Category Archives: House renovation

Progress continues

It has been two days since I last went over to our house. There have been trucks coming in the early morning to pick up debris. It is the only time that they can come and not disrupt businesses etc.

They have finished pulling up all the old tiles in the kitchen, leaving the concrete that the tiles were attached to. In some places it is gone so you can see old linoleum under that! They filled in the trenches where the new pipes run in both the kitchen and the new pantry. They insulated and covered the walls in the pantry. They closed off the door between two of the bedrooms. So I am pretty happy with the progress. Looks like they may start tiling both the terrace and the kitchen/pantry soon. Here are some pictures.

Closed off door between rooms.

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Pantry with new walls and filled in trench.

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Kitchen floor.

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Attic. Mostly cleaned out.

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We also went on a fun drive to a winery (boo we were a little late to taste the wines) and then to Bevagna (we had been here before but it’s a cute town in the wine area) for lunch at Ottavius. It was good if very slow service. I had an interesting pasta with pistacchio and basil sauce. It was good.

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Luther at lunch.

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Here are a couple of pics of the pretty town of Bavagna. It is a very old Roman town on the old Flamenia road I wrote about a while ago.

This was very cool because there was one ray of sunshine coming from a window in the church and it was falling right on the patron Saint San Francesco.

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Progress…

The work started as promised on Monday. We could hear them using power tools from down on the ground.

This morning (Tuesday) very early a truck came and they dumped a bunch of debris into it and it drove off. Then all day there was much noise of working. We could hear it from this apartment. The streets are narrow and the sound echos. They leave the windows wide open.

So with all of that noise I figured there would be molto progress. I went over and was kind of disappointed. But they are probably doing things in the attic that I can’t see. What I did notice was that all the kitchen tiles for the floor have been delivered. And there was a wall in the future guest room that was covered in a red plastic substance. Manuele was concerned that there was a crack running through it and it is a load bearing wall so he took off the plastic covering today (I hated it so was glad) and they covered it over with the stucco they use on the walls here. I assume the crack was not important or they wouldn’t have covered it over. Here are the two pictures. In the second one you can see at the bottom left on the wall in a little rectangle the color it used to be.

floor tiles in their boxes

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Ceiling in apartment below

We had a meeting set up with Emanuele this morning at 11. We were outside on the piazza and I saw Josephine (remember her from the meter reading incident?) waving at me from a window beneath our apartment. It was evident that she wanted us to come up which we did. This is the apartment just under our new apartment that is owned by the Swiss lady. Josephine took us into this apartment and we saw damage done to the ceiling due to the work in our apartment above. Some of the mortar between the stones in the ceiling had crumbled and fallen to the floor and on the bed. Turns out Josephine has had keys to this apartment for many years. The Swiss lady has died and she got a letter from the attorney handling the estate. They will be selling or renting the apartment. Josephine showed us around. It is a lovely place with 3 big bedrooms, and enormous bathroom, sun porch, living room and updated kitchen. Very nice overall if furnished a bit old fashioned. We assured Josephine that we would talk to our Geometra about the damage to the ceiling.

We waited for Emanuele to meet us in the piazza but he never showed up so we bought some pizza-to-go from the local bakery for our lunch. This was some EXCELLENT pizza. This shop is always so crowded I never tried to buy anything or it was sold out but today it was nearly empty and had pizza. I got a Pizza con funghi (with mushrooms) yum.

I went up to the apartment since I had seen all the workmen leaving and took a look around. They have done a lot of work. They have removed all the wood from the floors they took up. They have removed most of the tiles from the kitchen floor. There were a number of big buckets filled with debris waiting to be removed. They have jack hammered trenches into the floor from the old kitchen into the new one for the water, drains, and gas. The pipes have all been laid. Out on the patio I found they had punched a hole through the wall for the drains to go into the pipe, or an Emanuele calls it, the Tube (waste water pipe). No wonder the ceiling downstairs had crumbled! Anyway, it all looks good. Here are pictures of the debris buckets, trenches, and hole through the wall.

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Perugia, more on reno, market day in Umbertide

A lot has happened in the last couple of days. Yesterday morning I said we were headed for Perugia. We left and it was pretty sunny but by the time we got there it had gotten blustery and cold with glowering skies. It did not really rain though, just spitted a few times. I need to get some warmer clothes!

We were headed to scout out the MiniMetro. We found it with no problem. It is small with only 6 stops and goes from the bottom of the hill near the stadium to the very top of the hill town in the center. We purchased our ticket and boarded. It’s fun to watch them operate. They attach themselves to a continuously moving cable. When they reach a station they unhook and small tires convey them to the platform and stop. Then they propel them forward until they hook back onto the cable. They run about every 2 minutes so no waiting. They reach the end of the line then spin around on a turntable and go back. Very steep trip up to Perugia. Takes about 15 minutes to go from end to end with free parking at the bottom and it drops you right at the top in the center of town.

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Arriving in the center on a spectacular overlook of the countryside from up there we head up just a short way to the main area of town. We visited two churches. First was Chiesa di Filippo Neri. I had heard it was incredibly ornate. And it was. I was sorry to see huge cracks in the domes which could have just been in the frescoes, but who knows.
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We walked up the steep narrow streets. It is really a beautiful town with hundreds of tiny, almost cavelike streets.

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We visited the Duomo, or the main cathedral. It was enormous.

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Then we visited the National Gallery of Umbria. If you want to see pre and renaissance art this is the place to go. The works start in about 1230 AD and work up to the 18th century. It is almost all religious in subject matter. Many of the works were beautifully rendered, the colors vibrant. But it was all meant to scare the crap out of the people. Their lives were dominated by the church. I never saw as many “Adoration of the Christ”, “Escape to Egypt”, “Annunciation”, “Cruxifiction”, “Flagellation of Christ” and “Christ going into Heaven” as I’ll ever need to see again! The subject matter varied little. The saints changed over time. I did enjoy it, but I was very done at the end. The first picture is the Griffon which is the symbol of the city. Reminded me of Buckbeak for any Harry Potter fans out there.

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We spent 2 hours in the museum! Then headed out to find lunch. We tried two of Luther’s recommended ones, both were closed, either for good or for lunch that day. We fell back on Da Cesare where we had dined with the Gang on our last trip to Umbria. We ate inside since it was so cold outside. The food was classic Umbrian and we split a mixed Bruschetta antipasti and both had pasta. It was good. Since we returned we have gotten a good recommendation for our next trip for Bottega del Vino from our friend John in Montone. It sounds great and we look forward to trying it.

We headed back on the MiniMetro and then home where we had a meeting with Emanuele at 4:30 at the apartment. We met up with him and his partner Paolo and the Electrician and the Plumber. I had sent a rather curt email in the morning about the fact that the sofa was STILL uncovered which may have lit a little fire under him because they covered it while we were there. We had discussions about the pantry space. It will be a nice big space and he has good ideas for shelving across one whole wall and then on the otherside for part of it. We explained that we wanted some floor space dedicated to the cats which is always a priority. So all is well at Via Grilli – for now.

Today we did a bunch of errands. We first had Cappuccini at Bar Mary and did people watching at the market. Then I did my shopping to include tomatoes, potatoes, onions, arugula, and those red and white beans that are so good. Look at all these peppers!!

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Then we got our porchetta pannini. That stuff is like CRACK! I thought about it all week since last Wednesday. This time Luther didn’t make the mistake of not getting one. Don’t you love the pig face!? Poor pig but I have to see he was much appreciated in his final form.

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Next we hit our favorite seafood stand to buy fish for dinner tonight. We got whole sea bass to try.

Then we split up with Luther going to the barber to get his first haircut. It cost €8.00 (!) It looks way better than the scalp job he got just before we left at the hair cuttery. I went over to the shopping part of the market to see if I could buy some warmer clothes. I scored two nice hoody shirts that are more like sweater material, one has a zipper and is black, the other purple. They cost €3.00 each (!) This stall, like many, you just dig through piles of clothes to find stuff. Then I hit a nicer stall. Everything was hung up and it was nicer quality. I bought a quirky pair of pants with a tweedy look and rolled up bottoms. It is stretchy material, snug in the legs. And a pretty sweater (beige) with a matching infinity scarf. It is very long tunic style. Maybe now that I have an Italian haircut and Italian market bought clothes they won’t immediately know I am foreign! Nah, it’ll never happen 🙂

We headed to the bank next to put down a 50% deposit on the lighting for our house and dropped it off at Emanuele’s office with Paolo. Whew! all done and glad to get back to the apartment to eat our Panini, get out of the cool weather and read a bit.

Boxes scheduled; work progressing

We got the notification that our UPak boxes will be delivered on September 12. That works out pretty well for us. It is a Friday so not a busy day on the Piazza. And it is after the big Feste in Umbertide.

I have not told you about this. Every September Umbertide has a huge festival. It is centered around 18th century Umbertide. Everyone wears 18th century costumes. This varies from most other towns around here who almost all do medieval festivals dressing in medieval costumes. The citizenry set up all manner of recreations from that era to include a brothel, a hospital etc. Having never experienced this festival I don’t really know what will happen. All I know is that it starts on September 2 and goes until September 7 – Every night a live performance on the piazza. I am told it is loud. Susan and Gary have been known to leave town to avoid it. Since it is our first time we are eager to experience it. We may be sleep deprived but that will have to be OK. I will post alllll about it once it starts!

Work continues on our apartment. I went up Saturday and they had removed all the cabinets and appliances in the kitchen. The electrician had also removed all the switch plates and was working on the wiring. Here is the former kitchen which will become our pantry and store room.

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We also received our invoice from the lighting place. We have to go to the bank and send them half for a deposit.

Last evening and all night we had intermittent thunderstorms. I shut all the windows. This morning dawned gray and pretty chilly. I have no long sleeved shirts. The shipment can’t come too soon. They predict cool and wet weather for the next couple of weeks. So sorry for the wine makers. It is very bad timing after a too cool summer. Not a good year.

The work has started!!!

I was so excited to run into Emanuele in the Piazza last night while Luther was smoking his cigar. He told us work had started in the apartment today! I went over this morning and sure enough they have moved all the furniture into the living room and have removed the TV and refrigerator. Sorry to say they also removed the built in bookcases in the office. That took me by surprise but oh well, what’s done is done. I believe they started cleaning out the attic too. Here is a picture of the future kitchen with pull down attic stairs.

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Today we went to Sansepulcro in Tuscany only 30 kilometers from Umbertide. It is a pretty little town with lots of little streets. They also have a museum with many 15th century paintings which we visited.

Aldous Huxley called this painting the most beautiful painting in the world. It is called the Resurrection. When up close and personal it is extraordinary which this photo doesn’t really get across.

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There was an amazing collection of old locks and keys. They were extremely intricate and many were beautiful. This picture shows one of them with its key. Notice the triangle and below it the flower and then below that another shape in the key. The lock is just beside it and you can see where the triangle and the flower fit (you need to click to enlarge). They were pretty incredible.

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This is the madonna in a picture from the 1400s by Santi di Tito. She is looking at the Christ child. All of his paintings were wonderful.

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These were random items that I was drawn to.

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After the tour we went to Ristorante Al Coccio for lunch. It was a very “traditional” looking place with lots of knick knacks.

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We chose it because of the aroma wafting from it. It just drew us in! The food was quite a bit different than the Umbrian food we have gotten used to. We started with a traditional Tuscan bread salad as an amuse bouche. The thrifty Tuscans use up old bread this way. By moistening it in the salad dressing of oil and vinegar it softens it up. It was quite refreshing. I had a mushroom flan (never saw that in Umbria) with a cheese fondue and truffles as an antipasti. Then I had the ravioli with Chianini meat sauce from the famous Chianini white cattle. Luther had taglietelle with duck ragu. It was all very good. The people behind us tucked into two big Chianini steaks. We’ll have to go back and get that sometime instead of a primi. It sure smelled wonderful. Here is a picture of my ravioli.

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This evening we met up with Michelle and her partner Paul for a drink in the Piazza. She will be leaving in just 3 days. I will miss her a lot. Paul was interesting and he will be here for 10 days after she goes. He is Dutch. Perhaps we’ll see her again before she leaves. We swapped contact info so we can keep in touch. Maybe someday we will meet again…

Tomorrow I will go over to the apartment so see how Giovani did today. I met him while I was there this morning taking a look at the work.

Catching up

There hasn’t been too much happening. Just odds and ends that I’ll catch up on.

We spent a couple of quiet days. We caught up over lunch with Susan and Gary who had been in the Dolomite mountains in the Alto Adige part of Italy. It used to be Austria before the first world war. They still speak primarily German and it is Germanic in feel. We have been several times. It was not their cuppa tea! Also they had a lot of rain which was unfortunate.

We met with Emanuele and he “says” he is all set to start work on Sunday. I am excited but not holding my breath. He also brought us a letter from Fed Ex.

This was our next challenge. We had arranged for Luther to get his prescriptions sent to our Texas mailbox. They showed up last Friday. I arranged for them to be sent to Emanuele’s address as someone is always there. The letter he brought was from FedEx regarding customs who want to know exactly what is in this package. We had been expecting this. They emailed us a bunch of forms and we filled them out. We had to go to the bank to arrange to pay the €40.00 they charge. We could have gone to our bank website to do this but the site was down. We only had 3 days to get the funds there so opted to go in person to the bank.

SO we sent the money and filled out the forms and sent them all back. We hope this will allow the medicine to be delivered. This whole thing is costing a good bit of money. First the prescriptions cost around $30.00. Not bad. Then it cost $56.00 to sent them via FedEx. This was the least expensive method that was trackable. Add to that the €40.00 (about $52.00). At least we only have to do this every 3 months. Once we are registered here we can get the Italian health insurance. That will be a WHOLE other experience!

So we congratulated ourselves with a trip to the restaurant across the river today with a nice lunch all’aperto. As an added little factoid – in Italy never ask to dine al fresco as we do in the US. This means literally “in the cooler” or in jail!! HA HA!

We have two upcoming events. One is a tour of Umbertide Underground! It is through the wine club and is next Tuesday afternoon. Apparently Umbertide is honeycombed with tunnels, catacombs, old wells and cantine. We will get a guided tour and tour La Rocca which is the big castle built into the town walls.

The other is a concert in the Chiesa de San Francesco on Saturday evening at 7PM. The church was built between the 8th and 12th centuries. The concert will be a 50 piece orchestra playing Brahms. I am quite excited to see this.

Kitchen and sofa

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Wednesday. Not a lot to report. A beautiful day after thunderstorms last night. Today was market day and I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many people. I think many of the summer residents are here now and of course the market would be a big draw. I went out early to buy produce, which is beautiful and bountiful right now. Also two whole trout from the fish monger and some little tiny clams. We will have them tonight with linguini.

Monday we met with Emanuele and gave him the list of what we want and what we don’t want. Va bene. All is well. We cut about 1/4 from the costs.

Our sofa was delivered yesterday. I hid in the house while Luther went to deal with the delivery men. Why? Well because the sofa is BIG. And the stairway is narrow with an inconvenient U turn with a low ceiling. I wasn’t at all sure it would fit. And it was a very near thing Luther said. But in the end our sofa is there! And it looks great and is SO comfy.

Today we got confirmation that our wire of the deposit reached Pedini. Also Roberto from Pedini came and he and Emanuele proceeded to measure precisely for the kitchen.

All good. It means things have begun. Emanuele will begin work soon. I imagine he will start with the removal of all the stuff like the old kitchen, the attic debris, kitchen floor, etc.

Meeting with the Geometra

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So on Wednesday evening we met with our Geometra, Emanuele with Susan in tow to translate if necessary.

Emanuele had a line item list of costs for the things we want done. To be short, it was a lot more than we want to spend. So we took it home to decide what we want to do and what we do not “need” to do.

We went over to the house and looked at each item. All the kitchen, pantry and patio stuff are important to us so we will do those. Also having the floors cleaned and refinished and all the walls painted. Lighting is also important but we had already whittled that down from the “everything you could EVER possibly want” to what we “actually” wanted. The initial estimate was €10,000. We got it down to under €4,000.

The things we cut out of the budget were mostly in the attic areas – there are two of these. The areas are very large, great for storage. The estimate included painting the spaces and tiling the floor which we pretty much nixed. We are OK with them cleaning out all the old stuff left up there. I am thinking we can just take a couple of cheap carpets up there to cover the crumbled concrete floors and still use it for a lot of storage. We will still have them put vent windows in to release the heat up there and replace the small windows that are in each attic. We also discovered we could see down into the kitchen from up there so that needs to be fixed!!

Other stuff that we nixed were sealing and waxing the vaulted ceilings and the living/dining room beams. I am OK with them as they are. Also changing the steps in the hall. Emanuele said it would be good to make them more level. Hard to describe. I need to take some pictures. Anyway, in the end you would walk from the hallway onto level area with 2 steps down to the living room and 2 steps down to the foyer. Rather than one down now from the hall to the platform and then one down to the LR and foyer. Just not worth the expense.

Long story short, we eliminated about a quarter of the costs so that will work in the long run.

Visit to the Questura

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Today was our appointment to go visit the Questura or State (of Italy) Police in Citta di Castello. We had gone for a ride out yesterday with Gary and Susan who knew where it was – kind of out in the industrial area outside of town. (then we had lunch :-))

So today we had a 9AM appointment and made it fine. We were the first called and we each went with a different person. We were fingerprinted and we had all the necessary forms. The two guys we dealt with were very nice. Luther had fun practicing his Italian and got lots of compliments on how well he spoke. They told is in 2 or 3 months we should have our Permesso. OK. At least that’s another hoop jumped through.

Yesterday we met with Emanuele and had Susan along as an interpreter as it was kind of technical stuff about the estimates, lights, kitchen, schedule etc. We got the number for the kitchen from Pedini which was about on track with our guess as to cost. The big surprise was that the rest of the work and lighting, tiles etc was much higher than we had anticipated. We are not sure why. Perhaps it is the logistics of the whole job. Emanuele told us they would have to take everything up and down the stairs. He had hoped for a hoist up to a window but that would be too disruptive to the stores below. Anyway. We took the lighting estimate home. It alone was 10,000 Euros but it was also everything and then some. We whittled it down and I think it will be more like 4,000 Euros now.

We took the lighting choices and the kitchen choice to Emanuele today and he called the Pedini people who will come to measure everything hopefully next week. He is also going to give us a line item estimate and we will eliminate anything we can to get the price down some. Right now I am thinking the attic area will not be tiled as we had discussed. We can use the space without it being tiled. We will still want the vent windows up there and probably have them clean it out. It will all depend on how much it will cost.

We also went to Formica, a big electronics chain who have a store here in Umbertide. Oddly the word formica means ant in Italian! We took Luther’s finally unlocked IPhone and got it activated with a plan for calling, text, and internet access. Pretty easy and pretty reasonable. He now has an Italian phone number. We will keep the little non-smart phone that I have which has a US number in case we need someone to call us from the US. I will use that for my phone.

I forgot to tell you that Susan told us about a free app for the IPad or IPhone called DuoLingua. It is a language app that I am finding extremely useful. I have learned a LOT of stuff from it in the last 4 days that I have been using it. I recommend it to anyone learning a language. It is really a lot like a game and that’s fun!