We are building our unique octagonal "House with a heart"!

This page is dedicated to our home "Valgusekoda" ("Abode of Light").
Here you can find a chronicle of how our living space is built and developed. See the blog "Our story"

This page is also dedicated to everyone who took a good part in this process and who is helping and supporting us on our journey. See "Thanks ".

NOW OUR GOAL IS TO COLLECT FUNDS CONTINUE THE CONSTRUCTION

Let's get acquainted!

Briefly about us and our "Abode of Light". We are Guzhov’s family:

Andrei and Lora (in the center), from left to right Vlademir, Miroslav, Svetomir, Radomir, Yaromir.

You can find a brief description further. The links within the text allow you to get more information in blog"Our Story".

NB! Sometimes in the text each individual link-word leads to a separate post on our blog.

My name is Andrey and I was keen on the ideas of personal growth, awareness, and expansion of consciousness since I was a teenager. I liked being outdoors enjoying nature and thus I started to think about environmentally friendly technologies and farming. My profession is psychology. I help people to find inner support and become happier, more conscious, comprehensively harmoniously developed. Currently, I am building my own house for my large family. Indeed, I'm not a builder. Therefore, building my own house is more than just an exciting process, - it is a challenge also. Honestly, I'm building it by myself mostly for financial reasons. I do my best. I study. I advance and I grow.

I was happy to meet my wife in 1999. Her name is Lora and she shares my views in many aspects and we bring them into life together ever since. We have been together for over 20 years. It is true that not everything went well in our family life, but in difficulties, we grow together. Lora is not only the mother of our five boys but also a very creative soul. Drawing, music, gardening, ceramics, stained glass - these are just some of the activities where she realizes herself with all her heart. You can find a constantly updated collection of her works here. She also shares my views on a healthy lifestyle. She is interested in yoga, healthy eating, and everything that helps to be conscious and happy.

We gave our children names with Slavic roots. I want to believe their names would be their support in life and would be their leading principles.

In 2016, we sold our small two-room apartment in Tallinn and started to create our new living space Abode of Light in the countryside, away from the city, from scratch. In the middle of a wild, overgrown field, this small change house appeared. Until the major house is built, it has become our temporary home. Modest and small, but the beloved house. We are still living in it. Of course, it’s a bit crowded, but it is on our own land, as we have long dreamed of!

The idea of our house was hatched for a very long time by both of us. As a result, the idea of an octagonal house, which is built according to the most environmentally friendly principles was born.

The reason we choose this name for our living space is not only because we plan to make the house full of light because of large windows, and the garden around it illuminated by many lanterns. "Valgusekoda" or "House/Abode of Light" is also about the inner space (inner light, consciousness, love, wisdom) that everyone carries within themselves. "The outside reflects the inside." Our house and land are an extension of ourselves.

"A House with a Heart" is also a large round room, - a big heart,- in the center of the house, which can accommodate all our relatives, friends, and guests. This is also about the principles that we are trying to put into practice.

The house is the heart of our living area around, whereas the surrounding is an extension of the house. Our area is divided into eight sectors by multi-colored alive beams.

There are orange, white, green, red-green, and other beams, which are made from low bushes stretched across the area from every corner of the house.
There are small lanterns between the bushes of the beams. At night, our beams glow in the dark, gathering in the middle, which is the "Abode of Light".
Special trees are planted at the end of each beam, which are the guardians of the house: Siberian cedar, red oak, silver maple, yellow mountain ash, and others.

And between the rays, the smooth arcs diverge. The arcs rise in tiers starting from the house, like waves. The first and the lowest are flower arches. Next and a little higher are bushes (currants, gooseberries, edible honeysuckle, and others), which are followed by arches of fruit trees. We already have pear, apple, plum, and cherry arcs.

We try to apply the principles of ecological and sustainable farming as much as possible in our area: using natural fertilizers, mulching plantings, reusing any materials, waste sorting, decreasing pollution of the soil, bees breeding.

According to our plan, looking from above our area would resemble a radiant light source - the Sun!

In our dreams, this place attracts people who share our views of a healthy lifestyle, unity with nature, awareness, expanding the boundaries of consciousness, revealing creativity in themselves. People who are passionate about searching and developing themselves!

We want to create a living space that reveals the path of the heart!

At the end of the construction season 2021, our house looked like this.

A lot has already been done! Communications ready. The basement has been made. Frame and roof have been installed. The roof has been covered by 3/4 with two layers of soft roofing (it is already watertight). Windows above the central room have been installed. In the begining there was only a field, overgrown with the tall grass. Now the image of the house we conceived is already looming from it. The house grows and the garden grows.

Large windows will be installed in the spring. During the winter, it is necessary to install straw blocks in the frame of the house and transport 80 tons of sand inside the house to the basement, level, and tamp it. ...

We need to raise funds in order to carry out the following works:

Rainwater drainage system. Entrance door. Pouring floor screed with underfloor heating pipes. Ventilation pipes and the ventilation unit itself. Modular pipes... (see the full list here )

All this is necessary for the house to be able to take in us and our guests. We will be able to hold events and devote more time to our other creative and socially beneficial projects.