meet the sisters: roma koval

Roma is an active community member of BERLIN WOOD SISTERS, who is always ready to help and support other wood sisters with their projects.

She has always known she has got a talent for making things with her own hands, but for some reason, she wasn`t using it. Until three years ago, when she realized that if she wants to be happy with her home, she needs to start investing in her toolbox and build her own furniture.

Tell me a little bit about you. Where were you born and how did you end up in Berlin?
I was born in the West of Ukraine, in times, when it still was the Soviet Union. There was a lot of poverty in my childhood and around me, but I managed to get to the university and get the software development education. That helped me to start earning money on my own and then move out to European Union. First I came to Latvia, and almost four years ago I decided to move to Berlin.

How did you start with DIY woodworking?
I was always good at doing different things with my hands, from little things like jewelry to some bigger things. I've always had good geometric thinking and sensitive hands. But I rarely was spending time doing any DIY project after my school age.

Until three years ago when I was living in a very strange studio apartment, that had a lot of small weird-shaped spaces, non-perpendicular walls with a lot of wires being installed in older times randomly. I kinda had a lot of space but no place to normally put my things. And, no cellar. I also had a bit hard time, as my relocating to Berlin didn't go so smoothly as I expected and I felt quite insecure in that period.

So I bought some shelves and asked my friend to come and drill them for me. He didn't have time for few months, so I had all my stuff together with shelves all over the place. That annoyed me so much, that when he finally had time to come with his tools, I said "No. We are going to Bauhaus, you tell me what to buy, and show me how to use it, and I'll do it on my own".

Do you remember what was your first own power tool?
The first one was the Bosch hammer drill, green, 2500. I think it's just perfect for most of the needs you might have if you are not a professional builder and your house doesn't have metal constructions. Of course, I also bought then all the other accessories: a device to identify wires in the walls, level, sets of dowels and screws, etc. And obviously glasses and masks. Safety first.

Roma`s first power tool at her new home.

How do you choose your tools?
Next, I bought an electrical screwdriver, AEG. I think the good ones are the more or less the same price - blue Bosch, AEG, Makita, DeWalt, so I just choose the one that was laying in my hand most comfortable. As soon as I bought that one, everything around me looked like an opportunity to improve and the number of projects grew up dramatically.

So you started actively using your new tools?
No broken leg nor flaky connection was ever tolerated in my flat. I even heard a funny story about one lady who bought the same tool and now takes it with her almost everywhere, to fix things - this is how she was impressed how easy those "man" things are (the story happened in Ukraine, there is still strong push on "male/female" kind of work and both have a lot of learning disability doing things opposite gender expected to do).

What came next?
Much later, I bought a blue Bosch electric jigsaw. This one I needed to be more "fancy" one: first, I have quite weak hands, and with more powerful tools it's easier to be precise. Also, I don't have a dedicated isolated place to do the work, and I have to respect silent time, and I have a full-time job - I need to do the work quickly, without breaks. The cheap ones (like all green line of Bosch) require you to give it 15 min of a break after each 15 min of work.

Do you have a wish list for the tools you want to buy?
I joke that my shopping list and my wish list differ by color of Bosch line - in the shopping list I have green ones, in wish list - same but blue ones. I'd rather say I'd like to get to the place in life when I'll work and learn with some professional woodworkers, to have a stable flow of work, good guidance, and a dedicated place with all the vacuum systems and tools, rather than get some new tools on my own.

Good Tip!

One of her favorites is a Dremel rotary multi-tool. She already used it to: make balcony floor adjustments for the marquise, cut many custom shapes in wood for different projects, was making sharp ends smooth, cut metal pipes and profiles, and... she also does her nails using it.

What else do you need to consider if you want to start working on your projects at home?
To do it all in my home I bought a dedicated vacuum cleaner, as this kind of dust can easily destroy the regular ones, and without vacuuming this dust will cover every surface. And of course I bought different smaller tools like wrenches, clumps, bits, saws, pliers, screws, ladder, measurers...

What are your next goals regarding your home workshop?
I'd like to buy a router and sander and have a proper circular saw, but for all of that firstly I'd like to have a dedicated place and stable flow of projects that I know why I'm doing. So far I'm mostly doing improvements for my house, this is the very limited pull of projects.
I also try to not buy tools just because I like to buy new cool things, you know? One-two times I had to deal with some task that required a new dedicated tool - only then did I buy it.

What kind of projects do you enjoy the most?
Ideally, I think I'd be very happy building something that doesn't require super fancy finishing, like different constructions in Holzmarkt. If you are building something like that - call me, I'm yours ;) As I don't have the proper equipment and deep professional skills to make something that is super perfect and fancy. But I have a good imagination, planning skills, and good geometrical thinking. So far I mostly like to improve the place where I live. I don't like things that are too expensive or that are creating a lot of hardly accessible for cleaning spots, nor dust collectors. Instead of having some poor quality (and still expensive) wardrobes, I built in massive shelves and use that maximum space productively, without having to spend a lot of effort to clean it.

Which are your dream projects you would like to do in the future? 
If I would have a lot of free time, all the tools, and a dedicated place - I'd do different challenges people suggest in their blogs. Or different unexpected little things from scrap wood leftovers. I like challenges, I like to try something new, I like to see real wood interesting structures/textures, I also like to do different tiny details.

Are you someone who just wakes up and starts building, or do you like to plan and calculate long before you start? 
About planning I think I like to be in the middle: sometimes do spontaneous things and sometimes - have a well-planned routine. Right now I'm a full-time employed worker, I can't stand up and just do something spontaneously. All I did so far I had to plan more or less, to use the lunchtime or days off most efficiently, and to not annoy my neighbors by too long noisy work.

What was your first independent project?
In that studio where I first lived, I had very weird-shaped storeroom, so I decided to make a use of all its space by installing same weird shaped shelves. This was very stressful project, as I had no clue where wires are going in one wall, the other was tiny drywall and I had to go to neighbor to see if I won't drill into her room, on another one - strange shaft with nobody knows what cables/pipes inside. I couldn't cut in that flat, I didn't have jigsaw at that time, I didn't have experience, I wasn't speaking German to ask in the store. I was going to different friends to land tools and use their place to cut, was spending late nights (when everyone stops using electricity - so that the power cable that goes in between flats won't create powerful field that my device was catching even in the air) to identify the safe points to drill.

I also had in that flat a built-in wardrobe, but upper part of it had many space and no shelves. In the process of building those shelves, I also built this ones, as I learned a lot in the process.

When I moved out, I simply uninstalled it, cut a bit the shape and built much simpler version in my new place:

But my most loved project is my wardrobe:

I built it almost alone. In Bauhaus they cut me the wood, I payed to delivery guys separately to get it home.

~160 kilo of wood

One friend helped me with the installation of those big horizontal parts, everything else - I did on my own: measuring, cutting edges, finishing the wood, all the drilling, installing vertical parts, cutting shelves, installing shelve holders.

Did the project go as expected?
At first, I thought of something much more complicated, some construction made of small particles, and it was even harder as the floor should be protected. But then it dawned on me that if I just put two big vertical blocks - I'll have all I need. Instead of avoiding dealing with big blocks but then do a lot of construction work, I paid once for cutting and delivery, but have a simple stable nice construction. That simplified my task a lot. To protect the floor and left wall I used simple floor protection for chairs from Ikea.

Good Tip!

Roma asked Bauhaus to leave her all the leftovers, so she had a lot of parts to use in other projects. Like this handy table for drilling and sawing.

What is the best thing you have gained from learning to woodwork?
In general, I like to make everything just as I like: put the internet cable around doors on the wall instead of having it lying diagonally on the floor, have built-in "wardrobe-like" shelves, have drier-like shelves for plates in the cupboard, install the light that I like, put tools and instruments and other appliances and things like ukulele nicely organized on the hooks. I think it's also very important for women: to have full control over the space you are living in, to know how to do fix it yourself, to build it as it's most handy for your daily usage. It saves a lot of money and time and gives a lot of freedom and even a feeling of safety. I was very stressed when I moved to Berlin - a new language, a new country, a lot of new and hidden rules, a bit different culture, much higher prices, and unexpected expenses. These projects helped me to distract a bit and return my confidence.