"We made the radiator from pipe cuttings, instead of glasses we have beakers," Jan and Michaela describe how they brought the Loft in the foothills to life
How do people with your background even get to reconstructold attics? Was it about building a space to rentfrom the beginning , or is there somethingelsebehind it?
Jan: The answer to the first question is very simple. My dad has owned a construction company all his life, so the idea to renovate something didn't just come out of nowhere. It's no coincidence that the loft is part of my parents' farm. For a long time, it's just been used to store scraps of wood and miscellaneous junk, so the two of us thought it might be nice to build something more useful than just storage for stuff, which ties in with the second question.
The original idea wasn't about creating a business, but purely about building a place where we could normally sleep comfortably when we came to visit our parents and not have to be in a tiny nursery.
You finished the project in the fall of 2021, which was in the middle of thecovidpandemic. So how did you come up with theidea of making the loft available to the public instead of just relaxing there yourself?
Michaela: It came about because as I was posting on Instagram about the renovation, we got a call from an editor at a women's magazine saying she was writing about tips on where to go on a trip in the fall. And we thought about it and thought that trying to rent out the loft to travelers wasn't a bad idea at all. After all, we're so full that when we want to come for a vacation in season, we have to make our own reservations long in advance.
Is this rental your only business or do you do something else?
Jan: We both have our own jobs. For example, I'm working on a project that is very much influenced by biotechnology and chemistry, developing a bioluminescent phytoplankton kit. It's a glowing plankton that you can take care of like a pet/houseplant, and it also glows nicely at night. It's an educational project done in a fun way where you can learn a lot about the underwater world, plankton and science. I will now be continuing on to my PhD studies in September.
Michaela: I'm a cosmetics and dietary supplement and tea developer, so I'm always inventing things. I'm in such a work-to-work mode right now with our project.
Listening to youand projecting theoverall concept of your project, itseems to me that you're thinking quite ecologically. Am I wrong? Did you choose yourmaterialscarefully , think about water usage, etc.?
Jan: I like sustainability and I would say that if we were to start all over again now, we would do better in that regard. Anyway, this was our very first personal experience with any construction project. We took a lot of advice from my dad, who is more of a classical scholar. He may work with modern materials, but he may not be the most sustainable. But I learned a lot, and like I said, if there was another renovation or other project, everything would turn out much more environmentally friendly with this new experience.
Michaela: As far as the water usage goes, we're now thinking about a new shower head.
Jan: Yes, that would help, but when we're discussing it, I'm thinking that if the thing we bought a year ago is still working today, it's a shame to throw it away just because we're saving a litre of water a week. I think that sustainability is in that line of thinking as well. Generally we try not to buy the newest things right away, rather we fix them when we can.
Michaela: When it comes to repair and sustainability, we have some interesting things in there. For example, Honza used pipe offcuts to make a radiator for the vestibule. Or there's an old stool that we used to climb on during the renovation. We just sanded it down and repainted it. We also found a beautiful solid pine board while we were cleaning it out, so it wasn't beautiful to begin with, but we saw the potential in it. It now serves as a countertop under the sink. And there are actually still small wooden tables, which used to be the leftover logs from my dad's throw away again. But we also put a little bit of ourselves in the loft, specifically from our chemical era. You'll find things like beakers used as glasses, graduated cylinders used as vases, a powder room for coffee beans or loose tea, petri dishes with bath salts, and test tubes full of spices.
The project is working for you, so you're obviously doing itright. Have you thought about asimilar renovation in anotherlocation that would serve the samepurpose?
Michaela: We already had some thoughts and plans for another rental, it was about building a bigger building that could fit at least two families, but I guess the universe doesn't favor it yet. So we are focusing on developing the loft. For example, we just added a projector screen last year. The concept of the terrace, which a gardener friend helped us with, is also quite new, and it consists of plants that also grow around in the Ore Mountains. We call it the "Erzgebirge chest". Originally there was a hot tub, but that's been replaced by a bathing barrel.
We also took part in the Orenka project(small buildings in natureequipped with modern technology, whichare supposed to resemblelocal mineralsin shape, colour and overall design, ed.) as the authors of the whole concept, where we consulted for six months with architecture students who were then supposed to realise the huts. There we worked on sustainability, architecture, which we are both very close to, and chemistry. And the concept was that when you wander around the Ore Mountains, you can sleep in these cabins. Of course, this project hasn't come to fruition yet either, it has stalled on communication with the municipalities.
A lot of property owners whoare also thinking about renting and who have some emotional connection to the place end up giving up because they are afraid ofdamage. How doyou overcomethis challenge?
Jan: It's obviously a lot about trusting that the community(think Airbnb, where the rental offer is also hosted) brings together people who are normal and decent. But I have to say that so far I am very satisfied. There is of course some cover in case anything happens, and we've even had some unpleasantness happen, but it's always been resolved very nicely in our favour.
Michaela: The way we have it is that we put a little bit of ourselves into the loft, we think of it as our home, and that's exactly how we present it. People tend to act like that. Of course, sometimes things get ruined, that's just part of the process. In the beginning I took broken things very badly, but now I take it in stride that we either fix them or buy new ones.
Jan and Michaela are always fully available and if they have the time, it is no problem for them to prepare breakfast, chat and provide tips for the trip during your stay.Photo: loft v_podhuri/Se svolením
Everywhere I look, you get positive reviews. What doyouthink it is?
Michaela: I think it's our personal attitude. We've set it up so that even when we're not around, we're constantly communicating with those people, we're on the phone, we're giving them tips on where to go on trips, where there's good food. When we have time, we bring them breakfast and talk.
Jan: Yes, I agree. When you go to a hotel somewhere, the room is just anonymous. And the others are exactly the same, or at least similar. But with any of them, you don't picture any particular person living there or owning it. At the most, there's a gentleman in a suit who owns ten of these hotels around the world and is filthy rich. But here you can see two specific people who are just like you. And it's their place, and they go there regularly and look after it and their guests. That certainly doesn't detract from the rating.
Michaela: I also want to say that because of this setup, we've already formed a couple of friendships where these people come back to us regularly and we come back to see them. We have a lot of foreigners among our guests, and we have two Koreans coming for their honeymoon right now, and it will be their first time visiting Europe. And that's a huge honour for us and a wonderful feedback.
Staying with the personal approach, can you imagine a situation where you would rent out several properties at the same time? Do you know ofanyone who would have the same approach to guests as you do and you couldentrust some of the properties tothem?
Jan: When you have 10 properties, you have to accept that you can't do everything yourself. He wouldn't be able to handle the daily communication with all the guests at the same time. So for me it's better to have less with better quality than a lot with lower quality. But that's generally our approach in life.
Would you like to conclude with a message to our readers?Do you have any "wisdom"for them?
Michaela: Don't be afraid. If you feel you have a path to walk, and you believe it, walk it out. We were discouraged by a lot of people too, but we stood our ground. When I walked into the cleared out empty space, I already kind of had an idea of where what should be, and Honza and I said we weren't going to let anyone interfere. The way we thought of it, we reimagined it.
Jan: I agree. We just did it for ourselves, the way we like it. And we still do it that way, we just always enhance it with our own travel experiences. We treat people the way we would like them to treat us. Which is actually the wisdom I can pass on.
