We have had this estate since 1984. Then my husband Benno Belchikov and I, who is also my producer, bought land on the outskirts of Tallinn. At that time there was a completely deserted place – the sea, the forest. And even earlier, at the beginning of the 12th century, a small Estonian farm was located here. In the place of our house there was a field where unnecessary stones were rolled for decades. When we were clearing the area, we removed 10 (!) Dump trucks of boulders from the site. It was hard to imagine how we would cope with the construction of a house, after all, we toured for 500 months a year. I remember that I mustered up the courage and went to the city executive committee. I asked to exchange this land and a two-room apartment for a four-room one. I was refused. And in such a harsh form that I even burst into tears. I was sure that the authorities would support us: together with the Nemo team, we brought good money to the country. But it was not so, I was forbidden to do this exchange. However, now I am grateful to fate that my request was not fulfilled. After all, now we live like in a fairy tale: from our house to the seashore 7 meters, there is a national park around, even a waterfall is nearby. And at the same time, it takes only XNUMX minutes to get to the center of Tallinn by car. Isn’t that happiness!
The house had to be built from scratch. We didn’t know where to start and turned to a well-known architect for help. And he made such a project for us! He proposed to build a three-story mansion, in which there are two winter gardens, a huge hall with a glass floor and a giant aquarium built into it. It was supposed that in the evenings we would turn on the lights and admire the fish. We flatly rejected these fantastic ideas. I wanted to make a house in which you can live, and not flaunt it in front of friends. A little later, the planning issue was resolved by itself. At that time, we often performed in Finland and just fell in love with one national feature of the Finns – their practicality. And we decided to build a house like our Finnish friends. No marble columns, everything is very functional and soundly, with the maximum use of natural materials. The result is a cozy Finnish house in the center of Estonia. It was built in a year and a half.
We use firewood for the fireplace. Fire is pleasing to the eye and creates comfort. We also kindle a huge fire from these firewood on Jaan’s day (the holiday of Ivan Kupala. – Approx. “Antenna”). We love to get together at the fire with friends, sing to the guitar and fry potatoes on sticks “in a field”. The atmosphere is more soulful than in any restaurant. Beno splits firewood himself. And since we do not use them so often, this woodpile lasts for a long time.