Too late for Tuscany?

On Days Like These

From reading my favourite bloggers, it seems that its officially a 'slow blog season', perhaps its due to the crazy weather we are having across Europe, or else I can blame the 'day job', and a hectic few days in Moscow last week, but I have finally succumbed to Mrs J's sustained pressure to write a new post.....

The movie buffs amongst you will recognise that today's blog takes it's title from the theme tune to the Italian Job (that's the classic 1960's version not the modern re-make), and I see the title sequence to be an allegory to our current situation, why? well you may recall that as the credits role, we see the driver of a fantastic car (a Lambo Miura), winding his way thro' some spectacular Italian scenery, and whilst his attention is distracted he is ambushed by a bunch of locals, driving a digger! If you can't quite remember, check it out out here watch clip.

And so it has been over that last few weeks at Chicken House, as what should have taken a few days, has now turned into a long-running saga, with seemingly no end in sight.  However, at last, Alberto's last set of photo's show some light at the end of the tunnel, with the terracing done, the LPG tank buried upto its neck, and the terrace walls all but completed, built from a pile of massive blocks of stone.  Since my last visit to Toscana, it has become apparent (at least for a stranieri-project), that the most important person in the project is not the architect, or the builder, but the translator, and our key expert on this job has just given birth to a beautiful bouncing baby girl!  So, for our not-so-regular interchanges with Alberto, we are reliant on Mrs J's Italian teacher.  Whilst this is less than perfect, I am trying to reconcile myself that Alberto (and Chiasserini) know exactly what they have to do, and whilst they seem unable to do any of the handful of jobs in parallel, completing the job will take just as long as it takes.  This is not a project management maxim, but whilst these last steps drag out, at least it allows the piggy-bank to fill back up again to pay for it all.

So, what are these last steps? as already stated, the terracing is done, and the walls, and the gas tank.  This means that as the digger retreats off site, that the septic tank can be fitted (allegedly it was supposed to have been done last week), that will then allow the boys to re-point the front and side of the house.  Inside the plumber couldn't get on, as he was waiting for the painter to paint the walls, but then the painter had to stain the beams first!.  Again, photo evidence that the painter is on-site, so we could assume that the plumber has been able to hang the radiators, and further, if the septic tank is installed, then all the loo's can be fitted and connected up too.  Hurrah.

This all means that we are planning our moving in trip, sometime mid-July, and have been out this weekend on a last minute spending spree, buying all the duplicate items such as kitchen utensils, that you need when you run two households, this of course is on top of the boxes and boxes of stuff we have been hoarding for years on the expectation of our first house.  So, despite the changeable weather, all is rosy, and as Charlie Croker might say 'we are the self preservation society'.  Ciao 

Long train runnin'

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

Ain't no stoppin' us now

I've been back home almost a week now from the craziest gardening weekend ever, and now there is nothing blocking the completion of Chicken House.

I pitched up at 9am on day 1 to find Matteo already well in to removing half of Tuscany by way of his mini-digger, so much for Alberto insisting that they wouldn't lift a finger without me being there.  I stopped the work for a second to check the facts, I was amazed the guy spoke some English, and equally surprised that he had removed a size-able amount of dirt without any direction, so out came my file of 3D drawings which he took to heart, folded up in his shorts and returned to digging, obviously happy in his work.  As I was taking a few minutes to go round the house to see the latest progress, then the builder turned up, 10 minutes more and a flat-bed truck squeezed up our little lane, with a nice green LPG tank on the back (in Italy its called GPL!), and then last but not least Alberto showed up, so within half an hour we had 8 guys, 2 trucks, a gas tank and a digger, the only person we didn't have and I was missing the most was VP (our translator).

To get the GPL truck up the lane, the even bigger truck taking away the spoil had to be backed into the road blocking the traffic, so the boys then set to to unload the tank.  The truck was conveniently equipped with its own hoist for this job, but that would have been too easy.  They decided to use Matt's digger, and struggled with a variety of ways to rig the slings around the tank, and the digger bucket.  I was busy taking pictures for posterity, but as the tank was lifted less than safely it did cross my mind that the pictures would come in handy for the accident inquest later.  Against the odds the tank was offloaded without injury, and was on its way up the garden towards it final resting place, trucks were re-positioned and the days main job could continue.

Alberto, Chiasserini and me then had a good 15min ding-dong about how the landscaping should (and should not) be done, the only tool in our joint vocabulary being a pencil & paper, eventually we came to a compromise that didn't entail Matteo digging for the next month, and wouldn't cost me a fortune in transporting soil around Toscana.  So we agreed on: 2 terraces not 3, level 1 to have a 1.2m retaining wall, level 2 to have a 1.4m wall (the maximum you can have in Tuscany without seismic reinforcing).  Instead of extending the base level right across the back of the house, including the back of the neighbours house, that only the 1.2m level would be site wide, this simple idea probably saving about a dozen truckloads.  The final point was how are we going to make the walls? 'with all the stone from the old barn' I said, 'not enough' retorted Alberto, 'how about to use big-stones? only 80euro per cubic metre' I left him to work out a scheme and a cost (preventivo).

The fun didn't end there, we had a meeting with Painter Man #2, I employed a gardener, designed a kitchen and chopped down a tree, but more of that later.

P.S. There is one major thing to report, the new stufa is fully installed in the living room, and I think it looks great. Ciao  

Painter man

The countdown ticker on the right side of the page is now showing 'days since completion', unfortunately this isn't true, as first the wet weather in Tuscany, and then a cold-bug (no it wasn't swine flu), I caught on a flight from Sweden, conspired to make us miss finishing the last chapter on Chicken-House in the right timescale.  So this week, we had 2 calls with Alberto, one on Monday to confirm the booking for the digger, and the second on Friday to apologise for not making it (I did get off my death bed long enough to send him an email mid-week), and to look at re-scheduling things.

So, what's happened this week? not a lot, as apparently the famous-floor is taking its time to dry out, it seems they apply science and actually measure it with a humidity meter.  As the weather has now taken a serious turn for the better, Alberto predicts that this Wednesday they can start to do some of the finishing off, starting with the final treatment of the floor, which is so dirty etc neither the plumber or the painter can get in to do stuff, as this treatment threatens to muck up their good efforts.

This wet floor thing hasn't stopped the electrician, and he is completely finished, although he bottled out fitting our suspended light systems in the kitchen & bathroom, as he didn't know how we wanted them to look! They have also finished the installation of the new corner stufa in the living room, and its associated new hearth stones, I would have loved to see a picture of that this weekend, that would have cheered me up a lot.

We were waiting two new quotes, one from Chiasserini for pointing the front and side of the house, we did have a fixed price on this ages ago but I threw it out of the contract as it was so so expensive, but now I realise that without tarting up the stonework it won't look finished, so I'm hoping that the final price will come back cheaper than before. We did get one more price, from the painter, which when Alberto read it out, I was really taken aback, I don't think the Sistine Chapel cost so much to decorate! unfortunately it needs doing, so it will have to go on the cash-flow forecast and we'll see how it can get paid, as the money pot is looking decidedly empty, and the continuing GB Pound vs Euro crash just makes things even worse.

What else are we doing? looking at beds, I think we are almost decided to buy new from a UK company using traditional methods  (see www.obc-uk.net) as they will also cut as a deal on shipping, and that kickstarted another idea, to ship over the last remaining item in UK (the big shower cubicle), for such a big/heavy item the transport cost isn't so bad, so I think I'll set these 2 things in motion next week sometime.  The last thing outstanding is the kitchen design, and with everything that's been happening I haven't gone back to my drawings, but I fear its looking increasingly difficult to make the traditional kitchen do everything that I (and particularly Mrs J) want out of the most important room in the house. Ciao  

 

 

On the Tiles

Alberto and I haven't had a chat since we last met at the house, as my every attempt to pin him down has failed, with even last night's long planned hook up thwarted by our interlocutor 'phoning in sick.  But I will give Alberto credit, he did send through latest photo's, and an update (a response to my written questions last Friday).  The pictures show some, but limited progress (I'll put that down to the photographer), with shots of all the landing cotto now complete, these have been done using the only remaining original tiles in the house.  Perhaps more significantly the tiling in the main bathroom has been completed, which for once makes the place look like a real home, and not the lovely wreck we once bought and are more used to seeing, it also makes the room seem smaller, if that's possible.  One last change is that our very own priest hole (the dark place under the stairs), has finally been bricked up, even though the builders said it was crazy, as it was somewhere to put the wife when she was unruly, Mrs J had a few things to say about that.

Our chat has now been postponed until Friday, and by then a few things will really be coming to the boil, we are within a week of finishing (allegedly), and I still don't think Chiasserini has deployed his machinery, as Tuscan weather is still not any better.  Also, I need to fix a date for my next trip to supervise the digger doing the landscaping, fitting in with not only the weather but my day job too.

In this recent quiet period, and with an end date looming, my thoughts have once again turned to fitting out the house.  As I said once before I thought the kitchen construction will need supervision, and so it was proved, not only does Alberto want me there, they also want the oven, dishwasher, fridge etc, 'so they can get the sizes right', silly me, I thought all white goods were built to standards these days.  Whilst we can live with a microwave and a kettle for some time, we can't do without a bed.  Mrs J and I have long been of the opinion that we should have cast iron beds for Chicken House, as not only do they look pretty, they also don't block out some of the expensive features we have built in (eg walls, floors etc).  Where we are in Central Europe cast iron for beds is not a big seller, with the natives preferring some overstuffed faux-leather sleigh bed type thing, and the nearest we have seen is a poor copy in IKEA.  So what to do? back to the trusty e-bay, in UK and also Italy, and then what? more crazy cross-continent driving? in desperation I mailed a UK supplier and they gave me a very good price for shipping, so although its against my religion to buy new, I think the logistics may just force my hand on this occasion, or else we will be getting up close and personal with the new cotto pretty soon.  Ciao 

Mamma Mia! Magalotti

We pulled up to the house, bathed in Good Fridays afternoon sunshine, ecstatic that we had actually caught the builders working, and not just 1 or 2 of them but a whole cohort of Chiasserini's men toiling away, on what is a holiday in most other parts of Europe.  We were early for our planned site meeting and keen to get updated with the developments as we hadn't heard from Alberto in 10 days.  As we rounded the corner of our neighbours house our hearts sunk, why did we have doors, when there should be windows??? When, how, why did this happen?, this isn't what we discussed, argued, chivvied about for so long with all and sundry.  As they say in football circles, I was gutted!

Unfortunately no time to dwell on that for the moment, we had (as usual) a carload to empty, this time the new Stufa, one big radiator and 4 very large rolls of loft insulation, time to press gang a few helping hands to save my aching back, and in double quick time the Stufa was sitting in pride of place amongst the builders detritus in the kitchen, and the rear suspension breathed a sigh of relief.  The troops then started to muster, first Chiasserini, followed by Alberto & Virna, Tizzi (the Plumber), and eventually, the man we were all talking about Magalotti (Carpenter). I must say that even though I was in full flow with the site meeting I was so pissed with him it took me more than 10 minutes to even say hello, and what Mrs J had to about it say made Alberto's eyes water.

The site meeting flowed well from room-to-room, admiring the work done in the 10 day communication blackout, such as:- second coat of plaster, ALL the floors down (and with 4 guys busily grouting them in), front & rear doors fitted, and also those doors we didn't want also fitted.  We did have a few sticking points along the way, most noticeably concerning the loft insulation, which I threatened to do myself, but I eventually capitulated as my back was killing me after the drive down, but making Chiasserini swear that he would do in a lot less than the 12 hours he had quoted for, I mean, get a life, 12 hours to fit 4 rolls of insulation, my Granny could do it quicker than that.

We also had a lengthy debate with the tiler (who was presently doing the floor), about how not to waste the precious tiles that were only just enough to do the job.  This would have been a doddle, if it wasn't for Alberto chipping in with seemingly random ideas to how to save tiles, do it this way and that, and generally making a nuisance of himself.  I even asked VP for the Italian for 'the customer is always right', to be told (by Alberto) that it didn't work like that in Tuscany, I should have known!

After all other points were finished, and Chiasserini & Tizzi had left, it was down to Magalotti, me and the doors.  And do you know what, apparently it was my fault, another thing I should have known, he misunderstood my instructions, therefore it was my fault QED, but........ he could rectify the error, for a very special price.  To put this discussion in context, we had just arrived after a very long drive, the site meeting had already taken 3 hours, my back was killing me, and we still had to go to Alberto's office to choose colour schemes. I really wasn't in the mood for Magalotti, also the things I wanted to say to him, I couldn't say through my lady translator, so I asked him to mail me his ideas and costs, and he went. 

Uff, all this writing about the doors has got me going again, but enough negativity, what about those floors? I know Tuscany is full of them, Umbria too, but these are ours, laid by our boys, and will be walked upon by our kids. Hurrah! 

Goin' Down Slow

Well, I spoke too soon in my last post, looks like we are going to need all of April just to complete the major building works. I must say that the builder did as good as his word, he upped the work by 100%, he even doubled the men on the job, from 1 to 2!  Alberto said that I had not to worry, that the plastering would all be done for my next visit, ie in 10 days! I said I could do the work in that time.  He tried a second time, it wouldn't cost me more as we were on a fixed price, what about schedule was my reply, silence.....

Even the weather has conspired against us, with rain in Toscana not allowing them to get the machines deployed for septic-tanking, other things not done as we hoped are ground-floor windows and doors fitted (builders don't want to damage them with plastering), stone repair to front door portico (don't want to damage them with bags of plaster) and so it goes on, it seems that not only is the plaster going down slow, but its holding up everything else too.  So, lets rejoice in what we have, and show 2 marvellous pics of that precious plaster, and the love with which it's being applied.

I priced up  materials to do the roof insulation myself, 41 euro per roll (100mm thick), and it should need 4 rolls exactly.  That's not the problem, this next trip we have to take the last remaining radiator and new corner stufa, where will I put 4 rolls of insulation at 1.2m long each in the car, could be a cosy trip. 

We even had some update from Alberto on the land next door that we are interested in buying (some day), it seems it will be soon, as it is under contract to a local farmer, and either the owner won't sell, or can't sell until this contract lapses, well that just mean Mrs J doesn't get her Kitchen extension just yet.

In the expectation that we are to be amazed with progress at Easter,  I have shelved the next telephone call, until we see it all first hand, I am still willing to be gobsmacked. Ciao  

 

 

 

Quantum of Success

Well I did it, but Alberto made me do it (send the letter to the builder that is), but in the end it wasn't nasty or even very pointed, just polite.  I might have guessed, as Alberto is a polite kind of guy.  Anyway it seems to have done the trick, with Alberto reporting that work has picked up a pace, and I even got an email reply from Mr C this pm, telling me that all was under control, and would be fine for my next visit (I paraphrase of course).

After getting his message I finally got round to accepting that work won't really be finished in 5 days time, as originally promised, so I've changed my countdown ticker (see top right of this page), to reflect the NEW deadline of end of April, a 1 month delay!!!  In fact, I think it will only overrun by 3 weeks max, as long as all the promised work at least gets started this week and the ground is dry enough to get the diggers in for the tank excavations.

Mr C and his boys have some time to make hay, as the next time we see him won't be until Easter weekend, and I was very suprised to see that Good Friday is a working day in Italy.  Hopefully by then it will be a matter of final snagging, and we can return within 2 weeks and move in. Tra poco

Home Thoughts From Abroad

It's been a while since I sat down to write, but I have got a good excuse, a few in fact.  Firstly, I was away last week, and then the planned Friday chat with Alberto was postponed until today, and lastly, I was holding out for some great new pictures to show how much had been done.  But, once again, we've been let down, so much so, that even Alberto suggested that I write a mail to the builder to get him to put more men on the job, er, excuse me, who controls the job day-to-day?, who speaks Italian like a native?, not me on both counts, so why am I being bad cop, especially as I just paid TWO builders invoices this month, and therefore have absolutely NO threats to offer.  Perhaps Tuscan builders are the same as builders the world over, once the majority of the job is done, they move onto the next work, I just hoped that they would be different, or at least the credit crunch would mean that they stayed to see it out.  Lets just hope its a blip, and that my nasty letter does the trick, well at least I hope its 'to the point', that's what I told Alberto to write and put my name to!

To stave off my depression that always hits just before our weekly call, I've been letting my mind wander to how it would be to make Chicken House a home, to wake up on a sunny Sunday morning, take a leisurely shower, eat breakfast on the terrace etc etc.  Although its hard if I look at the most recent lot of pictures, if I squint a bit, I think I can just about imagine it (even if it did snow again last week in Tuscany).  But in the middle of that 'home thought', it crossed my mind how to make breakfast? well not make it, I have it on good authority I make pretty good fry-ups, but on what to make it, and who is going to build it?, the kitchen, I mean.

We have already made our mind up we want a real Italian country Kitchen, which for me is great, its totally typical, and doesn't cost an arm or a leg, like the ones you see in glossy magazines, but given the shenanigans of late with the builder, when am I going to find time to spell it out what I want.  Don't get me wrong, I have done a zillion drawings, provided pictures from our Tuscan library, made mood-board paste ups, but I know it will come to nought if I don't stand there, and draw it out with a bit of chalk, and they say its only women that don't have spacial awareness. 

If you don't know what I'm rabbiting on about here is a pic of what we are after, and my main concern is, how do you fit the oven? As you can see the kitchen is made from brick/plaster, so if you want a built in oven, and you are not Fred Flinstone, what do you do? obviously I need to consult further on this, but one idea springs to mind, to buy the cheapest white MDF cooker-unit, and build the Kitchen around it, at least that way I'll be sure the oven won't give way the first time we do Eggs Benedict. 

But it wasn't all doom and gloom today, as Alberto tried his best to 'big-up' this weeks programme, ie: all plastering to be finished, ground-floor windows to be installed, septic tank (and LPG tank) to be installed, and...... floors to be started, beginning at the top of the house, now that has to be worth waiting for.  Fingers crossed.

It's Good News Week

I must admit, I dialled Alberto's number tonight, with a fear that not much had happened this week, and with only 2 questions on my list the ever lengthening tele-meetings would be over in 10 minutes.  But obviously as we hadn't spoken for nearly 2 weeks, absence make's the heart grow fonder, or however you can say that when applied to building renovation certainly took hold, as Alberto bombarded me with progress upon progress, and didn't pause for breath for nearly an hour.

Photo's of this weeks work hadn't arrived before our 6pm chat, hence my trepidation, but the first thing Alberto said was that the windows were in, a whole week before the deadline, even his post-script that there was a problem almost got lost in my exuberance to talk over what they looked like.  'Hadn't I got the pictures?' he asked 'no, when did you send them?' '10 minutes ago' came the reply, and I could again sense him grinning all the way from Toscana, another 10 minutes waiting and the email appeared, and I fumbled to unzip them immediately, with Mrs J egging me on.  I thought they looked great, and said so, and asked him to pass my compimenti to Alessandro (the carpenter).  All the windows were made, but those on the ground floor (the fake french-doors) hadn't been fitted due tothe issue of the cracked lintel on the Kitchen window, this was supposed to have been replaced, but Chiasserini was worried that taking out the damaged stone would cause more damage than good, so discussed with Alberto how to repair the stone using resin etc, so lets hope this little problem is fixed soon and Alessandro's chippies can be back soon to finish this first phase of the job. 

Alberto (or more accurately Andreas his assistant) sent 5 zip files, much more than usual, as they wanted to show me the details of all plumbing AND electrical installations, as starting next Monday the plasterers are back in action doing the first top coat.  So I can confirm that my doubts were misplaced, Andreas (the sparky) had indeed wired in both the cooker and the extractor, thus taking away one of my two questions.  So, I've got 2 days to mull over these pictures, firstly trying to work out what room they are, then to confirm to Alberto that all the switces, sockets and plumbing is in the right place.  A cursory look seems to confirm its pretty much there, but I think he's missed one socket in the kitchen, and I'm not generally impressed by the cables and pipes running at all angles, In UK installations should be straight lines, up/down, left/right, which means when you come to hang a picture you have a good idea that you are not going to hit a live wire etc, it looks like I am going to have to keep copies of all these pictures in perpetuity for whenever I need to do some DIY!!

Other news was that he had ordered the stone for the new hearth in the living room (for our new corner stufa), he had double checked the price of the new cotti (no savings to be had), and that could now be ordered too, which only left my last question, when & where will the Septic tank be fitted?  fitted by the end of March, as Chiasserini now wanted to crack-on and get the interior finished (a great idea in my books), and yes, Alberto had got the drift last time, he will install the tank somewhere away from any potential kitchen extension, I haven't been so happy in a long time, I guess the only thing that can surpass this weeks euphoria is when we see the floor tiles go down. Ciao