Welcome to Our Home at Cisowa 9A...

Dzien dobry ! (Hello)...thought we would take you on a little tour of our home...it does feel like home and we love being here (we just miss family and friends) !

We planted new flowers a week ago and they are still growing! We are thrilled...to get in the Polish spirit we needed to add some beautiful flowers to our front porch!

Before.....our own furniture arrived. This is our "big space" on the first floor...here you enter after coming through the door way.

After....this is what that area looks like now....we love it!

Before....This is the other end of the big living area with some of the rental furniture that we used before ours arrived. Our sea shipment arrived in late June...After....and now the same area with our furniture looks like this.

We have places for relaxing, tv watching, playing games and reading...

One of my favorite reading areas...I love to read in this big blue chair which faces our backyard..there is always a great view!

This is the view Mark has while playing the piano...we love to hear him play and he does a great job here in Poland!

Before...our kitchen...we didn't do a whole lot to make it different.

We added a few decorations...and took away the rental appliances. Our counter space is very small but we are learning to manage between the two of us.

The table and chairs came with the house. They were hand made and we had two more chairs made so when our guests come there will be a little more room.

This is the front entry way...the kitchen is to the right of this picture and directly across from this book shelf is the big room (seen earlier).

This is the top of the stairs on the 2nd level. Last Friday our re-locator Darek hung

over 40 wall pieces (pictures) throughout the house. He did a great job and our walls now feel more at home for us!

Here is the small hallway on the 2nd floor. The doorway to the left is Mark's closet, then the master bedroom and at the end of the hallway is one of our guest rooms/Mark's small work area.

Before...this is the master bedroom with the rental furniture. Polish beds do not have box springs, so this bed was much lower to the ground than we were used to..though it was comfortable and we slept well. There were no dressers...my suitcases were what I lived out of for 3 weeks.

After...here is our bedroom now...we love it! On the right side is one of our IKEA wardrobes (where I keep some of my clothes...).

We have a great view...our backyard faces east and this is where we saw the fireworks that I blogged about a few weeks ago. The sun comes up early here...back in June it was daylight by 4:00am!

Mark had 3 AC units installed in our home while we were in CA. You can see one of them above our bed...they do a nice job of cooling us down and taking the humidity away for awhile. Yes...when you have been walking (as we do every day) it feels so good to have the AC on...I think we became somewhat spoiled while living in Houston...as most Poles do not have AC in their homes.

Our master bath...we added rugs, a step stool (the shower/bath is quite high and the stool makes getting in and out of it much safer), and the white 2-door shelf unit.

Here is our "Texas" guest room...just waiting for anyone to come and use it. Be the first to come and stay!

Not pictured is the desk Mark uses when he works from home - and will gladly give up when you come to visit!

This is our guest room bath...it's a beautiful bathroom...a small chandelier, raised tub and tiled walls!

On to the 3rd floor, or 4th level including the basement.

This is the top of the stairway...

Here is another guest bathroom...

And... another guest room. This room has a great view of our backyard also...facing east.

It's just waiting for guests to enjoy it...

Before...this is the big attic room upstairs. We had hoped to have our ping pong table here...but it just couldn't be brought up the stairs, so we'll play ping-pong in the garage and use this room as...

...a great room for "projects", office work, and exercising!

Now...back to the front doorway area...there is a door (to the left of the entry way) that leads to our basement (the first of four levels in our home).

Our laundry room with our tiny washer and dryer...

We have 2 storage rooms...this one is almost like our attic in Houston but it is much easier to find things and not nearly as hot...we can easily fine the things we need for seasonal use.

Our 2nd storage room...luggage and our mini-USA supply area...we love this storage area!

Our backyard terrace...we still have not had a meal outside yet...we miss our barbecue...but the view is amazing!

Our grass is really this green...we have had so much rain since our "together" arrival in June that I don't think it even needs to be fertilized.

We hope you have enjoyed the mini tour of our home...Do widzenia (goodbye) and please feel free to drop in any time...we would love to see family and friends! Please know you are always welcome here! Hugs...Jackie and Mark!

Together Again in Poland...our 1st Week

Together again....in Poland!

I returned to Poland (after 3 weeks in CA) on Tuesday, July 26th...it felt great to be home once again! I have spent the week working and readjusting my body to a new time.

After working in our home for 3 full days, I realized I had not been beyond our home boundaries...it was time for a walk, meet up with Mark and have some Polish culture across from Mark's office.

The Palace of Culture and Science

This building is directly across from Mark's office and is the tallest building in all of Poland. It is often known as "the gift from Stalin"....it is quite a controversial site. Unfortunately it is a constant reminder to all of Warsaw and Poland of the communist rule experienced for many decades. It took only 3 years to complete, over 5,000 workers were brought in to build it and yet Stalin never lived to see it completed.

There are over 3,000 rooms in this building but there really is not much to see so visitors are brought to the terrace on the 30th floor and treated to a great view of the city. We were having a great summer day so going up to the 30th floor was quite nice (not too cold or breezy).

There are conference rooms, theaters, and areas to hold many concerts inside.

I never tire of seeing the beautiful flowers that are abundantly planted in and around Poland...even on the 30th floor of this building there were beautiful flowers!

Mark says this building needs a major power washing...it will soon be 60 years old!

As you look out towards the eastern direction, you can see Mark's building...it is the 22-story building to the left of the curved one in the middle of the picture above. Marathon has their offices on the 6th floor.

The taller building on the right side of the picture was being built when we were here in Feb. We stayed at the Holiday Inn directly behind it. Mark had a very short walk to work when he stayed at the hotel for the first month of living and working in Warsaw.

It was soon time for dinner and Mark wanted to take me to a restaurant he had visited a few times with co-workers. This is U Kucharzy (The Cooks)....and we were celebrating Mark's birthday since we were apart on July 12th...

Our chef served us personally and did a great job in explaining what we were having and how he had prepared it for us.

Since living in Poland I have not had any fish...it was time. I wasn't prepared though for how my entree was served...I was thinking a slab of meat (forgetting a few weeks ago Mark had ordered fish and received the whole fish on his plate).

I had sea bass, ratatouille, and vegetables (pureed...with a consistency a little thicker than baby food)... celery, broccoli, and carrots and honey.

The food was quite good but I had a difficult time finishing my fish...

This Sea Bass looked a little too personal for me...I tried eating it and I did...but couldn't focus on the left side of my plate. Eating fish like this will take some getting used to. The food was good and we enjoyed eating outside on a lovely summer evening once again.

We returned to Mark's office where he recently changed locations on the 6th floor. He used to work in a cubicle next to a very large window with a great view of the city, park and surrounding areas...now he has a private office, with windows..but the view is not as good.

As you can see...Mark continues to work late into the night hours.

Here are a few "before" and "after" pictures of our upstairs "Attic/Big Room" on our 4th floor.

Before: this is how the room looked after we moved in and before leaving for CA.

After: working a few days and many hours this room became a place for scrap booking, exercising, and office work...

Originally this room was to be where we played ping pong...but it could not work out...I look forward to many hours spent doing a lot of great personal projects!

The lighting is not great...only a few small windows, but Mark had one of our 3 AC units installed up here so it should be a comfortable room to work in.

Here is a picture of one of our phones...our very kind landlord Pan (Mr.) Jakusik brought us a phone to use for our main floor. We have phones with very unique sounds on the 4th and 1st floors. I couldn't tell him we would rather buy our own phone (which we did...a black small cordless one).

We will find a place on our 2nd floor for this dial up relic...

My mom should recognize the hat Mark is wearing...I didn't know this but this hat belonged to Don! We went for errands on foot and taxi and Mark wore this hat. He wears this style often...it's quite European and works well to protect his head from the rain and sun.

We have had a lot of rain since I arrived in June...the grass is very green and beautiful! Along with the rain comes the Polish slugs...they are brown and quite large compared to slugs seen in Houston.

We often see these creatures crawling on the sidewalks and stairs as we walk to the Metro and in and around our neighborhood. You have to be careful where you walk because they are everywhere!

We have had a good week and I look forward to becoming more acclimated to life in Poland once again!