Help us renovate our dilapidated flat

Hello! We are an LGBT couple from Poland, Jagoda and Melissa. We live in a small flat that desperately needs renovation. We have accumulated a sum for this purpose, which took us quite some time of our own work. We are right now in the middle of work and we can see that the estimate given to us at the beginning, that we based the collection of our funds on, is inaccurate and our funds are insufficient. This happened to us, because we couldn't afford to hire a professional construction company for plans or estimations, and because the block of flats we live in is old( built in late 70s), after uncovering the plumbing and tearing down the floors it turned out the piping is severely run down and leaking, and the floors are creaking and need to be equalised. These unexpected costs have consumed a big part of our funds in a way we couldn’t have predicted. All the construction work is done by a handyman who is a friend of the family, which is why we can afford him in the first place. We are forced to live in a half-finished, half-dilapidated apartment filled with dust, and this won’t change unless we progress with the work, and we are essentially at a standoff with both this flat and our lives. We have a goal to finally make this flat liveable so that we can move on and focus on developing our lives instead of putting any money we ever get towards renovation. The silver lining is that the apartment is small, which diminishes the additional cost required for us to finish the construction work. This is the reason why we hoped we could get some community support - the currency in Poland is weaker than dollars or euro, so if even a small group of people helped, it could prove life-saving to us. Thank you in advance for your understanding and consideration.

We have set this fundraiser with a due date, but truly, if we do not manage to gather the needed sum by then, we'll have no choice but to live in the flat as is, and we will remove the date altogether in the hope to at last gather the needed sum.

You will find more information in the FAQ we have devised below.

Concerning the flat:

Our flat is 32m² and consists of a bedroom, a small bathroom and a living room with a kitchen annex and is located in Krakow, Poland. Jagoda is the owner and has inherited it in 2013 when her mother passed away. Since it was purchased in the 90’s, the bathroom and living room and kitchen have been completely untouched, and has been steadily falling apart since then. The bedroom has been renovated around 2015 by friends of the family for pennies.

FAQ:

Why such need to renovate?

As mentioned above, the state of the flat has pretty much been the same since the 90’s, and had been falling apart ever since. The state of the bathroom was deplorable; walls of pipes were not covered by anything, the toilet itself was leaking profusely and was days away from flooding the apartment before we begun renovation. Things would fall apart; door handles if pressed too hard, cabinet doors when opened, etc.

Time also is of the essence, since if we don’t continue paying our worker regularly, he will move on to the next job and leave us in a dilapidated flat. It is impossible to find anyone, who will do the work for a lower price.

Why the change of currency from zloty (the Polish currency) to dollars?

Purely for the sake of clarity and reaching a vaster pool of donors. In zloty, the correct figure would be around 75.000 zl, which would look enormous in the eye of a person either from the euro zone or from North America. Changing the currency allows us to facilitate donations by giving a clearer figure to potential donors.

What state of renovation are we at?

The rooms that are currently being renovated are the bathroom and the living room/kitchen. The bathroom is half finished: tiles have been placed everywhere, a shower, toilet, sink and heater have been purchased, but there is no furniture as of now. The kitchen and living room are in the worst state: we do not have the budget to purchase floor tiles or paint the walls, or for furniture and kitchen appliances. Essantially, we cannot live in this place at all, and have nowhere else to go. Finally, we do not have enough to pay our worker.

Why can we not complete renovations on our own?

As mentioned above, because of miscalculations of our initial budget and the discovery of extra work to be done, our budget has run out. We cannot count on support from relatives for various reasons. Concerning our situations, Jagoda was still a university student until October 2018 and had to financially support herself throughout her studies, and thus nothing could be done to the apartment before that. In spite of our best efforts and our working to accumulate more, there is simply no way we can collect everything that is needed on our own before the due date is there, so we are humbly asking for help.

What updates can be expected from this fundraiser?

As of now, renovations are at a stalemate. We have posted every pictures of the progress made thus far, and when the work moves forward, we will continuously update to let everyone know how things are going.

What will funds received be spent on?

Renovating, of course. But more specifically:

1. We still currently owe our worker for the work he has accomplished so far, and if renovations are to be finally finished, we will owe him more.
2. While the bathroom is over, there is no bathroom cabinets and no sink.
3. There are no floor tiles or paint in the living room and kitchen so far, and no furniture in these rooms.
4. Kitchen appliances are also missing

Anything we receive will go towards accomplishing these tasks and nothing else.

I believe that is all, if you have more inquiries, please don't hesitate to ask us on social media. Thank you for sticking with us throughout this lengthy explanation!