Designing a House | Our Big Italian Adventure

Ground Floor Bathroom Vanity We Decide to Go For Something a Little Unique

Ed Building a House, Designing a House February 20, 2018March 31, 2018Bathroom, Design details 0 Comment

For the ground floor bathroom, Anne wants to use an old piece of furniture as the vanity, rather than having something built in. We had tried looking for such a piece on our July trip, but found that older furniture is not that easy to buy in Italy. There isn’t the number of antiques stores or markets that there is here.

We could keep looking on future trips, or we might be able to have something built just for us. Anne sent along some ideas to Johnny, the carpenter who is building our shelving and some custom doors, so we could explore what we might be able to get.

Johnny sent us three ideas.

Beech Cabinet

This would be a very simple, mostly open, cabinet made of new wood that the sink would sit on top of. Neither Anne nor I liked this one.

Something Using Some Old Oak

old oak slabs — Very Old Oak Boards
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Johnny has found some very old oak planks. I say “something” because there are two ways to use them: build a cabinet like the one above, or have just “floating” wooden shelves attached to the wall, with the sink on the top one.

We both liked the wood, but neither of the executions.

Reworking an Old Walnut Piece

vintage walnut cabinet — Vintage Walnut Piece Found by Johnny

This is really what we’ve been looking for from the beginning. Johnny found this old cabinet, probably French, he thinks, and proposed a way to rework it into a base unit with a framed mirror above. The sink would be slightly sunken into the top to get it to the right height.

This all looked very good, except for the use of the top decorative piece as the top of the mirror. It seemed to be a bit too heavy.

Drawing of Existing Walnut Cabinet
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Drawing of Reworked Walnut Cabinet
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This one is our choice for the vanity.

However, we don’t want to walk away completely from either the decorative top or the old oak boards. We may find a place for the top, and we’re going to talk to Johnny about building a desk or a table out of the oak planks.

Update:

Here’s how it turned out. We think Johnny did a great job. What do you think?

Source:
All images: Copyright © Our Big Italian Adventure

Reactions to the Landscape Plan Overall, Not Too Bad

Ed Building a House, Designing a House February 18, 2018Design details, Land, Landscape 0 Comment

We sent Paula’s long-awaited landscape plan off to Kevin for consultation with Francisc and for their comments.

Overall, we got a not-unexpected “yes, but …” reply.

It starts like this:

Overall, it looks nice. The key is that on this first pass you got something you can work with. Now, we need to get it to where it can be executed starting in a 3-4 weeks.

Now on to the specifics:

On the stairs directly down from the parking to the stairs, there was no mincing of words.

Nobody this end — me, Francisc, others — thinks it’s a good idea to execute a staircase directly from the front door to the parking lot … it’s too steep and the costs of doing it (in anchored, reinforced cement) could be prohibitive.

This one point Anne and I won’t budge on. We’ll just hope the costs are manageable.

On the other access paths in front of the house.

I would be careful to not “junk up” the front of the house with two many stairs, trails, paths … ONE would be fine and that lets the house and planned plantings speak for themselves.

Here we agree.

On the idea of a “guard wall” at the bottom on the driveway, his thoughts are clear.

No additional walls are required at the driveway/parking lot … I don’t understand why that’s been suggested.

This one is trickier for us. We do have a concern abour cars going over the edge, based on our past visits, but the situation may have changed. We’re going to leave this guard wall out of the plan, but think about putting some large planters there to define the edge better than the wooden rail fence will on its own.

Moving to the back of the house, he had only one major concern.

I would not put a pergola on the back of the house — this would essentially defeat a key design element of the house — all those big french doors that bring light into the house. If the pergola is covered in vines or plants, or even if it’s there unencumbered, it will block sunlight into the house … if you need shade (and you will) head under the portico or onto the 1st floor terrace. Note that with the quality of insulation in the walls, door/window glass and roof — WAY BEYOND a normal house — the idea of too much heat coming in is a non issue … plus, a pergola will require permissions … plus, it’s something you could always add LATER, so see if you really need it before spending money on it and blocking light.

He’s convinced us here. No pergola for now.

Now it’s time for the clincher and he’s spot on here.

Paula needs take the lead on this and specify exactly what is needed. I can help, certainly, but she needs to lead (and she needs to do that LITERALLY as soon as you say you like the plan as is)

My job is to back to Paula and get her to step up and take charge.

An Update

Paula did go to the site and explain the plan to all involved: Kevin, Francisc, Pippo and his son Marco, who will do the landscape installation. While the relationship between Paula and Kevin and Francisc can be quite testy, she seemed to hit it off with Pippo and Marco, which apparently helped to lighten the mood.

Next is for Francisc to plan and cost the stairs and for Paula to get to work on the planting plan.

Source:
Image: Copyright © Our Big Italian Adventure

Finally Some Progress on the Landscape Plan Stairs and Paths

Ed Building a House, Designing a House February 13, 2018February 12, 2018Land, Landscape 0 Comment

This has been a long time coming.

Last we heard, we had received the detailed survey that our landscape designer Paula required. That was in November. The delays on this have been driving Kevin and Francisc crazy, as they want to get the project wrapped up. We can’t blame then, but given the difficulties presented by the sloping plot, we’ve been patiently waiting for this plan.

At this stage, we’re focusing only on the hardscape — the stairs, walls, and paths — since that work needs to be started right away. The next phase, once this is settled, will move on to the plantings.

I’ll start with a plan overview that shows the whole property. It’s a little hard to read, so I’ll show close-ups of the key areas around the house and provide some commentary.

Landscape Plan Overview
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In Front

We’ve done a lot of land reshaping to try to soften the slopes around the house. This work has helped a lot, but right now we’re left with only one way to get down from the parking area to the house, via a path that leads to the kitchen door.

While this is fine for everyday use, we need a more direct route to the front door for guests and for a “proper” approach to the house.

During our trip in May, when we first met Paula we discussed the need for some stairs that went directly down from the parking to the front door. She’s included those stairs, divided into a top section that is more formal and a lower section that is more informal. (Aesthetics, I guess.)

There is also access to the kitchen via a gravel path, following the existing slope. (More on that below.)

She’s also included a very indirect approach, starting along the path to the right of the house, cutting across on the level in front, then descending some stairs to the left front of the house. (This seems like it’s likely overkill.)

She’s also recommending that we build up the retaining wall at the end of the driveway, as a safety measure to define the edge of the slope and to act as a barrier to prevent a car from sliding all the way down to the house.

Landscape Plan Detail in Front of House
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Side Near the Kitchen

This is just a closer look at the path that approaches the kitchen. This slope is shallow enough to build a path, gravel with wood risers, like railroad ties.

Landscape Plan Detail at Side of House
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Behind and Down to the Pool

First, Paula suggests we add a pergola across the back of the house, covering the area from the portico to the edge of the house.

Next, she’s suggesting a stone landing in the middle of the back of the house, leading to a set of (too steep?) gravel and wood steps down to the level below the house. These steps would then continue to the next level, the one above the pool.

From here, the slope is less steep, and we might be able to do just a path down to the pool, really a series of short stairs with grass levels.

Then, at pool level, there would be a portico to provide some shade.

Landscape Plan Detail Behind House
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We think that overall it’s a very good plan. We’ll send it off to Kevin for his thoughts and some ideas about feasibility and costs.

Source:
Plan drawings by Paula Ryan: Copyright © Our Big Italian Adventure

Closet Designs And Office Nicchia Shelves

Ed Building a House, Designing a House February 7, 2018February 9, 2018Design details, Interior, Windows and doors 0 Comment

To do some custom shelving and doors, Kevin has brought Johnny on to the project team. He’s from England, now living nearby.

Primarily, we wanted him to execute the wooden shelves for the built-in wall niches in the office and in the bathrooms and to handle the two closets, downstairs coat closet and upstairs linen closet, by supplying doors and shelving.

We had sent along some ideas for the niches a number of months ago, but hadn’t really addressed the closets until today.

Closets

We received a draft layout for the linen closet.

Linen Closet Proposed Layout
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Our only surprise was that there was shelving shown above the closet, built into the wall. We had assumed this would just be flat wall. This we needed to think about, as having the shelves extend all the way to the ceiling beams, at nearly 9ft, seemed like it might look a little strange.

Kevin’s main questions to us focused on the shelves inside the closet: how many and with what spacing.

I played around with some options, wanting to leave enough space at the bottom to store one or two portable air conditioning units, and to have useable spaces above for bedding and towels.

Eventually, I started to wonder if we wouldn’t be better off using adjustable shelves sitting on shelf pegs. I wasn’t sure if this was done it Italy, but it seemed to be the best solution.

Ultimately, we decided on just one shelf, or two openings, above the door, maybe for decorative items, and movable shelves inside.

Doors? Johnny recommended using some old doors in a style similar to the rest of the interior doors. That seemed right. The only open question is the finish for the doors.

Office Nicchia

Here, our real decision is two shelves, meaning three levels for books, or three shelves, meaning four openings.

This one is a little maddening. Given the overall height of the nicchia, if we have four openings, they will be 22.7cm high. Guess what? A typical book is 23cm tall. If we’d just built the overall opening a few, maybe 10cm (4in) bigger, we would have been all set for four levels.

office nicchia layout — Possible Shelf Positions
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Since we can only do three levels, rather than make each 32cm high, we elected to make the bottom level taller, which gives us space for bigger books below and regular books above.

An Update

Luckily, Johnny and Kevin came back to us with a revised layout. When we said just one shelf/two openings above the linen closet door, we expected the area above to be flat wall. They were a bit unclear, and thought it made more sense to have a tall, open space above, so they asked what we wanted. We clarified our desire to close off the top space and make a flat wall.

Linen Closet Layout Options
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We’re all set on the simple layout for the downstairs coat closet.

For the doors, Johnny has found some old oak doors, now painted ivory. He recommended that we strip them, leaving a few flecks of paint in place to give a bit of a weathered look. That’s sounds good, so we’re now set on closets.

A Couple of Tiny Design Issues Lighting Inside and Out

Ed Building a House, Designing a House January 25, 2018February 8, 2018Lighting 0 Comment

Now that lights have been installed, three tiny issues have been discovered:

(A couple of the lights arrived with broken glass panels. Kevin suggested we just replace the glass, instead of trying to return them. That was taken care of.)

Stair Lights

Kevin noted that the placement of one of these lights caused it to create a beam at eye level when approaching the stairway. To eliminate this effect, we just had the light removed.

Awkwardly Placed Stair Light
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Lights Outside Kitchen Door

Wires had been put in place for lights on both sides of the kitchen door and two lights that didn’t match had been installed. My intention had been for one of these lights to be higher on the wall and more toward the corner, one of the general outside lights that we have around the house.

Given the actual placement, it looked like they were supposed to be a pair, but mismatched. To fix this little error, we’re going to swap out the general exterior light for one that matches the other kitchen door light.

Mismatched Kitchen Door Lights
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Light Bulb Style

A number of the fixtures had arrived without bulbs — no big surprise. Many of these fixtures have clear glass sides. Francisc had just purchased bulbs for these, but had selected regular white frosted light bulbs. Since the bulbs are so visible, we want something a bit nicer, so we asked Kevin to swap them out for the (trendy, we know) visible-filament “Edison bulbs.”

Frosted white light bulb — What We Got
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Sources:
Stair light: Copyright © Our Big Italian Adventure
Kitchen lights: Copyright © Our Big Italian Adventure
Edison bulb: 1000Bulbs.com | https://www.1000bulbs.com/product/7623/IN-L2780.html?gclid=Cj0KCQiAh_DTBRCTARIsABlT9MbBaFTuVPVwzWdFRXOF5foBTOjYmw537Jjh7yYd2WVPEsOdozksNOIaAqskEALw_wcB
Frosted bulb: 1000Bulbs.com | https://www.1000bulbs.com/category/40-watt-standard-shape-light-bulbs/

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