Friday, 16 October 2026. Another small milestone in our life in Moldova: we have finally moved into our own house in Chișinău.
There is just one minor detail. The house is not finished yet.
Not even close to being completely finished, actually. There is still renovation work to do, construction material to remove, outdoor areas to complete and a seemingly endless collection of small problems waiting for attention.
But we have reached the point where we can live here. And after months of renovation, temporary arrangements and travelling back and forth, that is a considerable achievement.
Until now, we have been staying with Vita's parents in Dumbrava while the work on our house continued. They have been accommodating us, but living in somebody else's home, even with family, is not quite the same as having our own space, our own routines and our own little comforts.
So we made the decision to move in, unfinished house or not.
The return of my morning tea
One of the things I have been particularly looking forward to is surprisingly simple: being able to prepare and enjoy my loose-leaf tea every day.
I enjoy proper tea, made from loose leaves rather than simply dropping a teabag into a cup. It is a small personal ritual, but one that I appreciate. Having my own kitchen and being able to prepare things exactly as I like makes a difference.
That is one of the peculiar aspects of living somewhere temporarily. You can have a perfectly comfortable place to sleep, food on the table and everything necessary for everyday life, but you still miss those little habits that belong to you.
Now, once again, I can organise my mornings as I prefer.
It may seem insignificant compared with the amount of money, effort and time that goes into renovating a house. But after spending months dealing with builders, materials, decisions and unexpected complications, a proper cup of tea in my own home feels like progress.
Vita gets her mornings back
For Vita, the improvement is even more practical.
Instead of having to organise her day around the journey from Dumbrava into Chișinău, she now lives approximately fifteen minutes from work.
That means she can sleep longer in the morning, spend considerably less time travelling and start her working day without the same pressure of getting across town.
This is one of the reasons why our location matters so much to us. Living in the central part of Chișinău gives us better access to everyday services, reduces unnecessary travelling and makes our lives considerably more convenient.
For somebody who has to go to work regularly, saving time every morning is a real quality-of-life improvement. Over weeks and months, those minutes add up.
And I suspect Vita is not going to complain about getting a little more sleep.
The most important room: "MY Kitchen!"
Another achievement is that Vita finally has her new kitchen.
Or, as she likes to make perfectly clear, "MY Kitchen!" :)
After all the renovation work, planning and disruption, she now has a kitchen that she can call her own.
There is something rather satisfying about this. We have spent so much time thinking about construction, renovation and all the practical things required to make the property usable that it is easy to forget what the entire exercise is supposed to achieve.
We are not renovating a house simply to have newly finished walls, floors or installations. We are doing it because we want to live here, comfortably, in a place arranged according to our needs.
For Vita, the kitchen represents a particularly visible part of that achievement. It is her space, organised for her everyday use, and she is clearly happy about it.
Of course, I am also happy. A functioning kitchen means that we can finally return to our normal habits, including another important one: proper coffee!
Vita's parents do not drink coffee. They are also very devout Orthodox Christians, with their own established household traditions and routines. Their way of life is naturally different from ours.
There was nothing wrong with adapting to those routines while we were staying with them. But being back in our own house means that we can prepare what we like, when we like, without having to adapt to another household.
My loose-leaf tea, our coffee and Vita's new kitchen may not sound like major achievements. But together they represent something quite important: the return of our independence in everyday life.
Our new routine: getting rid of rubbish
Naturally, living in a house that is still being renovated comes with a few unusual daily activities.
One of the first things to do in the morning is to collect as much rubbish as possible and take it to the public rubbish container.
And at the end of the day? The same exercise again.
Fortunately, there is one very convenient aspect of our street: the rubbish collection truck passes twice a day.
For a household undergoing renovation, that is a remarkably useful service. We have accumulated plenty of material that needs to disappear, and having frequent rubbish collection makes the process of clearing the property much easier.
Obviously, construction waste and materials requiring special disposal cannot simply be treated as ordinary household rubbish. But for the everyday rubbish that can be placed in the public containers, having regular collection is a considerable advantage.
Every bag removed means a little less clutter. Every cleared corner brings us closer to having a normal home rather than a property that is permanently undergoing construction.
I have come to appreciate the difference between making a house functional and actually making it pleasant to live in. Both require effort, but they are not quite the same thing.
Not everything left over is rubbish
One thing I am deliberately keeping is the leftover wood from the renovation.
Rather than simply throwing away every piece of timber, I am collecting the offcuts and other usable remnants.
There is a practical reason for doing so.
Vita's parents have a large wood-burning water-heating system installed inside their house in Dumbrava. It provides heat through a system that burns wood to heat water for the building.
Considering the size of their house and the amount of heating required during a Moldovan winter, wood is a useful resource.
Consequently, clean, suitable leftover timber from our renovation can have a second purpose instead of simply being discarded. Naturally, painted, chemically treated or otherwise unsuitable wood must be kept out of the heating system.
It is a small example of something I have always appreciated: reusing materials when there is a practical reason to do so.
We have rubbish that needs to disappear, and we have materials that can still serve a purpose. The challenge is separating one from the other rather than treating everything as waste.
And since Vita's parents have been accommodating us during the renovation, it is particularly satisfying that at least some of the leftover materials may be useful to them.
Tomorrow: another step towards finishing the outdoor deck
Moving in does not mean that the renovation has stopped.
Quite the opposite. We can now continue working on the house while actually living in it, which brings its own set of inconveniences but also makes it easier to see what still needs attention.
Tomorrow, Saturday, 17 October, we are expecting the gas technicians to come and reroute the gas pipes.
This is necessary before we can complete the outdoor deck.
It is another example of how renovation work involves dependencies that are not always obvious when looking at the finished design. You may want to finish one particular area, but another installation must first be moved, modified or completed.
In this case, the gas pipework needs to be addressed before the outdoor construction can proceed properly. That is a job for the appropriate technicians, not something I intend to improvise myself.
Once that part has been dealt with, we should be able to move another step closer to completing the deck.
There are still plenty of tasks ahead of us, but at least now we can see the property taking shape as the home we originally wanted.
A small celebration
By the end of the day, we had earned ourselves a little celebration.
Nothing particularly elaborate. Just the satisfaction of finally being in our own house, knowing that we had reached an important milestone after so much work.
For the occasion, we had a bottle of Volparessa Prosecco DOC, an Italian sparkling wine.
It seemed an appropriate way to mark the occasion.
After all, moving into an unfinished house may not sound like the sort of event that deserves a celebration. Most people probably prefer to move after the builders have gone, the last installation has been completed and everything has been cleaned and arranged.
We have taken a slightly different approach.
There will still be dust, unfinished work, appointments with technicians and plenty of things to organise. I expect the coming weeks will continue to produce a long list of tasks, some planned and others entirely unexpected.
But we are no longer simply visiting the property to inspect the renovation, check the work or decide what needs to be done next.
We are living here.
I can have my tea every morning. We can enjoy proper coffee. Vita can sleep longer and get to work in fifteen minutes. She has her kitchen. I can continue clearing rubbish and collecting useful wood. And the next stage of construction is already scheduled.
These are ordinary things, but that is precisely why they matter.
The purpose of all this work was never to create a perfect building for somebody to admire. It was to create a place where we could live, establish our routines and enjoy our life together in Moldova.
On Friday, 16 October 2026, despite everything that remains unfinished, we finally began doing exactly that.
And that was reason enough to open a bottle of Prosecco. :)
The events described, the personal experiences and the opinions expressed remain my own. AI assistance was used to improve how they are presented, not to invent experiences or replace my perspective.
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