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Welcome to Tough Kraut's Blog
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Here you will find my most recent blog posts. Tough Kraut guides you from city apartments to homesteads. Explore our categories:
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Homestead Chronicles: Follow our journey. Read “A Starter’s Guide” for basics or “Life on the Land” for real stories.
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Cultivate & Thrive: Grow food anywhere. Try “Homegrown Harvests” for balcony tips or “Building Soil” for yards.
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Self-Sufficient Living: Learn off-grid skills. Check “Water Conservation” or “Homesteading & DIY” for practical projects.
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Farm Companions: Use animals and plants smartly. Explore “Natural Pest Control” or “Foraging” for free resources.
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Permie Pantry: Cook and preserve. Start with “Garden-To-Table Recipes” or “Pickle & Preserve” for easy ideas.
Lime Mortar Repair of Granite Stone Walls: Why Traditional Methods Prevent Century-Long Structural Damage
Most stone houses don’t fail dramatically. They fail quietly . A little damp patch here. Flaking plaster there. Then suddenly, the “solid” granite wall behind your bathroom looks like it’s dissolving from the inside out. The bathroom wall before finishes. Exposed granite, damp staining, and a fresh slab. This is where lime mortar repair starts earning its keep. That’s exactly what we found on the ground floor of our granite house in Portugal. The wall behind our future bathro
6 hours ago
Primer Selection & Application: Creating the Right Surface for Waterproofing Success
Most waterproofing failures don’t start with the membrane. They start one step earlier. Wrong primer. Wrong dilution. Wrong surface prep. Screed poured over a primed wooden subfloor. This hidden interface is where most bathroom waterproofing failures begin if primer selection or application is wrong. In bathrooms, that mistake doesn’t show up right away. It shows up months or years later as loose tiles, mold smell, peeling membranes, or moisture trapped exactly where you don’
3 days ago
Screed Installation Bathroom: Why This Step Determines Everything That Comes After
If tiles fail, grout cracks, or waterproofing peels months after a renovation, the problem almost never starts at the surface. It starts underneath. Screed installation is one of the least glamorous phases of a bathroom renovation. It is also one of the most critical. Most blogs rush past it in a paragraph or two. Ours did not have that luxury. Living off-grid means no industrial dehumidifiers, no forced drying, and no hiding from physics. Fresh screed installation bathroom &
6 days ago
Bathroom Waterproofing System: Mapegum WPS + Reinforcement Strategy
Bathroom waterproofing does not fail because products are bad. It fails because systems are incomplete. Fully waterproofed bathroom walls using Mapegum WPS as part of a complete bathroom waterproofing system before tiling begins. Most leaks start where different materials meet. Corners. Pipe penetrations. Wall-to-floor transitions. Behind bathtubs. Exactly the areas that often get rushed, under-reinforced, or treated as “details.” This post documents a complete bathroom water
Jan 1
Granite Stone House Bathroom Renovation: A Breathable Wall System That Stays Dry
If you try to build a modern bathroom inside a 50 cm (20 in) granite wall the “normal” way, the wall will punish you. Not today. Maybe not next month. But slowly. Old stone houses survive because they dry. They take in water, then they let it leave again. When we seal that cycle with hard cement mortars or closed wall cavities, moisture has nowhere to go. That is when you get damp, mold, rot, and the kind of smell that makes you want to sell the house and move into a tent. Ha
Dec 29, 2025
Granite Stone Wall Demolition: How to Safely Open Up Your Space
Opening up a granite stone house looks simple in your head. You tap a wall, imagine sunlight pouring through a new archway, and think, “How hard can it be?”Then you chisel off the first patch of plaster and discover a world of surprises: oversized granite blocks sitting exactly where you hoped for a clean line, corner stones holding three directions together, and mortar that stayed strong for a century but crumbles the moment you breathe on it. When we began our renovation in
Dec 4, 2025
Timber Floor Construction and Natural Insulation Solutions
Standing inside our old granite stone house for the first time felt like stepping into three different lifetimes. One room had rotten wooden boards that sagged under each step. Another had a tired, uneven concrete patch that someone had once called a floor. The last section had been a stable for sheep and goats, still layered with straw and old manure. Not exactly the warm and welcoming base you dream of for an off-grid home. But this is where transformation begins. With a so
Nov 27, 2025
Granite House Renovation: Slab Preparation, Ring Beams, and Off-Grid Utilities
When we first stepped into our old granite house, the floors felt like a mountain range and the ceilings more like cave roofs. Leveling it wasn’t just about comfort — it was about making the structure safe, efficient, and ready for decades of off-grid living. So, we rolled up our sleeves, dug down about 85 cm (33 inches) inside the stone shell, and built a reinforced concrete slab that now hides every pipe, wire, and water line our future home will need. Along the way, we p
Nov 9, 2025
French Drains for Stone Homes: Our In-Progress Installation
Every old granite house has its secret — ours just happened to be trapped water. When I started leveling the floor inside our stone ruin, I dug nearly 85 cm (33 inches) down through compacted soil and veins of granite. What began as a quest for a few extra centimeters of ceiling height quickly turned into a lesson in geology, patience, and sweat equity. Underneath the rubble, I found what every off-grid renovator eventually faces: moisture paths leading straight into the wall
Oct 31, 2025
Repurposing Construction Materials: Sustainable Ideas from Floors to Raised Beds
Every renovation leaves behind a pile of “leftovers.” Wood, stone, concrete — most people see rubble. On our land in Central Portugal, we see resources waiting for a second life. When we pulled up the old wooden floors of our granite house, those boards didn’t head for the dump. They turned into raised beds in the greenhouse. The cinder blocks from demolished walls now edge garden beds. Even the heavy precast concrete T-beams? A quick cut with the angle grinder, and they’re
Oct 22, 2025
Safe Demolition Techniques for Stone Walls and Clay Brick Interiors
The first swing of a sledgehammer teaches you two things fast: stone doesn’t forgive, and dust gets everywhere. When we began removing...
Oct 13, 2025
Planning an Energy Class A+ Renovation for Long-Term Durability
Renovating an old granite house to meet modern energy standards is no small feat. Granite keeps cool in summer and stores heat, but on...
Sep 16, 2025
Granite Stone House Renovation: Why We’re Restoring Off-Grid in Portugal
Ever stood inside a crumbling granite house in rural Portugal and wondered, “Is this even worth saving?” We did. The granite walls still...
Sep 13, 2025
Why Every Stone House Renovation Needs a Ring Beam
They Said We Were Crazy to Wait Three Years… But Here’s Why We Did When MuDan and I moved to our off-grid land in Central Portugal, one...
Jun 26, 2025
Building the Off-Grid Basics—Fences, Power, and Resilience
Starting a homestead from scratch is an adventure filled with both triumphs and trials. When we made the leap from city life to...
Jun 17, 2025
Guides, tips, stories or recipes directly from our off-grid homestead. From newbie tips to pro hacks, our posts help you grow smarter, not harder.
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