He was a serf assigned to the village of Nikolskoe-Sverchkovo, close to Dmitrov, which belonged to Tatishchev boyars.
After completing the cells Bukhvostov, with his people, started the construction of walls and towers of the New Jerusalem Monastery in present-day Istra.
Very soon afterwards Bukhvostov got a commission from a boyar, Pyotr Sheremetev, to build the Church of the Holy Mandylion in the village of Ubory, close to Moscow.
He failed to complete the church within two years, a requirement of the contract, and Sheremetev asked the authorities to place Bukhvostov under arrest.
When he failed to do this either, Sheremetev had him arrested, but then realized that the church would never be completed with Bukhvostov in jail and asked the authorities to release him.