Thursday, October 18, 2012

Building a House in Poland, Step 1: Buying land

Done!

Closed and signed all the papers on Tuesday, October 16th. My 32nd birthday.

Tuesday, the only rainy and cold day all week. But we had to go and take pictures because it was finally, officially, ours!


And today, no rain, clear and sunny, and SO warm. Shorts and t-shirt weather, no joke.

It's not too clear in this picture but you can see the Tatry right in the center, spiking up. Love.


There they are!  (also, just to clarify, that is not haze. That is the moisture evaporating off the forest and creating a mist just above the tree tops. It was a warm day!)




Martin climbing to get a better view.

My first bouquet of wildflowers.

And our first wild, edible, mushrooms.


And the bells of the Church, within walking distance, tolling the Angelus... 



26 comments:

  1. LOVE it!! What a beautiful place to build your home!! Happy to see that everything is working out in Poland!!

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    1. Thank you! When we are out there, everything just seems right...

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  2. Great! Where it is? Gratulations!
    It's a big step. :)

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    1. The village of Raciborsko. About 8 min. outside of Wieliczka. So not too far from grocery stores and other modern conveniences but far enough away for peace and quiet!

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  3. It's such a beautiful place :)
    And Wieliczka is lovely, too. I hope you are all very happy there, for many years to come.

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  4. beautiful !
    too soon if you ask me, but I hope it will be good for you anyway.
    Place is lovely

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  5. Happy Birthday and congrats on your purchase! A big step! Now the building fun begins - It will be exciting! :)

    I really like your views and it seems like you have a pretty nice sized lot. Our place also has views on Tatry and on a clear day they are spectacular... just be sure to design a house with many big windows (and don't listen to the locals that say big windows are expensive - Not really that much more and a well worth personal investment) and one that's energy efficient (we went overboard with 15cm "graphite" exterior wall insulation, 40cm roof insulation, triple-pane foam-filled-framed windows, etc.).

    Do you already have some house plans in mind?

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    1. Witek! Hello!

      We have some plans in mind,mstly our own drawings on shreds of paper and napkins but I know that what we want it doable, just not sure about cost and fitting it perfectly on the land, plenty of room, but we are not architects.. We are fortunate. We bought a lot next to a couple who designed and have built their house little by little. Their entire first floor is wall to ceiling windows. It's beautiful. She said all her friends scolded her because of heating costs associated with so many windows. She said that the downstairs stays so warm in the winter that they rarely have to heat because of the South sun coming through the windows. We will be consulting her quite often! I thought of you as we were looking for our own property. It was clear that you and your wife chose a beautiful spot. Martin and I were almost going to compromise for lack of finding what we wanted and were really discouraged but we waited and this piece literally fell into our laps. It is about 18ar, which is smaller than i was hoping for since I really am serious about having property for animals but we just couldn't pass up this place. It was so reasonably priced, and the view is exactly what we were hoping for. It has been a whirlwind from beginning to end and it all worked out. Amazing and exhilarating. We are already moving ahead with the Geodata and hope to start some kind of building in the spring. But that might be wishful thinking. We'll see...

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    2. That should say *floor to ceiling*...ugh, so many typos, sorry, writing too quickly!

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    3. That's fantastic that you two didn't compromise and were able to hold off until the perfect opportunity. This part of Poland is so beautiful and with those views each season will bring something new. :)

      18ar is a pretty good size, especially as it looks like it's relatively flat. And once you cut the grass and plan out the yard, it will look bigger. Plus if you want a larger farm, you can probably keep your eyes open and find some deals nearby on a few hectares sometime down the line.

      Good luck with the plans and details... we did it all from far away which ended up taking a pretty long time (although we were not in such a big rush). As in the U.S., getting good, reliable and trustworthy folks to work on plans and with the build is key. Hope you share some of your napkin plans.

      If you guys ever want to make a trip out to Nowy Sacz and check out our progress-to-date to get some ideas (or to see what not to do :) ), you're more than welcome to. Just shoot me an email if interested - We're not there now but someone could open the door and show you around.

      And very good that Martin is adamant on building... You'll probably spend less than buying an equivalent, do exactly what you want, and know the quality you're getting when doing it yourself. We were just in Poland for a few weeks and spent some time looking at homes for sale in our area (parents are looking around). And from what we saw, it's not easy to find something great, that's built well, for a reasonable price.

      Congrats again!

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    4. I am afraid to share our napkin plans. Other may laugh. ;) We are going to look around nearby for some rolna property, so maybe, there's a chance...

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  6. Pięknie! So happy for you that you found a piece of land you love. And the view of Tatry, beautiful :)

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    1. Thank you! It is beautiful, and peaceful, and quiet...until we move in of course! ;)

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  7. Congratulations and happy birthday! You are moving ahead with your plans with a blazing speed. It took us more than a year after we moved to find the right place to settle. And I didn't feel up to the task of building a house - we bought a ready one. You guys are amazing!

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    1. Well, to be fair, we ahve been looking for clost to 2 years, with Martin making a trip just to look for land last Fall. It helped us to know exactly what area we wanted, realistic prices, and what we were willing to compromise on, etc. So, it's really been a 2 year process wiht the serious looking this trip. And this place was out of nowhere, when we were considering just waiting until the spring.

      Martin is adamant about building our own home and I am happy to do it as well. I think it will be good for us to have a project to work on and this way we can have all the crazy accommodations I demand as an American. ;) (which just means a garbage disposal and large windows)

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    2. And thank you for the congratulations and birthday wishes. It was a memorable birthday!

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  8. Beautiful! Congratulations, what a wonderful start to a new year!!

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  9. Congratulations! It looks so beautiful and the kids look great. Happy birthday! Send everyone our love:)

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  10. beautiful!!! Love and miss the Tatras! Happy for you!!!!

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  11. Great view and what a blessing that you'll be able to build your own home within walking distance of a church! Will this be your new parish church? Can't wait to see all the progress. So far, my 30s have been the best decade yet. Looks like yours could be too!

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    1. This will be our new Church and if all goes well Hejjo may be celebrating his First Communion there. We'll see. A really nice, small community adn Church. I will post photos of the "downtown" some day. It's pretty awesome.

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    2. Yes, I was just thinking about that. When IS his First Communion?

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  12. Olivio :)
    Gratulacje :) Piekny widok :)

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