Top 10 Impressions from the Renovation Work

In the last five days I have taken many pictures from the house and the work progress. Every day, I am on site measuring, looking into details, unpacking, helping whatever I can do. Yesterday, while showing friends around, I realized that I have some new favorite spots that I want to show you too:

My first favorite spot is the small sunny piazza infront of the house.

Here, at the main entrance three generations of (future) inhabitants are posing happily.

Angelo's art work at entrance #37

more stucco and paint art work on ceilings

my favorite bathroom in the vaulted cellar

good news: we found enough original floral tiles for the main entrance

measuring and calculating the floor space in the vaulted cellar (seminterrato),

we will have natural oak wook parquet since Angelo had insolated the floor perfectly.

It is difficult to say which is my favorite floor, but I really like this unique basement!

father and son at work in the living room

we bought stucco deco borders for the walls and sample colours to try out the effect (soon). Can't wait to see the trial paint on the walls....

my favorite room for the moment is our guest room with view into orange trees, the yellow of the ceiling is so warm and friendly - even the chandelier, that is not really my taste, can stay.

interesting perspective on the primo piano - the door frames turned out nice!

My favorite spot for the view is our balcony on the piano terra

Of course there are many more beautiful spots in the house, but these are the top 10 of the last five days. More is coming. 

Work Progress in Pizzo

Angelo decided to give his new light sky blue ceiling an apricot framing

The sixth and last bathroom will be a blue bathroom - it's the one in the guest residence

waterproofing of last bathroom floor (seminterrato)

Work Progress in March

photo documentation about work progress - click above to enlarge

Angelo, my father-in-law, who also at the moment functions as our contractor on site, sends us photos via email about the work progress. Sometimes I get several mails a day, each with a couple of pictures about different subjects or rooms and his comments. At the moment his reports are all positive about completion and progress. Very promising and inviting. We have gas for cooking, we have hot water for shower and heat for cold days.

The screen capture above shows my "March File". It shows thumbnails about the seminterrato where the walls were insulated, it shows a waste water pump in the garden, the renovated scuri of the windows of the primo piano, the actual status of the bathrooms, the new doors in different areas of the house and the finished stairways - which deserves a post of its own. 

Since the second week of March is always a busy week for me (birthday and anniversary celebrations) I had no time to update the blog. But now, I am back on track.    

update

Wow, more than a month has passed since my last posts (about the bathroom) and my yesterday post (about the stuccoed ceiling) !?

Our "contactor" Angelo, my father-in-law, has been back in Northern Italy for a break.

In the meantime, I have been busy setteling into our new home in Bangkok. We found a lovely appartment and moved in beginning of September :

new Bangkok home

In October, our son had his first break from school and we decided to visit our old home in Beijing, China for the first time since we moved away two years ago :

old Beijing home

 Now, we are all back on track. Me in Bangkok and Angelo in Pizzo. Last week, he "pushed" me to decide on the tiling and equipment in two more bathrooms, since he wants the bathrooms finished before the parquet laying. Of course I have thought about these bathrooms a thousand times and had many pictures collected in my files. But when it came to the selection of sinks, I realized that I do not have the exact measurements of the walls and the distances between sink and toilet etc. Also we had never finally decided on tiles or mosaic. So can you imagine, how I felt? Thousand of miles away from the construction site. My husband in the office and busy with other things. And Angelo who does not want to see mails and mails with my brainstorms, but just clear instructions?

It is a challenge ! And it's fun ! It is a project that distracts me from my (sometimes) boring day to day life. Although I cannot say that I my day to day life is boring yet, after having moved just three months ago to South East Asia. Probably it will never be boring. But for someone who has worked fulltime for almost 20 years, it is like a fun job ! I wonder what I do, when we have finished this project ?! But probably there will be always something to do ! I even might convert it into a B&B for holidayer from May to October.

Have you noticed the door got big bullen nails (borchia f., borchie pl.) !? (photo below).

And look, we got a door bell and plates with our names ingraved ! So you could ring the bell and if I would be home, I would open you the door and offer you an aperitivo... 

 

 in progress: Italian home  

Pizzo Project (Lungomare)

Sometime ago I presented a project of the commune di Pizzo for the  lungomare  between la marina and la Seggiola.

The map below shows the Marina on the right and the little bay called La Seggiola on the left:

Inbetween boths sights of the village is a not so attractive 'lungomare' which was provisorically installed some years ago to protect the rock on which thrones the historical centre of Pizzo from being washed out by the sea.

However, there is one more attraction hiding ! Almost underneath our house one can still see the entrance of the "grotta azzurra". When my husband was a little boy (not so many years ago) he used to go by boat very close to the grotta and even swim inside the grotta. Today grows grass around the entrance and it easily can be overseen.

position of the grotta azzurra

A project of the commune of Pizzo forsees a reopening of the grotta. The plan is to enlarge the bay by letting in sea water until the grotta. Eventually this area will be used as yacht haven and small boats will carry visitors inside the grotta azzurra.

Pizzo as it was for many years

Pizzo's new lungomare that connects the Marina with La Seggiola

and opens the grotta azzurra for visitors

draft of the project

photo from the inside of the grotta today

photo sources: with friendly permission for publication by Arch. P. Pitt



Update November 2010:

They have started with the earth moving work. Here a photo taken from our balcony:

PS:
Oh, yes, it is a fantastic project - and the view from our house will be even more interesting.
I only hope that the earth moving work they do, and the digging, does not affect the rock... and the houses on top...


Update July 2012:

Since this post is one of the most popular posts of my blog, I think a little update is necessary. Last summer, 2011, they finished the digging of the harbor. There is no connection to the gotta, however. A neighbour, who lives above the gotta, stopped this part of the project with a lawsuit. He claimed the work would endanger the rock on which many houses of the Centro storico of Pizzo are located. Well, maybe not that absurd.

But after they did all the earthwork, the heavy equipment and trucks disappeared. Now, we have just a deserted sandy dessert around the half finished "harbor" - that has not seen any boat yet, I guess it is not deep enough - and the wind transports fine dust every day up to our balconies and through the windows...

The new elected major Callipo (since May 2012) wants to continue with the project. But people here say that the commune has no more money. It seems a typical Calabrian project. It will take more time than other projects elsewhere. But it will be accomplished one day, I am sure, because it is a great project, that will make Pizzo even more attractive in the future.

For further updates click Harbour Project