When Syrian grandfather Omar Kafozi returned to his house near Damascus after Bashar al-Assad's ouster, he saw unfathomable destruction.

Now, cushions and plants brighten the wreckage that he is determined to call home again.

"As soon as we found out that... the regime was gone and that people were coming back... we sorted our things" and packed the car, said Kafozi, 74, standing in the wreckage of his home in a former rebel bastion near the capital.

"I had to come home and stay by any means," he told AFP. "We came back in the hope that our home would be different to this."

Plastic sheeting covers windows in what remains of the home where he and his family are living with no electricity, running water or even a proper bathroom, in the town of Hammuriyeh.

Syria's war began in 2011 when Assad unleashed a crackdown on democracy protests, prompting soldiers to defect from the army and civilians to take up weapons.

When Eastern Ghouta, where Hammuriyeh is located, fell out of Assad's control, the........

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