Quasi finito!

January 19, 2008–We are down to the final weeks on the house–or maybe the final months! Chi sa? Work stopped on the house for the Christmas break and resumed on January 7th. Since then there has been rain almost daily which has presented a muddy situation! The workers don’t seem to be concerned and just lay down another stretch of cardboard or plastic to walk on!

On the wall going down the stairs to the piano terra there were three holes that we asked to be left. Dominico suggested we enlarge them a little so they could be used to put something on. This is what he ended up doing with the center hole. It is now a real “buca particulare” (distinctive hole).














Most of the windows and now the window sills have been installed. Most of the window sills are made of wood.















But in some of the windows downstairs they used old bricks to make the sills. Very rustic looking.















The bathroom downstairs has a wide window sill that is tiled and quite a distance from the actual window. We wondered what they would do about that and this is the finished look!
















Here is another window sill–this one is in our bathroom upstairs. Notice the authentic Italian marble imported all the way from Italy–oh wait, we are in Italy!!!!















Today when we arrived we were excited to see they were installing the shutters! We could see them working from the other side of the cemetery as we walked up the road. Larry had the biggest grin on his face and had the camera out as we rounded the corner! They are beautiful and make all the difference in the world in the appearance of the house! We had asked for shutters of aluminum because they are cheaper and easier to maintain. When they were delivered they were made of wood and so beautiful we wanted to keep them. When we mentioned that they were wood instead of aluminum, Claver told us they would look better on our house! We said, true, but they cost more and he said it didn’t matter we only had to pay what the preventivo said!


Installing the shutters.















The finished look!
















As a comparison, this is what the house looked like before the previous owners started restoring the outside walls and roof!














And what it looked like when they were finished!
















We also found the workers finishing up the inside stairs. Hopefully tomorrow we will be able to walk up them! Next week, if the weather stays dry long enough, they will put in the outside stairs–which will hopefully mean, no more falls for me!

















We were also please to see that they had started the final chimney on the roof! This will be for the pellet stove that we are using now and will move into our bedroom at our new old house. As far as Larry is concerned you can’t have too many pictures of the castle and you can’t have too many chimneys!
















They also delivered the monobloc fireplace! Claver has been stressing about how to make this work as they were unable to put the chimney exactly in the middle of the wall where we had hoped to put the fireplace. But, I didn’t want the fireplace off to one side. Between Claver and Larry they have figured out how to make it work. Today Claver told us he had been thinking of how to finish it (which was not part of the preventivo because they had forgotten to put it in so told us they would install it, but not finish it for free!) and showed us his idea–it was great! They will start working on that next week!
















Dominico also decided to add rocks above the archway on the kitchen side. I hate to brag–but, it looks beautiful!
















We have also arranged for the gas tank to be installed–well, we think so anyway! The construction company called to tell us some one would be coming to their office about the gas tank. When we went over there it was an actual company and he showed us which one would work and had us sign a contract! It was kind of funny and we probably should have looked around, but we are just happy to be done with one more obstacle to our moving in that we don’t care!

I also called the electric company and struggled through explaining that we needed service and that there was not a meter box there and that I wanted 4.5 watts (or something, don’t really know what it is for, but I know I want that number so we don’t blow a fuse all the time). She said something about 10 days and we hung up. The next day I thought maybe I should have someone call for me to see if I actually ordered service and not an air conditioner or something when the service man showed up at our house! That was so cool–and I did order 4.5 whatevers! (I just found out that it is KW that I ordered!)

We should be receiving a preventivo for the septic system soon. The construction company will be doing that so hopefully they will do it soon as that is the last obstacle to moving in!