I Bought A 1930s Flat!
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- Опубликовано: 28 сен 2024
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What about a utility sink instead of bathroom then you can save the pantry?
do you like the way yt renders film grain?
curious about what french tv shows you so wanted to watch tho 😂😂
The basement tools/junk look like a treasure to the right kind of person who appreciates that sort of thing.
Karolina you are Pretty
I was in Poland for the 3rd time in my life this weekend. I was walking around the city and I was thinking how funny it would be to run into Karolina. Then I was like "Don't be absurd. Do you how big Poland is, how could you run into her?!" .....
Not even five minutes have passed since that though and I see a beautiful tall lady in vintage clothes walking to me. Thank you for taking a photo with me. It really made my day 💜 Congratulations to being a home owner. So cool to accomplish this at such a young age 🎉🎉🎉
Oh my goodness, what fun! Lucky you :)
Wow such a nice story ❤️
That is so awesome. You manifested it
Probably best that I didn't see her the last time I was there. Very hard not to propose marriage immediately. "Let's live in an 18th century grand house together" etc.
aww what a nice coincidence
I want this to be a whole series. Two of my favorite things: home renovations and Karolina just being her sassy self
Exactly!
Yes, please!
Exactly my thoughts, PLUS she has great style to do stuff so I know this flat is going to come out amazing
Since she didn't make an official playlist yet I made this one to go updating as she posts
ruclips.net/p/PLZrVbzd3XCOsA8-5BZRHrXFK1gCO4FFEV
@@geminievilyou.are.a.legend:v
The flat you've got sounds exactly like the one we recently moved out of: 90+ years old (survived WWII bombardment, actually), folding doors, floor plan where you just walk from one room into the next, tiny little bathroom not actually designed for anyone to be bathing in, and so on. The only difference is our old wooden floors hadn't been covered by anything and were thus extremely creaky, along with the entire rest of the building - the downstairs neighbors' dryer spinning felt like an earthquake haha. Our landlord kicked us out when he decided to sell the place, but it was certainly an... experience to live in. Best of luck with the renovation process and overcoming as many of the perils of old Eastern European housing as you can!
actually, the whole walking-from-room-to-room thing was in a sense invented by bauhaus at the end of the 1920s, so flats from around that time to be built like that is not too unlikely. I think is is so awesome to see design in action from 100 years ago! I would like to live in a piece of design history myself, so I am happy you got to have that experience.
@@cottonsheep2367 Houses have this too! My house is (probably) 100 years old and had this too. We eventually got rid of the extra doors tho.
Edit: I live on the west of Poland, this part of my country was actually in Germany before the war, so that explains it.
"Damn, those are some fine folding doors" - a sentence only Karolina could utter.
Karolina, why are you able to get me interested in sh*t I thought I'd never give a damm about?
First fashion, and now RENOVATING A HOUSE!?!?!?!?
Seriously, I think you're the only person with the power to get me interested in these kinds of things. :)
Cute 🥰
Try Rachel Maksy. She is good at making almost anything interesting. She moved earlier this year and made some fascinating vlogs on that.
Try Rachel Maksy.
Explain things and make it interesting
@@kristianbjrnjensen5388ok I will try Rachel Maksy, ty for informing me:)
we wanted a smaller house in a great location, and no one had renovated the kitchen. I know what kind of kitchen I wanted. (I'm not into cooking, so I wanted few cabinets and wanted to make it simple and white). And of course everyone renovated their kitchens before putting them on sale. Finally the agent knew someone wanted to sell their home, and they were "Well we have to renovate the kitchen" and the agent was, "I know a buyer and they'll buy the house NOW as they do not want a renovated kitchen". I love my kitchen I did myself!
I hear that! I wanted a 1920s house that hadn't had the space "opened up" by removing walls like they love to do in the States. I wanted that separated kitchen. Finally found it during the pandemic when a guy who didn't cook was desperate to sell. I'm not changing anything!
That makes me happy to hear, I find it so stressful to imagine all the broken cosmetic things I have to do before selling. Maybe someone wants that
The amount of beautiful craftsman houses here that people paint all of the woodwork and fireplaces white and open up the walls and "modernize" the kitchen to sell it....ughharghh
@@blackstarninja6785 ughharghh indeed, the trend for covering up all the nice woodwork and painting every single thing white saddens me
@@blackstarninja6785 Oh i know! Unfortunately all the beautiful woodwork in my house is already painted, but at least it's still here, and all the art glass windows haven't been replaced with vinyl.
I was honoured to be invited to my friend's flat in the centre of Kraków. It's an old house and family is trying to preserve the past of this house and flat is looking really unique and beautiful. Especially i love the mix of many generations and their furniture, cutlery etc.
It reminds me of my grandma's house. It was a little cottage built in 1901. It had had a lot of weird quirks, including a door to nowhere hidden behind the fridge and an after thought of the bathroom. And the electricity was nuts. you could pop the circuit breaker by taking a shower with more than one light on. No heating ducts so you had to have all the doors open inside to heat everything. It was my first place though! (Grandma was living with my aunt and somebody needed to live there) Later on my mom ended up with the house after Grandma passed (at 100 years old!). She ran into similar renovation woes as you have, especially with the floor!! But with enough persistence and compromises we got it done. We found a lot of cool artifacts too, including old bottles and tins from the 1920s. Some very old posters we ended up framing.
No matter how frustrating things are now, you will love the end result. It will be wonderful to see what it's like finished. And when you can start decorating!
It is interesting to notice that people could live so old with that lack of comfort. Maybe because their bodies were more resistant, I don't know, but I have the same case in my family in law, an old aunt who passed away at 108 and still worked in a garden a few days before her death and lived in a very old raw house.
My house used to be a stable in the 1800 (it was build 1818), so it wasnt even intendet to be a home in the first place. At some point in the 20. Century somebody decided to move in there and began to transform it. I'm living here for 18 years now and renovated a lot myself (like the kitchen and bathroom and I transformed the attic into bedrooms) but it still has some of the 1818 stable quirks, like a hook they once used for hanging the pig carcasses, that I now use for bags. Or the walls that made up the pig pen are now surrounding the dining area
I also live in a "Pig Pen"😆
With arching ceilings and stable windows...
but now configurated into a Studio...with kitchen , half walls and a modern bathroom 🥳
There's a unit in the lane where I live which was once a hay loft & stables. Originally, horses would be kept on the ground floor with the upper floor used for storing goods, hay, and fodder. It even has the original beam hoist & external barn doors on the upper floors. However, it hasn't been well maintained & parts of it are slowly crumbling. The current occupant is a musician, and the previous ones were a Cambodian migrant family, and before them... a group of Indian men who worked as delivery riders.
My favorite part is when the renovation manager told you no and you fired him! You’re awesome!
I love seeing how different people to do renovations, especially when they're trying to preserve the historic character of the house. My house is completely not historic, but it's nice to live vicariously through RUclips 😆
We bought our house in part because there were unfinished rooms that we could decide how and what to do with them. We're turning a storage room into a toy and gaming room for the kids as our next project.
My grandparents had a house of a similar age they bought it in the 1950s but it was built earlier. The most distinctive thing was the secret room in my aunts (later my) room. It was basically storage under the eaves of the house but it had a tiny door that was hidden by a dresser. It always felt like the kind of place that a young governess in a gothic horror novel would discover some horrible secret.
I see exactly why you loved the place, and yet I would never torture myself by buying a place in this condition (no offense! You are very brave!) The windows, walls and floor, which I thought would be the main issues, turned out to be the easiest part of fixing this place up. I used to have a place that was built in 1922 and then when they went to renovate, they just added on to the back of the house. Not once, not twice, but at least 3 times over the years, judging by the seams in the flooring. The house was loooooong, it just went on and on! We had to pay $15k USD to put steel supports under the house because it was sagging. You could stand on the 1920s part of the house and jump on the floor and feel the house squish under you. And I thought that was a scary story! We were very lucky, because the previous owners had already done the difficult part: the kitchen and bathroom was funny and L-shaped, and the "balcony" was like 20cm, which means they had already made the difficult decisions you gotta make to fit modern appliances into older homes.
My favorite funny thing about my old house was that the part built in the early 2000s/late 90s had a laundry room, and it was MASSIVE, like literally larger than your bedroom in your new flat, and I liked to imagine the same people who did the kitchen reno were putting in the laundry room later, and they were like "we have to make sure that what happened to us, never happens again. Whenever someone invents a new household appliance that takes up a bunch of space, it's going in here, dammit!"
Side question: The worms, eeww, how does that happen? Were they hoarders? Was the place sat empty for a long time?
Regarding the dead worms, I think it was just wet and warm under the linoleum. Also a lot of tasty soggy plywood to eat. I think the worms were in the kitchen so there might been some scraps of food falllng there.
And yeah, the flat was probably empty for years, bc it would be impossible to live in Poland with windows in such condition. It's too cold for half a year
Your story about the steel supports is terrifying to me because my house has a crappy addition and I think it is sagging 😅 rip to my savings
Ah as a building conservator i had a tough time looking for apartments in sweden. So many renovate shit this out of their places instead of caring for their original features. Just buy a new place or an already renovated place if you don't want the features and details that make the building special. Why make it bland and generic?
Window renovation is my favourite thing. But it's hard today to find good wood, idk the word for it in english. But once again, it's an issue with people don't knowing the importance in continuous upkeep in Windows, ut doesn't have to take a lot of time and effort. Windows before the 1970s are of good quality wood and can last for hundreds of years as long as you give it just a little bit of care. People don't have to change it to modern windows.
Loving this apartment for you!
Yes same here in Columbus, Ohio! In English we call that "old growth wood".
Arent wood windows also bloody terrible at keeping heat i side
@@edwardhisse2687 yeah often old wood windows "breath" a lot more. If its good or not depends on what climate you live in. Here traditionally we put in "inner windows" during winter to help with isolation. But it's become popular to instead change to modern well isolated windows. This can be bad for old building though because you change the buildings climate. Buildings need to breath or else you can start having problems with mould etc. But there are of course ways to install better ventilation etc in other ways.
Maybe you mean hardwood? Hardwood is stronger and heavier than softwood, and takes longer to grow.
I totally agree!
Your flat has so much character! It’s beautiful and it makes me happy that someone who appreciates history is bringing it back to loveliness. We’ve been renovating a cabin built in the early 1980s. Not as much history here as your place but lots of work needed. It’s satisfying to see it transform. And many of the parts I thought we needed to change have grown on me so we’re keeping as is.
I don't know if you ended up considering this, but my apartment also has a very small kitchen and I decided to just not have a dishwasher. Especially living alone, and you said you don't cook much, you get used to just doing all the dishes by hand in the sink. I live alone and do cook often and a dishwasher is still not something I miss having.
Your new home is BEAUTIFUL. You are so lucky that you had time to do the repairs before you moved in.
we bought ours with no floors, or toilets, interior walls, ceiling.....but we were broke and had no option but to move into it and build it around us. (work really stopped after we installed the electricity and air conditioning--too comfy)
oh, and i love all that cool stuff you found in the basement. those keys are neat
I love this! I bought a year 1940 duplex in March and I've been renovating it as well. Its been interesting peeling back the layers of previous renovations from 90s, to 70s, to 50s, and then the original. Can't wait to see what else you do with your place!
Congratulations on your new home!
A few humble suggestions: (since its really hard to understand the layout from a video. )
If you can't save the wood floors, linoleum would be great for the period of the apartment.
Maybe keep the small kitchen entrance and use a portière as a door. Or make it into a narrow pantry.
I can't wait to see the next episode! Good luck! Embrace the quirks! That's what makes it unique.
I love the quirks of old places like this, but they do tend to invite dilemmas. I'd have been sad to get rid of that pantry, too, even though under my ownership it would be full of expired cans and unmarked soup sachets.
Love all the original details and quirks. The Basement space is an awesome little addition. Glad your getting close to the fun part.
My house is a complete 1965 ranch, that needed no renovations! I bought it solely because of the knotty pine basement & bar. Last year we discovered the herringbone patio that was under the deck. I love my original patio.
Good luck & have fun!
Old apartments are such a joy! My sister recently bought one from the 50s and they had to rip essentially everything out and start anew. Doors are important, pretty folding glass doors can really make the room! If there's a way to keep original features, I think it's always worth it. Can't wait to see what else you do with the apartment!
I recently bought a 1920s house.. and I’m really looking forward to seeing all your renovations.
The house I bought had awful carpet that smelt like cat pee, but I knew there were floorboards underneath from older photos. After pulling up the carpet, the floorboards were just really bad in some places and I’m still struggling with what to do.
I also did the same thing.. where I fixated on the beautiful stained glass windows and figured everything else could just come together 🥲
I love that you're keeping the integrity of the home while still renovating it to make it work for you! Also, I just started renting a house and I did the exact same thing of spending hours in the empty rooms, excited for what I would do with it.
I have a 1908 cottage and one of the first things I did was reverse the swing of some of the interior doors. It's an easy fix and I'm surprised your first handyman refused to do it. Looking forward to seeing how you decorate. No doubt it will be charming.
I can relate to wanting an old place that wasn't too renovated with finishes that didn't fit what I wanted! My partner and I bought our 1885 Victorian home (Canada), with the whole house being very 1980s with floral wallpaper, and pink carpet.
I love that you found ways to re-use old doors and love the flipping of the folding doors! One business that I have frequently used in our renovations, is using architectural salvage places. They often have pieces of old houses that I've been able to incorporate into ours so it feels like they were always there and are period appropriate.
OH. MY. GOD, Karolina!! lol Listen, I SEE the remarkable potential in that flat. It truly does have a kind of character that tells you how great it can be...once it's all done. But, my goodness you have a lot of work to do!! (And have been doing, since you've obviously been at this for months.) I'm _CERTAIN_ it's been frustrating, and expensive, but I have the strong feeling that when this place is done, you will actually LOVE IT!! Good luck to you and your future there! (And know that compared to that place, my house isn't so bad, so I feel _MUCH_ better about the renovations I have to do, lol. Thank you for that!)
It's really amazing to see someone trying to have a different approach to real estate, loving the quirks and trying to salvage the original while making it habitable.
It does deter me to see with the other videos how long and costly and streneous it is, but it is worth it!!
Ok, I would binge watch people from all over the world talking about the history of their homes. Like 24/7 for years on end. I would give up sleep for many many videos exactly like this one. I may watch this specific video at least 48 thousand times. Thank you for making my favorite video ever.
I lived in a building built in 1926 for about a decade.... I still miss that apartment even though there was no place to park, no water pressure to speak of and the downstairs neighbors were a pain. The moment I opened the upstairs door and saw the windows and the built-in bookcases I was sold. It had a murphy bed in the front room with a dressing area, built-in cupboards in the hall...a footed tub. Ah.... The kitchen was about as big as a postage stamp. Given half a chance I would have bought that place! Enjoy the process. I hope we can shout 'Welcome Home!' soon.
My parents sold our 1908 house a couple of years ago, it had been in the family for something like 90 years and 5 generations. I will never stop mourning it.
I’m so invested.
I know how hard it is to arrange the renovation, but the result’s definitely worth it!
Given you sense of style, the apartment will be beautiful when it is finished. It took over 6 months to renovate my apartment. The entire neighborhood (Bunker Hill, L.A.) has been under construction or renovation for more than 8 years. Currently, I can sleep through jackhammers. I am viewing it as a metaphor for my life. Soon, all will be completed. You will have an apartment as beautiful as you are.
Omg 😱 Congrats, you finally found a place of your own aesthetic!
I am currently buying a 18th century house. The frantic renovation mindset is felt and appreciated. We just spend the last four days trying to figure out how to get a staircase to the attic where my loft will be without losing space or ending up in a ceiling beam lol.
thought I read the title wrong for a sec 😂
congrats Karolina, you really earned and deserve it !!
When I got my house it didn't have a bathroom either and was considered a 2 bedroom even though it had 3 since the heating and cooling didn't reach the added on room. But it made it so much cheaper but like you said we got to make the bathroom look the way we wanted it to within reason lol. But I wouldn't have changed it for the world because making it look the way we wanted was much better
My grandfather left me his home...a 1932 craftsman bungalow. Hardwood floors, French doors, beadboard ceilings, crystal doorknobs, an acre of land. It still has the original skeleton keys. And he left a few nice pieces of furniture like a solid cherry dining room set which we gave to our niece, the dining room is my art studio now. We love it! And....the attic is still full of the coolest stuff like cast iron cookware, a dressmaker dummy, a fainting couch ( which is badly in need of new upholstery), random furniture, and a large box of old crisco cans lol.... we always think about how lucky we are! He was a great grandpa!!!!
Oh I really love to see when these kind of old and...not so neat flats or houses get renovated and made all new. So nice! I'm looking forward to the result.
And your dad wears a nice hat :)
How about the sewing machine - did you keep it? How does it look and work?
Pantries are indeed awesome! I had one in my first flat as a student. And I missed it in all my further living places :D
my house in Australia was built in the 80s and has a separate toilet and bathroom so i always forget that most places have the toilet IN the bathroom
The toilet closet separate from the tub reminds me of my brother’s ex’s house (US, built in the 1930s). It had a toilet in a small closet with a window, then next door was the tub and a small sink under a mirror.
I can relate, I am currently renovating a 1930s Queenslander is Australia. You do wonder why you choose to take on the work some times haha
honestly I am amazed that Your flat had a toilet at all. When my grandma was offered to have toilet room made in her soviet flat, she had refused "Who would want a stink place in their homes???" It would've had been free of cost. Suffice to say she regretted that decision few decades later. Bear in mind my mom grew up without a tooth paste technology. Soviets were truly behind in time.
Where it was? It sounds like a complete bullshit to me.
I am from post-ussr country, seen lots of Soviet flats, every one of it had a toilet. Not even once I heard about a flat without a toilet, except ones in shacks in 50's.
@@begemotowa Lithuania. Neither of my grandparents had toilets inside. One was in a rural town, the others in a city. Latter ones retrofitted later, way way later, closer to 70's. I consider Chrushchovkas as a newer building style
@@UtamagUta nuuuu vistiek yra toks jausmas, kad stumi 😅
@@Хочюоливье Nope, mano abiejų senelių namai statyti prie Stalino, 1950-1960. Abiejų rajonuose žmonės naudojosi viešąją rajono pirtim, tualetai lauke. Abiejuose tualeto kambarius įrenginėjo 1970-1980, kaip rašiau, retrofitino.
@@UtamagUta Wow, early soviets had no chill. I guess it wasn't everywhere - my parents lived in a building, which was built early then khrushchevkas, but the flat had separate toilet and bathroom. Bathroom for some reason had its own window, I hated to bath in winter, because it was chilly, lol.
I get the door thing. If I ever find a place with Dutch doors I’ll cry tears of joy. I wanna live my Briar Rose ready to pick berries moment.
old houses and apartments are the best, once livable of course. The apartment i live it was built in between 1900 - 1910. The original frames in the doorways of the house were kept, and they are amazingly pretty. Something about living in a old building with history is just so cool
but also, super off topic, but there is a really good RUclips channel called crow eye productions that makes videos about getting ready in different time periods, its real interesting
I lived in San Francisco for quite a while and many of the older homes have separate rooms for the toilet and bath. It's actually a pretty nice set up.
"Damn, those are some fine doors!" This is the humor we appreciate so much! Congratulations!
2:00 That's quite familiar!
Can relate so much to kitchen-bathroom planning problems.
Lived in a 1920s apartment where bathroom was at kitchen because it was built without a bathroom. Supposedly a man of the new soviet state is supposed to eat at a canteen and wash in a bathhouse (both built with the block but replaced by shops now, of course). Also a corner pantry with a little hole in the wall (so food could be cooled at winter) and a solid metal plate where the oven would stand.
I am truly happy for you! To buy a house in these crazy days is a great achievement!!!
My house was built in 1937. We still have the original oak floors. The only issue I have with old homes is how small everything used to be. Closets are tiny. Bathrooms are tiny. Even rooms can't fit a queen bed and 2 nightstands. But the original woodwork is the best 😊
Congratulations 🥳 So excited about this!! Give us updates and design plans please!!
Congrats on the flat being done but also darnit i could’ve helped you figure out the floorplan had i known, because i literally rearrange problematic floorplans in old houses as a hobby (former restauration architect here).
AAAAAAND now I feel shitty that I'm nowhere NEAR affording an apartment. That's my issue though! I'm happy for you girl! Hope you love it!
Noo don’t! I still haven’t paid it off and the current economy makes it practically impossible to afford one. I lived in a rented flat most of my life, no shame!
@ thank you for this response it made me feel a LOT better
I feel you. But the again, in the current economy, not even my friends who have VERY well paid jobs can afford it anymore.
We can just hope for the best :/
I don't know anyone that isn't rich and 60+ that can afford their own home.
Renting is fine, there is so much nice decorating that you can do and reshape your home the way you want it to be.
Please do longer b-roll footage! I need more shots of the tiny closet toilet so I can admire the aesthetic!!
I lived in a log cabin I built in the middle of the woods for years and legally stole that forrest. The cabin took me 6 months to make it was 4 rooms, and an attic for storage. I had a stone age clay oven a fireplace with functioning chimney, a couch, a bookshelf for all my books, a hammock to sleep in, I even had hardwood floors. It was a kitchen, a bedroom, a living room, and a clothes room. I had a front deck with some rocking chairs, and a rack for my spears. I lived there for about a decade, then I bought my first real flat. I went back to see if it was still there last month and it was. There was a homeless guy there. He was cool once I explained who I was.
The most important things are the floor, the walls, and the plumbing. So obviously we need to talk about how to incorporate those keys. I’m thinking a shadow box with tissue paper printout ephemera of lock mechanisms behind them. Sort of like the tissue paper in patterns, but made to look old-timey.
My appartamenti in Milan is a 1934 building. My favorite parts are the ceiling, the doors (both have decorations) and the two balconies.
Ah, the pantry. Reminded me of my parents old flat. They had one on the kitchen! How cool is that, that was very unusual. Unfortunately it was filled with all sorts of stuff instead of food - rusty nails in cans, old skis, radios an so on. Soviet era people, amirite?
I'm so happy for you 😊 LOVED the basement haul. And those doors are GORGEOUS. Looking forward to future "renovating my flat" videos!
It's so great to listen to your story with this beautiful flat. I've always felt places like that have a lot of stories to tell and actually to rearrange that space and give your own twist about it is a sort of a very great adventure. I also have to mention one thing, maybe you will be interested. Because my parents are moving out of the apartment they are going to sell very well preserved furniture from 20s/30s, mostly it's oak and walnut wood. Please write me a message or just response to this comment and I will gladly share the link to the offers (we live in Silesia). Again, hats off and good luck with your beautiful space!
I went through this back in 2017. We bought a small 1930s apartment that needed to be completely renovated. Some maniac painted the hardwood floors, first that garbage light green colour that all the polish schools and hospitals were covered in in the 90s, then an awful reddish brown. Scrubbing that down took months. I love the place, would never want to switch it up for a newer one (patodeweloperka says hi), but there were plot twists on every corner the entire time we were renovating.
You have a charming fixer upper. Old homes are interesting places to live. My childhood home was built on the late 1800's. I adore the keys you found in the basement, especially the skeleton keys. Did you know they were sometimes used by spies to carry messages? They could make an interesting framed piece.
I bought a condo last year and am oddly comforted that Karolina ran into the same issues in Poland that I did in Mountain View California. Those little toilet rooms aren't common in most of the US, but extremely common in San Francisco, and they are great for housemates or parties.
Congratulations on your flat! I expect nothing less from your channel, but I appreciate you talking through the quirks and characteristics of an old building. It's nice to see someone get the hardcore renovation/restoration passion project. My childhood home was a Victorian home from 1900 converted into a duplex in the 60s that we renovated back into a single-family dwelling. Learned a lot, discovered a lot of history (like newspapers from WWII and original silk wallpaper), but it also meant living in a construction zone from 12-18. Best of luck with your project, and may the hammer and tape measure always be near at hand!
My grandma also had a landline phone attacked to another phone in the downstares garage where my grandad used so do his hobby stuff - he would ALWAYS be down there doing some stuff on his cars. And she would simply call him for dinner or if she needed something - guess its a old people thing back then :D
I lived in a house built in around 1930/1940in Warsaw and it was once a whole house that was split into apartaments and I had a wonderful big living room with rounded wall full of windows with a walk through closet you could go to another room through and of course I also had a bathtub in the kitchen. And I think it had original flooring too
I love homes built in this era so cute. Congratulations on your new home!
Ależ potencjał ma to mieszkanie!!!
The basement gave me war flashbacks from my own time buying a flat. The owner promised me to get rid of all the stuff in the basement and I naively believed him. I was too busy to check it out after I closed the deal and after like a month of renovating the flat i finally went to the basement to find literally a TON of junk there. It took me whole two days to empty it all out and decide what to keep or throw. But! Who bought a flat from son of late retired intelligence officer and sold bunch of vintage military stuff online for a pretty penny? This gal!
The tiny kitchen reminded me of when I wanted to buy a countertop dishwasher because I hate washing dishes by hand. I found that drawer dishwashers are still being made today too. I'm excited for you to get your own place and that you found someone to work with the folding doors.
My goodness, it’s amazing, quirky and historic! It wonderful and you will make it beautiful! I’m so happy for you!
I absolutely adore people with a "vision" like you.
One of my besties is just like you and has renovated 2 homes in the last decade. The first she had a very colorful Tuscan style kitchen that I may have raised an eyebrow at when she first described, but when completed was one of my favorite places to cook and snack in. Can't wait to see all that you do!
the folding door is absolutely stunning! i completely understand your reasoning about the flat, i also don't like "perfect" modern flats/houses nowdays, they do seem very "hollow"... cold and without a soul. this will be a lot of work, but also hopefully a lot of fun. congratulations!
i can't wait for more of karolina + renovation ❤
In a lot of old houses the bathroom shares the plumbing for the kitchen. The house I grew up in was from the 1890s. It originally didn’t have indoor plumbing. So the bathroom was added on and you had to go through the kitchen. The old house I live in now also has the bathroom off of the kitchen.
Your new flat looks like it has a lot of potential. :)
It sounds charming to buy an old, un-renovated home and do all the updates yourself. The reality is that you need a renovation budget of 50% of the sales price and alternate living space for the first 6-12 months. Otherwise, you will be spending all of your free time working on renovations and you are living in the middle of every reno project. Doing a live-in, self-reno will still cost 25% of the sales price and will take you two years to update the home to the level of a new home. In either scenario, the result is a beautiful, livable old home, which I'd take over new construction any day. The real gem, if you can find it, is an old home with a recent gut renovation at a reasonable price!
Low-key, I think Karolina is launching a new channel with a Property Brothers format called, "I Am Renovating My Flat (What a Catchy Title!)"
I bought a flat which was last time renovated in 1986 - that was the year on the newspapers sticked underneath a wallpaper, so I feel your pain.
It's looks so nice, it's remind me about 1900s apartment that I rented as a student in Lviv
I own a tiny studio in my hometown now, in the building that was built in the 1966, but it's don't have such a vibe, even if I trying to recreate it.
It's also remind me about my grandma's house, she live in the old house in rural, and also have bathtub on her kitchen 😭
I know you said you dont want an open floor plan kitchen but I would just blow out that wall between the kitchen and living room. It just makes more sense and gives way more options. However, working around pipes and such is tricky business.
Congrats! I'm in the middle of buying a house right now, but it was a flip, so someone bought it cheap and then did a bunch of renovation (probably also for cheap) and sold it to me for almost double what they paid for it. I was willing to take it, though, because it's tough right now and I really needed a house. Plus the location is fantastic. But yeah, there are some weird quirks, because the house was built in 1959 and then added on to several times, and I'm already thinking about how to renovate and make it more my own. Good luck on everything!
Karolina should check out Backyardballistics for how to DIY remove rust from those keys and locks, if you're so inclined.
Omg!!! We used to have that brown linoleum with the round 'tree trunks' when I was growing up!
instantly entirely obsessed with this renovation and also pleasantly surprised at the size of the place, i know literally nothing about housing in Poland but here in Boston, MA, i was in one of the really old beacon hill apartments from the 1800s and it was like half the size lol
CONGRATS!!!!!! Old houses are the best! We bought a townhouse almost 6 years ago from 1875. Unfortunately, previous owners have modernized the house without taking into account the old cozy style. We are trying to restore the house to its old state. All I can say is: ENJOY the process, the joy and fulfilment afterwards is all the greater.
5.58 - hi from Ukraine! 🇺🇦
A tiled stove is also still a thing in Western Ukraine, have lots of it. It takes just sooo much space in the room but the tiles are fascinating sometimes
Not Polish but from the south of Spain. I don't know exactly when my grandparent's house was built, but they were born in 1932 so perhaps the house is older. It's so old that the outer walls were built with oyster stone (aka a material used in construction in ye olde times in the area made up of remains of seashells eroded by the sea and compacted into sand, so u can find clams and seashells embedded into the wall if you happen to see the bare stone).
Either way, they have the batroom inside the kitchen as well. Apparently it all used to be the same big room, but eventually as the years passed and people no longer bathed in a big bucket in the kitchen, they separated it with a wall and a door. They ended up with a fairly big bathroom with a big kitchen, too. But that's mostly because (fun fact) the building used to be a big sorta mansion, and then it was sold and divided into three houses of a fairly big size. Two houses were 1 floor like flats, and the other is the biggest that has two floors. The layout of that whole building and my grandparent's house specifically is soooo interesting though because they have a big ass skylight covering two interior patios, but then you have to walk through a guest bedroom to get to the master bedroom.
In summary, old houses have some very wacky shit.
That basement is such an added bonus! Cleaned out, you will have so much storage space!
Congratulations! Old properties that haven't been updated are rare around my part of the States. I would love to have a place that has some history in it.
It’s fascinating to move to a house which has interesting history! But the renovation process sounds very complicated.
Congratulations on your first home! So exciting! Especially since you can customize it to your wants, needs, and tastes.
I was a contractor specializing in old homes. Turn of the century, like last century, not 1900 to 2000s. I know you may not believe me, but you got off lucky. Yeah, it took longer than you planned, but you didn't completely blow your budget on replacing rotten floor joists or re-digging the entire foundation. Or both. I'm looking forward to seeing what you've done. Just think of all the fun stuff you can get in second-hand shops that'll be perfect for an older building. Best of luck and have fun!
Hi! Have you considered connecting your kitchen cupboards via countertop going above the heater (with eventual cut-out air diffuser)? That could possibly create the “U” shape you wanted and you’d have lovely (I guess) table beside the window… Underneath you could put kind of ikea trolleys to store stuff…
Wow! Please keep us updated would love to see the whole process. Very exciting!
aaaaaaaa it looks so nice already i can't wait to see updates !!!!! and yes the doors are amazing! also rly excited to see it properly furnished :)) good luck on your journey!!
I'm also doing a "renovation" on our old house and the struggle and frustration is real when your plans just don't work out. I love your creativity and positivity. Keep it up!
I've been doing stuff with a place my family had built in the 1970s, and I love some of the odd quirks! The best one is a vegetable storage room, which I now have full of pickles and squash. We found better ways to use the space as originally there were 4 different living room type things (living room, front room, rumpus room, and den), but since then, one had been turned into a living room and some walls were changed, so I ended up turning it into a semi-duplex. There were already two kitchens, one on each storey, and as much as I'd love a canning kitchen, I really don't need it for just me, and I could use some extra money to cover bills. I don't have a dishwasher, or a full size oven, but I don't mind the small kitchen. However, I am still waiting for a few more changes with floors as 50 year old carpets that were literally disintegrating are horrible for allergies, but trying to match the old flooring took longer than expected.
It's very exciting to work on planning a space, and I'm really looking forward to having people over and using some vintage furniture that was there. I'm doing very much a combo of vintage and modern furniture and hoping it all works somehow. Plus a wall full of sewing machines, because I need more space for the now 4 machines I have for sewing (vintage machine, serger, embroidery and fancy stitch machine, and newer backup sewing machine). I love seeing space transformations, and it will be neat to see what you end up doing to make the most of that space.
omg Karolina you're fulfilling my dream!
It would be a cool video to see what you make with your basement haul items. Fun craft time!
I feel your pain. We broke ground on new construction in Dec. It's August. It's always some little thing, some delay, something that won't arrive for 10 weeks. Love those doors! I know you're going to fix this up to be absolutely charming.
The tall ceilings and beautiful doors are glorious
If you can’t fix the window you can measure out the piece needed and make a new frame for the glass or just replace the crumbling sides, cheaper than getting new windows
Also if you can find similar wood floors and the rotting is on certain parts you can just replace those panels instead of buying all new wood, I would check outside the way the water travels through the property and if it’s seeping in