Home sweet home

A month ago we moved in (more or less on time) to a campsite-style existence. There was water, but only cold and only in the downstairs bidet. The simple bed we made up at midnight on the day we moved in – just in time to collapse into it. The windows were gorgeous, but the doors hadn’t been made yet – so we were still using the draughty “temporary” doors from during the works. The gaps where the door didn’t meet the frame were big enough to bring in a long extension cable from our one plug point – outside at the meter. We were cooking on a tiny camping stove, with bottles of camping gas that lasted only a few days. The camping gas we had to use to heat water (brought up from the bidet) for washing up because the icy tap water was so unbearable. We went to the gym for showers. Heating was a small electric heater.

We expected the electrician to come as soon as we called. He had changed his number without telling us, so our calls went unanswered. Luckily I bumped into him in town, so we had some plugs and lights within a few weeks. The oven, which we had already bought, was faulty when we were finally able to plug it in – so we were still on the camping stove for another couple of weeks. Our generous neighbours couldn’t do enough to help – even offering us a place to stay! We were soon kitted out with another electric and a gas heater.

We also expected gas for central heating and hot water to arrive within days. After much pleading – it was connected today. Never underestimate the layers of bureaucracy.

We expected the joy of moving in to our big project would outweigh the discomforts. It did offset some qualms we might have had… but it’s easy to get upset when you just can’t get warm. Thank goodness for the arrival of gas!

[Since the move, I haven’t been able to find the cable to get the photos off my camera. No doubt it’ll turn up, so watch this space!]

Ikea is Meccano for adults

We said an emotional goodbye to our wonderful builders this week. They spent the last few days clearing up and teaching us how to get by on our own.
Roscoe has been taught the rudiments of intonaco or throwing cement at a wall (much harder than it looks – takes months to learn properly) and “rustic” plastering. This is a kind of plaster which has sand in it and comes to a slightly grainy finish. As you apply with a sponge, it’s quick and easy to learn compared to super-smooth plaster. We feel it’s the right look for our converted cantina (basement) bedroom, with its sloping walls from the 1600s. As this bedroom will be for guests, we’ll probably take a break before finishing it.
Meanwhile the builders have improved my tiling skills, allowing me to do a good job of our main bathroom. It’s a small room, and still took me ages (lots of pipe holes to drill), so I’m dreading the next job, which is the entire basement floor – about 25 square metres of it!
The delays on me finishing the tiling mean that we couldn’t get the plumbers in to finish their work on schedule. We’re already a couple of days beyond our planned move-in date. We can’t stay in our rented room much longer, so we’re hoping they’ll come and give us at least a toilet soon! On a positive note, the windows have arrived perfectly in time and are just beautiful. I’m so pleased. It feels like a home now, rather than a shell.
While I tiled, Roscoe “built” the Ikea kitchen. (Amazingly, we managed to bring home almost the entire structure of the kitchen in one trip, with the help of a second-hand roofrack I picked up on Ebay. With room to spare.) Ikea flatpacks are Meccano for adults. It was great fun. Only one thing went wrong, and that involved the hasty moving of a half-built fridge unit – breaking part of it. We bought some brackets from the local ferramenta (iron-monger / hardware store) to strengthen the broken corners and it seems all good now.
We didn’t get the work surface from Ikea. Ikea only do work surfaces of 246cm long max. I didn’t want a join in my 4 metre long kitchen, so I looked to the local brico (DIY) shop, which did the job (if not quite as nice a finish as the solid wood from Ikea, at least it was cheaper). Now we’ve just got to work out how to attach it and cut the holes for the sink and stove.
In preparation, we’ve bought a bed frame and a matress from Mondo Convenienza, a cheap furniture store an hour’s drive away. What an adventure! Mental note for future: a double bed doesn’t fit on an Opel Corsa. Especially when your bungee cords decide to break. We had a hairy two-hour drive on the backroads, avoiding the carabinieri, and panicking that the bed had fallen every time someone flashed their lights or tooted at us. But we made it. It’s almost homely now.
As soon we have a toilet we’ll be in, camping style. The electrician is still to come, so all current comes from one plug point outside the house, and the main doors are still those of a building site. I’m excited.

The countdown is on!

If there were a theme tune to my life at the moment, it would be that of Countdown. Time and money are both ticking away, and we have only two weeks left before we hope to be in.

Roscoe is being taught how to cement a wall by the builders (all in the wrist action, I’m told!), while I’m trying to get upstairs painted. I had hoped to have the kitchen finished by the time the fridge and oven arrived, but they were so efficient they’re here already! Paint here is either smalto, the equivalent of gloss, and waterproof, or else pittura semi-lavabile, which seems similar to emulsion, and is water based.

We’ve just got a basic white semi-lavabile from a local manufacturer, which gets watered down before use. Instead of undercoat we use something called fissativo which is transparent. According to Concenzo, it makes the paint go further and stick better. Even with this, however, the kitchen, with its patches of old pink and green paint (don’t ask me what the old owner was thinking!) is taking many coats to look even. Luckily they dry quickly, even in the autumnal weather. I’m not looking forward to putting umpteen coats on our high hallway ceilings!

Our small main bathroom is proving problematic once again, as it’s too small for more than one person to work in, and it needs lots of work. As Roscoe puts it, this is the crux point for our works. We can move in with a bedroom half-done, but the bathroom must be functional! The beige and chocolate tiles have arrived, and do look nice, but – to my despair – we don’t have enough of the old floor tiles left to put with them! We only have red and grey left, which just clash horribly with chocolate and beige. (Roscoe denies there is a problem; I’m compelled to overrule his lack of sanity.) So it’s off to the tile shops again for yet more tiles! Luckily the ones I have in mind are cheap (EUR 10 per square metre) and are kept in the magazzino (warehouse), so they’ll be here on Monday.

Managed to pick up a second hand roofrack, so we’re going to attempt to bring an entire 5 metre kitchen back along 2 hours of motorway from Rome Ikea in a 1 litre Corsa. Maybe in two trips. Foolhardy? Probably.

The carpenter gave me a nasty shock this morning: he brought me in to choose window handles and then said they weren’t included in his quote. I was upset by this – not only have I not budgeted for more, but he had led me to believe that I was buying the complete windows. Then he pointed to a style which cost over EUR 30 a piece. Given that we need 11 of them, the total would be substantial. I could, he pointed out, have ones at under EUR 20, but they would be plasticky. I went home close to tears.

The internet came to the rescue. A nice variety of solid brass handles are available at prices closer to EUR 10 a piece. It’s still a hundred euros I hadn’t budgeted for, but better than EUR 300! There are even some more artigianal style handles of wrought iron for around EUR 20 a piece – which would match the railings nicely. Plan for tomorrow is to convince the carpenter that he really ought to include handles in his price.

Wish me luck!

Cost of works to date:

Previous total: EUR 23,981

Labour EUR 1,300.00

Petrol for the truck EUR 20.00

Plaster EUR 30.00

Washed sand EUR 28.00

Cement and other wall stuff EUR 135.00

Sink unit of kitchen and underlay (Ikea) EUR 226.00

Wall tiles both bathrooms, and floor tiles basement EUR 876.00

Labour EUR 1,430.00

Petrol for the truck EUR 20.00

Cement and other wall stuff EUR 94.00

Fridge EUR 511.00

Second hand roofrack EUR 35.00

Oven EUR 278.00

Second hand electric heater EUR 13.00

Paint and fixative EUR 53.00

TOTAL EUR 29,030

Elettrodomestici – better known as fridges, cookers and the like!

We’ve come to the stage of ordering our kitchen – at least if we want to be able to cook when we move in! Although we still have a few weeks before move-in date, it takes quite a while to get these things sorted. We’ve already slipped up once – I forgot to visit the plumber to choose radiator colours until yesterday. They will take a month to arrive from ordering. So either we’ll move in late, or we’ll move in chilly!

(And after all that fuss, I was out-voted on having efficient dark radiators, and we’re getting basic white ones! Humph. On a complete tangent, if you’re thinking of getting radiators, you couldn’t be blamed for hoping that radiator design had improved in the past 20 years. But no. My plumber assures me that they won’t rust, they’re very efficient, don’t need painted, and are generally better than anything since sliced bread, but they look exactly the same as radiators from 20 years ago. Not even the nice retro ones from 30-50 years ago (?) but just same old, plain old. I did make noises about wanting something with a bit more style – or at the very least, subtlety – but the alternatives were few and ugly. Ah well.)

Having also come to the end of our budget before ordering the kitchen, the pressure is on to economise. At the same time, we don’t want to destroy the planet, nor have huge electricity bills, so a high energy efficiency class is key. Ah there’s the rub.

Both keen cooks, we do care that the cooker works well. But there’s nothing like Which? Magazine here in Italy. Magazines and online reviews aren’t comprehensive, and often seem biased. And then, a lot of the brands are different, so we can’t even go on past experience from the UK. The Italian equivalent of Curries or Dixons is Euronics, but their website is impressively rubbish. I did venture off the internet and into some shops too. But the assistants, for all the goodwill in the world, couldn’t do much beyond read me the descriptions from the catalogue. I need to speak to a baker who has tried each oven!

Said service unavailable, I’ve scoured the manufacturers’ websites, trawled reams of sales talk to get to the info (no mean feat in Italian!), and hunted here there and everywhere for bargains. The time has come to make a decision.

So here goes:

- Fridge-freezer: we’ve gone for a tall Ariston A+-rated one with the fridge above a largish freezer. We want clean lines in our modern kitchen, so we’ve chosen “incasso” or built-in to the units. Unfortunately, these models are about EUR 100 more expensive than “libera installazione” or free-standing ones. EUR 510 (delivered)

- Dishwasher: oops, this has had to go due to lack of funds. We’d have been doing well to find one under EUR 300. They’re not so kind to the environment anyway, I tell myself. Back to the Marigolds!

- Oven: after being sorely tempted by an Ikea oven that would have matched the lines of our kitchen (EUR 399), we’ve compromised on the cheapest stainless steel fronted oven we could find within the highest rating, which is A for ovens. This happens to be one of the basic models from Rex (who are the same people as Electrolux and Zanussi). It does the main things I want, i.e. with fan, ventilato, for cakes, and without fan, statico, for bread. No digital display though, to my disgust. EUR 280 (delivered)

- Stovetop: we actually got this a while ago, as I saw a good deal. We’ve got a Zanussi gas 5-ring stove. I was nearly out-voted on the 5 rings (which I know are going to come in handy!), until I managed to find one with security valve (can you believe it’s still legal to sell ones that let off noxious gases?!), in stainless steel, and for only EUR 30 more than the cheapest 4 ring ones. Very happy. EUR 213 (delivered)

Budget isn’t looking too healthy after that, but I think it’s about as cheap as we could’ve got ‘em without compromising too much on quality. I’m just praying the oven’s good when it finally arrives!

Thoughts on buying Italian goods on Ebay:

- There’s not as much stuff listed on Italian Ebay as UK Ebay, although some categories are well-populated.

- If you pay using a UK paypal account, it will take up to 2 weeks for your “E-cheque” to clear. Quite annoying for both seller and buyer!

- Other banks may differ, but my UK bank won’t let me transfer funds to an Italian bank account – it says the systems are too different.

- My Italian bank account meanwhile will let me pay other Italian accounts using online banking, but even if they are part of the same bank, they charge me EUR 1 for the privilege. Cheek.

- Paypal meanwhile, won’t let you set up an Italian paypal account without an Italian credit card (debit cards won’t do). Given that I already pay EUR 60ish a year to have a debit card, I’m not tempted.

Money worries and getting stuck in

Having done a bit of adding up and thinking about our outstanding bills for windows, wiring and plumbing, we’ve realised we can only pay the builders for another 3 weeks max. This won’t cover finishing the whole house; we’re prioritising the bits we’re going to need to live there. It’s a bit of a disappointment, but no so much. We’re nearly there, and there’s a lot we can continue with ourselves, like tiling and painting.

I’ve managed to put in a couple of days at the house myself. The men still look doubtful about letting a woman do a man’s job, but at this stage, they’ll just have to lump it. I’m in a hurry to move in!

I’ve had great fun repairing walls with plaster, sanding ready for painting, polishing old floor tiles with an electric sander, and burnishing the iron banister. The latter is a very slow job, but very satisfying. Once all the old paint and rust is removed, it becomes a metallic grey-black – gorgeous. The only thing is, it’ll take about a year to do it all! We’ve got the balcony railings to do, as well at the stairs between the four floors.

There’s so much going on at the house at the moment – it’s a really exciting time. But still, it seems to be going so slowly! We want to start finishing bits, but everything takes longer than we expect. Part of the problem is the sand for the cement – it seems to take two people a good 2-3 hours to bring up a load using the hoist and a wheelbarrow. The workmen are fixing up the walls ready for plaster (where there wasn’t any before, or where the old plaster was falling off), and it’s incredible how much sand they go through.

And then all the little jobs take time. In a day and a half, all I managed to do was touch up the plaster going down to floor level on the top floor, and then sand it. This will mean we don’t have to put a wooden or tile skirting board to hide the join, we can paint a gloss skirting board as the house had before. Roscoe isn’t having any more luck. He’s been repairing the gaps where tiles are missing. Yesterday in six hours he managed to get eight of the old cement tiles in! It’s a slow job preparing them and cutting them.

Best get back to it!

PS A useful tip given to us by the spark - take photos of the exposed pipes and cable tracks before the walls are repaired. When you need access in future, you can check where they are without knocking down half the house!

A transformation – the study

We’re onto the finishing stage! The walls are getting patched up, tiles are going down and Roscoe is frantically sanding and polyfilla-ing walls ready for painting.

One of our builders is an expert plasterer, and his work is a joy to behold. The first room to be finished is the little study which is open onto the hall as you come up the stairs onto the living floor. I’m finally sharing Roscoe’s vision for this area – it’s very open and bright. Originally, this space was a bathroom – you were faced with a wall and a door as you came up the stairs. It’s fantastic to see the transformation.

First, Roscoe and I knocked down the wall with a mallet (Roscoe) and a sledgehammer (me). Secondly, the boys had to drill away lots of cement and chip away at well-stuck-down 70s tiles! They pulled out old lead pipes and blocked off the old scarico waste pipe (we put in a new safer one). The walls were every shape but square, so it took the skill of the muratore (builder) to get them vertical and at right angles. Finally, we relaid nice old tiles from elsewhere in the house, and, after the electrician buried lots of cable tracks for our AV system, the walls were finished and plastered.

Very satisfying!

Cost of works to date:

Previous total: EUR 10,091

Shower mechanism, pop-up waste, siphon EUR 92

Labour EUR 1,300

Cement EUR 72

Shower tray (cantina loo) EUR 88

5 ring stove EUR 233

Bronze tap for terrazzo EUR 23

HDMI cables EUR 32

Labour EUR 1,300

Cement and bricks for basement bathroom wall EUR 37

Sand for cement EUR 28

Petrol for the truck EUR 20

Shower mixer tap EUR 26

Bottom toilet EUR 40

Labour EUR 585

Stone for window sills EUR 300

Rubble disposal EUR 40

Petrol for the truck EUR 20

First half payment plumbing EUR 5,500

Cream tiles for kitchen floor EUR 137

First half payment wiring EUR 1,870

Fixative and paint (1 can each) EUR 35

Outdoor lights for terrace EUR 20

Round sink for basement loo EUR 54

Bidet tap EUR 22

Shower head for basement loo EUR 23

HDMI wall plates EUR 55

Labour EUR 1,560

Rubble disposal EUR 20

Petrol for the truck EUR 20

Plaster, sand, bricks, cement EUR 95

Plaster, cement, fixative EUR 70

Kitchen wall tiles EUR 55

Sundries from builders' merchants EUR 48

Mosaic for centre of guest bedroom floor EUR 35

Wallpaper decoration EUR 35

TOTAL EUR 23,981

Budgeting for the rest of the work

The budget at the moment is around E12,000, we've got to pay E10,000 for plumbing, E3,000 (I think) for electrics, E15,000 for windows and external doors. We want to complete the works for E50,000.

So just E10,000 to spend on kitchen (budget E2,500 if we're lucky), and all the cementing, plastering, tile-laying and painting that has to happen in the next 3-4 weeks. Tiles will take E600-E1,000 of that, depending just how cheaply we go. Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be a basic cheap white tile, like you would get from B&Q here. The cheap tiles tend to have gold edging or pink flowers, or some other offputting factor! So, all in all, we’re just on budget if the next bits take the time they should.

And then there’s the furniture...!

Will our walls fall down?

The many plumbers have gone and the electrician is free to work in peace. He takes his work very seriously, constantly thinking about our future needs. Although we’ve said no to TV and telephone, he’s left us the junction boxes and an embedded tube up the roof so we could later put in cables from aerials/satellite dishes without having to open the wall again. Probably a good thing – if an Italian buys this house it’s unlikely they’ll share our taste for new technology and no TV!

Roscoe is not the flavour of the month with the electrician. Just after the cable tubes were cemented into place, the new high definition cable arrived from Hong Kong. And its ends were too chunky for the tube! Normally an electrician could attach the ends of a cable after feeding it through, but this HDMI technology is highly protected against piracy – designed to stop anyone interfering! The only option was to put in yet another tube double the size of the others.

(On the subject of new technology, we’ve been downheartened to hear that broadband is unlikely ever to reach the village. Both my local phone shop expert and computer mechanic are of the opinion that even a low quality of ADSL would cost too much to bring to our village, where few people would want it. More encouraging news, a neighbour has mentioned using UMTS, a kind of high speed internet that uses a mobile as a modem. I’m currently using EDGE, which is half the speed of UMTS and frustratingly slow, but sure to cover all of Italy. UMTS is not everywhere, and there are no 24/7 packages, but would probably still suit us better. We’ll need to do some tests with our neighbour’s phone around our house!)

With all this futureproofing, plus our current cabling needs, and all the pipes for the radiators, our walls are looking distinctly patchy! Normally pipes and cables could go under floor tiles, but our floors are made of beautiful old tiles that would fall apart if lifted. The workmen were given a strict injunction not to touch them. Which is needed, given that this is Italy and everyone is tearing out old features and putting in nice modern marble...

The men do seem to share our concerns about drilling into the supporting walls. Our main toilet cistern is not able to be, as planned, encased in the wall. I was not happy to hear that our only option was to have it overhead, as in Victorian loos. This rules out the Geberit two-button, water-saving flush – so a bit less environmentally friendly too.

Meanwhile the one pipe that’s not encased is the gas pipe. They have to be exposed in case of leaks. And given that the oven is at the far extreme of the house from the gas meter, this means a lot of visible pipe both on the front of the house and inside. Had I realised, I would have paid a bit extra to have gas coming in from the relevant side of the house.

Ah well, I’ll know next time!

Over to you, readers, a request: do you know of Geberit-type flush plates (the two-button plate for a wall-encased cistern) that aren’t big and ugly? It’s for our guest loo. Or indeed, for our main loo, flush mechanisms that can go with an overhead cistern but that are environmentally friendly?

Plumbers and sparks

(The pictures are (1) the 1.2m (!) tunnel the plumber had to drill through our very thick walls for the boiler vent, and (2) the small loo getting all its pipes in, plus an encased geberit cistern being hidden in the wall.)

While I was out of the country for a week (Roscoe stayed to supervise), the plumbers and sparks arrived en masse. Earlier than they promised, actually.

From a relatively peaceful two drills at once, we now have around five people hacking away at the walls at any one time. People are tripping over each other, and so Concenzo and the boys are taking some well-earned rest.

No less than three plumbers are laying pipes for the central heating and bathrooms, muttering from time to time about me buying a French rather than Italian shower (they understood a little better when I explained it was a third of the cost of the Italian ones!).

I’ve discovered that our main idraulico (plumber) is pedantic and likes to have a scheda tecnica (technical spec) for everything. The French shower, unfortunately, didn’t come with one, and the idraulico didn’t like having to decide how high to put the shower (yes, really). I mean, is “a bit above our heads” so hard to understand?”

Even more unfortunately, Roscoe got the worst of his irritation. I tried to be sympathetic, even emailed the shop (who said, “It’s really very simple. Are you sure your plumber knows his job?”).

To take the weight off Roscoe, I marched off to talk to the idraulico myself, armed with the French shop’s instructions. By this time, he had come to the conclusion that showers should be positioned around the 2 metre mark, i.e. above a man’s head. Jolly good.

On the way out, Roscoe muttered something about him being much nicer to me. Figures.

Meanwhile I’m even less popular with the sparks, having had a flash of inspiration and changing our bedroom layout. I excused myself by saying, better to change my mind now than later!

I want open-plan wardrobes – making it really easy to put away clothes rather than dump them on the floor! The new plan is to use the wardrobes to screen off a section of the room, creating a semi-private nook for our bed. We just have to wait for the furniture to know if it’s really comfortable.

(Roscoe is more for fluidity in layout. I just don’t see it working, unless you go for the dreary central ceiling light, and get dazzled when you lie back in bed.)

Modern Italian bedrooms all have the wonderful feaure of relay light switches by the sides of the bed, so you can turn the main lights off from bed and not stub your toes in the dark. Great. But it does mean we need to decide where the bed’s going now.

I was so convinced I knew what I wanted until they started asking all these questions!

Stage 2 begins – electricity and plumbing

Just as things seemed to be crawling along, Concenzo gave me the go ahead to invite the electrician and plumber. They arrived together, which led to an exhausting 2 hours of arguing over exactly where we want each light and radiator. A real case of “too many cooks!”

All these questions have made it more urgent for me to decide what kind of look I want – which will impact the bathroom fittings and the light position. I don’t want to be rushed into the wrong decision because the plumber needs to know now for example! So we’re off to Ikea again on Sunday, this time to actually buy things! I’ve got a list of lights I want to try out to see what the different effects are like, as well as some other bits and bobs.

The house now looks like a patient ready for surgery – all marked out in red paint and ready to be cut into. The plumber isn’t able to start until a week on Monday, and the electrician comes after, so I guess it’ll be late September when they’re finished. Then Concenzo and the boys get to fill in and clean up after them.

End of week 6 – cantina bathroom is looking good

Work crawls ahead at the moment. The workers have been building the new wall which will enclose the guest bathroom in the basement. They’ve put in a sliding door and it feels quite good, now that the layout of the space is there. We’re still not sure how we’re going to fit a radiator in though! Hoping the plumber will have some ideas.

Meanwhile poor Roscoe has been given the long, boring job of scraping old paint off walls. Just our bedroom has taken over a week.

To give him a break, I’ve taken him with me on tile shopping expeditions (I’m not sure which is worse!). We’d planned to get super cheap plain tiles in both bathrooms and for the floors, but we gave in and got slightly nicer ones. The cheap ones were all so overdone! After much agonizing, we got nice horizontal rectangular ones for the main bathroom in a dark grey-chocolate colour for the detail and beige for the rest. When they arrive, we’ll pay around EUR 22 per square metre, plus EUR 40 per square metre in the detailed bits. Ouch.

Meanwhile we’ve economised in the guest bathroom with a basic cream tile, with a slightly darker border at the bottom. These will cost EUR 12 per square metre.

The floor area to be tiled in the cantina is large – over 20 square metres. But we just didn’t like the cheap tiles (looked like they belonged in a cheap clothes store in 1985!). We feel this level of the house is a bit more rustic, with it’s sloping walls and cavern feel. We want decor to reflect that, so we went for a rough-edged, cotto-like rectangle, which we’re thinking of putting in a herringbone pattern. It comes in around EUR 18 a square metre. I just pray they’re nice!

All in all, it’ll be around EUR 700 of tiles, and we still haven’t sorted the kitchen!

We’ve had a tip-off from one of the builders about someone who is selling some old tiles like our own, so we’re hoping that comes through.

Cost of works to date:

Previous total EUR 7,485

Labour (13.5 days) EUR 1,755.00

Petrol for the truck EUR 40.00

Sand for cement EUR 10.00

Cement, sliding door cage, lintel (for cantina) EUR 233.00

Washed sand EUR 33.00

Art for walls EUR 342.00

Shower cubicle (curved) EUR 193.00

TOTAL EUR 10,091

Digital cameras – the key to effective shopping

I once went to a seminar on effective desk research. The crux was to keep a careful record of everything and its source, even if it didn’t seem useful at the time. I was unconvinced at the time that all this effort was needed – after all, you just have to keep in mind what you’re looking for, right?

Those presenters would be pleased to know I’ve found a use for their method. Shopping.

I now carry a notebook with me everywhere. Brochures and magazines are bookmarked and filed (at least when I’m feeling disciplined). Thank goodness for tabbed browsing – I keep all my house sites bookmarked in folders. And when I go to shops, I take pictures of products I like and their info tags.

Pulling the camera out does get me some odd looks, I admit. But there are advantages.

1. I don’t have to bring Roscoe on every shopping trip – I can get his yea or nea from the comfort of his computer seat.
2. I can make a note now of items that aren’t needed for a while so I don’t forget them.
3. If I want to do some comparison shopping, the photos are a better record than my memory, and quicker to get all the details than writing them in the notebook.

How else am I supposed to remember the myriad tiles, window fittings, skirting boards, etc.?

Home theatre? But I just want the basics!

Our cabling needs must be decided quickly so we can book the electrician. But, Roscoe’s research reveals, getting a movie screened in your very own home theatre is not as easy as plugging in the TV. Perhaps our needs are rare – we don’t watch normal TV, instead we tend to watch DVDs and internet material and play games, all directly off the computer. So all we need to do is beam a signal from the computer in the study to the projector and speakers in the lounge. Simple, right?

But a good quality video signal doesn’t go via wireless connections – it’s too big and fast. So a cable has to go somewhere. Or, to be specific, three places – the projector and (at least) two speakers, which are, naturally, on opposite sides of the room.

We don’t want cables lying around; we could get the electrician to bury them in the wall, but it would cost EUR 50 for each outlet – so I guess EUR 200 minimum before materials – steep!

And then there’s the high definition question. If you’re burying cables in walls, you want them future-proofed, rather than needing dug out again to upgrade in a couple of years. So do we get a costly high definition system? We’d need a data cable as well to use the inernet or play games. And audio cables. Suddenly it all seems complex.

An alternative is to leave cables accessible so they can be upgraded or added to when you want. The more subtle options for doing this are putting the cables under skirting board or under a cornice, between the ceiling and the wall. Special ones are made with cavities inside for the purpose. We’ve got balcony doors in the way so the skirting option won’t work for us. And the cornice option still requires wires to be trailed down walls to the ideal speaker height.

There just doesn’t seem to be an ideal solution.

A whole bathroom... sort of!

Two more deliveries today – this is better than Christmas!

Sadly, the lavamani mini sink I ordered for the tiny basement bathroom arrived broken. Silly person hadn’t (a) packed it very well, or (b) written “fragile” on the pack. Ah well, I guess these things happen. Hopefully he will refund me the EUR 30 I paid for it, but I can live if he doesn’t.

Meanwhile the shower arrived for the main bathroom (luckily very well packed and all in one piece). It’s just perfect – plain white curved tray and clear glass curved sliding doors. Anyone who has ever felt good about getting a bargain will love the fact that I got this – with very professional service – for EUR 193 delivered, after being quoted EUR 533 in the local bathroom shop. The abundant packing should keep us in barbecue wood for at least a month too!

We laid out the shower tray along with the loo and bidet and sink and it all fits, thank goodness. I’m so pleased. It’s our first room that is really starting to take shape, and I’m amazed just how exciting it is. Never thought I’d care this much about a bathroom.

Meanwhile the workers continue the meticulous job of getting the basement floor reinforced and level, and I despair at the thought of ever finding light fittings I love. Know any good sites for lighting ideas? Please let me know.

We’re torn between modern ideals and old-fashioned style. I wish LED and solar lighting was more practical, but I guess there will always be technologies that are just not ready in time. (On an aside, I did see this rather lovely idea of a solar jar: http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=6809959.)

I like some of the retro and minimalist stuff out there, but Roscoe tries to restrain me from introducing too many styles into the house.

Hoping inspiration strikes soon!

Our sink has arrived! Woo hoo!

Back to work after the Ferragosto holiday today.

I was perplexed to see Concenzo and his helper in deep concentration over a tube of water. Each had an end of the tube at different sides of the room, while the middle of the tube hung toward the floor. They explained the concept of the "water level" to me - if you hold a tube of water in a "U" shape, the water will be at the same height at both ends. So, on our very uneven earth floor, the tube allowed them to mark the same height all round the room.

Apart from the joy of having a level floor, it's useful because our cantina was previously as short at 2.5m in places. If in future we want to make this official living space, it needs to meet the regulation height of 2.7m. I'm keen to keep the space as flexible as possible, so the boys have had to dig. Luckily, the ancient foundations were only made of rubble and earth, so after they got through the modern cement with the pneumatic drill, the going was easier.

A nice surprise for our first day back at work - the sink finally arrived! And it's gorgeous! Apart from Paypal holding onto my cash for a week and slowing things down, I'm pleased with the Ebay sink-buying experience. Now we're just holding out for taps and a shower, which should arrive in a couple of days. If these all go well, I'll march ahead and get the u-bend (which don't seem to be u-shaped in the modern world, instead, it looks rather sleek), and see about a plug.

In my enthusiasm for a minimal sink and minimal, wall-fitted taps, I didn't think of how the plug would work. Plugs in shops don't seem to have chains anymore. Most seem to be popped up using a lever at the back of the taps, but our tap maker clearly didn't think this was necessary. Will have to do a bit of web research and see what else is out there!

Meanwhile Roscoe has taken an interest in the bedroom. By "an interest" I mean, he's vetoing my ideas. If it seems early to be planning bedroom layout, it's because we need to decide fairly soon where we want lights and light switches.

Given that the room is fairly large (about 5 x 3 m) I had hoped to have an open-plan wardrobe (to avoid the frustration of doors left open by a forgetful boyfriend), ideally screened off in its own dressing area with a muslin-type flat curtain (to avoid the stress of boyfriend's mess being visible). It was a perfect design for co-habitational bliss. Until Roscoe said flat "no" to muslin curtains (no matter how stylishly done). His suggestion is rice paper sliding doors, such as the Iki model offered by www.urushi.it. Seems a bit oriental for an Italian casa d'epoca. May have to think on this for a while.

Any ideas, please post below!

End of week 5: half way to done?

Week 5 has been notably short due to Ferragosto on Wednesday (tomorrow). Since the start of August, all of Italy has been gradually grinding to a halt, and today is the last day anyone is allowed to do anything useful. Concenzo would have continued drilling, bless him, except that he didn’t want to disturb the peace.

The builders are taking the minimum holiday of Wednesday-Friday, and are coming back on Monday. Our friends have reacted with shock. “You’ve got builders in during August?! How’d you swing that?” It feels great that we can press on when we thought we’d be twiddling our thumbs. That said, the electrician and the plumber are going to be needed soon, and they certainly aren’t giving up their 2 week holiday!

So what shall we do with ourselves for our enforced pause? Given that furniture shops are shut for the break, Roscoe is granted a reprieve from shopping. We're off camping in the mountains instead, to enjoy our new region.

The short break gives us a nice pause to think about where we’ve got so far. We had hoped to be half-way through the works in our fifth week. But we hadn’t considered all the cement floors to be drilled off and rebuilt at the right height. How annoying that it’s set us back a good couple of weeks!

On a positive note, the boys have finished that job now, and almost all the “demolition” part of the job is done. (We’ve still got to cut some steps into the basement, but that’s it – I hope!) The “construction” phase began today with the new waste pipe being laid to the drain. It’s nice to see building rather than just knocking down.

Still loads to do though! I feel quite overwhelmed.

Our secret room and other adventures

As we reach the end of week 4, Ferragosto (Italy's summer holiday, in theory not starting until 15th August, i.e. next Wednesday) affects the project more and more. First of all it was the sink, which we couldn't have delivered until September/October (and I eventually ordered off Ebay). Now, all the builders merchants are closing for the holidays, and the electrician and the plumber don't want to know. Our own trusty builders are only taking next Wednesday to Friday off, but even they can't keep working if they need more materials.

With this in mind, the boys spent most of today shovelling an impressively large consignment of sand. At the same time, they wanted to dig up the cantina (basement) floor (yet another place that has had too much cement poured onto it). And where do we put sand if we can't use the cantina? Well, the next door house is a derelict ruin...

In any case, I got a bill from the Comune this week for taking up the pavement with our hoist. If we're already paying for pavement space, we may as well put our sand on it. We had asked the Comune a few weeks ago for permission to put up the hoist (we took our friend who's a friend of the mayor to smooth things along). When they said yes, I didn't realise there was a tax involved. The letter was of the “legalese” type. It took me a good 45 minutes to realise I hadn't done anything wrong. Then, the sums were interesting. Translated, it went something like this:

1 EUR per square metre per day

(We had requested 10m2 for 55 days.)

10m2 x 55 days = EUR 550

EUR 550 x 50% = EUR 275

EUR 275 x 50% = EUR 137.50

No explanation as to why the 50% discount, never mind why they had applied it twice. Not that I'm complaining. I've paid it already so the local vigili don't come and shout at us.

Yesterday the boys finally started (what I hope is) our last piece of demolition: the cantina floor. Before starting, they had to finish off the leftover sand that was sitting on it. They did this by cementing everything in sight. I decided not to question.

To my great disappointment, I wasn't there when they discovered our secret room! It's under the floor of our cantina, and could have been part of a stable or perhaps a wine storage room (as we're on a steep hill, it would still have been at road level rather than underground). They filled it in again before I had a chance to take a picture. But I guess that keeps it secret, eh!

Cost of works to date:

Previous total EUR 6,003

10 worker days EUR 1,300

Petrol for truck EUR 20

Sand EUR 35

Tubes etc. to make waste pipe EUR 154

Refund for lavamani sink which arrived broken - EUR 27

TOTAL EUR 7,485

Our first purchases!

To Roscoe’s relief, the shopping trips have yielded some results. To his disgust, what we’ve bought so far hasn’t come from Pescara or Rome where I dragged him to see bathrooms and kitchens, but in most cases, the comfort of our own internet connection!

By chance, we took a wrong turning and ended up at a bathroom shop where a chatty chap called Paolo explained that he had a cheap-ish loo-and-bidet set that are even smaller than the ones we were planning to order. They’re 47cm long, giving us a whole 6cm more room to squeeze into our “cosy” bathroom. Best of all, he had them in stock!

Paolo also told me about agevolazione fiscale, or tax incentives for those in historic centres that were damaged by earthquakes. Nevermind that I personally wasn’t around to lose out in the 1984 earthquake, I’m helping to put things right, so the state wants to help me. All this means I pay 10% sales tax on my loo and bidet rather than Italy’s normal 20%.

I tried this neat trick again with a washing machine which was on offer in the summer sales. Didn’t work. Turns out it’s only for rebuilding the house, not furnishing it. I guess loos must be considered structural...

Meanwhile Ebay wins again with some lovely (I hope) taps and a super-cheap mini sink for the downstairs cloakroom. None of it has arrived yet, so here’s hoping.

If I was impressed with all this bargain hunting, Concenzo the geometra was less so. He rolled his eyes at my confession of having ordered a washing machine. I guess it’s not the easiest thing to shift around while you plaster... Nonetheless, the lads helped me by manouvering it out of the car and carrying it all the way up to the roof terrace (lots of steps!). I would love to say I stood up for women’s equality in this moment, but I decided that looking helpless was more likely to get the job done.

On an unrelated note, Roscoe found a very small baby shrew (possibly) by the front door. It liked hiding inside his glove. Picture above for your enjoyment. I wouldn’t let him take it home, so it has probably fed a cat by now...

Our budget for the works so far:

Previous total EUR 5,354

Mini loo, bidet and loo seat EUR 220

Sink tap EUR 60

Wall tap x 2 EUR 83

"Lavamani" sink (45x35cm) EUR 27

Bosch washing machine EUR 259

TOTAL EUR 6,003

The great bathroom hunt!

A while back, Roscoe came up with a clever idea for our bathroom layout. The room is small (about 160cm x 210cm) but it will be our main bathroom (the second one being even smaller – 115cm x 200cm!). But, friends warned, Italians demand bidets. Waste of precious space if you ask me, but we don’t want to shoot ourselves in the foot (or annoy guests!).

Instead of re-opening an old window (which would cost a fair bit if you include the window), Roscoe’s idea is to use the 80cm-wide niche for our sink, lining it with mirrors. We’ll miss natural light, but this window would open at eye height on the dark lane running up the side of our house. Because of this, we couldn’t open it often, and we would have to get frosted glass, and we wouldn’t gain much light.

At our local arreda bagno (bathroom) shops, we began the hunt for Italy’s smallest loo! The 20cm x 50cm “motorcycle saddle” and the 30cm circle “magic mushroom” still make us laugh. Ok, maybe not Italy’s smallest loo! We soon managed to find a cheap simple loo and bidet set a little smaller than average (36cm x 53cm) from Laufen. Cost seems to offset time though – the shop threatens that Laufen are slow to deliver. (Very few bathroom shops, we find, store stock – they order from manufacturers. And now we’ve hit Italy’s holiday month, August, we have to wait.) I guess we’ll use the local bar’s loo for a while longer!

Encouraged by our find, we started asking how much sinks cost. Concenzo has asked us for the sink soon, so he can shape the niche to fit. We had in mind a modern square design, and, if possible, taps coming out of the wall rather than coming out of the sink.

After adding tax (20% in Italy), Simas’ lovely models came in at EUR 200. Eurolegno’s sharp design came to EUR 250. Roscoe fell for a semincasso or partially embedded design for EUR 180, but we couldn’t use the trendy wall taps with it. There are some lovely moulded glass sinks, but the prices are scary – around EUR 800. We started to think we’d have to give up on our idea and have a normal oval sink (which can be found for less than EUR 150).

On the offchance of finding more options, I had a look on www.kelkoo.it (price comparison site). Woo hoo! There were lots of sinks on Ebay. Including what could be our dream sink! It’s half the price of the shop models (EUR 115 including delivery). I’m wary of the risk, but it comes from an established seller with good feedback. If it’s not perfect, we can send it back for a refund. And, we don’t have to wait until after August for delivery!

If sink shopping goes well, I might buy my shower cubicle online too, having spotted one that costs EUR 125 in tempered glass (including insured delivery!). Shops quote over EUR 500 for the curved style, even if the doors are in plastic, so I think it’s worth the risk.

Our budget for the works so far:

Previous total EUR 5,219

Trip to Pescara bathroom shops EUR 20.00

Square bathroom sink EUR 115.00

TOTAL EUR 5,354

End of week 3 – busy, busy, busy!

ENEL finally decided to connect us (just inside their 15 day deadline). Thank goodness for the quiet now we don’t have to use the generator any more!

Our friendly carpenter came round, late as usual, to measure up for window frames. The inner frames are attached to the wall before all the other work is done. Then, after all the messy construction is finished, the beautiful new windows are attached. It was pretty urgent to get the inner frames put in, and he has agreed to have them for Tuesday of next week. If he does manage it, I’ll pay him in advance a third of his quote. I’m hoping this will encourage him to work quickly on the rest of the order!

We met Micky, an electrician who will quote for wiring the house. He reiterated my own thoughts – better to put in plenty of plug points now rather than missing them later when it could be expensive to add them. I had prepared a plan of the house with my own light/plug point suggestions, but I hadn’t realised that we also needed to think of TV points, satellite points, phone points and extractor fans. Although we don’t watch TV ourselves (frankly, Italian TV doesn’t justify the licence fee!), we may want to sell the house to Italians one day. Which means TV points not just in lounge and kitchen but also bedrooms!

The plumber who we asked to quote hasn’t come back with his preventivo (quotation), so, with some dread, I’ll go and get it from his shop. I’m hoping the quote isn’t too scary!

Our budget for the works so far:

Previous total EUR 3,541

Trip to Rome Ikea EUR 32.00

Labour EUR 1,300.00

Petrol for the generator & truck EUR 60.00

Sand for cement EUR 15.00

Internal door frames, cement, lintels etc. EUR 184.00

Terracotta crossbeams EUR 46.00

Hollow bricks and lintel EUR 11.00

TOTAL EUR 5,219

Plumbers, electricians and international transfers

Work continues apace with masters of every trade visiting this week. We’ve had an electrician, a carpenter, ENEL (the electricity provider), and we’re expecting the plumber shortly.

All this progress means I’ll need money in my Italian account and soon.

There are several currency transfer options and I’ve learnt the benefit of shopping around. I started with those suggested by www.moneysavingexpert.com. When I bought the house, I was in a hurry to secure the sale, so I chose the company that responded to my email fastest. To transfer the money for the works, I decided to ask more than one for a quote.

The trick is to open an account with each in advance – so you can get an instant quote. Sounds easy... until they ask for a lawyer-verified copy of your passport and a recent bill and goodness knows what else. Having just moved to the new area, I don’t have any bills at my address. And paying a lawyer to sign a copy of my passport would probably negate any benefit in using the transfer company over my own bank!

I scraped through the bureaucracy with a couple of the firms. Both gave keen service. Best of all, they matched each other’s quotes, getting me about EUR 300 more than the first offer. Nice one.

A fiery subject

The many unattractive options for heating your Italian home

For many years I have wanted to make an environmentally-kind house – not just double-glazing but photovoltaic cells, wind turbines, underground heat pumps, the works. This project has made me see that it’s not quite as easy as all that.

Apart from the fact that the house is intrinsically well-insulated (metre thick stone holds the heat in winter and keeps you cool in summer!), it’s 16th century structure doesn’t lend itself to our space-age ideas. For example, we’d love to put in efficient underfloor heating (which couple well with solar water heaters), but we don’t want to destroy our lovely tiles by lifting them for the process.

Most of all, our budget doesn’t suit our ideals! There’s plenty of sun here – at least in summer – but the cost of solar panels just wouldn’t pay itself back for over ten years. We may move in under 5 years.

We reluctantly decided to keep our project as modest as possible. There is no existing fireplace in the house (strange in an old house, but it was probably heated by a mobile stove). Keeping on the modest theme, I decided – against Roscoe’s wishes – that a fire would be a luxury and a hassle and radiators would be much more practical. Then just about everyone who saw the house or pictures of it said, “A fireplace/wood stove would be lovely...”

We’ve also been warned that gas is expensive while wood, woody pellets or Sansa are cheaper. (Italians have recommended Sansa on cost, but not on smell. I need to work out exactly what it is!)

My resolve is weakening.

Bewildered by the many options, I sat down to list them out.

It looks like we’d have to have gas boiler plus radiators as a back-up with whatever option we choose, making the cost of a secondary option off-putting. Nonetheless, I’m open to being charmed by other options. I suspect our weekend will include a trip to the fireplace shop.

...........................

PS We did, in fact, go to the fireplace shop, and didn't see anything that appeals. The fires/stoves that combine with water heating systems were all huge. An open fiire in the lounge would still be nice, but doesn't add any practicality. We'll leave it for now.

End of week 2: lots of changes

As we come to Friday beer-time again, I’m excited to see how much things have moved on. It’s wonderful to feel how the lounge and kitchen will be now the door cages are in place. Contrary to expectations, I like the closed-in-ness of the lounge – it now feels like we could fit a sofa without overlapping the door. I don’t feel that we’ve lost the airiness of the space, but I guess it’s early to say.

This week the workers have:

- Enlarged the two second floor doorframes including raising the lintels

- Put in the cages which will hold the sliding doors

- Drilled laboriously through solid rock walls to put in the electricity meter box (although ENEL still haven’t come to connect us) and the post box

- Cemented these in place

- Drilled off uneven (but very hard) cement that previous workmen put in our future study

- Scraped out the remnants of the walls we knocked down so the gaps in walls and floors are ready to be filled in

- Drilled off smooth plaster where we need to attach tiles in the kitchen

- Carted out a truckload of rubble

- Brought in a plumber to get a quote for central heating

- Knocked down the future bathroom floor (which was too high), ready to put in a new floor next week

Roscoe’s arms and ears are feeling how much drilling he’s done. It will be great to get the electricity connected so at least they won’t have the noise of the generator.

Next week may not be as good – there’s going to be a street demonstration of policemen and women so we have to remove the hoist. I hope it doesn’t set us back too much.

Our budget for the works so far:

Previous total EUR 2,147

Labour EUR 1,300

Petrol for the generator & truck EUR 53

Cement EUR 28

Bricks and fast-drying cement EUR 43

TOTAL EUR 3,571