In case I forget, the aim of the mad digging was not solely to 'do the garden', it was actually to 'plant' the LPG tank, and then finally the septic tank, the gardening was merely a sideshow, but a comment this week from my gardener seems to say that work hasn't advanced much since I left, perhaps they are all off enjoying the festa della Republica (Republic Day).
As I said it wasn't just the garden on my last trip, briefly I also squeezed in: a meeting with painter #2, again, very entertaining, as Alberto was my interpreter (and he doesn't speak any English), good job I always carry my notepad and pencil. Anyway, we seemed to come to a conclusion, and given the size of the previous quote (preventivo), I changed the spec for this guy, no fancy paint effects, just cream walls throughout, I agreed with Mrs J if we want fancy we can do it in a few years at our leisure, when the coffers have filled up again. So I hope this guy didn't get too merry on the festa as he is supposed to be starting this week, and he needs to do a few things as he in turn is holding up the plumber (ie he needs to paint before the radiators are hung).
I spent an awful lot of time sitting on the floor, and staring at the ceiling, thinking about what to do with the kitchen, and finally came to a conclusion that Ikea was our best bet!! Whilst it seems like sacrilege to spoil all of our tuscan features with MDF, it really is going to be the safest bet, as my original idea of the traditional built kitchen just would not be good enough, it boils down to the fact that modern kitchen units are made of 15mm thick panels, and our hand made kitchen would have 110mm brick uprights, thus loosing 95mm of storage space for every 'unit', and given that we haven't got a lot of space to start with, that's it, QED. Its funny, for such a global company you would think prices should be the same, especially across the euro-zone, oh no. They vary greatly, with Italy actually being slightly better than say Austria or Slovakia, funnily enough the cheapest place to buy Ikea at the moment is UK, but I really draw the line in transporting 2 tonne of their boxes around Europe, I mean, its a long way to go back when you need that extra screw (that's always missing).
Couldn't bring myself to do any real work in the garden as I was hiring some labour, but I did try out my newly repaired chain saw and chop down a dead cherry tree that was dangerously close to our neighbours back wall. Silly me, I thought that the chainsaw was supposed to do all the work, or perhaps it was the fact the temp was well into the 30's, but by the time the monster had been felled, branches stripped, and the trunk cut into bite sized pieces, I was creased, and had to go and cool off in the shade of the house. When I had enough strength to move the cut bits, even though I was wearing regulation steel boots I managed to drop the biggest bit, not on my toe (that would have been ok), but on my unprotected shin, enabling me to see stars even when the sun was shining, ouch! (I still have a very nice bruise some 10 days later).
Last word on the interior of the house, all the tiling is done, and looks great, especially the small en-suite on the top floor. The electrician is almost done, with all of the main wiring and sockets installed (we do have a small issue that they are not all as per drawing, but a flea in Alberto's ear solved that), and as you can see we wanted the traditional, surface mounted, twisted-pair connections for the ceiling lamps (actually its the only way to have a good looking installation on beam/terracotta ceilings). And finally even though the septic tank is not in, Chiasserini's boys are getting on with re-pointing the front & side of the house, and silly me, the price was high, as they will touch-up the front, but do the side 100%. buona festa
By now, you must have a superb kitchen that's perfectly built, from the roof down to the ceiling. Looking back, you did quite a big job with the digging, chain sawing, and building. Given the weather there in Tuscany, what kind of roof did you install for kitchen and for the rest of the house?
Posted by: Brendan Gertner | May 19, 2011 at 08:56 PM