So, the house is standing – it has a roof, doors, windows, a floor, and even walls. But remember that this isn’t just a house, but a Bathhouse. Therefore, before the cold weather set in, I began building the steam room. I had no experience, no money, no understanding, so I did what I could. A steel stove, which will surely burn out in a year and a half, was purchased at a discount.
Back then, I made a colossal number of mistakes, including making a weak, non-waterproofed floor, lack of ventilation, walls and shelves made of poor quality paneling, not planning for taps in the steam room, etc.
But a passionate heart and an unstoppable desire to steam both my family and friends did their thing — magnificent pine logs were covered with mineral wool, wrapped in foil, and lined with paneling.
Back then, this seemed to me a work of art, the best bathhouse in the world, worthy of the top spots in the world championship of bathhouse design. And to completely shock the guests, I lined the stove with stone!
A masterpiece! It moved me to tears, I swear…
That’s how we entered the fall of 2013. We heated the steam room up to 120 degrees (thanks to the mineral wool and foil creating a thermos effect), sat there for 5 minutes, and joyfully ran outside. Sometimes into the snow, sometimes into the mud. Because after construction, there was a lot of mud.
Since there was no gas on the site, we tried to heat the house with infrared lamps, heat guns, vodka (that was still relevant then), and a hookah (that too).
Yes, it was cold, the house was drafty, there was no furniture, hot water, sewage, or beds. But it was delightful — we relaxed with friends every week, and I also decided to spend New Year’s there with my family. We invited the Cobileanschi family, asking them to dress warmly, and we partied with the kids, Santa Claus, Olivie salad, fireworks, gifts, and music!
Having celebrated through the winter, I again took up the steam room, realizing that my bathhouse would soon simply burn down due to violating fire safety rules. I constructed a stone apron around the stove and lined the pipe with jadeite.
That’s also when the first prototype for ventilation appeared. Back then it was just a hole in the wall with a latch, but today, in my bathhouse, the carbon dioxide level in the steam room is controlled by a smart home system.
Of course, a lot has changed over 8 years, I’ve learned a lot about bathhouses, their design, the specifics of temperature and humidity, removed the paneling, and built ergonomic shelves from Altai cedar, installed an awesome cast-iron stove weighing a ton with stones, lined with ancient bricks from church excavations, set up a smart home system with rain, fog, and auto-steam delivery to the stones. A warm stone floor, a Himalayan salt wall, shelves for herbs, a tap with hot water, a gong, carbon dioxide sensors, a wild steampunk design of the furnace, and much more.
But what has remained unchanged is the feeling of celebration when you enter the warm steam room with family or friends and pour steam…
To be continued…
