23. Sorry! Easter in November

Updated: Nov 6

For those of you who have read this blog, I am sorry for the lack of updates. I have no real excuses asides from getting back to a normal life again after a year to forget.

“L'anno orribile!”

To catch up, I promise to write a few posts that will cover the last 6 to 8 months in quick succession, including one about the frustrations of trying to get a bank loan.

Anyways, things have certainly moved on. At Easter we tried our best to reclaim some sort of control over part of the garden. Truthfully, because of all the neglect, part of it, one could hardly call a garden as it is really overgrown and almost impenetrable. However, I was reasonably happy with the outcome of another area. It’s only hitting home now, how large the property is. At 3800 - 4000m2, it will take a while to get under control. It was the first time we had visited since the previous summer, due to my illness.

Before: Basically an overgrown mess!

After: Better, but still a long way to go!

Work had started up again after the efforts of both Diego and my new accountant Andrea. He managed to rescue some of the superbonus money, but it has been a huge hit to the budget. Lots of adjustments are necessary and savings will have to be made where we can. However, I was determined that the qualities planned were to be upheld.

I have worked hard to find the materials at good prices, without compromising on the design. Tiles are difficult to replace at a later date, so I bit the bullet and sent out for offers from three online companies. These had the best prices I could find at the time. Two were close, the third 10% more. I wrote again to the two companies again putting them up against one another, but without disclosing what the other had offered. I told them I needed their best price to decide. I managed to get a further 10% discount and settled with the best price. I was happy as I had secured a big part of the finishes for the house.

Shortly before our visit in the Easter holidays, the floor heating was installed and the floor screed was laid. Also here Diego managed to negotiate a good price and my contractor Stefano accepted a lower mark up for his assistance.

There had to be a period when the floor needed time to dry out, including turning on the heating to shock the floor before it could be tiled. This happened after our visit. However, now we can really see the contours of a finished house. The heating was tested using a temporary boiler. The heat exchanger was to be installed later, when the immediate area around the house was to be completed.

We had a great week and enjoyed both the work and visiting the various towns in the spring sunshine.