Sweet 200

The rejuvenating cure and aesthetic surgery of the main facade are almost done. The lady looks pretty and her peach skin immaculate. Almost like a 'torta'. Sweet 200 (years)!

And the new iron grids look so sweet with their quirky elaborations matching the grids of the balconies and the one over the main entrance.



... yes, it was our decision.

We thought we need some curlicues to not have the grids look like prison grids.

Before I start again wondering if it was the right decision ... we need to see the whole picture, the entire facade in real, on site.


Pictures sometimes don't show you the way you look at the things in reality.

Take the blue balkonies. First I was not 'amused', then we got more pictures from different angles. Like this one below.
I love the reflections !

The Renovation of the Facade goes on and on and on

Some might wonder about the progress of the renovation work.
Is the house livable yet?
No!
We have not continued with the interior.
They are still working on the front facade - since a couple of months... on hourly rate... (please don't comment on this).

Here, part of the photo documentation sent via mail from Italy over the last couple of weeks:

Repair of the 'stones look'.

Renovation of the window frames including new window sills.

Balcony beam reconstruction (first, they were too short like shown here in the pic).

Water access (forgot why here)

New stone plates will be added.

* * *
I will be visiting the site tomorrow.
However, I will not have Internet access for a couple of days.
Happy holidays!
Until soon.

Doors, doors, doors

These are some doors we like. We have to do one main entrance door and two smaller doors on each side of the main entrance. All doors are part of the facade facing the piazza. Beside choosing the right design, I was wondering: should the three doors be in the same style:
1) simple yet elegant, like the two left doors in the pic
2) more elaborated, like the two right doors in the pic
or maybe show a bit of contrast
3) main entrance elaborated and the smaller doors simple?

My favorite is alternative 3): prominent main entrance while the two side doors, both in the same style, can be more simple. Imagine, each door has its own street number! - My husband however, thinks all three doors should look the same. Last but not least because the house is one entity.

Any suggestions?

Before and After: Seaside Facade

The patient before in 2006 - a little cleansing and colour is necessary:

And voila, after the treatment in 2008:

Well ... it's a new face ... I have to get used to it ... it might take a while. Not sure if I like the blue over the windows. Maybe a bit too much colour for an old lady? Hmm, the pinkish rouge before was suiting her very well... also the grey balustrade had charm. I guess, this is how you feel after a beauty surgery: is it still me?

While restoring they found blue colour over the windows and the architetto thought to use it again. If we don't like it, we could overpaint it. We agreed. Only now, I see the result, but the scaffolding is gone... How funny!


Update photo 2009:

 

 

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More Facade Before & After posts:

 

before and after facade from above

before and after main facade from piazza (front)

 

See all renovation posts BEFORE and AFTER.

Facades in Southern Italy

Facades are the outside walls of a house. The main facade is the face of a house. It is its surface - but not superficial. Facades can be a cultural heritage, they can tell us about the period of a house's origin. Its colors and decor are often matching regional habits. A facade can create an identity for a house. And "the ability of the facade to create an identity for the patron lies in the architect's use of certain signs, symbols and materials..." (Burroughs)

I start bold with a photo of Roman palazzi facades and a short thought about the importance of a house's exterior.

Here some more facades:

White columns from the ground to the roof... ah, and a pinkish color I would have liked (sigh), seen at Piazza Navona in Rome.

Another version of coloring a facade: Keep the natural stone of the first (ground) floor or paint it white. Then use only color for the floors above. This is at the Piazza di Trevi in Rome.

Now back to Pizzo: a yellow tone with lots of white columns and lines - but still well balanced.

A house with a colour choice similar to ours. Yellow basic tone, white columns and frames, brown window frames. Again white end-to-end columns.

I think it is obvious what I want to sell... white end-to-end columns. Although we decided about the colours (eggshell white and "731", a kind of peach) for our outside walls, we now need to decide about HOW to color the main facade.

We have been discussing it with the architect briefly before our departure. He thought that it might be too much white for the ground floor. I do not think so if we paint the frames of the two side entrances in "731".

To visualize the subject I painted the facades again (only on paper) with my Chinese brushes and water colors.

This is the architects vision (if I understood right). He rather would use white only to frame the two side entrances and then use white again for the colums and frames on the level above.

In both versions the lowest grey band means that we will stick a stone plate on the wall. Apparently there has been one before. I found that out today... when I asked my husband on the phone what he thinks about my proposals that I emailed to him, the architect and Angelo. I asked if we would leave it grey or colour it in "731", and he told me about a marble stone. Actually it is THE marble (or graphite?) that I was complaining about, the one that looks like a grave stone... He said that it will be treated to have a rough surface. BTW all the window sills and door sills that look to sleek get the same workover to make it look rougher. Then, in maybe 50 years, it will look like the stone that frames the main entrance.

The facade of the seaside seems clear. Same pattern as before.

So I am here to get comments about my proposal, especially from the Italians mentioned above.