First summer in our new house

Hello, Smeralda and welcome.  I'm sure you'll receive lots of recommendations and advice here.  Have a great summer! Pat

Hi Smeralda.  We too have just bought a place in northeren Tuscany, north of Lucca and like you are very excited to be visiting soon and staying for the first time - I can't wait.  Unlike you we would not have room to build a pool so I won't be any help there - a small patio is going to be our limit!  We will be able to stay in the house without doing too much work but long term we will be making alterations and getting things into shape hopefully.  I'm looking forward to buying furniture, rugs and things for the walls etc - lots of trips to shops and antique fairs I think!  Good luck and have a great time. Jan

HI Smeralda   We have had a lot of work done at our place near to Bagni and we use Paganelli's just down the road from you, near to the roundabout.   There are also Pieroni down the main road from Borgo toward Lucca. I have to say that we have always bought from these two via our Builders. Apart from anything else they can negotiate the best deal - and of course, speak the language!   JanJ, if you are looking to pave outside the house, be sure that you are choosing something that will not offend the local authorities. It depends upon where your house is but we have had to be very careful - with our geometra letting us know what we can and cannot have. (And all this for a little rustico!)   We will be over in two weeks time and can't wait to camp out in our house for the first time.   Wishing you both a gorgeous hot and lazy summer.   Fabbriche

Hi, We are hoping to spend our first summer holiday in our property just above Bagni di Lucca in a few weeks time. We are really looking forward to it as it has taken us 3 years to complete the renovations! Giancarlo and Barabara who own Geocasanet Immobiliare which is just next to the Devils Bridge have been a great help with our house purchase and renovations. Giancarlo has also helped us with the planning applications for a swimming pool, as I understand regulations are quite strict in the area regarding the installation of a pool. We are hoping to look at a few pools and get a few quotes with Giancarlos help on our next trip, so I will be able to tell you how we get on. We are really looking forward to a few shopping trips to furnish our property and the advice from this site has been so useful. Hope this helps    

Thanks for the advice Fabbriche.  We could easily have just gone ahead without thinking about the authorities.  I would like to think that we'll use something sympathetic but maybe we'll check it out first! A week tomorrow and we'll be there! Jan

Thank you for the welcoming words from you all, and the advice from Fabbriche. Saffie, please keep me informed about your progress with the pool! If we can afford it, we would like to have one built next year. This year we will do with an Intex "fouri terra" plastic one. Jan, I sent you private message, since I wonder if we might have something in common :-)

Hi again Smeralda, Please ignore previous message - see know that private message was sent to Jan. Saffie

 We have a wooden framed pool that was installed 8 years ago as an optional "above ground" pool but has since had the area around it built up so is now below ground. We had a local english builder install it but it was purchased from a company called Euroform Srl at Capannori (Lucca). The website was www.Countrypool.it.  Jerry