Typical Polish house and family

Could you describe the typical Polish houses and the families? Please state specific details!

The typical Polish house has windows, doors, kitchen and bathroom. The typical family members each have two arms and two legs.
What kind of idiotic question is this?

Just cause you don't know the answer doesn't mean you have to get all *****. I asked a serious question, if you didn't know the answer you could've just waited for someone who is smarter to answer. I didn't ask the question to start a stupid fight over the Internet, I just wanted to know the thoughts of the people on this site about my topic.

There is nothing inherently "special" about a Polish house or family, at least when compared with other European nations. I think Sobieski was hinting at this in his post. If you have specific questions, fire away and we might be able to help.

I would say white, married two kids, two cars, four bedroom home, one cat, one dog, four cell phones, two computers, two TV, one gun, two credit cards,cable or satellite.

Just to give you an idea.

Do they typically have many computers and electronics? Do they have what the Germans call Rolläden?

That's is a long long way from a typical Polish household.

Hi there, I don't think your question is idiotic at all. When I moved to Poland almost 3 years ago, I found it very different to my home country and unique (I have travelled and lived in other countries also). No two countries are the same, sometimes there can be similarities and sometimes very significant differences.

Typically, Polish families live in apartments that are commonly from 60 - 90 square metres in size. It is not the norm/standard here for each family member to have their own bedroom and quite common that the lounge room converts to a bedroom during the night (or some kind of similar arrangement). Sofa beds are popular here. If a Polish family does live in a house, they are commonly quite big and two stories high. Some Polish families I have met share a house between one or two generations (essentially two families living together). Children tend to stay at home longer as it is not affordable to move out of home. Polish families are used to living in tight quarters and keep things very organised so as to do so without clutter. Where I am from, 4 bedroom houses are a must even for a family of 3 - my standards have changed since living in Poland.

There is no time limit for building houses here, families can take many years to build and live with other family members while doing so. Mortgages are less common than saving and building bit by bit. Compared to where I am from, Polish homes are often painted in quite bright colours - red, green, yellow etc, both inside and out. Apartment blocks, which are abundant in Poland, are renovated on the outside as a part of something similar to body corporate and insulation is considered very important due to the cold winter season here. Houses and apartment blocks are finished with a cement render, rarely do you see exposed brick or anything wood like. Suburbs generally consist of many apartment blocks clustered together and housing more common on the outskirts of towns or rural areas. Families renovate the inside of their apartments at their own discretion. As for how homes are furnished, apart from sofa beds being quite popular, this is the same as anywhere else.

Polish families are not too dissimilar to the families I have known from English speaking countries (including my own), though families tend to be smaller with two children max. It is common for them to attend church regularly (different to my country), spend time with extended family (especially to celebrate Birthdays and name days), go on family holidays & trips/outings, argue/sibling rivalry (just like anywhere), attend out of school sports & classes etc.

Random things:

- showers are more common than bathtubs and can be quite extravagant with all sorts of massaging options
- church bells can be heard throughout the day (all through Poland) to signify mass is about to start, during funerals & during weddings
- breakfast is as normal but a hot lunch is generally eaten at around 3pm and a light dinner at around 7pm
- windows don't have fly screens
- heaters are gas or electric, not ducted but via units on the walls. Air conditioning in homes is not common at all (I've never seen it)

- most people have a storage basement
- some families have a small block of land near where they live, specifically for use like a 'backyard'. Families tend to build small shack type houses on them to stay for short periods of time

I will mention that there is a lot of poverty in Poland and not all families have it as lucky as others. Alcoholism is common and quite visible. I am no expert on the topic so I will leave it at that - I'm guessing it is quite controversial.

Hope this helps.

yes.

where are you from that you ask such questions?

Rudy5
Families tend to have a TV (free to air TV channels are available but not so good - most families have some sort of pay TV plan), DVD player, PC and at least one laptop (an internet connection). Smart phones are becoming popular here and have become a lot cheaper on monthly plans over the last year. Teenagers as young as 12 can be seen with mobile phones and in higher income households, their own laptop.

Anything 'technology' related is quite expensive here (not to mention Apple products), but I think the prices are slowly dropping. Never the less most people have the essentials and perhaps some people take advantage of in store credit that is available here.

FWIW -
- agreed - our walk in large shower and wetroom is one of the most extravagant things we did to the house when we bought it.

- thankfully we do not hear bells and we've scared the priest away
- cities or country? Do Poles have lunch breaks at 3pm?
- we DO have fly screens on all our windows
- we have a log stove in the kitchen and a fire in the bedroom
- we have a small cellar and a bg shed in the garden
- our garden is .27ha, or about 2/3 of an acre.
- we have three cats and two dogs
- we neither have nor want children

In areas without gas network, central heating is usually based on coal, more seldom (as they are much more expensive, but also much more comfortable in use) on LPG gas or heating oil.

Quite so. No average Polish household has a gun at home. Make your wish come true?

HI i'm doing a 3D Polish house/village and I was wondering if any one knows anything about the housing

Use the Google Street View and see any Polish village, town or city... Or, at best, a few of them from different regions of the country.

This is how typical new houses in the suburbs and rural areas look like:

On the other hand, this is typical architecture of 1970s:



In the areas that belonged to Germany before the WW2, you will find lots of characteristic German houses from that times, with tile roofs (this one is not in a very good condition):

You won't find that in other parts of Poland. But you are more likely to meet some wooden ones, but anyway, they arent met too frequently. The rule is: more to the east = more wooden houses. Maybe except for the Mazury area, which belonged to Germany before the WW2.

It's often characteristic for Polish villages, that they are spread along a single long street, sometimes two ones intersecting with each other. At both sides you have houses, each one with a backyard, and usually a barn and other utility buildings around it. And then, behind the barn, a field belonging to the family living in the house. It happens quite often that one village ends while you drive through it, and immediately another one begins, without any break - sometimes you can meet long chains of villages. There are also villiges which are shaped in other ways, but this seems to me to be most typical, especially for the central Poland (but I think it's so for the most of the country). This moment I live in the east-western Germany and here it is totally different - all the villages are in fact town-shaped, they occupy some area filled with houses and a network of streets, and outside of them there are only fields, forests and roads that connect them with each other.

This typical Polish village scheme applies also for the suburbs of towns of any size, including the smallest ones and the big cities.

In Poland it's not like here:



(should I classify this as a village or as a town? by the size it's rather a village, but the buildings are concentrated like in a town - and you rather won't find any other village type in these areas)

it's rather like here:



You have a town, around which there are villages spreading from it. Villages laying along roads. There is no sharp line being a border of a town, before which there are houses one exactly next to another, and behind which there are only fields or a forest. It's much smoother.

But if you really want to create a model of that, posts on a forum will definitely be not enough, because this is really a tiny piece of how the villages, towns and cities look like and how they are organized. I would even risk saying that you should live in Poland for some time to be able to do it properly.

I was just wondering about beliefs in the home such as in America we put a piece of palm behind a picture from Easter or the first three wise man card gets hung on top of the door. Anything that is passed down from generation to generation.

@Nolanbyrne99
Hahahaha
Does it really make any sense

I read on a Polish website that a new terraced/row house is more affordable than an apartment in the same osiedle (neighborhood), is that true?

I am also surprisde why Polish villages are in that way, is it because it's mostly flat or because most were destoyed in the wars? What about other nearby countries like Czechia, Slovakia and Belarus, do they follow a similar pattern, or is it something typical Polish?

Because they owned strips of land behind the house. Here to help. As a previous poster says, take a look at Google maps. In 3D. You don't have to visit.

As for houses being cheaper than flats, it's all location,location,location.
It's called capitalism. Sorry for the sarcasm, but your tone comes over as not very sincere, for some reason which I can sniff - and my labrador agrees.

Tone? Insincerety? Just for asking a question? Man you sound totally nuts. I bet you're a 'Murrican.

As I was only once inside a single Polish house, it resembled certain recollections I'd had of
being in Germany, especially in smaller towns.

Compared with the States, space tended to be at a premium and everything had a somewhat
more modest feel than, say, in the typical US suburban home.

Make sure you take off your shoes before entering a Polish home.

You might get a dirty look or be scolded by Babcia if you don't:)

LOL! !!

That's a fact Joker and not funny at all.
My Polish grandmother seldom ever let anyone in her living room.
When we were allowed we were required to take our shoes off and then ask if we had clean socks on AFTER your trousers had been examined to see if they were clean enough to sit in one of her over stuffed chairs.

This included my Polish grandfather who was always treated like a second class citizen.
He was notmally 'required' to sit on his bench in the kitchen.

My babcia had those plastic covers on her couch and you couldn't wear shorts bc your legs would stick to it..haha


I visited a few homes in Poland where everyone takes off their shoes and they provide you slippers, not uncommon at all.

People may be insulted by not taking off your shoes. I forgot once, and they let me know quicker than a Japanese restaurant! lol

Oh yes, another thing!
Whereas here in the US, a little welcome sign reading "HOME SWEET HOME!" is more or less optional nowadays, when last in Poland, visiting the relatives of my Polish teacher, right smack in the middle of the living room wall to greet any visitors, read a lovely-looking, hand-crafted crocheted "GOSC W DOMU, PAN BOG W DOMU".

I was told at the time, that such was for all intents and purposes obligatory in most private houses.

Wasn't that forty years ago if I remember correctly in what you said about spending a couple of days there ?


LMAO - so did my grandma.
So it was a Polish thing then....... lol.

Dougpol1 surely knows how to offend people.

When I was last in Poland is really of little to no import!
What I recall is as clear as today.

Polish babcie always grumble. Usually about total bs or nothing at all. They even know how to mime grumbling.