We have an amazing handy man. Roddy Gee. Send an email to me and I can share his details if you’re in Umbria. So nice to have a competent person to help around here with the many repairs and “improvements”.

The first picture is one of our planters. Made of masonry. Covered with stucco. Roddy scraped and repainted 2 years ago and then, like before, the moisture leached through the masonry and bubbled up the paint. Back in the U.S., we bought a sealant against moisture that went on the wall inside our basement. So I asked him to see if there was something like that here. This is the scraped, sealed and repainted planter. Looks nice. Now to see how long it lasts!

This next one is the cabinet whose door was ripped off in a windstorm. Roddy got new hinges and a new latch. All set for summer use!

Finally, my favorite thing. This wall was butt ugly. Dark gray paint which was bubbling up and waiting to slough off. I got the idea to cover it with a trellis. I asked Roddy about it. He found some panels that worked perfectly. Anyway, I find this so much warmer and inviting than that ugly wall. I can’t stop looking at it! PS, the pink was the former owners choice. I am not a pink person. Someday I’ll get that repainted.

We are enduring a very early heat wave in all of italy. Not quite as bad down here as further north in France, Germany, England, but still, a harbinger of things to come. Hope you’re having nice weather wherever you are! Ciao!