We flew to Italy on 9th February and returned on 15th. The intention was to meet with Gino and builders (KR and Michele) and to start packing up the house for a March start to the works.
We stayed in Dominic’s little cottage which was very cold and hard to heat. It’s a lovely little cottage for a couple with everything you need.
We met with Gino on Friday 10th to discuss the quotes and the heating solution. We pretty much settled on using the heat pumps for both heating and cooling. Recent changes to the bonus schemes mean we cannot take advantage of them (no longer tradeable). We discussed adding insulation to the roof and obtaining quotes for the photovoltaics (which should drop in price now that the bonus schemes are becoming more restricted).
On Monday we met with Michele and told him he was one of two builders still in the running. We wanted to know when he could start and the likely duration. He’s not available till November and would not be able to finish house and pool until the following May or June. He knew we were planning on a March start, but he’s booked up and only has 2 or 3 people to put on the job. We told him we’d let him know in about a week. He assured us that he was fine with whatever decision we made and would still see us as friends.
On Tuesday, we met with Klodian from KR and Gino. Klodian confirmed he could start early March and could meet with us on 27th February to move furniture. The pool could be ready by May or June. KR looks like our best choice as we really want to get on with things now. He also has up to 10 men to put on the job.
We also agreed with Klodian and Gino that it no longer makes sense to build false walls now that we have settled on a heating solution without radiators.
We did a certain amount of packing things away, but there’s still a fair bit to do.
On the social side, we went to visit Fran and Nick on Saturday. We also took Dominic and his sister out to eat at La Cecca.
As soon as we got home, Martin booked another trip to Italy for (hopefully) kicking off the work.