Piotr Chadzynski once traveled more than 6,500 miles for a job. Another time, he moved 4,000 miles away. But in his latest pursuit of a “post” with a timber frame company, he needed only to drive 4 miles across town.
Piotr’s first work in timber framing was with a company in Massachusetts that restored 18th- and 19th-century post and beam homes, barns and outbuildings. It was the beginning of a special relationship with this historic form of building.
“I really loved doing the restoration work,” Piotr says. “Really, the only reason I stopped doing it was because the opportunity in Poland came up.”
That’s right, Poland. That was where he and Sarah, who is now his wife, moved so he could take a job as a linguist in support of U.S. Army operations there. The move might seem odd were it not for Piotr’s work and family history. Just a couple of years earlier he’d returned to the States after a year-and-a-half stint in Afghanistan, working with U.S., NATO and other international organizations as a Polish/English linguist.
Piotr attributes his comfort with all things Polish to his childhood in a Polish family in New York. His first language was Polish—he learned English when he went to school—and he hung out with his grandparents in their Polish cultural house, a place for expats to congregate. Summers were spent in Poland, with cousins or at camp. He might be as comfortable in Poland as in New England.
But in-between his linguistics forays across the globe, he’s always been involved in property management, real estate and sustainability work. His path was neatly leading him to Brooks Post & Beam, the storied timber frame company right here in Lyndeborough, where he and Sarah had settled after returning from Poland. They had looked to expand their sustainable agriculture education center, and the town turned out to be a good fit. Piotr and Sarah moved off their 3 acres in Massachusetts to a late 18th-century home on 23 acres here. The growing family now consists of two daughters, June and Eva, three alpacas, a horse, two goats, 10 geese, 20 chickens, and various guinea hens, turkeys, cats and dogs.
Then, while researching New Hampshire’s timber framers with a mind to getting back into the business, Piotr was excited to learn that Brooks was as local as it could get. He and President Paul Freeman started talking, and when a position opened up, Piotr filled it. The “junior man on the team,” he helps with cutting the frames and with assembling them on-site.
“We’re building people’s dreams, it’s something that’s just so personal to them. I love interacting with people, I love communicating with them,” Piotr says. “I love getting them to the point of looking back and seeing their project come to life and be realized, and have the satisfaction with the work they’ve put in and equal satisfaction with the work we’ve done.”