What do you think of my house in Poland? Pictures and description.

What do you think of my house in Poland?

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  Taken from Convex's plane
  
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  Rear view with new roof we had built
  
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  First floor hallway
  
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  Main hallway
  

that's beautiful reminds me of the old 'dworki' but even nicer because it looks like you really remodeled it - very nice. i especially love that tower it almost looks like a lighthouse at the very top. that's an awesome house. nice place man.

Thanks. A lot of blood, sweat and tears went into that damn thing. Maybe ill post a up a thread dedicated to it, it certainly deserves it. I have 100's of images before, during and after renovation.

Do it WB, it would be nice to have a place to ask some questions about the practicalities of renovation work in Poland.

beautifully done man gotta admit it.Id like to know benefits or any yields or any prospects for this beautiful piece of property(If you are not using it)?

We're selling it for around 2 million PLN.

If i could do everything again i'd use the property for weddings and parties, set up a business for that. It has extensive outbuildings around 10,000 m2 of useable floor space. German built. Natural parkland with some awesome trees. Also great transport links near to a good quality main road, but set back far enough so you cant hear the traffic.

It would make a superb nursing home or some kind of respite house.

Or it could make an ideal stronghold for the Brit bullies tag team living in Poand...

Damn it! It looks even better than that famous villa of former president Yanukovytch in Ukraine. The one who escaped to Russia and left everything he had behind him.

Tell me, WB, what made you escape from Poland leaving behind such a nice villa. Two million isn't that much for it. if only I lived nearer, I might truly consider buying that villa...

I'm well impressed, are you sure you can't jack in work and just live there, roughly where is it, but i understand if you don't want to say, lots of bushes there for trolls to hide in.

it is lovely WB, why on earth don't you want to live in it? Amazing really. How many rooms?

Very bright idea for Dom Wyselynia(sorry spellings),but location needs transportation.


LOL from 27 sq m to this.......or mortgage from a bank in Poland with fixed rate mortgage in Poznan for years......common you are joking right?


LOL good idea for easter hunt:D

That's a great price!!! How many square meters (or square feet is it) is the actual house? I can't wait to buy a home and move back to Poland.. As someome who's been helping my dad remodel homes since like 10-12 years old, I can tell you that I am very very impressed. One of my hobbies is remodeling homes like I really enjoy it. I don't really get to work with my hands as a career but I love it and I'll even go like paint my girlfriend's deck or something for fun on a Saturday afternoon.

I'm kind of obsessed with home remodeling and just like looking at homes in general. Houses are built so much better in Europe than in the US. Here they're built so cheaply and they're so weak - no wonder entire towns get destroyed by tornados. During high school and college I ran a business where I would go to tile stores and buy their broken granite, marble, and stone tiles - sometimes I'd get them for free if they were nice as they'd usually get thrown out anyway but if not $20-$30 for all the broken unusable tiles would usually do the job. I would then cut them into small squares and triangles, about 1-2 inches in length/width, put them on a plastic net and glue the tiles to the plastic.That's how I'd make mosaics out of them. For about $0-$30 in tiles, $20 worth of tile glue, 1 day of work (for a 1 meter/3 foot circumference mosaic - average size) I would then sell my mosaics from $600 and up. The largest mosaic I made was nearly 8 feet in circumference. By comparison, in a retail store they go for around $800-$1.2k (depending on style and materials) for a 3 foot circumference one and mine were way nicer plus I could make any color combination, design, shape and size that a person wants. At my height I was doing this for about 20-25 hours a week and making a very nice profit as I had hardly any material costs - it was all labor. It got to the point where some of the same tile stores that I'd get my broken tiles from were offering to buy my designs if I could lower the prices a little. I'd still be doing it but alas school and a full time office job gets in the way. Cutting tiles in your garage won't exactly help you a whole lot in climbing corporate ladders.

I'll post some pics of the home I live in now - I did all the remodeling myself and I also have one of these mosaics on the floor as you walk in.

You could totally turn that into a business or even rent it out. There's several websites where people rent out their homes for like vacationers or even travelling businesspeople. Weddings, bachelor/bachelorette, or even corporate retreats would be a good idea. Or you could become a cult leader and get a bunch of people to give you their assets and live in that house lol. That place really has a lot of potential. As someone who is familiar with remodeling and residential construction, I can tell you put a lot of time and money into that place. The work is very high quality and come out very nice. Sometimes people buy expensive materials but the project comes out looking very cold, overly minimalistic, and not cozy at all. Your place looks awesome! I especially love the wooden staircase, arched doorways, and the moldings. The only thing I'd personally change is the tiles to a more contrasting color but that's just personal choice but the color and style you have is at least very neutral and easy to match.

Also.. what is this whole people hiding in the bushes thing I keep hearing about on PF lol? Also, if you don't mind asking how does the labor costs for like a contractor, painter, etc. compare to the US, UK or the West.

I think someone mentioned Poznan, that's close enough for me, just wondered about the general location, that place definitely must have taken a great deal of time and effort to do up, Its huge, what is the internal sqm.

I guess it must be near Wroclaw..:)
I am smart like that.
I love it - I could just imagine swishing around such a massive house...in a long robe.
the sad thing is, all I can think about is how much cleaning a place like that would need....:)

If its lower silesia I might be interested in buying it.

No use, it's not at the top of a mountain ;)

I've got some practical questions -

- How did you carry out the work? With your own hands, or did you contract out everything?
- Can you trust Polish contractors?

"No use, it's not at the top of a mountain" why is that, is a constant supply of goats required or something.

Must admit i don't trust polish contractors full stop, in fact I don't use them at all.

I'll post up some more images when i get the time, i also need to dig out my old hard drive. We had a local Polish village guy who worked for us 5 days a week, he was brilliant with his hands and strong as an ox. We also used a local guy for plumbing and specialist building work. For the roof we used a reputable company not from the area, they used to stay at house in the week, there were about 7 of them all together. The roof took 6 weeks and cost 180,000 PLN.

Ive had family members stay for long periods of time who carried out a great deal of the meticulous stuff, stripping back the wood and renovating the doors and windows.

Ive only shown you a glimpse of the property - some of the nicer aspects. About 50% of the exterior still requires renovation. I'll show the images when i get the time. The outbuilding are in surprisingly good condition for the age, we still have tenants in one outbuilding.


The house is in the heart of Lower Silesia mate. The best area of Poland....! !


Yeah i made my original money from selling Florida real estate, once they started building those luxury villas the actual construction took days, all panelling and wood, no brick work at all. Look fantastic but 15 years down the line and a few hurricanes later you could hardly recognise the place.


It was an experience for sure but a little boring from my perspective. When the property market took a dive in Poland back in 2008 (which was my business) my days in Poland were numbered, i didn't actually want to leave.


You've got 1700 m2 internal in the main house, another 500 m2 for the attic and cellar. The land is 70,000 m2. A four floored barn, and two large out buildings and another few sheds and garages. Theres a large barn with a caved in roof which should probably be demolished.

edited

Here's a few from either just before we bought it or just after we moved in. So early 2006.

Compressing these images is taking for ever. I used to just use a program within Microsoft 2007 - couple of clicks and boom, any decent (no hassle) ones out there?

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  First floor hall
  
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  Fireplace
  
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  rear garden
  
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  Spiral staircase
  

Buddy that is one nice crib.


I can relate to that as it is twice as hard to renovate then it is to build a new one.
Something like you have there has character that a new one would never have.
That fireplace is a focal point and could be made to look very nice.
The draw back to such a castle as that is the unending maintenance.
You would need to hire two young French maids and a Polish grounds keeper to help you keep it up.
Damn what a row to hoe just to keep that place looking nice.
Quality mate as I am very impressed. Nice, very nice.

Yeah thanks, it certainly has the wow factor. Shame you cant post up videos here, i found one the other day of my wife, our baby and me leaving the house years back, all the twisting and turning we needed to do just to reach the front door.....and the echoes our voices made as we were walking.

Its under a conservation order but we didn't really run into many problems with that. As long as everything was documented and the appropriate permits were in place it all went rather smoothly. A good relationship with the conservator helps but they're all really on the same team anyway, with a genuine interest in keeping these kind of buildings in the best condition they can.

Structurally we were lucky, this house was/is well built. Ive seen other Brits buy some real crap and pay more money, with huge cracks running around the place, suspect subsidence, caved in roofs, rotten windows and rain damaged floors,ceilings and roofs. Some people area asking millions for ruins. Our house was lived in by several state supported families so it was able to remain in relatively good condition whilst others were being left to the elements and the thieves.


The guy who worked for us full time i didn't trust, i highly suspect that he pulled a couple of back handers. That said his work ethic more than made up for a few hundred zloty here and there. We had a good team in place and no problems with contractors. We had issues with scammers at the start but quickly saw through these people and didn't use them again. Whats the saying in Poland: "the thief only goes through the small village once"?


Yeah you need a couple of tractor mowers, we used John Deere's, chainsaws are a must too.

I'll post up some more pics later.

Here's a theory. The realities of living in and maintaining a property of that size are very different from the romantic fantasy. Such houses cost a great deal of money to live in and maintain properly. People forget that these houses originally functioned as businesses or retreats for those with plenty of money. The families that occupied these houses usually made their living from farming the surrounding lands and had a legion of tenants/labourers plus domestic staff. Otherwise they were the villas of those with inherited wealth who also had a house in town. These beautiful houses are a legacy of a completely bygone era. And in any case though it may be paradise for a child, what about when the child becomes a bored teenager who'd rather be hanging out in the city centre with their mates? Not to mention going away to study and the lack of any local employment opportunities. So they're not the most practical or appealing option for a modern family.

Unfortunately this property, lovely though it is, seems to fall between two stools. It's not quite swish enough to appeal to a Russian oligarch, it's not modest/manageable enough to tick the boxes for a person with a reasonable income from some business that can operate from the middle of nowhere (something internet based or maybe dealing in something stock-exchange-ish!). To convert it into a hotel, health farm or whatever would require substantial further investment and remodelling. And there's the question of turning it into a viable and thriving business once you've put that investment into it. The bottom line is that with a price tag of half a million euros it's expensive. Someone who can afford that for a holiday home has their pick of locations, someone who wants it as a business has to factor in the additional costs and risks associated so........poor old Yosie could be waiting a couple of years to find a buyer. It'll be very interesting to see how it pans out.

Thank you very much Atch for your quick and apt analysis of the business and "cultural" factors surrounding the prospects of buying such a house. The interesting question is what the OP originally had in mind buying this property and then renovating it.

It is what it is. If somebody wants to buy or make a reasonable offer fine, if not thats fine too. It will sell at some point, question is when and for how much. The people who live there at the moment certainly enjoy it and are in no rush to move on. Im not exactly, actively advertising at the moment.

Im happy that i own it outright rather than not, it has no mortgage no debts attached. All renovations and paper work are in order. I could rent it for about 12,000 PLN / month if we really tried. We've turned down higher offers.

It was always a mid to long term investment project. When we first bought it - primarily it was to live in.

Do you know the history of the place? I mean, who lived there? Anyone interesting?

I'm sure they do. They have all the pleasure of living in such a lovely place without the responsibilities attached to ownership.


Agree. That's the best way to view such a property. There's no reason it has to be sold during your lifetime. As long as you can keep it occupied, lived in by somebody, in good order etc it can always be passed on to the next generation of your family. Although hoarding wealth for future generations doesn't really sit that comfortably with your present politics!



That's what I thought - the old romantic fantasy of life as a country gentleman. Also from what you've said in other posts, you were a different person back then. I don't think (or at least I hope) that the Yosemite of 2016 would feel morally comfortable about a family of three living in a house of 17,000 sq metres in a country where there are families larger than that squeezed into 40sq metres. It just smacks too much of harking back to feudal days rather than moving forward to a fairer society.

Bits and pieces. We had a German family turn up on our doorstep a couple of times, the womans father lived there. I had contact with them and they sent emails of some history, images etc... We also have Polish historic property enthusiasts lurking around taking photos, and a coach load of Germans turned up one day when i wasn't there looking around.

Its difficult accessing any information pre WWII.

That's interesting Yosemite. In the UK that barn would be protected by law and you couldn't demolish it. And I agree with that stance if it's an integral part of the property........ but, in Poland obviously that would be a millstone round the investors neck, and at that a non-starter.

How would the buyer heat that place with it's high ceilings? Underfloor heating? Which presumably would be prohibitive if not impossible with wooden flooring. Large Scandinavian fireplaces?

Grand place. It's a pity about the location as in: It will take a generation or two for Poles to appreciate Lower Silesia's German past and let that slip, and then real investment can flood in. Just an obo, from visiting the area.


Ah:) That reminds me of the old chesnut....

Friend: { To George Bernard Shaw - who is on his death-bed} Are they making you comfortable Shaw?
GBS: No, not really.
Friend: But Shaw - Mary's been with you a long time and she's a great girl, and she looks after you really well....

GBS: { Who only discovered ladies when he was 44} Yes, but she's 50, and I would prefer two 25 year old's.

I can imagine myself in Yosemite's castle when I'm properly old - but only with proper heating - and the two 25 year olds of course!


Yes, that's the problem where I live. Large old houses going for filthy money. Except they're not going to anything but ruin, unless a small business steps in to commercialise them.

For sale signs used to be up in English, but why would Polish Americans want to buy a crumbling mansion on the Polish Riviera, with a season of 4 months and abject misery for the other 8?

Never had you down for the spiteful jealous type Atch, cant say I'm that surprised given your superior 'high horse' attitude on here. I wish people like you would stop making accusations on that they think they know, you only have snippets of information which i choose to provide remember. I don't have time for your spiteful crap.


Depends on the circumstances.


Not my problem, how do any large old buildings get heated. A couple of large boilers connected to central heating. If the Polish do one thing well, its heating.

This isn't a sales advert, its more a renovation story.

I don't see what's spiteful about my comments. Could you be specific?

I don't feel any jealousy towards you. I don't aspire to own a large house in the country. I lived in one as a child and I know the pitfalls. Quite apart from the English relations, my Irish ancestors owned a great deal of land, several houses and even at one stage a plantation in Antigua. Quite frankly the ownership of all those assets were nothing but a drain on their resources and they were quite glad to be shot of them.

One relative in England acquired a very large estate in Cork from the Irish branch who mortgaged it to him when in financial difficulties. It ended up costing him an absolute fortune in repairs to the tenants' cottages etc. Here's what he wrote to his land agent 'The 500 pounds you have sent me is the first money I have ever received from Ireland. 500 pounds per decade can hardly be called a rewarding return on 60,000 pounds'. (This was around the end of the nineteenth century).

I know a few remnants of the old Anglo-Irish gentry and they spend tens of thousands ever year on upkeep and maintenance of what they've managed to hold on to.. Anyway although I love old buildings and gracious old houses for their beauty and history, I consider myself fortunate to live in modest comfort in a nice cosy apartment which provides adequately for the needs of myself and my little family. I am happy!

This is a very unfair accusation towards Atch. But if it made you respond in this rather nasty way, it must have certainly hit a cord within you. Nevertheless, Atch's comparison between a 17,000 sq metre house and a 40 sq metre flat is worth quoting here again...


Finally, Atch's comments stopped me from my intention to buy this vast villa ...