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
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