Auguri per Natale e Buon Anno

I hope everyone had a good Xmas. I am already thinking of New Years resolutions one of which has to be to do  more exercise after eating too much as ever over Xmas.
  The weather now seems to have changed to warm and wet with the resulting problems of flooding and landslip. I hope everyone manages to escape these natural disasters without mishap. I will be visiting the house next week and with any luck it will remain unscathed by the weather.

Will the earth move for you?

We have just got back from seeing the progress of the work on the house. It doesnt look like that much progress has been made but in fact a lot of the work is not visible and will not be visible once the house is finished.  There are lots of steel bolts in the first floor which will strengthen the floor and steel beams and reinforced concrete which will mean that, when finished, the house should withstand an earthquake! Let hope it never needs to.

Having seen the original foundations I can now understand why the old house had a few cracks in it. Work has also started on the new terracing where the old drive was which will join up with the infinity pool and the garage which is going under the garden and on top of which we will be planting an old olive tree. The builders have also made good the road which a few weeks ago was impassible. But there is still a lot to do!!!

Strange goings on with notaries and mortgages.

We are almost ready to finalise the mortgage on the house and thereby have enough funds to complete the building work!! It has taken so long because the previous owners had not asked their bank to remove the old ”ipoteca” which their bank had on the house even though they had repaid their mortgage, this took 3 months. The notary also discovered there were some old ‘subalterni’ still registered at the castasto which needed cancelling. I am not sure exactly what these are  but apparently they date back even before the previous owner so i am not sure why they were only discovered now?

And finally aparently it is required in order to do the mortgage that I declare that I am celibe (single) I cannot not do this myself in front of the notary but need a declaration from the commune where I am resident (Castelnuovo Magra) that I am single. Only they can do this. This seems very odd to me as the information that I am single I gave them in the first place but they are the only people who can do it and it is no use arguing. So next week I will visit the Commune to get this declaration in order to proceed.Lets hope it is that simple…..

Wildcat strikes in Italy, sometimes a good thing

Just got back from a holiday in Cape Town , a beautiful country and people and lots to see and do. Our flight back unfortunately was delayed after we had boarded 3 hours on the tarmac for an engine technical fault. We departed at midnight , now due to arrive a 9.00 in the morning instead of 6am with our connecting flight to Pisa at 9.25. We were going to miss it. In fact we did miss it and unfortunately British airways did not have another direct flight but booked us on a flight to Rome at 12.45 the same day and then a flight with Alitalia from Rome arriving in Pisa at 18.30 arriving 6 hours late and having been travelling since 5.00 pm the previous day. We were passing Livorno at 3.30pm when BA announced they were very sorry there was a wildcat strike by ground staff at Rome airport they couldnt land there and they would have to divert to the nearest airport PISA! How lucky was that for some! That brought a smile to our faces the first of the day!

A New Garden of Eden

We have unfortunately lost our pomegranate tree either under the rubble or as a result of the earth moving. In addition we have lost a plum tree, one fig and an olive tree. Once the building work is complete we will be planting two (new) old olive tree as focal points in the garden area near the house as well as planting lots of herbs and plants which are happy growing in rocky areas with little attention and water.  I aslo hope o replant espalier fruit trees which will grow against the walls of the terraces. We have a fair number of olive trees but none with nice old trunks. We had to give them all a hard pruning last year as they had had nothing done for a few years so few or no olives this year. When I am there full time it will be a pleasure to do it myself.

Enel have done some pruning!

Enel have visited us and with their chain saw have cut back lots of trees near us. Unfortunately they dont clean up after, hopefully this will not be a fire risk. However there is lots of wood(oak) for those with wood burning stoves. If its still on the ground next year I will out there with my chain saw!

Nerves of Steel

We have just got back from  visiting the house if it can be described as such. There is a lot of steel now inside holding up the structure. Now I know where the money is going! We also had a meeting at the falegname whose work we saw. Real wooden shutters – lets hope when I receive his preventivo(quote) I can afford them! The first of many retaining walls is being put in place now.The builders have also decided to use an alternative access route. The only problem is that this is not asphalted and has become very muddy… I have to call my neighbour to apologise.

Wet Weather Stops Play

It looks like the weather this week will slow down progress. I will be taking boots with me on thursday as I will be needing them to have a look round as there will be a lot of mud. We are seeing on thursday the Kitchen people, the carpenter for the wood shutters outside and the architect and impiantista to confirm where we want all the plug and light switches. So I wll post again at the weekend with more news and some photos.

Did the earth move for you?

My neighbbour called yesterday (I thought to complain about the builders) but no.. that was a relief. My neighbours wanted my view on putting gates on the private road which leads to our houses… I will have to think about it i am not so sure (apart from being on a severe budget at the moment). However she also mentioned that the builders have started moving the earth to create the parking area, new terrace and swimming pool. Cant wait to see how things are going but will have to wait until next week….. I will then post some photos. Lets hope the weather holds.

Thoughts on a new colour for the house

We took this picture on one of our many visits to the Comune. We are looking back toward the house from Castelnuovo Magra. You can see the house with our neighbours a little to the left and below(terracotta) and our other neighbour above us and to the left(cream). We are thinking of painting our house a darker colour so that it doesnt standout so much. Maybe a dark mushroom/taupe colour. The house would then blend in with the background more. Also we will be putting some dark wooden shutters on some of the windows.These will not only be decorative but will also keep the summer sun out if required.

Aspirations to be Green!

When I was looking for a property I was interested in buying a relatively new house rather than an old property. I wanted to create a modern home in Italy. Most expats want to buy a piece of history and restore it. I have done this with some friends in Tuscany www.fontelunga.com but now I wanted to do something a little different for myself. By buying a modern property I had more scope for doing something a little bit different and at the same time not being constrained too much by history but only the bureaucrats!
The problems with renovating a 70s’ house you become aware of when you open it up like any property. You realise that the methods of construction during these times were a little slap dash to say the least. Little or no foundations no insulation the use of asbestos etc. The much older houses were probably better built or at least they had thick walls.
We are removing some old asbestos water tanks in the roof. – the cost is expensive and as they are not broken I could leave them there but probably better and I feel better with them not there. I just have to make sure they are disposed of correctly. As we are digging up the old floors to put in foundations we can now insulate them properly and at the same time we will insulate the roof. We are putting in under floor heating with photovoltaic panels to use the suns energy to provide the electricity for use in the house and solar panels for heating the water for the underfloor heating and domestic use. We are also using air heat pumps which are economical in their use of electricty. These are also useful in that they can be used to cool the water and therefore cool the house as well by keeping the floor cool. The larger windows mean we have to use glass that reduces energy and heat loss/gain in the winter and summer. The frames themselves will also be insulated. Use of blinds in the house will also reduce energy gain in the summer.
Water is a problem for us as we rely on a well. We will be conserving water wherever possible using rainwater in the loos and washing machine and for irrigating the garden and also by encouraging our guests to use less! Trying to be green has to be a passion as its expensive, I can understand people thinking twice before doing it. But inspite of the higher upfront cost our energy consumption should be low.

Progress? The house has not fallen down!

Just got back. We had a meeting with the Electricians and Plumbers today.. so they are now appointed and we can move forward! The builders will be happy. The house has not fallen down and I am told it is a lot safer now as they have filled in some of the holes and started to put in a cordolo (foundations) . Also there are a few more metal beams around the place holding things up! The space inside is beginning to come together and we are beginning to see how the spaces/rooms will look. Next week they hope to start earth moving so lets hope the weather stays good and the rate of construction remains at a good pace. Next week we will meet the falegname, who we hope to use to do the wooden shutters on the house and pergola in the garden.

Progress?

Tomorrow I hope to appoint the Idraulico and elettricista who will be working on the house. The electrics quote doesnt seem too bad, and the quote for the photovoltaic panels has come in less than I thought (the only one!) and that helps. It seems trying to be green and help the environment is expensive and I am not suprised few people are doing it at the moment.
It is the same as using rain water in the bathrooms you need double the number of pipes! I must be mad but it should be worth it in the end. I will be going to the house again to see it is still standing so i will post tomorrow and hope to have more pictures of what remains of the house.

The house has not fallen down!

We visited the house on Friday. Well that despcription could not apply now! They have discovered that the back of the house is built on rock and the front on soil with little foundations if any. So that explains the cracks in the old house. Well now we have to put new foundations in as well as strengthening the first floor. It would be less expensive to knock the whole thing down and start again maybe we should let it fall down. It reminds me of a film called The Money Pit a storey of the restoration of an old house which I think ended up bankrupting the owners…. I hope not!

Progress…

Well after a long day we are back. We spent an hour wandering round the house or whats left of it, if any more holes are made in it I am sure it will fall down. They have already put some scaffolding in to shore up one ceiling.(see pictures). The old pine trees are down which has improved the view from the house but in addition has also drawn more attention to the dead trees on my neighbours property. I will have to have a word with them and ask if we can have them taken down. They are gradually falling down mostly on my side of the fence with each storm! The work is progessing inside so much so that we need the [lumbers now to put the pipes down inside unfortunately we havent apponted one yet as they seem slow in doing the quotes! The only one we have is way over the top on cost.Tipical.Anyway you cannot rush things in itlay!

Havent posted for a while

I havent posted for a while. I am going to see progress on the house on wednesday next week. Unfortunately depsite the continued dry weather they havent started the earth moving. I know when they are ready to start it will rain! Its always the case. They are however still getting on with the work inside.
I will post new photos when I have them

The progress even if it still all demolotion!

Work on the project is continuing. They have taken up the floors and dug down inside the house to see if the foundations need redoing. Only in part thank goodness. As that will be a small saving!
I have also received a quotation for the fotovoltaic panels and electrician. These seem ok … I say ok they are less than forecast and having said that I have asked what is not incuded there is always something! Next week I will go down and take some more photos! Cant wait to see the progress even if it still all demolotion!

Still a nice view

I think I was getting carried away with the view but actually it is Corsica and not Sardinia. I think Elba is obscured by a hill we have in the way. But which ever it is it is still a nice view

At last August is over!

After a long August break work has started again on the house … and  hopefully in earnest now after almost two months without much happening. We have had to sort out the problems with access by road for the lorries and cement trucks, to do so the builder had to present two insurance policies to the council for the existing and future damage which we may cause. These have been presented and will of course have a cost impact( to be discussed). Unfortunately they will not allow the heavy trucks to take away the soil we need to move for the pool and garage so we will have to use smaller trucks which will cost more as well. I hope we dont have too wet an autumn so that work can move ahead without further delay and get it finished…..
There i some good news.. they have started cladding the concrete retaining walls with stone, the builder says they look good, we will see next week.  I hope to post some new photos next week.

The view

The view from what will be the dining room and breakfast terrace towards Forte di Marmi. On a clear day it is possible to see Sardegna! Obviously not today.
This is the view from the first floor. Once the old pines are cut down and an Olive tree moved it will also be the view from the ground floor. We will be replacing the pines with some old olive trees which will become the focal point of the garden obviously not taking anything from the view!
As you can see the work has started. There is still a lot of demolition to do. But they are off to a good start. As ever they have discovered that the old building was not built very well(1970s’) and as a result we have to strengthen the entire first floor, otherwise we risk guest ending up on the ground fllor if they are not careful tipical!

Olive groves and woodland

The house backs onto Olive groves and woodland which forms part of the Parco Apuane. There are lovely walks from the house. There is much evidence of wild boar and the other day we suprised a young one on the track from the house. I know our neighbour who is above us has problems with them digging up his garden and so he is fencing a large part of it off. Tomorrow I will post photos of the progress.

Work has started

Work has started on the house. The windows ,doors and blinds have been removed and some walls. I will try and go down and take some pictures to post on the site to update everyone on the progress!

No turning back now

Sun setting over Castelnuovomagra yesterday evening. The photo was taken just before we went to dinner at our local restuarant – Rizieri.
The buidlers are going in on Monday… there is no turning back now!

Very hot and very dry

We arrived at the house this afternoon. It is very hot and very dry. The last time we were here it had rained a few days before. The okd well is dry. Just as well we have our reserve tanks for our last week end here before work starts. They will have to get the new bore hoel working if they want water for the building work.

 

A major face lift…

Tomorrow we will spend our last weekend at the house beofre building work commences. We will remove all remaining furniture, which is not much. A couple of fold up beds , a small fridge and a hot plate. We have been spending every other week end there since we bought it 2 years ago. Such luxury in two years you can see how the house has deteriorated without any maintenance. Now it will undergo a major face lift…

 

The Melangrano suite

One of our guest rooms is to be called the Melangrano Suite. We have a tree in the garden which we will unfortunately loose once the building work begins. But we will replant another. The accent colour of the room will be a pink/orange. We will have printed on cnavas some photos of Melangrano and I have some Melangrano sculpted from Cararra marble which i will use in this room.

 

Beautiful sunset

I have spent the last 2 days at the house. The first day I cleared the grounds around the house, so that the builders when they start will be able to see where they are at more easily. There is a lot of wild fennel thyme and sage. The smell was very evocative. There were some figs ready for eating though the main crop is still not ready. Early the second morning I cleared some of the regrowth in the olive grove. There is no hot water so I have been showering in a makeshift shower outside, hopefully my neighbours were not watching! The weather has been perfect. The sunsets beautiful can wait to be there…

 

Few days before work starts

I am going for the weekend to our house to enjoy a few days before work starts. I will cut some of the grass in the Olive grove with a strimmer and take some photos of the existing road to the house. My neighbours want me to put the road back into the condition it is in now if the lorrys do any damage. They will of course and I will too. But better to have a record of how it is now to avoid arguments.

Back to the olive grove. This year there will not be many olives as we did a big cut back this spring and they are looking a little sad. But the wild flowers amongst the trees are lovely. I hope to bring back some figs. We have 3 trees all settembrini and we have already had a lot from the initial june crop hopefully we will not loose them with the building work. Two will definately have to be cut back the third we may loose but hopefuly not.

Pomegranate

We have just got back from a weekend at our home in Castelnuovo Magra. The weather was great and we spent 2 days at the beach. We also signed the contract with the Construction company for the building work and they will start 1st September….at last. I took the picture of the Melangrano (Pomegranate) in the garden at 6 in the morning. You can see Castenuovo Magra in the background.

We also in the evening went into Sarzana for cocktails and dinner. Here during august they have every evening an antiques fair from 6 until midnight. The town is buzzing.

 

Good news

We have just received some good news – my bank has accepted me for a mortgage last week which meant that finally we could go ahead and sign the contract with the builders so that they can start as soon as the holidays finish here . Hooray… we opened a bottle of frizzantino from our local winery in Castelnuovo magra (Lunae)to celebrate!!!

 

Our web site

Giacomo has designed our website for us and has this weekend linked our website to our blog. Thank you Giacomo!

 

Cannot wait to be there permanently

We have had some friends to stay for a couple of days Marco and Kerstin and they left today. It was great to catch up with Marco and meet h is friend. We had a great time. I hope to be able to invite them to our new home soon!!!!! Carmelo and I will be going to La spezia for the weekend. It is very basic as there is no gas so only cold water and no kitchen so we cook on a single electric hob or on the BBQ and basically camp there. But it is fantastic cannot wait to be there permanently.

 

More about our proposed B&B

Hi there, I thought I would tell you some more about our proposed B&B. we have designed it so there are 3 suites. Each has a living room bedroom and ensuite bathroom with bath and seperate shower. The rooms are a good size and each has its own music system and Ipod dock. Each room has some private space, two with direct access to the garden and the other with access to a balcony. The names of the suite are Melangrano (Pomegranite) , Fico d’India and Neroli (bitter orange) the colour and the room themes will follow from the names.

 

Modern and light but energy efficient

This is how the house will look after works have been completed. Modern and light but energy efficient.

 

Not much new

Well there is not much new to add to my blog. We are still waiting to hear from the Bank regarding the mortgage. Once we have recieved the ok I can authorise the start of work. If we dont recieive it I have decided to sell the property and do something else as life is to short …….. but I am hopeful

 

Sign the contract

Well today is really hot in Tuscany and half of Italy has already gone on holiday and the other half is getting ready to go. The bank has still to confirm my mortgage. I should hear in a couple of weeks hopefully holdiays permitting. The form has gone off to the revenue though and we have now got planning permission. So as soon as the bank says yes i can sign the contract. We are keeping our fingers crossed!!

 

So a short delay is not too much of a problem

Hi there, well the week could have started a little better. We should have received plannng permission on Monday but it is still not ready. Maybe thursday. It is not a disaster as I am waiting to hear regarding a mortgage from my bank which I would like to know about prior to signing the building contract. We wouldnt want a house half finished due to not having enough money. Also in order to claim tax back on the building restoration work my accountant needs to send off a declaration prior starting work to the tax man, I learnt yesterday that this had not yet been done. So a short delay is not too much of a problem. In addition to this I learnt last week that my registering as resident at the house last year had not been processed, a year after I had been in the town hall to do it. It had been sitting on an officials desk somewhere or under a pile of papers. So i had to visit the town hall to sort it out.

 

My future home

Sunday and its sunny again after the big storm we had yesterday I am currently at work in Tuscany but my mind is thinking of my future home. We have in the grounds of Casa Colleverde 3 fig trees. Two of which have already produced some lovely ripe fruit. So much so that I have had to make some jam. We also have an old olive grove which had not been looked after for many years. The trees we have had pruned for the first time in a long while, more like massacred, and they are looking little sorry for themselves. I will eventually do this for myself. We have 100 trees but it will be a few years before they start producing any significant crop. We hope to use the old stone mill down on the aurelia towards Sarzana to produce our own organic oil.

 

The building contracts

To get to the stage where we are ready to start building work has taken 18 months so far. The designng planning and administration takes a long time in Italy and after a while it begins to wear you down. You have to persevere and have a lot of patience and think of things how they will be in the end. The eventual aim is to have a home where we can provide to our guests something special. They will have a beautiful room with great facilities. They will have on their doorstep beautiful surroundings and lots to see and do and I hope they will enjoy the food and company and leave wanting to come back.

We hope to be able to be as ‘green’ and energy efficent as we can. We will recycle water and refuse. We will be installing photovoltaic panels and solar panels. We will be using rain water collection in the house and garden. We will be using organic produce where possible. All this and hopefully much more
In the next couple of weeks we should be signing the building contracts and then our adventure will be begin in earnest.

 

The first post

Welcome to the blog of Casa Colleverde a bed and breakfast in the Liguria Levant in the Colline del Sole the province of La Spezia
The house and website are in the course of being built and we hope you will follow our progess and visit our site and eventually our home.
Our progress you will be able to follow here.