same yard.
When we first arrived, there were grass and weeds that were very high. I thought I was going to have to try using a scythe to cut them. Then we found someone with a weed-eater that we could pay to cut it. A weed-eater is going to be another thing that I purchase soon. I can use it to take care of the yard and at the cemetery around my father-in-law's and my wife's grandparent's graves. It seems there is not one person to take care of cemetery grounds and each family is responsible for their own. From the looks of it, not many people are doing this.
One thing I'm really interested in is painting some of the doors, windows and interior walls. I feel like it would make things feel more comfortable for us. With some caulk around the doors and windows and some fresh paint, I'm sure it would look and feel a lot more clean. Right now, there is so much dust that needs to be cleaned almost daily.
Another convenience I'd like to have is to install more electric outlets. Currently, there is one outlet per room(6 bedrooms, kitchen/wine room, living room/dining room and the big open room above it upstairs.) Not all of these work, and some are loose and need fixed into the wall better.
Outside, we want to fix the floor to the balcony. It is currently uneven concrete. We want to paint the fence and gates and bannister. I wanted to start a garden, but may put that off until next year since it's already mid-July. I'm sure there are a few things I could plant at this time, but there's too much other work. Also, vegetables are cheap, so we'll be okay for a while without having to grow our own. We already have fig, walnut, and pear trees. There are the grape vines on each side of the house plus we have the vineyard. My wife said there are strawberries growing near the fence, but I think it might be late for those this year. I saw some mulberries in the same area.
I plan to start a compost bin. I need to get some materials to get that started. We should have plenty to add to it. I wonder if I can sell worms from it? I'm not sure if there are any good fishing spots nearby, but perhaps we could take them to a bazaar somewhere nearby where there might be interest.
Mostly just been getting settled in and cleaning up this past week. It's going to be a lot more work and money than I originally thought. We're going to have to prioritize some things and sacrifice some ideas or just hold off on them for a while.
I plan to add some photos to this blog so anyone reading can see where we started and how things are coming along. I'm open to comments and I'll be updating the site soon and either adding a comment section or I'll be posting the link to each blog post on the fediverse, where you can comment on that post if you have a mastodon or some other fediverse account! I haven't decided which route I'm going to go with that. I'm also new to using BSSG to generate my site and still learning what all I can do with it.
You can comment here (not working yet, unless you access it from a mastodon app or otherwise know what you're doing. I hope to have this working soon!)