After watching the TV show, you would expect a small building, but Nemilkov Castle turned out to be a labyrinth of rooms full of junk, where we initially got lost. A family cleaning session revealed chaos, a lack of tools, and led us to principles such as "finish what you start, never go empty-handed, and don't move around this house without a flashlight." And when, despite Markéta's advice, I set about repairing the roof, it ended with an escape from a swarm of wasps and another lesson that improvisation has its limits.

From swimming pools, I found myself in the ruins of Nemilkov – instead of clean, warm halls, I now inhabit dark, cold chambers full of insects and mice. In the summer of 2016, after years of searching, we bought a dilapidated castle and courtyard, and since then we have been clearing out years of clutter, removing inappropriate structural alterations, and collecting every remnant of history we can find. A long and demanding restoration awaits us, but our goal is to save this cultural monument and one day remove it from the list of endangered buildings.