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More reno pictures

I’m afraid this is getting a little repetitive but we are moving toward the home stretch. I went over the day before and looked in the closet. Bad. Clothes are pretty dusty. I decided to go back today and tape them both shut and try to tape the cardboard over the living room doorway. Probably too late now but they still have to sand the floors so can’t hurt I guess. I want to be there when they are moving stuff out of the living room as it is covered with dust in there. I want to “carefully” remove the plastic on the sofa after everything else is out. Then I want to vacuum it before it moves. I’m pretty concerned about it.

So I went over and did the taping. One of the workmen was still there. After I was done and he’d left I took a few more pictures. They made good progress. The new wall around the terrace looks really good with the old stones on it. Here is a picture. See how they match the windowsill stone?

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They started building the zona di notte doorway in the hall. I am not sure how I feel about this. I guess it’ll be OK once it’s done. It will allow some privacy in the bedroom and will also allow us to put the cats there if work is being done. I am sure I’ll get used to it. It will also restrict how big a piece of furniture can go back there. Picture.

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They also finished the last tile in the pantry doorway. It’s hard to see but here’s a picture. It still needs to be cut along the edge to fit. I guess they do that last.

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Meeting

We have a meeting set up with Emanuele Wednesday morning to discuss final work. As far as I can see we have these things left:

  • Finish door in hall
  • Cleanup site (whew!)
  • Floors to be sanded and refinished in 2 steps because of the furniture
  • Kitchen to be installed
  • All walls need to be painted
  • Overhead lighting needs to be installed
  • All wiring needs to be finished; covers, switch plates, dimmers, plug fittings, etc.
  • Fireplace needs to be opened, inspected and cleaned (and I think Emanuele is Umbrianizing it sometime)
  • Need to replace mantle on pellet stove fireplace
  • They took off old door shutters and still need to install the new ones

I want to talk to Emanuele about moving the shelves in the living room into the pantry but I think I’ll wait on that. I want to be sure they are firmly attached so they won’t fall and I am not confident I can do that.

Shopping

Today we also went down to the lighting store near Perugia. Drat. I thought because it was a big box store it would be open but Monday mornings in particular are problematic. Actually I think the Italians have a great idea easing into the work week. Not getting up early and going to work on Monday would have suited me just fine when I was working 🙂 . We just need to give up on this doing anything on Monday idea.

Since we had gone all that way we went into a really big shoe store that WAS open. Pretty good prices. Luther got some running shoes. Next we drove down to Metro – another REALLY big store. When we went in it stretched on forever and reminded me of Costco. Well it SHOULD have reminded me of that because after we’d walked blithely in a woman kept calling out to me, Senora, Senora! I don’t really answer to Senora yet but finally figured out she was talking to me. Turns out you DO have to be a member, just like Costco so out we went!

I contacted Cecelia who helped us with our Gas and Water contracts back in the summer. We will meet her on Thursday to see the furniture store owned by her fiancè’s family. I may not like it but I’d like to look. I forgot to say we visited a store up towards Citta di Castello last week called Tiziano. It was recommended to me by Susan. They don’t have a lot of space for furniture on site but they can order anything you want from a bazillion catalogs. This may solve my furniture problems. We need to measure our mattress and bed to order those. Now I have to wait until we open that doorway I taped to do that!

More pictures

Here are more pictures. The first one is the finished kitchen floor! Ta da!

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These next two are the wall on the terrace. You can see how they are sizing the stones to go on top. Also you can see the holes where the lighting will be.

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Apartment yesterday

Yesterday morning we went for a nice long walk. We drove over to the other side of the river to a very small, lightly traveled road which turned out to be the old Roman road to Perugia according to small signs we found. It was a pretty area. Strange to think we were walking on the road the old romans would have taken. It is definitely not on the beaten path now!

We started out at a really beautiful church complex called Mezzacorona. On one end was an olive oil and wine seller who are only open from four to seven on Saturdays. Next to it was a really old church and tower. And next to that was a defunct restaurant. I forgot my camera so didn’t take any pictures but need to go back to do that. We went through the church door which led into a basement lower church. Great old stone arches were lighted with discreet lights and candles which an unknown someone had lighted. Up above that was another, larger church. The walls had many paintings from the 1,500s. All this in a very out of the way place. Amazing.

Later yesterday we dropped by our apartment to see if there was any more progress. They look to have finished the wiring work and have been working on covering up what Manuele calls the “tubes”. These we would call pipes. They are the pipes on the terrace. One large black one was already there. Probably takes waste water away. The other was the smaller one that goes from the kitchen sink and out. These had been discussed and we had decided not to make the covers into seating. They will, however have built in lights that point up onto the walls to make a muted light. I am looking forward to seeing how that will turn out. I took some pictures but it is hard to really see how it looks because I can’t get back far enough.

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The pile of stone to the right of this picture appeared today. I think it will be laid on top of the tube covering but am not sure.

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After we went to see the apartment we had an appointment at Bar Mary to meet Lynda who had rented her apartment to us last January when we were house hunting. She has moved here for the forseeable future as she said. She is very nice and I look forward to seeing her around Umbertide.

A few more pictures

I went for a walk this evening. It is really warm here. Very much indian summer if that’s possible here.

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I explored a couple of roads near the river and found an amazing feral cat shelter and feeding station. They have built little houses for them and hung tarps over them and the feeding station to keep them dry. So cute. I am guessing they are not being neutered unfortunately.

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On the way back I ran into Manuele. I forgot to mention I decided to go ahead and buy my living room carpets didn’t I? I ordered them online last Friday. I had found them a month or so ago and really loved them. Then when I went back one of them was sold. These are hand made in Iran so one of a kind. I was sorry to lose the one yellow one I had picked out so thought I should go ahead and buy them. I chose brightly colored ones with a good nap because the sofa is beige and the walls will be white so I wanted some bright colors. Here are a couple of pictures of similar carpets from the website. The rectangular one is for under the dining room table and the square one will go in front of the sofa.

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Shopping online here is not quite the same as in the US. I have used both Amazon.it and Amazon.co.uk. The one in the UK is more like ours in the states. But I have used both. Using the Italian one has the advantage to be a language lesson as well 🙂

Anyway, Manuele told me two big boxes had arrived – Yay! I don’t know if I mentioned we have all our packages sent to his address. Someone is always there to receive them. He told me that Jimmy (the animal) would bring them over tomorrow. He is called that because he is very strong. So I am excited to get them.

I headed over to the apartment next to see what has been done. After two days there weren’t many more changes. It looks like they are working mainly on the electricity. They are moving and adding outlets and running wires up to the ceiling through the walls for the overhead lights. I didn’t bother to take pictures of that. Boring.

This is the finished hallway ceiling that was uncovered at the end of which is the finished new stairway moved from the kitchen.

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This is from inside the pantry looking toward the door to the kitchen. I am very happy with this new space. I also ordered some wine racks to install in it. Should get them in the next 3 days from Amazon.

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Kitchen floor.

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I went out on the terrace for the first time. I love it.

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Another day, another winery and lunch :-)

So Luther decreed that we had to go buy some more wine. He chose a place or two down in the Sagrantino wine district. It takes about 45 minutes to get there from our house. The day was fine. We found the first winery called Particaia which means plough. When we exited the car we were assailed with the overpowering odor of the new harvest of crushed grapes. The older gentleman who met us at the door of the office was super nice. He took us to the big building to see the vats with the piles of grape peels and juice.

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Then we walked up to the tasting room where he showed us the previous years harvest aging in French oak.

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We tasted three wines and bought a couple of cases. The old gentleman turned out to be the owner and vintner! He was super welcoming and I have to say, his property is beautiful.

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They had a dog. His name was Flick. He reminded my of my dog growing up, Cricket.

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We went to one more winery. They were not as welcoming. In fact they pointedly looked at their watch when we arrived at 12:15. I guess lunch was getting near and they didn’t want us hanging around.

Next came the really big adventure. We were looking for a restaurant called Ristorante 4 Piedi & 8.5 Pollici. It means the restaurant of the 4 feet and 8 1/2 thumbs. I have no idea why they call it that. We had a map from the internet. We tried to use the GPS but it didn’t recognize the street. We drove up to a small hill town but we knew that was wrong so went back to Bastardo. Yes it’s really called that! It is an unattractive town with little to recommend it. The review we read said the restaurant was hard to find. Boy were they right! They said it was in a strip mall. Well after driving slowly around the streets and asking two people we finally found it behind some big tents and in back of a big supermarket. There were no signs for it anywhere. Typically Italian.

It is a quirky place. Strangely decorated. The people were friendly and welcoming. There is no menu. They come out and recite what they have. We chose the Antipasti to share and a pasta. Hand made Strangozzi pasta (local specialty) with onions and ham. The Antipasti was a multi-course affair. Here are pictures and descriptions. It was a great lunch.

Started with a plate of ham, mortadella, mozarella, a grilled mushroom which was spicy and a round of bread with melted cheese inside. I didn’t take a picture of that plate. Next were slices of pecorino cheese with two little dishes, one home-made applesauce and the other a conserve of something I couldn’t place. They both paired with the cheese nicely.

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Next was a hot plate with melted cheese over a bread.

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Decor included big, hand drawn figures. This one, Captain Hook.

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Wonderful faro with vegetables. SO good!

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Finally the home made pasta.

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Today I didn’t go to the apartment. I decided to let them make a little more progress and go tomorrow. Pictures to follow.

Progress continues…

We had lunch with Susan and Gary today to catch up after our visitors left. They are off to Rome to meet up with THEIR visitors who are here for three weeks! They will be traveling with them all around from Lecce in the far south to Venice in the far north. It was good to see them.

I waited another two days to go take a look at the apartment. They finished the hall ceiling, patching the hole and cleaning the iron beam. Looks nicer for sure. The entire kitchen floor is covered with that mud the put down under tiles so I couldn’t go in there as it was wet. From the bedroom window I looked at the finished patio. So nice! Here are four pictures, two of the patio and two of the mud!

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Renovation pictures as promised

So at 6:30 I went over and happily all the workmen were gone. I don’t like going over there when they are working.

They have removed the hall ceiling drywall. There are a couple of holes that will need to be repaired and it looks to need some clean up but it will look way better than the drywall.

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Here is a picture of the air conditioning unit in the bedroom, just like my sister’s in the US!

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Pantry where they have been tiling. The walls are all done in there and the windows put back. Starting to take shape.

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Last, the hole in the ceiling in the kitchen where the stairs used to be. They have filled the hole with the barrel ceiling that is in the rest of the room. Nice!

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Great visit!

Well we dropped our guests off at the train station around noon today. We had a great visit. They brought great weather with them. Now that they are gone it is pouring rain.

As you know we had toured Assisi a couple of days before where we learned about St. Francis who was said to be able to talk to animals and once preached a sermon to the birds. Anyway, Kaye was taken particularly with a story about St. Francis and a wolf.

Seems a wolf was eating the people and animals in a town. The desperate citizens asked St. Francis to help. St. Francis went into the woods where the ferocious wolf lived and convinced him that God wanted him to stop hurting the people of the town. The wolf bowed his head and placed his paw in St. Francis’ hand and they went together into the town. The townspeople were astounded and agreed to feed the wolf from then on so he wouldn’t be hungry. He lived two years that way and was buried in the churchyard.

We decided to visit Gubbio yesterday. I did learn a couple of lessons with our first guests, do some research! So I downloaded info on Gubbio. A happy coincidence! Turns out Gubbio is the town where the wolf incident occurred! Kaye said she thought the wolf and St. Francis were her favorite things from her trip. Here is a link to the Wolf of Gubbio Legend.

We tried to visit the Chiesa di Pace where a wolf skeleton was found in the 1800s corroborating the legend. It was closed. Too bad. We toured the upper town, took in the view and visited another church. Here are pictures in the church. One is a fresco of St. Francis and the wolf.

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Another coincidence – we had made reservations at Taverna da Lupa (Tavern of the Wolf) so we were all excited that our theme was ongoing. It was a nice place. Not as good as our previous restaurants though. We sat outside. It also turned out to be a Buon Ricordo member. This is a group of restaurants that each have a specialty dish and if you order it you get a ceramic plate (I have probably 6 of them from many vacations – indeed a Buon Ricordo (good memory)). Kaye and I ordered Faraona al ginepro – roasted Guinea Fowl with Juniper – and got our plates. The dish was very good.

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The Plate!

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All in all a nice day. Last night we went outside so Luther could smoke a cigar. HORRORS! Bar Mary was closed! What was this! Even Cafe Centrale was closed. This morning we found out it is now considered the winter season so they close early on Tuesday. We went back up and got wine and glasses and sat outside. Susan and Gary and Mr. Luca dropped by to meet our guests.

Renovation news

We met with Manuele last evening after our sight seeing. It was good to see much progress. The air conditioning units are installed in the living room and the bedroom. We discussed covering the pipes on the patio. Manuele wants to uncover the old ceiling in the hallway where they installed the new stairway. It is now covered with wallboard but under that is the old vaulted ceiling. Of course we agreed with that! He also discussed with us the fireplace. He wants to change it so it doesn’t look like a Tuscan fireplace (who knew!). It has brickwork and he says they only use stone in Umbria. So I was fine with that as well. I believe he is not charging extra for this as he said “I will do this for you”. Also that Zona di Notte thing was again brought up. Manuele made a pretty good case for it and I think we will have him move a glass door which is at the head of the steps into the hallway. He will tint it which will make the master bedroom and bath more private. He said we could probably start moving in in a couple of weeks! whoo hoo!

Touring with friends

Yesterday we went to Assisi and Montefalco. It was a beautiful day. Not too hot or cool. We walked through town – very crowded! We tried to tour St. Francis’ church but we forgot it was Sunday so they were having Mass. We did go down to see St Francis’ tomb where there were plenty of the faithful paying their respects.

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We passed by a house adorned with beautiful decorative wrought iron. I believe it’s owner was the artisan as I could hear sounds of works in the back. They were so ornate and lovely I took some pictures. The one is a fat man. The others are dragons or griffons.

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Next we went to Montefalco. It is the heart of the Sagrantino wine region. Very beautiful, scenic and with many grapes, very green. We had reservations at L’Alchimista. It is a wonderful restaurant right on the main square with outside tables where we sat. The lunch was wonderful. We had what is called Kilometer zero specialties. There is a town called Trevi where they grow the “black celery” or sedano nero. It is VERY local and is only available for a short time. They had several specials using it. I had the soup. Kaye had a stuffed celery. It was filled with pork and served in a tomato sauce. We all seemed in the mood for a secondi so we mostly had beef filet. Mine was served with sauteed radicchio and gorgonzola. Luther had it with rosemary and olive oil. Here is the square from our table:

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Today we got a late start. That was OK as I was going with the flow. We had planned to go to Montepulciano to one of our favorite restaurants, La Grotta.

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We thought we’d have time to stroll the town but that was not the case so we headed straight for the restaurant. We toured the famous Chiesa di San Biagio. It is a beautiful church just across from the restaurant.

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We dined outside on the beautiful patio.

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Here are some of the dishes we had:

First course for me. Crostini with a liver spread and Vin Santo sauce.

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Luther’s Tuscan salad called Panzanella featuring stale bread.

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Luther’s rack of lamb.

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Kaye’s house-made tagliatelle with white truffles. (she LOVED it)

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Jeff’s marscapone dessert with coffee gelato.

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All in all a lovely, long lunch. We headed straight back as it is kind of a long drive. Now all are resting.

House renovation update. We went over where I took couple of pictures of the rubble in the hallway after the relocated the stairway to the attic. The place is a wreck! We have an appointment tomorrow at 5:30 to meet up with Manuele to discuss a few things.

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First guests!

First, we ran into Manuele yesterday and he told us things were moving along and they were 60% finished. He said it should be done in 2 or 3 weeks. He also talked to Pedini about the kitchen and they will deliver between October 20 and 22. Then we can move in! And BUY stuff!

So today we are having our first guests. Kaye and Jeff from Woolongong Australia. We have stocked the frig and I am going out to the Saturday market in a minute to grab a few last things. Then I am going to attempt to make an apple cake! This will be my first try at baking anything here. Gathering the ingredients was not easy. Baking powder was a challenge but I found some. Also vanilla which I found in imitation powder form (ugh). Vanilla is something they just don’t have here. I need to find vanilla beans (which I read they DO have) and make my own extract. I think I may have some in my shipment but I don’t want to uncover the door to the living room (where it is all stowed now) with all the mess over there.

I’ll take a picture of the cake and post it later whether it comes out — or not. After that my posts may be a bit sporadic. I’ll post some pictures of us touring with Kaye and Jeff.