Utility

I was needing to tighten the fasteners on a piece of furniture on our terrace this morning and used this tool that I had brought with us from the US when we first moved here in 2006. I know Craftsman isn't what it used to be, but this tool has been a great all-purpose utility item and has been very durable.

I can use it whether I am changing a door lock or assembling an IKEA item. The selection of bits are durable and the ratchet feature is an arm saver. The variety of tools available here in Italy has improved over the years but I have not seen this type of this quality.

The Wall

Before...

When we first looked at our house here in Trivigno we imagined removing some of the plaster to expose the stone work we know lies below. We recently undertook this endeavor in our bedroom…in a 300 year old building this is never a simple project.

Valerie’s parents were here at Easter and my father-in-law and I planned to use some of this time to do this project. The walls of our house are up to 3 feet thick and I have access to the back side of our bedroom wall which looked to have stones in reasonable condition and uniformity. Neither of us are novices at do-it-yourself projects, however this presented some issues we both quickly realized would be more than we anticipated

On the left what we initially found.

  We started to remove some plaster and what was exposed looked to me like a problem; a jumble of mixed stones with an irregular plane that had been hidden by various layers of plaster. I was afraid we had opened a can of worms and had visions of potential structural issues. Fortunately our friend Tonino is a structural engineer who has worked on many projects in Trivigno. When I showed Tonino my concerns he assured me that our wall was nothing unusual and was structurally sound. Tonino also recommended that another friend of ours, Giuseppe who has worked on many houses in town, might be able to help with the work.

Giuseppe came by and gave us some insights on preparing the exposed stone to be re-pointed. We removed the layers of plaster, the various types of mortar used over the centuries, cleaned the rocks and filled in the gaps with a base mortar. In this process we also found some of the holes where wood beams had been placed to support the floor above and the remains of a former window opening that we turned into a niche.

The niche

When it came time for the detail work I had Giuseppe come and work with us to repoint the wall. Watching him do this stonework, which he has done for 20 years, was like watching an artist. He could “see” what the wall should look like with specific stones and made several suggestions that were incorporated into the final product.

The work in progress

Once the stone section was done we had to let it dry thoroughly. Valerie was in the US for a family wedding recently so I used this time to finish the project. I applied a sealer to the stone and mortar and again worked with Giuseppe to redo portions of the wall where the plaster was to remain. This requires a couple of very thin layers that must dry before the next one is applied.

Once the plastering was complete I set about to paint the entire room. Remember that this is an old building with walls of plaster over stone – there are no even or smooth surfaces. Two coats of paint later, a lot of cleaning, moving back the furniture and the house was ready for Valerie’s return.



The finished product

As with most projects on a house of this age, the time and effort to do this exceeded what I had expected but we are very pleased with the results.



House Hunters International

We received notice that the episode we filmed for HHI in June will be aired on HGTV on November, 04 at 10:00 PM Eastern. We have not seen this episode so the final product that all of America will see is still a mystery to us.

Unfortunately our friends in Trivigno will not be able to watch this as HGTV is not accessible from Italy. They'll have to wait until we receive our DVD copy.

Be sure to tune into HGTV on the 4th to see a glimpse of Trivigno and Basilicata.

Here is the HGTV link for when they have our episode scheduled.

If you want to learn more about Trivigno and Basilicata look at My Bella Basilicata.com.

Dish Rack 102

Why can’t you find these in the US?!

I wrote about kitchen dish drying cabinets back in September 2006 and it has been a popular search item on this blog over the years. We have always found these to be very practical and had them in both of our apartments in Ascoli Piceno.

Our house here in Trivigno does not have cabinets as our plans for the kitchen we eventually want is a work in progress. When we arrived we installed a functional kitchen to use the space we have within our budget. With our limited counter space we were longing for somewhere to dry dishes and IKEA came to the rescue. We found a rack that hangs on the wall that I have placed above the sink. The best part is that it folds up and is out of the way when not in use.

When we lived in Northern Virginia we never saw anything like this in the IKEA stores in that area. Why?!

We try to make most of our purchases at smaller local stores in and around Potenza but sometimes it can be difficult to locate what we need. I’m not a big-box store fan but I must admit that here IKEA has always been a good source for useful products at reasonable prices. However, IKEA for us means about an hour and a half drive to one of their newest stores in Salerno. Another incentive to buy local!

Essentials

Just before our return to Italy last October I had a birthday and my sister-in-law, Cara, gave me a pair of heavy work gloves. At the time I thought these were a bit unnecessary as I already had some cotton gloves. I had always used lighter cotton or leather gloves around our house in Corrales and only used heavy ones in my constant battle against tumbleweeds.

After starting to do some projects around our place I soon learned that Cara’s gift was very insightful. Working on a house that is three hundred years old with three-foot-thick stone and concrete walls requires two essential tools: heavy work gloves and eye protection.

Whether I am chipping away at some stone work, pulling debris from our stalla, hauling firewood for our heating or grinding rust off a piece of steel, then one or both of these are a basic safety requirement. Usually both.

So if you happen to be in the market for a unique house in an Italian hill town, be sure to put these two essentials on your shopping list.

Stall Diving

La Stalla

 We recently acquired a space next to our apartment that had been owned by our upstairs neighbor. This was in reality little more than transferring the ownership from him to us, not a bad deal for some added real estate. Suffice it to say that this space can increase our living area by about 60%...at some time in the future.

Our first view of la stalla

The new space we call la stalla as it had been a stall for animals. Not uncommon for older for homes at one time to have kept animals in a lower level of the house…the original central heating. There is a stone and wood trough for feeding, a stall gate and various animal implements. The problem is that this is all buried under decades of debris as Fabrizio had used this as a collection point for everything he didn’t want, but for some reason didn’t throw away. This includes hundreds of glass bottles and a lot of lumber.

My new hobby since we have taken procession of la stalla is “stall diving”. Originally there was not much more than a narrow path from the front door to the only window. Slowly I have hauled some trash up to the dumpsters in the piazza above us. There is an abundance of lumber and various wood crates, much of which has insect damage. The worst of this I am breaking down for our fireplace while I sort through the rest to see what may be salvageable for some future project.

I have found a few interesting items like old wood feed buckets, some wood harnesses, wood boxes, copper kettles, unique bottles, etc. I am developing quite a collection in our magazino. Some of this may be junk but for this suburban American they are unique and interesting.

Riciclare

I have hauled out bags, boxes, bags and more boxes of glass bottles and cardboard. Fortunately our town has an active recycling program and I arranged with the guys that do the pick-up to recently do a big load. I spent a morning hauling glass, cardboard, lots of metal and a couple tires up the stairs that lead from our house to the nearest location where they can get to with a motorized vehicle. The next day it was all gone, thankfully.

Some progress

 This will be a long term project as adding this area to our living space is a future project. However, it is something to keep me occupied on some of the current cold winter days.

Heating the Old Fashioned Way

Il Caminetto

The news this weekend has been about the severe winter weather across much of Europe, we had our first taste of winter in the mountains of Lucania last week. There was a week of temperatures at or just below freezing with two days when we had a small amount of snow. I enjoy snow…for a day, or at a distance. We had enough snow last year in Virginia (140cm) to hold us over for many years to come.

The cold weather has kept me busy hauling wood from our cantina to the house as our primary heating source is a caminetto. These are common in this area and are not much more than a small hole about 14” wide at floor level with a wide tile hearth. The fire is built at the opening, not back in the fireplace, and the smoke draws up the chimney while the heat radiates out. We supplement this with a stufa elettrica (electric heater) in the bedroom that has a timer so it is warm when we go to bed and get up in the morning.

Since our house has a southern exposure with large windows this set-up works well on sunny days. However, a couple cloudy and cold days in a row and we are huddled with Lucano under our wool blanket to ward off the chill.

My years of Scouting and fire building is getting regular practice and fortunately Valerie and I did enough camping and picnic grilling in New Mexico that she is no slacker at building and stocking the fire.

However, since winter doesn’t officially start until tomorrow, we may be looking at other heating alternative for next year.

Making a House a Home

Our house came with walls, floors, a toilet, bidet, shower pan and a bathroom sink…and a few bare light bulbs. Typical for a house in Italy. It is a slow process but our house is becoming a home piece by piece. Our budget is limited and we have ideas for our house that may require several years to bring to fruition but it is now a comfortable place.

We have a working kitchen, a table and I recently helped the delivery man carry a large wood cabinet for dishes down several narrow streets to our house. This is such an improvement that we recently had our first guests for Sunday pranzo.

Our kitchen before and now.

I have installed a shower box so that so that we aren’t washing the entire room each time we take a shower. We have a washing machine so we don’t have to make trips to Potenza to wash clothes.

Our bedroom is actually starting to look like one. Since I installed shelves we can now hang clothes in our closet and we have night stands to accent our bed. No more sorting through piles of clothes on the floor everyday for something to wear.

Friends have generously given us a couch which we carried down those narrow streets to the house. I am becoming very familiar with this activity; perhaps a second calling for me in the delivery business. We still have bare walls, a few bare light bulbs and many ideas of what we want to do. This is a process to change a house into a home and this is just the beginning.

Piano, piano…

Beyond Camping

Bed delivered!

While Valerie was in Italy recently getting some work done on our place she also made arrangements for things to happen once she returned. This week our bed was delivered, with the help of our friend Tonino. This is no simple feat in a medieval hill town.

Our place in Italy is now beyond the camping stages and what we consider habitable. We have water and electric service. We have a functional bathroom and kitchen. We have a place to sleep. It may not be 4 star accommodations…but it is ours.

There is still a car load of items at our friends’ house in Roma to be moved down on our next trip but we now have a place to go to in Italy where we can keep our toothbrush and not have to lug a bunch a suitcases. I am itching to be there to unpack, explore and enjoy Lucanella.

Doors and windows...

Completed

Valerie returned from her visit to Italy last week and she had pretty good success with the projects that spurred the trip. Thanks again to friends in Lucanella. As I mentioned previously doing things in Italy involves knowing the right people and doing things on a face to face basis.

Our friend Tonino is the one who originally helped us to find the house and he has been an immense help since in getting a few things accomplished so we can stay there. After Valerie’s winter trip he set up to have the doors made and also arranged for the masons to come and do some prep work for the openings. When a building is several hundred years old and made out of stone nothing involved is “standardized”.

Valerie arrived to watch the muratore perform his stone magic, pulling out some old wood lintels that showed deterioration and putting in new marble thresholds. They also carted off all off the debris and threw in some added wall patch work. After the masons then came the falegname with the new doors and shutters. Both of these were local craftsmen working with their sons performing top quality work.

And it all cost less than the initial estimates! For those who have dealt with contractors in any country know that this is a rarity.

Doors and windows

Italy is a country where who you know makes a big difference. It is a land of face to face relationships; not Facebook, Twitter or some other social network. It is not to say that these aren’t also popular but if you want to get things done, advance a career or develop a friendship then it is accomplished based on face to face contact.

This has affected us with our house purchase in both negative and positive ways. If not for face to face contact and our knowledge of the language (mainly Valerie) then we would never have found the house we now own. This has also allowed us to arrange for some work on the house while we live in Virginia. Through a series of emails and some phone calls we were able to arrange to have a couple of old doors and windows replaced and their openings repaired.

This requires a carpenter to make the doors and windows as “standard size” is not the norm, some stone and marble work is also required at the openings. We are fortunate to have a friend in Lucanella who has been making these arrangements for us. We have read the stories and heard expatriates talk about how their building projects turned into money pits and nothing but endless frustrations, fortunately for us the work we require is minimal compared to many other projects others have taken on.

A few weeks ago Valerie saw a posting about an airfare sale and she did a quick search and found a very good price for a direct flight from Dulles to Rome. Booked! She left last week and arrived in Lucanella a few days ago. She has been checking on the door and window project and will also be making arrangements so that for our next trip we can stay in our own house. A few things need to be done before that is more than a “camping” experience but she has jumped at the task.

Doors, windows and a few other items and our place in Italy will be a home.

No Kitchen Provided

Why would I want someone else's?

I was discussing our house purchase with a family member and when I started to talk about the kitchen we would have to install a puzzled look came over his face.

“You mean you will remodel the kitchen once you move in?”
“No we have to install a kitchen as there is none.”

What you get when you buy a house in Italy, and most of Europe, is different than what most Americans are accustomed to. Our house comes without a kitchen, light fixtures or closets. It does have bathroom fixtures. This is standard. The kitchen area has tiles walls but no sink, no cabinets, no appliances. The lighting is provided by bare light bulbs. We will need to procure armoires in which to hang our clothes.

A few years ago we were discussing the light fixture issue with a couple where he was Swiss and she was American. The Swiss’ comment on the lack of light fixtures was “Why would I want someone else’s light fixtures?” The concept makes a bit more sense once you look at it that way.

The house is habitable as it is, we just need the utilities turned on and to put in a bed and a basic kitchen. There are some changes we would like to make, like moving the kitchen location, but those will probably be future endeavors. We saw a lot of properties that need a LOT more work…more on that later.

In the City...or in the Country?

Valerie and Maria have spent the last week in Lucanella cleaning up the house since it has sat empty for more than a year. They have been taking measurements and talking to sources for work we might want done, all the while enjoying the hospitality of the people in our “new” home town.

During our three years in Italy and on previous trips we had the opportunity to live both in cities and in the countryside of Italy. We love aspects of both of these options, though neither one would be perfect. For us we want to be able to have daily interaction with Italians and not have to drive somewhere everyday to do that…a drawback of country living. We also want to be able to sleep at night without the late night activities of the city going on outside our bedroom window. How do you avoid both?

You probably can’t, but we found small towns offer the best of both scenarios – people to talk to, stores for daily needs yet without the bustle of a long Italian summer season. When looking at houses in different areas these were some of the specific things we looked for about the area and location, besides what the house itself had to offer.

We think we have found that in Lucanella.

A small habitable house in a small town that happens to have spectacular views. The town has a supermercato, an alimentari, a forno, a frutta verdura, a macelleria, post office and three bars. I’m sure there are some other shops hidden behind some unmarked doors that we have not yet seen. The location is also an easy driving distance to a provincial capital with all the additional services that provides.

There will be plenty of time to explore more…

Our little piece of Italy

Who wouldn’t love to own a place in Italy? 

We certainly would. Now we do!

Before we moved to Italy in 2006 we would peruse the web to see what the real estate market was like in various parts of Italy. It was always hard to get a good feel for what a place was really like based on the few photos and a limited description available on the internet. Once we arrived in the Rome area for our first summer we quickly realized that market area was well out of our reach.

Once we settled into Ascoli Piceno and I started to get involved in the local housing market we began to keep an eye and ear open to what the real estate market was like in that area. I had the opportunity to see several properties of various designs and degrees of ruin. In Italy it is not uncommon for a property that an American would consider condemned to be sold for a hefty price. These are either lovingly rebuilt to their former glory or torn down and replaced with a new structure. In Italy it is easier to build a house where one already exists than to build on a vacant plot of land.

We also looked at properties in Abruzzo and last winter when we relocated to Campania we looked at several areas in Campania and Basilicata. IN our last weeks in Italy before returning to the US in May we found a place that met all of our requirements and was affordable. The day before we flew back to Cleveland we had an oral agreement with the owner to become owners of a house in Basilicata.

Since our return to the US the seller has had to clear up the legal ownership of the house as several of her family members recently passed away and the property was never officially passed from one owner to the next. This was cleared up and last Friday Valerie and her friend Maria flew to Rome. Today Valerie met with the Notaio and we now own a place in Italy.

Mind you this is not a grand place, but a small apartment in a stone building that is situated in the medieval section of a small hill town. We will call the town "Lucanella", which is close to the ancestral area of Valerie’s Italian roots and in the region we find most captivating – Basilicata.

There will be more posts on why, where and what next but for now Valerie and I will raise a glass of Aglianico together, though on different continents, alla nostra casa in Italia.