16 September-3 October 2008

Welcome to Via San Pietro 3 in Fara San Martino: from Nashoba - Lupo

View of Fara San Martino from the Majella National Park

We started our project during the rainstorms in the first two weeks. It made the work easier looking out the window at the rain!

Kitchen ceiling before and after.

Peeling the years from the walls was much more difficult than we had anticipated and in the end we could not get all the paint from the walls. In some places there was concrete underneath which was impossible to scrape off. So now the builders will equalise the walls and as it turns out, they will also tile the kitchen (it was included in the quotes). So Rudi concentrated on the ceiling and we like the end result: colour-washed.

This is the plan for the kitchen. It should be in place before our next trip!

We did take time to stop and enjoy the view....

Some of us had time for a coffee break!

Rudi's mother Sien

We took some time off and hiked into the National Park to see the gorge. What a beautiful walk!

Back on Via San Pietro.

We didn't spend all our time working. We did some sightseeing (Sulmona, Chieti and a drive along the coast) and went to the markets for our groceries and even did some retail therapy in Chieti (there is a shopping mall)! Not to mention going out for dinner and cafe (capuccinos & espressos only 1 euro!)... and of course aperitivo! It was harvest time for the grapes in Abruzzo and our neighbours started making their wine in their cantina.

Well we managed to finish the tasks we set for ourselves. The kitchen is ready for the builders to start. They can begin digging the garden to place the sewage pipes next month. We spoke to the geometra and agreed on what we can afford to do this year; the rest can be done later. He will apply to the Commune for the building permits (we can take up to 5 years to complete the project before having to apply again). We spoke to the electrician about rewiring the kitchen and the cantina, plus possibly the spare bedroom. We picked out the tiles for the kitchen and toilet and bought the suspended toilet and sink for the cantina.

But now we have to say goodbye to Villa van de Putte. Nashoba had a wonderful time in his new garden.

Until next year in April!

August 6-15

The goal was to fix-up the 2 bedrooms so we could use them in our September holdiday.

First stop after my arival in Rome was Ikea with a shopping list for household utilities. Knifes and forks, pans, bowls etc so i would be able to fix dinner. Ikea wasn't that difficult to find (my TomTom did ) and also in the direction i had to go anyway. With a carload of stuff i arived at Fara San Martino just before midnight.

Next day up early to buy a small refrigiator in Chieti about 45 minutes from the house. It was pretty hot 30-35 degrees (95 F ) so I realy needed one to keep food and drinks cold. The plan is to put it later in the cantina when the kitchen in installed. After carrying the refrigiator into the house I found out that we have about 3 kind of electric outlets in the house I couldnt find one in the kitchen to fit the plug so ended up putting it into the livingroom next to the bed. The perfect setup ofcourse cold beer and wine next to the bed!

We picked out a coulor for the bedrooms in Holland already so that afternoon i drove to Pescara to pick up the deed for the house at the airport office of the realestate company and to buy paint for the bedroom walls and ceiling. Both bedrooms will have a real light yellow sandy coulor.

The masterbedroom wasn't in a too bad condition the plaster was cracked in some places on the ceiling and the walls needed some reparing. Luckily the former owner of the house came by with a friend who turned out to be living in Pensylvania but was over in Fara San Martino for the holidays. His house, the one he was born in, was just about 4 houses down the road. Later that week he introduced me to some more relatives who were are all living in the same street. My italian is still limited to some words so it was handy to have him around. He told the former owner, Vincenzo, what I needed who took me to the local hardware store to buy the wallfiller and also to the ciyt hall to fill in some papers. Vincenzo has been a great help everytime we have seen him.

Because we dont have a kitchen yet I made the dinners on the campinggas they left and did the dishes in the barn in the garden in which we have a sink and water.

In september when we will be there for 3 weeks we will move the campinggas into the barn next to the sink and will do our cooking in there.

Table for one with a view !

After the masterbedroom was all fixed painted and cleaned up I drove by the furniture store to have them deliver the beds and wardrobe.

The second bedroom took some work. The paint was peeling of in a lot of places and it had some big holes in the plaster. Sanding down the whole room would have taken me a couple of days so I decided, since the floor was already what they call rustic, to show some of the plaster and the former layers of paint they had put on the walls over the years. Under the white I found blue and green and the plaster underneath was a real light sandy coulor.

After about 2 days this bedroom was also finished. For the time being I put in the 2 glass cupboards ,left in the house , in the room so we have at least a place to put in clothes when we are there in september.

The woodwork of the shutters and doors still need to be repainted but we will do that next month. The curtains they left turned out to be real nice, all washed and ironed they were ready to put up.

As planned the bedrooms are both ready.

A couple of evenings I started taking of some of the layers of paint in the kitchen, Thick layers of paint, probably from the last 50 years, are hanging loose and come of pretty easy. Underneath I found a real nice stucco, the colour will go real nice with vanilla kitchen we picked out.

This will be our september job. Taking off the layers of paint from the walls and ceiling and putting up tiles where the sink and the cooker will go.

So far all goes as planned, spending time out there and living in the village you realize how stressed our lives are. Its a different world, just going to the hardware store or the bank takes time! Everyone is very helpfull and if that means that the one behind you have to wait 10 minutes thats ok with them nobody gets iritated! Just sit down and enjoy the sun.

Just 3 weeks to go and our italian adventure will continue.

15 June 2008 the house is ours!

Our Village: Fara San Martino

Our "castle" in Italy!

We bought a place in Fara San Martino, close to Lanciano, which is in the Abruzzo region. That region is opposite Rome, but on the Adriatic coast. Check out these links:

http://chieti.dal-satellite.it/Fara-San-Martino.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z0f7t1NeE_Y&feature=related
http://www.abruzzoholidayinformation.com/

On the YouTube one, our village is parallel to Vasto. It is at the foot of the Majella Mountain (National Park) in a small village of about 1600 people. Not too high elevation and only 30 minutes from the Adriatic coast. The town has several bars and restaurants and even a few hotels, but it is not too touristic.

Our house has a wonderful view of the mountain from our back garden and since it is on the edge of the village, we can walk from our house into the park and supposedly to a gorge (didn’t have time yet to find it). There is a waterfall behind with clear drinking water. We wanted to find a place with a garden so that we can bring our dog Nashoba with us this coming summer (and after that our next dog).

This is the living room, which only needs painting. They left us the table and chairs, so we can save some money for renovations!

There’s not too much work to be done before we can start using it as a holiday home: painting and a kitchen has to be placed first. Then the rest we will do bit by bit. It has what they call a taverna on the ground floor, which is partially below ground with vaulted ceilings. We will finish these two rooms and that will become our living room. We will put a small toilet there so you won't have to go upstairs after a few glasses of wine. The washing machine will be there too.

Then there are two bedrooms upstairs and a very tiny bathroom/shower.

There is another building at the back of the garden which was a sort of barn/stall for goats & pig (2 storeys). But it is now cleaned up (spotless) and it can later be turned into a guest house where we can make 2 more bedrooms.

Eventually we will make a new bathroom in the second bedroom because the shower is basically above the toilet with the drain in the floor. No way to make it bigger, because it was built on later as an appendige to the back next to the balcony (see in picture below of the back of the house). We will probably do this after we make one of the bedrooms in the guesthouse. Well, we’ll see when that can get done. For now this will do...

There are two terraces:

Rudi is really looking forward to getting started. I think the realtor said the house was built in the 1920s and the walls are probably about 2 feet thick. The kitchen ceiling has brick with hooks for drying meat (underneath the plaster & paint) so we will chisel that off and expose the brick. We also think under the plaster on the outside walls is the old yellow-coloured stones. We will try to chisel some off in a hidden corner to see and then maybe expose some strategic spots so you can see the stones.

Rudi will start painting in August; starting with the two bedrooms. We ordered beds in June and they can be delivered as soon as he finishes the painting. We will go there together with his mother in September. And at least we will have a place to sleep. We can paint the kitchen and living/dining room while there and do some sightseeing and relax.

The kitchen won't be placed until Christmas, so we will be "camping". There is a propane camping stove there so at least we can make some simple meals. Since there is no sink, we will have to use the beautiful granite sink in the second building; that will be our temporary kitchen. Here is the fireplace in the kitchen...

Eventually, we will use this sink in one of the bathrooms. I just love it!

House from the back....