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....