Since the website shows the most recent posts first, it has our story in the reverse order. The list below shows the posts in the order they were written. Once you open one post, you can use the Next button to get to the following post.
If you’d like a quick overview of the project, look at the Avventura Timeline.
July 2016
How Our Big Italian Adventure Began - “Wow, the Euro’s really weak. If ever there was a good time to buy a house in Italy, now would be it,” said my husband, Ed, completely out of the blue one morning as he was reading the news on his iPad. And so began our Big Italian Adventure. Within a month, Ed was on a plane to Italy in search of a house. Over a two week period he saw a total of 39 ...
Target Region: Le Marche - During the spring of 2015, when we got geared up on our house search, we identified a list of 91 potential houses. These were selected from hundreds online, based on our initial "wish list" of must-have/nice-to-have features. From this list, on my exploratory trip in May 2015, I saw 39 houses. These were in four regions -- Marche, Abruzzo, Umbria, Tuscany -- and involved 9 real estate agents Based on the trip, I formed two ...
Le Marche? - Blank stares. That's what we get when we tell people the area we're looking at in Italy. Essentially, no one has heard of Le Marche or really knows where it is. Even my online Italian teachers were hard-pressed to tell me anything about it. So, let me fill you in. The first three questions everyone has are, "Where is it?", "Why does it have a strange name?" -- in English, it's often translated as The ...
House Hunting in Le Marche – Day 1 - There's a good reason the region of Le Marche is not overrun by tourists and expats (at least not to the extent that Tuscany and Umbria are): it's not near anything and there are no major cities here. The biggest city is the region's capital, Ancona, and that's not on anyone's bucket list of places to go in Italy. There's an airport in Ancona which you can fly into if you are coming from elsewhere ...
House Hunting in Le Marche – Day 2 - We had only five properties to see on Day 2, but one of them was about an hour away from the others, so it was still going to be a full day of house hunting. Casa Duetto First we saw the close in houses, starting with Casa Duetto, a small compound of two buildings and a pool on 9.3 acres, with awesome views of snow-capped mountains. The smaller building, a 70 sq. meter cottage, was ...
House Hunting in Le Marche – Day 3 - There were a couple of houses we were interested in that were listed by another agent, Richard, so on Day 3 we went to see them. La Perla Segreta (The Secret Pearl) One of the nice features of this house was that it was walking distance to the town of Mogliani, while still being very private. It was a good-sized house, with five bedrooms and five baths and a pool. It also had 80 olive ...
An Italian “Negotiation” - After we had seen the Casa Ideale property a second time, we felt that it was our top choice, though in our talks with Kevin and in our heads we were still considering the house near Pergola (Casa Col di Luce). We loved that house and property. Our concern there was purely location: could we get integrated at all in the local life from that location? We asked the seller's agent to "sell" us on ...
Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is - OK, we chose a property and have a preliminary deal. Now, soon, we need to have enough euros to pay for it. That's making all of this more real. And a bit scary. We need to liquidate some assets and convert the dollars to euros. The Good News As Anne has mentioned, one of the major factors driving us to act now on the Italy adventure now was the USD/EUR exchange rate. From the high ...
Let’s Play Hide and Go Seek, Italian Style - It's not as easy to identify potential houses in Italy as it is here in the US. We have a "multiple listing service" or MLS, where essentially all properties for sale are in one big database. It doesn't matter who the selling agent is. If it's on the market, it in the MLS. And from that, on Zillow, Trulia, realtor.com, etc. This makes it easy for a buyer. You just access this data and see ...
A First Pass at a Design - One of the things we were looking for in a house was an open floor plan on the ground floor. It's not that easy to find. On my first exploratory trip in 2015, I looked at 39 houses, and thought 5 had some potential overall. Only one of these had an open plan. I think there are three reasons it's hard to find this feature. First, in virtually all of the older, restored farmhouses, which ...
Getting There on a Design - Earlier this week we received two proposed designs for a 190 square meter (about 2000 square foot) two story house. (All these numbers are as quoted in Italy: gross size including the exterior walls.). There were elements of both designs that we liked. Note: in all of this, we were constrained by the 190 square meter limit. The amount of space we could build is based on the size of the original building, now a ...
A Design Ready for an “Opinion” - This has been a busy week working on the floor plans, and we've made a lot of progress toward having a design we like and that can be submitted to the local government for approval. Monday morning we received two options for designs at our desired size of 190m2. These were based on the original concept plan at 160m2 and our general design direction. We wanted some room sizes and placements adjusted. Wednesday morning the ...
Entering the Italian Legal System - To move the whole process along, so we can get to construction as soon as possible, we've started on two paths that will converge with a preliminary written purchase agreement. Path 1 is the design process. It got off to a quick start and we've developed a plan we like within about a week from the end of our trip. Path 2 is the writing of the agreement and all the background research that needs ...August 2016
The Legal Formalities - Once we had a verbal agreement to buy the property, I started to read about the purchase process. I found articles online written by fellow foreigners who had been through the process, real estate and advisory firms, and lawyers. Unsurprisingly, they all say to use a lawyer to manage the process. What's surprising is that they'd even need to say it, but apparently, since a lawyer isn't required by law, some people try to save ...
To Be or Not To Be: The Residency Conundrum - When you look at the taxes on a property purchase, you immediately notice that a big variable is your residency status. If you are an Italian resident (and it's your "first home", apparently meaning you have no others nearby), you are taxed at significantly reduced rates on purchase and construction costs. (I estimated we might be talking about €30,000 in our case.) (I don't have an official source on this, but for these purposes it ...
Good and Maybe - We awoke this morning to an email from Kevin, titled, In his typical, get-the-news-across style, "POSITIVE Opinion Colmurano Technical Office, Proceed with VARIANCE." The email confirmed that the geometra, Jimmy Stefoni, had met with Verdicchio Saverio, il tecnico comunale di Colmurano. Jimmy had received the good news that our design could be considered a variance on the previously-approved plan, not a whole new plan. This should speed up the approval process dramatically; in fact, the ...
Codice Fiscale - To be able to buy the property, both Anne and I need to have an Italian tax code number. The approval process seems suspiciously simple. Surprisingly, there is no official form that needs to be submitted in triplicate, personally hand-carried to be stamped by officials in four different offices, each of which is open just a few mornings a week, and accompanied by a video of your oldest child's high school graduation. In fact, there ...
The Preliminary Contract - We have been working on two paths towards signing a preliminary purchase agreement. The first, working toward getting legal approval to build, has been moving steady since we started about a month ago. The second, getting a draft agreement, has been moving a bit more slowly, as the lawyer has been busy, but we received a draft of the contract today. Status of the Design Approval About two weeks ago, we received the good news ...
An Experiment: Frasassi - To fill in between posts about the house, I thought I'd try an exercise. Write about places to see in Le Marche, with rules being I can only do research using Italian-language articles, and I'm going to look up as few words as possible. Le Grotte di Frasassi Le Grotte di Frasassi, or the Caves of Frasassi, seem to be a good place to start. In north-central Marche, about 66km (40 miles) northwest of Colmurano ...
Amatrice - After the destructive earthquake that leveled Amatrice and the surrounding area this week, we've been asked many times if the quake was near our property. Well, it depends on what you'd call "near." Amatrice (indicated by the pin) is about 100 km south and a little west of Colmurano (indicated by the star), but the quake was felt throughout Marche. Kevin said his house, near San Ginesio, "rocked several times during that night," but sustained ...September 2016
La Medievalia a San Ginesio - I may have found a way to get our son Jack to visit us in Italy. The hilltop town of San Ginesio, about 25 minutes from our property, holds a 10-day festival, La Medievalia, in early August. It commemorates the 1377 victory of the Sanginesine over the attacking forces from the town of Fermo. The festival is built around a competition, il palio, between the four parts of town. They challenge each other in medieval ...
Project Update: Timing, Residency, and Taxes - We've spent most of the last 6-7 weeks waiting for the formal permission to build. We had to wait out August because most of Italy, including the planning "department" of Colmurano, which is really just one guy, is off work. Then the earthquake naturally delayed routine building projects, as many structures needed to be inspected for damage. Our formal application was submitted on September 9. It is a surprisingly short document, only 8 pages with ...October 2016
Permesso di Costruire - We have received our formal Permesso (approval for demolition and rebuilding of a larger building). It's been three months since we agreed to buy the property and about a month since the complete request for the Permesso was submitted to the comune planning office. Now, with approval in hand, I will wire the deposit to the seller. The plan is then for me to go to Italy in two weeks for the atto (closing). We ...
Apostille - Since Anne is not going with me to sign the purchase agreement for the property, I need to have a power of attorney, or procura speciale. Giovanna sent me the proper documents, in both Italian and English. She said to have Anne sign them and get them notarized. Then she said I also need to get an apostille for each document. A what? I thought at first this must be an Italian term and that ...
Contract Signing Trip - Kevin and I had a Skype call this morning to iron out a few details of my upcoming trip. The main purpose of the trip is to sign the final documents and to get the property transferred into our names. He also wanted to just recap the project budget. We started with a basic schedule. I plan to depart Chicago on the evening of Sunday, October 23. Rather than flying to Rome and driving 3 ...
A Final — I Think — Post About Residency - It looks like the residency question has sorted itself out, just a few days before a decision had to be made. Remember, the big reason to consider becoming a formal Italian resident is financial: we can save 7-9% of the purchase price when a resident, or 30,000-40,000€. But it makes us liable for Italian taxes on both income and assets. Financially, it's probably more or less a wash on income tax. The rates in the ...
Why You Don’t Use Your Bank for Foreign Exchange - To prepare for my trip, I just exchanged some dollars for euros at my local bank. While we own euros in one of our investment accounts, I needed cash and there was no easy way to actually get cash out of that account. I figured I'd get a bad deal, but it was worse than I expected. On a day where the mid-market rate for euros was in the 1.105 range, I had to pay ...November 2016
Shaken, Not Stirred - I have a lot of things to write about my week in Italy, but I think I'll start with the earthquakes. Earthquake Activity This Week I arrived Monday afternoon and went to Urbisaglia where I stayed in a small, older hotel in the village center until Friday morning. It's located about where the blue circle is on the map of the quakes that's on the right of this page. Wednesday evening about 7:10 pm I ...
On My Way to Buy the Ruin - For this trip, I decided to trying flying into Ancona. It requires a connection somewhere, this time Munich, so instead of arriving in Rome in the morning, arrival is late afternoon in Ancona. Good call. I avoided Rome Fiumicino airport and its confusing set-up. Ancona airport reminds me of Nantucket or Asheville. You go down the stairs off the small plane, walk about 100 feet, pick up your bags, and leave. (I had entered Europe ...
Positioning the House - We don't formally own the land yet, but I start my first day on the property, aiming to position the house and the other features on the property. Kevin and I met the geometra, the builder, and the current land owner. Right now, there is only a farm track that leads down the hill to the land and the ruin, so we were in Kevin's four-wheel-drive car. (Even after our access road is built, I ...
Seeing Some Other Houses and Meeting a Great Resource - Kevin wanted me to see a couple of houses where he'd managed the building and reconstruction . The primary goal was to focus on the windows, doors, ceiling beams, and flooring, since those are some of the items we will need to choose early in the process. The first house offered a lot of stimulation to know what we don't want. It was very contemporary inside, which makes it in keeping with modern Italian, but ...
The Millionaire Neighbors - One other thing we did on the first day was to complete a critical task that I'd been told was handled a month or two before. According to Italian law, if you want to buy land in an agricultural area -- and our property is surrounded by it -- you need to give the neighboring land owners the opportunity to buy the land first. So before we can close, we need signatures from the two ...
Planning Meeting with Kevin - Wednesday morning I sat down with Kevin in his office in San Ginesio to discuss a range of issues related to construction. Our key topic was going through the budget he sent last week. It feels more bare-boned than I'd like. I'm not sure how we'd know if something we wanted to do was in the budget or not. How can we do a "change order?" Kevin wants to get a construction contract signed, but ...
Closing Day? - The closing was scheduled for Wednesday afternoon, 4pm. Because of some delays caused both by some tardy information from our attorney relating to the final payment due and the last minute work we had to do on the budgets, the wire transfers weren't put in until Monday morning. Our financial guy Doug checked with the bank who was handling our euro account and said we should be all set. The money should be in the ...
Windows and Doors - A big decision we need to make fairly soon is our choice of windows and doors. Anne and I had discussed the general look we wanted, which is, as you'd expect, Italian farmhouse. But how about the specifics? And the prices? (Windows and doors is the largest item in the budget, beyond basic construction.) Kevin and I went to see the millwork supplier. Here's what I learned. I'll try to explain with pictures and words. ...
Opening a Bank Account and Writing Checks - With Giovanna's (essential) help, I opened an account at the Banca Marche, in the San Ginesio branch. (Which branch turns out to have an interesting implication.) I gave them my passport and my Codice Fiscale. After signing a stack of documents and having the banker stamp them all with a rubber stamp, I had an an account, an ATM card, and access to Internet banking. One thing I learned here is that Italians don't seem ...
Getting Close to the Closing - On Thursday morning, I found out that the bank transfers had come through. In fact, as I looked at the paperwork, I figured they had in fact happened the day before, before the closing. So we should have been able to finish yesterday evening. No matter. Giovanna was able to get the notaio, the translator, and the seller for a 6pm Friday meeting at his office in Macerata. The only difficulty was in getting to ...
Closing: Short and Sweet - Friday, a little after 6. Everyone present who needs to be. We had done the oral reading of the documents on Wednesday, so we were here just to pass around money and sign the contracts. The contracts are in both English and Italian. My translator and my attorney agree that they are the same. The seller, the translator, and I have to sign each page of three copies of the contacts and of the statement ...
Happy Hour - That's what it's called, in Italian. But it's its own version of our happy hour, a better one, I think. Sit down at a bar in the pre-dinner hours, say 6-8. Order a drink and they also bring a plate of rather fancy hors d'oeurves, some potato chips, and some peanuts. Order another drink and they give you a refill on the food, too. You almost don't need dinner. And it's affordable. My mixed drink ...
Prepare for Departure - The day before my return home was spent in Falconara Marittima, the town on the beach just north of Ancona, where the airport is. I'd planned to go to a sagra and to visit some furniture and home goods stores, but the big earthquake that morning changed my plans. I didn't do much besides watch earthquake news on TV and have lunch and dinner. I ended up having both at the same restaurant, Il Paradiso, ...
The Trip Home - At dinner last night, still trying to avoid a refueling charge from Hertz, I get my 20 changed for smaller bills. Then on the way to the airport, I'll have another go at the pump. Flight is at 6. Airport only about 15 minutes away, plus gas up time. Even though I know the airport is small, I figure I should arrive by 4:30 or so. Lufthansa makes you check any bag over 8kg, so ...
Getting on the Road - Today's email from Kevin was a request for approval to get started on building the access road. The property sits about a kilometer off Strada Provinciale 129, the road between Colmurano and Urbisaglia. Right now, a rough road that turns into a gravel path as it approaches our property is the connection to the SP129. It's too steep and rough to get equipment and materials to our site. So step one in construction is to ...
Advice about the Construction Contract - Giovanna and I had a Skype call this morning to discuss the construction contract. I had sent her Kevin's draft and all the relevant materials I had: the floor plan, the site plan, and the budget. In Kevin's draft, it referred to a Directory of Works, but I wasn't sure just what that means in Italy, Was there more than what we had received? Whatever the practice is in Italy, I was going to require ...
Progress on the Road - We just gave approval to start improving the road a couple of days ago, but they've already made good progress. Kevin sent some pictures of the road after some rough grading. I think they give a good feel for the terrain and "country" feel to the access to the property and the property itself. The backgrounds give an idea of the views of hills in the foreground and mountains in the distance. The first five ...
Lavanderia e Locale Tecnico - In the original rough floor plan, we had a laundry and utility room adjoining the stairway on the ground floor. This left a nice-sized closet underneath the stairs. Kevin asked the geometra to do a more precise layout of the laundry/utility to include the needed utilities and mechanicals. Besides the water heater, these include some of the elements related to the underfloor heating and the renewable energy system. The first layout he drew included all ...
Excavation Begins - The earthmoving equipment is doing its job. Let's get an update and look at some pictures. Kevin reports: "The road is MUCH improved in terms of grade, width, and overall ease of transit. Various vehicles have had no problem getting to the site." Now that there is easier access to the site, work has begun excavating for the base of the foundation. A lot of earth needs to be moved, since the plot is on ...
An Important Detail - We still don't have the final permission to construct the house, as the approval process has been lengthened by the October earthquakes. But we've still been able to work on the road and start excavation. I'll let Kevin explain where we stand: The only 'issue' at the moment is that the town offices continue to delay release of the permission to construct which was due in our hands [two weeks ago]. This is due to ...December 2016
Don’t Dive Too Deep - At first, Kevin had thought that the pool design and execution would be done in a late phase, when we're working on landscaping. As he and I talked about it and the contractor weighed in, it became clear that it makes a lot more sense to deal with the pool in the first stage of construction. We'll have the excavating equipment on site, the house won't be there to make access difficult, and the concrete ...
Getting On the Air - One important "must have" is a good, fast internet connection. A cable connection or even a DSL connection over a phone line isn't possible, since the wires don't seem to be accessible from our property. So we'll need to rely on some over-the-air service, either satellite or ground-based. From what I hear, Marche has pretty good coverage provided by a group of companies, one company per province. The company that handles our area, Macerata, is ...
Wiring for Wireless - Once we have the house connected to the Internet, we need to get a good wireless signal throughout the house. My plan is to use a router connected to the modem by a cable. The router will be in the office and have wireless capability so we can connect laptops, phones, iPads, etc. My concern is that because of the thick concrete construction, the wireless signal from this router won't cover the whole house. So ...
A Little Light on the Subject - In the design, only two spaces didn't have a window: the laundry/utility/pantry and the stairway. No problem with the first one; we wouldn't want to give up the wall space in include a window. We can use it more efficiently. The stairway is different. We didn't want that to be dark in a house that otherwise should be full of light. Beyond the lack of a window, I thought the design was for the stairway ...
Looking Up from the Bottom - We just settled on the depth of the pool a few days ago, and now they are digging. We got some great pictures today showing the excavation, with our geometra, Jimmy, at the bottom indicating the different strata in the soil.
Heating and Cooling - I'm writing this post now mostly so can show this cool diagram -- which I don't completely understand. It shows the plan for the underfloor heating. The different groups of pipes are shown by the colors. They come together in a ground floor zone and a top floor zone which can be controlled separately. Cooling the house will be done by a progression: Open the windows. Use the ceiling fans in the bedrooms. Use the ...
The Hole Truth - So far, the work on the foundation has been moving along at a rapid clip. They started foundation digging less than a week ago, and today we received pictures of the start of drilling for the foundation pilings. Notice in particular the photo showing the size of the piling holes relative to the man in the picture. Kevin says that a man could get in the hole with elbows extended. My apologies for many of ...
Lighting It Up - When I was in Marche a few weeks ago, I asked Kevin about the electrical plan. I had assumed the architect or geometra would handle this and we'd comment. (The architect and geometra have overlapping roles. The architect has more formal training and certification, and seems to handle the big picture elements of the design. The geometra handles the details, plus acts as a surveyor and project manager.) He told me that I ought to ...
Piling On - Coming quickly on the heels of the digging of the holes for the pilings, today we received pictures of the pilings being poured and the rebar set. The pilings are between 5.5m and 6.5m deep (18 ft to 21 ft). You can click on the photos to enlarge.
Strong as Bull - Kevin sent along the technical drawings for the pilings, foundation, and framework of the house. Some of it is Greek to me, but its reassuring about the strength of the construction. I can see that the construction is solid. The supporting columns seem to be 30cm x 30cm (12 in x 12 in). There are sixteen of these, even for this 205mt2 (2200 ft2 house. Plus, the beams supporting the floors are 55cm x 30cm ...
Preparing the Pool Bottom - Today's photos continue with the placement of the steel framework for the pool. You can click to enlarge.
Casa Avventura - We've been using "Casa Ideale" as the working name for our house. It's the name Kevin used when he was marketing the property and the house concept. We hope the house will turn out to be "Ideal", but we know getting it built and moving in will be an adventure, so I'm going to use "Casa Avventura" as our working name from now on.
Progress on the Pool and Foundation - The weather continues to hold in Le Marche. They are making good progress on both the pool and the house foundation. The house foundation is using an IGLU system to reduce moisture infiltration. Here are all the photos from today's work. You can click to enlarge them.
Building Our Igloo - Apparently, when houses with stone or concrete walls are built on a slab, you can have problems with moisture from the earth being sucked up into the walls. This can cause mold and peeling paint. Fortunately, there is a fairly simple solution to this. Modeled after a system used by the Romans, you provide an air space under the slab and vents in the walls to let the moisture escape. There are a number of ...
Finishing the Foundation - It looks like another beautiful day in Le Marche. Today's photos show the concrete being poured on top of the IGLU system and the steel and then the concrete being smoothed and the foundation finished. Here's one shot showing the beautiful weather, the crane that distributes the concrete and one section of the foundation — the master bedroom — being smoothed. All of the pictures are below. You can click to enlarge them.
Marciapiede - When we were thinking about the exterior of the house, Anne noted that many houses we have seen look stark, because there are no plantings along the foundation. She said she wanted to have some plants near the base of the walls, including some rosemary and lavender. I asked Kevin about this. He said that traditional construction in Marche has a marciapiede, a sidewalk, surrounding the house. This is done primarily for practical reasons, as ...
Forming the Pool - Kevin sent along a picture of the workers at lunch: First lunch in the new dining room. (Notice the thickness of the finished slab. Those IGLUs are buried in there, with only the moisture outlet pipes visible.) The other photos today are of the starting of the concrete forms for the pool. The yellow panels are put inside the wood frame to keep the concrete from sticking to the form. You can click to enlarge.
A Midnight Swim - We only got one photo today, but it's a good one. Our construction crew, working on the pool at night, to get the exterior of the pools forms in place.
Walls for the Pool - They finished building the forms for the pool. Today's small photo set shows them at work pouring the concrete into the forms to make the pool walls. Kevin also reported that the Water company was on the site, making preparations to get the water supply pipes in place. The work will go on until Monday, when the holiday break begins. It lasts until January 7, so about 18 days. Given all the work that's gone ...
Putting the Fun in Functional - There are a few nice touches we'd like to add to the outside of the house, some functional, others just for fun. Wood Storage Since we're going to have a fireplace in the main room, we need a place to store firewood. Since I know from experience that if the wood isn't conveniently located, it doesn't get used, I want to have a wood storage area next to the house. The plan is to have ...
Getting Stoned - Houses in Le Marche are, as far as I know, either made of stone or concrete. (In new construction, there is the need to meet the earthquake requirements. Only older houses would have actual stone construction.) Exterior Walls The exterior of these concrete houses is finished one of two ways: with stone or with what is called "rendering", which covers the exterior surface with a mixture of sand and cement. The rendering is often then ...
Portone - In the original design, the front door, or portone, was planned to be a single solid door. We thought that this might make the entry hall too dark, so we decided to add an arch window over the door. (Having a solid arched door is expensive, so I'd guess an arched door with glass at the top would be very expensive.) As we looked for examples to help us design this window, nearly all the ...
Finding Your Niche - A nice design element you find in older houses and buildings is the wall niches. Called nicchia (plural nicchie) in Italian, they are often used to display a statue or another interesting object. We had seen these in other houses and felt they would be a nice thing to include in our house, but to a more utilitarian purpose. Because of the reinforced concrete framework of the house, the exterior walls are 40cm (16 inches) ...
Porte - Even a smaller house has a lot of doors (porte, singular porta). I count 17 in Casa Avventura. (I visited a window supplier during my last trip, so these decisions are based on what I learned then.) Exterior Doors We have five exterior doors, plus the portone (front door): three sets of French doors, a kitchen door, and a door to the upstairs terrace. Question one was to decide if we wanted full-length glass or ...
Door Details - Beyond the major design decisions about the doors are a couple of details. Door Screens In general, it seems that Italians don't use screens. It's a nice, clean look without them, but it lets the bugs in. For the windows, we found an option to let us have the open, clean look and have screens. They will have built-in screens that roll down from the top frame when you want to use them. Otherwise, it's ...January 2017
Finestre - While the house will have 17 doors, 5 exterior and 12 interior, there are only 11 windows (le finestre, singular la finestra). That's because the French doors are doing double duty as windows. (I saw some examples of windows during my last trip.) Window Design Of the 11 windows, 9 will be double windows that open in the middle. The other two are the kitchen window, which has three panels, and the stairway window, which ...
Redoing the Bathrooms - Last week, Kevin took the proactive step to bring the bathroom designer, Angelo, into the process. The architect had done preliminary bathroom planimetrie (floorplans), but we need to finalize the layouts so the plumbing work can proceed. (The toilet placement is the issue that needs to be decided now,. The others can be tweaked later, though as you'll see I think we've got it solved now.) The preliminary layouts we had received before seemed to ...
Design Changes and Costs - As we've been planning the specific layout of the house, we've made some additions and changes, such as some exterior features, like a water trough, a wider sidewalk around the house (marciapiede), an interior stone wall, added electrical and network, a window in the stairway, and some wall niches (nicchie). Here's Kevin's summary, with pictures of some examples of the additions. Of course, there is some added cost for these items. Kevin presented the following ...
Special Carpentry - One thing that has been TBD in the budget so far and not included at all, even as an estimate, is the special carpentry for the hall closet doors and the nicchie. Now, we have an estimate for this work. My first reaction was that the costs seemed high, but Kevin reassured me that the carpenter was very good — the only one he works with these days after trying others — and that the ...
Watering It Down - They've been trucking water to the site so far, but we need to get a direct water connection to allow construction to continue, so Kevin has been working with the local utility company. Today, he gave us an update. It's pure Kevin: In mid-December we conducted an on-site assessment with the water company - TENNACOLA. Just before Christmas we received an estimate from them. The estimate, which I attach to give you a chuckle (it ...
Project Timing: Starting 2017 - We feel like we've made excellent progress on the building project in the last six weeks of 2016. Kevin sent us a timing plan for the rest of the work, roughly showing activities by month. It stretches the project out until February 2018 — which was the completion date he proposed in October. Looking at the plan, it feels conservative. There are few concurrent activities, maybe because one contractor and his team are doing much ...
Enter Mother Nature - Soon after I published the previous post about project timing, Marche got hit hard, first by a major snowstorm and them by a series of fairly strong earthquakes. Snow fell over a number of days in mid-January, piling up as high as two meters (6.5 ft) in some villages. (Kevin said there was less in our area, but over 4 feet.) Then, on January 18, there was a series of four earthquakes in the magnitude ...February 2017
Finalizing the Construction Contract - While we settled on a project budget in October and construction was started in mid-November, we haven't as yet finalized and signed the (primary) construction contract with the builder, a company owned by Brinza Ionut Bogdan who employs our contractor Francisc, or the contract with the geometra, Jimmy. A key reason for having delayed the signing is my desire to have a clear definition of just what we'll get for each budget item. Here in ...
Mud - Finally, the snow at our building site has melted, due to warmer temperatures and some rain. But work on the site has yet to recommence in earnest. The problem now is mud. Take a building site, where the basic earthmoving has started, and add snowmelt and rain and you get one big mess. Apparently, the mud is worse than our contractor, Francisc, expected. He had a big truck come to the site to deliver some ...
Speeding? - Today, the mailman brought a registered letter from Italy. Against my better judgement — we've been burned in the past when Anne was served in a lawsuit this way — I signed for it. I figured it had something to do with the house. Wrong. It was a notice of a traffic violation. A quite tardy notice, since the date of the violation was last July 5, over 7 months ago. A side of the ...
Back to Work - After 3 weeks of holiday break and over 4 weeks of weather conditions that prevented work at the site, Francisc and his team got back at it. They had some of the rebar columns they had built off-site delivered and they prepared to attach them to the existing rebar. Here are three photos. Notice the cloudy weather, a dramatic contrast from the beautiful sunny weather in December.
Movin’ On Up - The title and content of today's update come straight from Kevin. Some photos from this morning. You'll start seeing some real progress from this point on. Things will MOVE. And then later: More progress. Structural engineer onsite too, checking and directing. Ciao. Here are the photos.
Italian Stonehenge - Finally a sunny day in Le Marche as work continues apace on the ground floor columns. Yesterday they started erecting the steel rebar frameworks of the columns and began building the forms around these frameworks for the concrete to be poured. Today saw this project nearing completion. We got some good pictures today, and one in particular caught my eye. It's a closeup of the base of the steel rebar framework of one of the ...
Pouring a Little Concrete - We got just a few pictures today of them starting to pour the concrete inside the forms for the ground floor columns. It's great to see that the sunny weather continues after a long cloudy, snowy spell.
Revealing the Columns - On another gorgeous February day in Le Marche, they began removing the concrete forms from the columns. They had poured the concrete last week and let it set for three days. They also showed us some of the building materials they recovered from the ruin, which we hope to use in the new house. The views across the valley today are excellent, and you can meet our geometra Jimmy. Here are all the photos:
Transfer Problems - Last week, Kevin asked me to make payments to the geometra Jimmy and the contractor Francisc. They have both been doing a lot of work in advance of payment as we waited to get the final construction contracts signed. Kevin sent me the bank details for the transfers and it all seemed very straightforward. The only tricky piece is getting the correct SWIFT/BIC codes for the receiving bank and the IBAN code, which determines the ...
Chopping Some Wood - Besides the dozen or so olive trees on the property, there are two fruit trees we want to save, one fig and a double-trunk cherry. All of the trees need pruning, but the fig and cherry need it badly. Pippo, who acted as the agent for the previous property owners, is also a landscaper. Kevin said he'd be the guy to do some tree pruning. We'd asked to get it done in December, while the ...
A Little Confusion About the Doors - We made the major decisions about the windows and doors in December and received a cost estimate, but we hadn't yet received a detailed spec sheet and the contract. That came today. At first glance, all looked in order. Then I looked more closely at a drawing of the front of the house and noticed that the kitchen door was drawn as two panels, opening in the middle, rather than a single door hinged on ...
Beam Us Up - We received a small bit of nice news today about a quality step-up in the ceiling beams with no additional cost. Here's Kevin: We had in the plan standard 16cm x 16cm pine beams. In getting ready to order the beams Alessandra and I got to discussing if a bigger beam might look better (though the 16s are perfectly nice and regularly used). We discussed this with Francisc and he came back to us with ...
Redoing the Road - We're still waiting for water at the site, but now the trench for the water line has been dug. I hope this means the line can be completed and connected soon, so Francisc doesn't have to continue to truck in water. After all the rain and snow in January and the work on the trench, it was time to regrade the road and the driveway. It's great to see the structure of the house at ...
Sorting Out the Windows and Doors - In response to yesterday's questions about the windows and doors, Kevin came back from the supplier with a much improved specifications package. It addresses nearly all the open issues and includes attachments that show clearly what the windows, doors, and hardware will look like. It also includes a dimensioned drawing of a sample door. On the cost front, they removed the interior door that had been added to the budget by mistake, which lowered the ...
Final Sorting on the Windows and Doors - We had three questions after seeing yesterday's version of the windows and doors contract and spec sheet. They were about: Muntins and true divided lights Arched window above portone Upstairs terrace door The easy one to solve was the terrace door. The design is as expected: 3/4 glass, 1/4 wood. The muntins question raised some concern by Kevin, as I knew it would if the budget didn't already include true divided lights, rather just a ...
Some Easy Detective Work - While looking at some earlier pictures, I noticed a house in the background that I'd noticed before but never really thought about. Here it is in a picture from my October trip. It's right in the center of the view from the back of our house, almost straight to the west. I went to Google Earth and it was easy to identify. In fact, it popped up with a place name: Le Foglie Ridenti. Here's ...March 2017
Starting the Top Floor - Today's group of pictures shows the start of the construction of the top floor, what we call the "second" floor here in the US but is called the "first" floor in Italy. Step one was to erect the scaffolding around the perimeter of the house. In will support the concrete forms for the reinforced concrete beams and slabs that will be the floor base. The key element in this structure is what Kevin calls the ...
February Progress Report - Kevin asked the Director of Works, the geometra Jimmy, to make a report at the end of each month. Here's why this report is important: To make sure the director of works is frequently on site To ensure he is FORMALLY reporting back on a monthly basis that all works are proceeding as per contract and as per applicable building codes to ensure certification at end of project To make sure end-of-project certifications are a ...
Acting Cagey - They are continuing to build the support structure for the top floor. This involves building a framework of steel cages that will be encased in concrete. These cages are also linked to the interior chestnut beams, even though these beams are not integral to the structure. You want them linked so if the house moves because of an earthquake, the whole structure moves together. Plus, you don't want the beams falling, which might happen if ...
More Ground Floor Beams - We only received one picture today, but it's a nice one, showing the addition of the smaller cross-beams on top of the main beams. Once the plaster is added during internal finishing, these will give the ground floor a traditional look.
Ground Floor Ceiling, Top Floor Base - There has been a lot of progress during the past two days and we have the photos to prove it. The first step was to start adding the composite panels that form the underlay of the ceiling. They also provide thermal and acoustical insulation. The lower surface is a bit rough, giving some texture to the ceiling. (I thought the ceiling would be plastered, but apparently the paint goes right on this surface.) Here are ...
Ready to Pour the Top Floor Slab - Earlier this week they started putting the pieces in place to create the reinforced concrete slab that acts essentially as the ceiling of the ground floor and the floor of the top floor. This slab, which is 25cm (10in) thick, is supported at the edges and around the stairway cavity by 40cm (16in) thick beams, giving us confidence that the house can survive the earthquakes which will inevitably happen. A key component in the construction ...
Starting to Pour Top Floor Base - Following on the work from last week where they prepared the top floor base, they began to pour the concrete. The concrete crane is here to distribute the concrete. It gets a supply of concrete from a truck that sits behind it and pipes it up to the top floor. Before the concrete trucks arrived, a first step was to lay a grid of rebar on top of the Poroton blocks that was tied into ...
A Look Back - While searching for something else, I came across the first email Kevin sent that proposed that we build new rather than buy an existing house and improve it. This email came as we were trying to firm up what houses we'd see on our June 2016 trip. He eased into it … Thinking about this completely differently. Then he proposed his alternative. He was right that we were expecting that we'd have to do some ...
Starting to Shape the Land - Now that the base slab for the top floor is complete and the concrete is curing, they are starting to shape the soil to turn the hill the house is on into a series of terraces. My favorite view of the work is the one below, that shows the finished top floor base slab and the view, with the digging equipment up the hill from the front of the house. Looking at the ground floor ...
Continuing the Grading Near the House - Today they continued the work to move large amounts of soil from in front of the house to behind, to make some level terraces on the hill. Now they have the slope down from the parking area to the house softened and the area right in front of the house leveled. (My only concern is that in these pictures I don't see the two olive trees that were to frame the walkway down from the ...
Grading Behind the House and Near the Pool - A lot of progress has been made moving earth and reshaping the land around the house. Today that work continued, and some work was done further down the hill to level the ground around the pool. There is a start of a level area behind the house, where there will be a stone terrace by the master bedroom (foreground in photo below) and a portico (toward the background) and a small yard/garden. (Anne was concerned ...April 2017
Style Guides Direction for Designer: Kitchen, Bathrooms, Flooring - Kevin asked us to provide some guidance to the kitchen and bath designer, so he can prepare some plans and ideas for us to look at during our May trip. Here's how he described these "style guides": We are NOT looking for brands or model numbers or exact products. What we ARE looking for are images, with your voiceover, that give us a sense of the styles and looks you like and want to create ...
Working to Tame the Hillside Earth Movement, Terracing, and Back-Filling - Today, Kevin sent a long explanation of the "lay of the land" situation. Some of the major earth moving has been done, so he went to check out the status. After being on site, he decided we need to make some changes to the grading and terracing plans. Virtually all of what he says makes sense, so rather than rewrite it myself, I will more-or-less quote his email, but I'll add some comments and pictures. ...
Progress on Two Fronts Earth Moving Continues as Column Construction Begins - Work continues on the major project of moving earth, trucking in earth, and resculpting the hillside into terraces, and making the transitions between them as smooth an gentle as possible. It's not an easy task on a hillside like we have. I don't think any of us, including the geometra Jimmy, the contractor Francisc, or Kevin realized the actual steepness and the need to move so much earth. The original budget for buying and moving ...