Busted walls, broken floors and dirt drove the man crazy. Then he decided to roll up his sleeves and...

A resident of St. Petersburg Kirill Yudanov was lucky to buy an apartment in a historic house on Ligovsky Prospekt. The house of the early twentieth century, an exemplary example of modernity was beautiful only from the outside, inside the residents of communal apartments met a dilapidated entrance: the walls painted by hooligans were depressing, the outlines of the original tiles of the last century were barely visible under a layer of dust, and not entirely safe wires dangled from the ceiling sloppyly.

Looking at all this good, the new owner of the former communal apartment firmly decided: “I will restore, even at my own expense!”





Editorial "Site"Like the hero of our article, I am convinced that you should not wait for decades for the response of housing offices, because your comfort and quality of life are in your hands and only. Tired of living among rubbish, shabby walls and rickety mailboxes, Kirill decided to make repairs to the front on his own and at his own expense. Everyone should have a neighbor like that!

More and more enthusiasts take up spatulas and brushes and repair their homes on their own. This is a noble and useful business and, it seems, should receive the support of not only neighbors whose life will find comfort, but also housing offices, because they have nothing to do.

But it's not all that rosy. Among the majority of residents of historic houses, there is an opinion that unauthorized repairs are something punishable by the state, and in general, suddenly who will think that everything is too good in their lives, and this is definitely not allowed.





“Actually, many people believe that some kind of permit is required to repair their front room. I didn’t ask anyone, because this situation is like an absurdity: won’t you let me clean up the dirty, unrenovated front room for decades?

Would you mind if I allowed myself to paint a spit wall and repair a rotting staircase? How will the KGIOP look at my desire to destroy valuable historical artifacts in the form of obscene inscriptions in the elevator cabin?





The hero of our article was lucky to have the same enthusiastic neighbors who did not interfere with the repair, and some of them even helped the man financially. All right. dress-up It cost 350 thousand rubles, 45 of which were contributed by neighbors.





Considering that when buying an apartment, the hero made a small discount, he decided to use this money with benefit: My apartment originally cost 8.9 million rubles, but to sell it faster, made a discount of 300 thousand. I decided that this money would be used to repair the front room.”





Typical. St. Petersburg - this is a shabby plaster, painted walls, a floor with broken tiles, a destroyed fireplace, and repairs were made twenty years ago and somehow: at best, the historical stucco and inscriptions on it were smeared with a thick sloppy layer of paint, well, everything else, in fact, did not pay attention and did not allocate funds.





“To buy an apartment in a house with a bad front, I did not raise my hand. I knew that I would be walking through the ruins every day, and the city authorities would not make cosmetic repairs until sometime in 2028. Reflecting on this, I decided that it is still possible and necessary to put the front in order yourself. Having received a little financial help from neighbors, I undertook repairs, Kirill said.





Repairs were made from February to April: each leaf of beautiful stucco was cleaned with a scalpel, removed all layers of lime, leveled the walls, restored the ceilings and fireplace, cleaned the floor of dirt and breathed new life into the old original tiles. "It's not like a standard repair from Housing and Services - to smear a new layer of paint on top of the old one," sighs Kirill Yudanov.





But it was not without curiosity. When there was a question about painting apartment doors, neighbors here and there began to make wishes, they say, the door is pink, yellow, and someone green. Kirill proposed to preserve the texture of the old doors, painting them brown, and modern nondescript – gray, so that they do not spoil the historical front.

In the end, the hero had to say, "Gentlemen, I'm repairing, I'm investing my money, and I want those colors."





In the apartment, the man made repairs, preserving all the same historical values that in other apartments, alas, have not survived: stucco on the ceiling and a fireplace.









“For decades, they lived here without repair. When we filmed the floor, we found three layers of boards on top of each other. There they found a couple of vintage bottles – I decided to keep them, says Kirill.





“The apartment has a fireplace. We removed a smooth layer of paint from it, saw a beautiful terracotta color - and left it as it is. The chimney was cut off, so I installed a new pipe. I use the fireplace almost every day: I like to watch movies with guests in the evening. When you start a fire, it becomes very cozy, says the owner of the house. Now the stucco in the front, cleaned of dirt, like the fireplace in the apartment, are items protected by KGIOP.





Without waiting for the walls of the dilapidated ceremonial historic house to be put in order by the employees of the housing office, the hero of our article took matters into his own hands. And, as you can see, it was amazing!

The story of Kirill Yudanov is a vivid example of how to improve public culture and, importantly, increase the potential cost of apartments in a restored historic house. “Our repair even motivated the local janitors to clean up. About a month ago, they washed walls, floors, windows for two days. This is not part of their normal duties and, as far as I know, no one paid them for it.”

What do you think of these neighbourhood initiatives? Be sure to tell us in the comments, and the article shared with friends in social networks.