I’ve mentioned this in a past post, but it bears repeating: garages around here are like gold—hard to come by, whether for sale or with owners willing to sell. I’ve had my eye on a particular garage building here since last August, shortly after we moved in. These condo buildings were built in the 1960s—back when cars weren’t common or affordable for most people. Because of that, parking spaces and garages weren’t considered necessary, so they simply weren’t built or the land for them wasn’t allocated. It wasn’t until the 1970s that many of the current garage buildings started appearing.
Even then, garages weren’t always used for cars. Many people used them for storage—tools, bikes, and the overflow of things that wouldn’t fit in the condo basements. Some garages were built from concrete, while others were simple metal structures placed on rented land. Those metal units are less expensive and easy to replace, which is why they’ve become common in the area but they are still hard to find for sale. The concrete garages, the older originals, are the ones I’ve always wanted.
There is one concrete garage building in particular—18 units total, 8 on one side and 10 on the other—that sits directly off our balcony. It’s the closest one to our condo and I can see it clearly from above. I would honestly be thrilled to get any unit in that building.
A few weeks after we moved in last August, Sylwia found a listing for one of the garages on the opposite side for rent at 500 złoty per month, which felt extremely high considering apartments here rent for only 1,500–2,000 złoty. Still, I called the owner out of curiosity—and honestly hoping he might consider selling instead. The garage was spotless, freshly painted, and in perfect condition. He told me it actually belonged to his girlfriend and that she was not willing to sell it. I decided to keep looking.
Then a neighbor from the building behind ours told me about another owner—unit #1—who lives in Kraków and only visits occasionally. His parents had owned the condo and the garage before passing away a couple years ago, and she believed he planned to sell both. She asked him whether he’d consider selling the garage alone, but he said he wouldn’t.
Months went by and I wondered how to reach the other owners without having any of their contact information. I asked at the association office and then the local electric company, but both said they couldn’t provide details and suggested I simply “speak to owners when they’re at the garages”—which is impossible for unused units, easily identifiable by the tall grass and weeds in front of their doors. Ironically, those were exactly the owners I wanted to reach.
So in late January this year, I made 18 flyers expressing my interest in buying a unit and taped them onto each garage door one evening with Sylwia. Then we waited.
A few days later I got a call from a man saying his sister owned one of the garages. He seemed more interested in current market prices than actually selling. I told him garages seemed to go for somewhere around the mid-60,000 złoty range and asked him to keep me in mind. That was the last I heard from him. No other calls came.
In the meantime, I talked to anyone in the neighborhood who had a garage door open. I eventually met a guy working on an old car in unit #9 on the opposite side. He told me that he was renting it from a woman who lives out of town and that he’d be moving out soon—maybe she would consider selling. I gave him my number and hoped for the best. A few days later he texted me saying she would continue renting it, this time to a family member. As a last-ditch attempt, I told him to offer her 75,000 złoty on my behalf, but I never heard back.
After we returned from spending the summer in the States, I checked a real estate website I regularly monitor for local condo listings. To my surprise, the guy from Kraków had finally listed his parents’ condo for sale. I scrolled through the description looking for any information about a garage and found a brief line stating that a garage was also available for purchase but not included in the condo price, with no other details given.
The listing was through an agency, and for the first time, I had a solid lead.
I called the agent immediately and told him I was interested in the garage only. He said he would ask the owner. Later that day he called me back to say the owner wasn’t interested in separating the two. Feeling discouraged, I tossed out a final offer—75,000 złoty—in hopes he’d reconsider.
Two weeks passed with no response. I assumed the answer was no and started thinking about printing a new batch of flyers—this time listing my maximum offer in large, bold text. Before I could do that, the agent called me. He said he had been trying to convince the owner and that if I could raise my offer slightly, the owner might agree. I asked how much more, and he said 80,000 złoty would likely do the trick. I agreed.
The next day, he texted me with good news: the owner accepted 79,000 złoty.
We had a deal, and I was thrilled and eager to finalize everything. We scheduled the closing with the notary for November 24th—the day before my flight back to the U.S. (more on that in the next post)—and waited for the day to arrive.
About a week before closing, the owner came out to show me the garage. He was a kind gentleman, and we spent quite some time talking about the garages, the neighborhood, and the area’s long history. He explained that his parents were the original owners of both the condo and this garage—much like Sylwia’s grandparents were of our condo back in the 1960s—and that his father had purchased the garage from Grupa Azoty, a major local chemical company (and also the electricity provider for the area) that built this garage structure along with most of the surrounding condo buildings during that same decade.
Much of the garage appeared to be completely original, including the old heater at the back. The owner explained that these garages were once heated, and that at one point they also had running water, which is still evident in the photo where the original sink remains. The garages originally had electricity, water, and heat; today, only the electricity remains, as the other utilities were removed some time ago. He was also leaving behind a couple of old cabinets, some tools, a snow shovel, and a ladder for me. I’ll probably end up disposing of most of it, but I’ll keep the ladder and shovel—they might come in handy.
It’s also worth mentioning that until recently, the entire building shared a single electric meter, with costs split evenly among all the owners. That changed last year when the electric company (Grupa Azoty) installed individual meters in each garage. Now, each owner pays only for the electricity they use, with bills issued twice a year.
Unit #9 sits directly behind ours (or soon to be ours) on the other side. I’ve got my eye on it as well.
This picture shows just how close the garage is to our condo—it’s about as convenient as it gets around here.
Random school photos with the boys and their classmates.
The first snow of the season came a bit early this year, and the result in an already tight school parking lot was pure chaos.
The next day, we spotted an igloo at the playground next to our condo that someone had started building but hadn’t finished. The boys immediately got to work digging the entrance.
The following day, we got even more snow, so we decided to head out to Park Strzelecki for some sledding.
The photo below shows a fallen tree in the parking lot across from Park Strzelecki. It seemed to be a common occurrence over the last couple of days since the snow arrived—fallen trees and branches everywhere.
I love people’s creativity. In the next two photos, you’ll see full human figures made of fresh snow lounging on the chairs—and if you look closely, a snowdog on one side and a snowcat on the other have joined the fun. See if you can spot them.
The hill was a bit crowded, so we didn’t stay long. Instead, we wandered through the park and discovered our own little sledding spots.
The garage didn’t quite make it in time to beat the first big snowfall, leaving the Altima to face the winter weather in its usual parking spot.
Finally, November 24th arrived. We were excited—probably me more than Sylwia. At 1 p.m., we sat down at the notariusz’s office with the owners—a brother from Kraków and a sister from Warsaw—both present to finalize the deal. In less than an hour, it was done. We walked out with signed documents and keys that looked like they belonged in a Renaissance museum, and none of it mattered in that moment. We were smiling, relieved, and fully aware that every phone call, every text, every flyer, and every bit of persistence had been worth it. Against all odds, we had finally secured a garage in Mościce.
Our Altima finally has a proper new home—Unit #1 is officially ours. Come spring, the renovation should begin: a new remote-controlled door, updated electrical work, some concrete repairs, and a fresh coat of paint. I’m genuinely excited about it. I also already have a promising lead on unit #9, the garage directly behind mine. I texted the previous renter shortly after the closing to ask for the owner’s direct contact information, and he provided it. If I’m able to purchase that garage as well, I could add a connecting door and create a two-garage setup with interior access between them, which would be incredible. It would also open the door—literally—for future plans, like shipping my BMW F900 GS Adventure bike to Poland and even picking up an original 1980 Fiat 126p “Maluch.” For now, though, we’ll focus on improving this garage and making friends with the other owners.
