So you want to buy a house?

The Estonians I met during my travels were initially astonished at the idea that I might buy property in the old country. Why, was the first question. Who knows, the Russians may invade and then your asset will be no more. It’s true there is a lot to think about before taking any further steps.

It has become a fashion to restore old farmhouses and surrounding buildings, the barn, woodshed, sauna house, potentially a well, and a cellar, dug separately half into the ground to keep perishables cool during the summer and hopefully to prevent their freezing solid in winter.

The many farmsteads I saw driving around the landscape are either beautifully restored, or if abandoned, in a desperate state. The floors are usually collapsed after 150 years of standing directly on top of the ground, and as a result, the roof line is buckled. Stepping inside, it’s clear these buildings have been leaking for years or decades, and every square metre of ceiling, wall and floor would have to be redone. Or demolished and turned into firewood.

So, farmstead or talu projects are for the dedicated, I have come to realise, and decide that my connection with them will remain admiration for the restored, and respect for the people who take on the years of toil, and potentially 100,000s of euros of renovation costs.

Sitting with Meelis in the sauna one night, he tells me that buildings cannot be left alone through the winter unless well ventilated, or someone regularly checks up on them. And then there is security. It seems it is the fashion among certain people to spy out empty rural properties, break in and enjoy free accommodation until someone or the law turns up. He says all this with ghoulish delight.

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Also to watch out for are locations that are prone to biting insects in spring and summer – midges, mosquitoes, gadflies, horseflies – and areas where the water table is at or near surface. Also to consider is roading access, especially in winter.

Repeatedly, I hear that one way of spending time in Estonia at a solid base is to rent an apartment or house from which daily forays can be made, to visit places of interest, collect berries or mushrooms, meet friends or family, or go for a walk or a swim.

This is an option of course, although property values outside of the cities and the most popular places can be a lot cheaper than in New Zealand. And this is an attraction, to invest in real estate in euros, for example, land with a few decrepit buildings, which are usually connected to the electricity, water, and sewerage networks – to do this from scratch is expensive.

Many companies in Estonia offer prefab or kitset homes, ranging from the tiny to family-sized dwellings. The dozens of designs available come with a building permit, and in-house contractors to put in foundations (with due regard to the frost depth) and services, besides the build.

A Timbeco product

Solar and space heating are options, either to replace national grid supply or supplement it. In winter, solar does not work, and one would have to light with candles and gas lanterns, and water heating using a wetback, or via the sauna. All possible of course, and people do that, especially in remote locations where toiletry is by way of a composting system.

And then winter is always coming. Estonians enjoy telling me how terrible this season of the year is, and it can last 8 months. When pressed, they tell me the season of bitter cold lasts from October to March inclusive, so six months when it really is cold, dark, muddy and cloudy much of the time and shivering rain and sleet. Snow is becoming a rarer commodity, and when it does sit on the ground adds light to the dark times and offers greater ease of travel, and also the burden of shovelling snow out of driveways.

How will Bernie survive the winter, my friends and family say, while drinking beer wrapped in towels in between rounds of sweating it out in a heated room. I suggest that going to the sauna might be one way of not freezing to death, and it seems to me that winter is a time for socialising either at home or visiting friends and family. My hosts nod sagely and thoughtfully, musing on the dangers of too much drink and depression-inducing darkness, boredom, and accidents from lack of care, such as frozen pipes, getting lost in the forest, a car breakdown far from home; the Estonian imagination runs endlessly on this topic.

I have tried to turn the subject by recounting Greg and me building an ice sculpture in Canada in minus 43 degrees C, water from the lake freezing immediately on impact with snow and ice, and going inside for ski jumps – crème de menthe in hot chocolate – to ward off frostbite. Then there were my adventures in Antarctica, camping in a tent as a blizzard raged outside, huddled in double sleeping bags and melting snow to drink and for cooking, and dreading going outside for toiletry.

The Estonians laugh, give me another beer and a shot of Vana Tallinn as we slide into a gas-heated pool outside, and they sing traditional Estonian songs karaoke style as night fades and the sun rises into another warm and long summer day.