We are Paul and Anna - English and Polish respectively; professional people formerly working as a Microbiologist and Exam officer for the University of Oxford. We have many, varied interests including travel, culture, history, etc. We are passionate about our house and have been restoring it for some years now, by traditional methods (wattle, daub,lime plastering, etc) techniques we knew nothing about prior to purchasing this near-ruin as it formerly was.
Most of the work we did ourselves and are proud of the fact that the majority of the interior is structurally the same as it was when first built in 1808.
We love nature and have an especially keen interest and knowledge of birds. Other hobbies include gardening, trekking in mountains, skiing, photography, good food and good wine amongst good company.

When we first decided we wanted a house in Poland, we didn't know it would take so long to find the house of our dreams. Having viewed and inspected countless properties over a 3 year period, we were beginning to think that we would never find exactly what we wanted - and the physical and emotional cost of spending all of our free time and holidays in such pursuit was beginning to take its toll.
After perhaps the 60th or 70th house, we found this.What you see in the photos bears hardly any resemblance at all to the shambling, decrepit ruin you see in the photos - decades of neglect and disasterous 'home improvements' had left deep scars. But beneath all this, we knew the house had a special charm waiting to be unleashed.
Walking into what is now the Music Room, the rotting wallpaper peeled off easily to reveal the astonishing timber construction beneath. Similarly, we knew that the white plastic paint which covered the ceiling here covered an extraordinary series of massive wooden beams (I spent 8-10 hours a day for 7 days just to remove the plastic).
Houses like this one are living history. Our first task really was to remove practically all traces of modern construction to take the house back to its original core and refresh and repair using complementary methods. I think I can say that we have largely achieved our aims.