Category: Blog

February visit

During this two week visit, we caught up with friends, pruned the wisteria and painted our external doors to match the new shutters. We had contacted Giovanni Tambellini for advice about painting the doors and he kindly ordered what we needed from his paint supplier.

Slightly surprisingly, the undercoat was an oil based gloss and the top coat was water based. We struggled with the wood filler he bought us so the garage and stable doors just got sanded and painted.

Everything got one or two coats of the undercoat. In the garage, we removed the broken window and painted the shabby shutter and window bars to match the stable.

Then all the doors got two topcoats of the of the water based paint. We’re very happy with the results.

Photovoltaics stalled

I chased Stefano about the progress with gaining Enel approval for the connection of the photovoltaics, but got no reply. We had been told they would be connected by the end of the year, but we’ve heard nothing.

Chasing up with Gino has revealed that the application has not been made yet which is infuriating. I had to sign and return a mandate and the application was finally made today. Apparently up to two months. Not holding my breath as Christmans holidays intervene.

Window bars installed

The work of the fabbro looks good. The new kitchen window has bars to match the existing one and the low windows in the living room have bars to prevent idiots from falling out. Still waiting for the security gate for the kitchen door.

Pool quote agreed

Yesterday we received the latest quotes from Michele and today we agreed to proceed with him on our swimming project. Michele confirmed a start date of mid-April to early May and indicated he may be able to start up to a month earlier.

Some details we clarified and/or changed

Addition of a hand rail like the one shown in the position marked in green. The fixings have to be outside the pool as the salt water will corrode any fixing in the water.

Addition of a simple shower in the position marked in red.

A pipe to drain the pool with an underground tank for dechlorination will be created as marked up in blue.

Addition of drainage channels in the positions shown in red. One to prevent water from the pool from washing away the side of the terrace below. The other to stop run-off from the terrace above flowing into the pool with it’s accopmanying earth, dust and leaves.

A trench will be needed to lay a new electric cable from the main supply in the house to the pool. Thankfully, the cost of the cabling and wiring up the pool is already part of the work we have have contracted the electrician to do.

A short trench from the pool to the gazebo so that we can have power and light there for Jesse’s bar.

Windows and kitchen door finally complete

We ordered our windows from Giovanni Tambellini, our local falegname, in November last year (well in advance of starting the work on the house). We ordered our kitchen door from him in May (only once we had permission to open the old arch).

The first of our windows and our kitchen door were installed mid July (when the external renovations at the rear of the house were complete). The last of our windows were installed at the end of August (when the external renovations at the front of the house were complete).

At the start of October all the cornici were ready. Each one made by hand as no two windows were exactly the same. Today, we finally heard from Giovanni that all the cornici were in place and received some pictures.

That’s a milestone for us and a year from start to finish.

Next mosquito screens, external shutters and some iron work.

Piano, piano.

Storm damage

Tuscany has been having a lot of rainfall and high winds. During the storms, one of the branches of the hazel tree was blown down into Francesco’s garden.

Dominic’s gardener, Abramo, will remove it and take a look at our diseased tree.

Apparently, Francesco and Maria Grazia are concerned about the size of the two pines and hope we can prune them. Top pruning is not good for pines, but we’ll see what Dominic’s tree surgeons say next year.