Internet, Railings, and Stairs

Today, the internet components were installed, along with the railings for the stairs and the terrazza. Plus, the painting of the stair risers was done.

Internet Connection

Because of our location out in the country side, we’re getting our internet over-the-air from towers across the valley. This system is in widespread use in Marche.

Over-the-Air Internet Receiver
Over-the-Air Internet Receiver
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Wireless Access Point
Wireless Access Point
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Stair Railings

Last we heard about railings was when Kevin told them “no” on the original color and we then picked a new color that coordinated better.

Stair Landing and Railing
Stair Landing and Railing
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Stair Handrail
Stair Handrail
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Terrazza Railings
Terrazza Railing Looking Toward Front
Terrazza Railing Looking Toward Front
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Terrazza Railing at Roof Peak
Terrazza Railing at Roof Peak
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Stairs

As we decided a week or so ago, the risers were painted to help hide scuff marks.

Painted Stair Risers
Painted Stair Risers
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Source:
All images: Copyright © Our Big Italian Adventure

Bathroom and Kitchen Installation Moving Along And Lots of Other Progress Inside

We have a bunch of pictures today showing progress inside the house.

Bathrooms

It looks like the bathrooms are nearly complete. Fixtures are installed and the windows complete.

Upstairs Bath Nearly Complete
Upstairs Bath Nearly Complete
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Master Bath Window with Shutters
Master Bath Window with Shutters
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Kitchen

Kitchen installation has begun, with a number of cabinets in place. I’m impressed with the installers’ lab coats.

Starting Work Installing the Kitchen
Starting Work Installing the Kitchen
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Lighting and Fans

Many of the lights have been put in place prior to final installation.

Working on Lighting and Electrical
Working on Lighting and Electrical
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Bedroom Fan
Bedroom Fan
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Fireplace

In the background of one picture showing work in the main room. you can see that the fireplace has yet to be built. All that is installed is the exhaust tube. But we did get a picture of the piece of old wood that will be used for the mantel.

Fireplace Yet to be Built
Fireplace Yet to be Built
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Old Beam for Mantel
Old Beam for Mantel
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Source:
All images: Copyright © Our Big Italian Adventure

Closet Designs And Office Nicchia Shelves

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
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
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.

Source:
All images: Copyright © Our Big Italian Adventure

Protecting the Stairs Hiding the Scuff Marks

Kevin identified a new issue today. He pointed out that while the stair treads are tile, the risers are just painted, and since the paint we are using is light, the risers will get scuffed and dirty very easily.

He had faced this same issue in his own house, which he addressed by painting the risers in a color and with a method that reduces the visibility of the scuffs.

Scuffed Stair Risers
Scuffed Stair Risers
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Example Painted Stair Risers
Example Painted Stair Risers
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The idea is to use a color similar to the stairs and to paint them with a sponge method that yields a surface that hides some of the imperfections.

He sent along a number of color choices. These were the finalists, chosen for compatibility with the tile color.

Possible Stair Riser Colors
Possible Stair Riser Colors
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We chose the lighter option, on the left.

Source:
All images: Copyright © Our Big Italian Adventure

An Issue with the Railings What Color?

Kevin made a site visit and came back with a good report, except for one detail.

Inside, we covered a bunch of points. All positive, except one. I rejected the railing and handrail. I did not like the color and I felt the finish was a bit too glossy. It will be repainted. I will followup on this until it’s how I think it should be. The actual work is excellent and the style is ideal for the spaces. This is just the beginning of work to fine-tune the finish work. I am a notorious P.I.T.A. on this stuff…

It’s great to have a PITA on site and on the ball.

An Update

After a long meeting in a smoke-filled metal fabricating shop and having looked at 40 options, narrowed it to 8, Kevin came back to us with three railing color options, recommending we choose from two of them.

(In the pictures is a sample of the door and window hardware. The real issue is to be sure they go together.)

Metal railing color option 1

Railing color option 2

We chose the one on the right, which was also Kevin’s choice.

Source:
All images: Copyright © Our Big Italian Adventure