2923 We have just bought in Abruzzo

well done for your new house!!

you will have a great time in this area, im sure!!!

Thank you very much. Are you in this area?

Welcome to the forum! Hope you will find it as informative as we have done. We are based in Lazio, north of Roma so can not answer your specific questions. However there are forum members based in Abruzzo whom we are sure will answer them soon.

[QUOTE=andrea.pearton]Hi to all. We have just bought a house in cermignano Abruzzo, is there anybody near this area that we could talk to about where to buy things, such as diy stores, and we need to restore our house, so need trades people. How to get water from our well, what to grow how to grow them. We have 1 hectre. ect ect. Thanks. James and Andrea.[/QUOTE]

You can get just about everything in the industrial estate near Pescara airport. You will find two major DIY stores (OBI and castorama - [url]www.obi-italia.it[/url] and [url]www.castorama.it[/url]) you will also find the co-op hypermarket, various bathroom and kitchen stores etc. Another good store is mercatano uno which sells all sorts of furniture ( [url]www.mercatoneuno.com[/url] )

That said, you will often find the same stuff locally at the small furniture stores and kitchen stores. They will also come round and fit it. One useful tool if you need to put redo your kitchen and your italian isn't very good is the ikea kitchen designer. You can produce your drawing and take it round and show them exactly what you want.

regards

andy

[QUOTE=andrea.pearton]Hi to all. We have just bought a house in cermignano Abruzzo, is there anybody near this area that we could talk to about where to buy things, such as diy stores, and we need to restore our house, so need trades people. How to get water from our well, what to grow how to grow them. We have 1 hectre. ect ect. Thanks. James and Andrea.[/QUOTE]

Hi, when are you over there for? We're in Montefino which is pretty close to yours and have some experience. For 2nd hand furniture, go to Mercatino Usato. There's one in Montesilvano and Pescara, there's also one in Teramo. Re: DIY stores, Castorama and Obi are quite expensive and we've heard that there's a cheaper one somewhere in or around Villa Vomano. however haven't been there yet so I can't give you any further info.

Cheers

Simone

[QUOTE=montefino]Hi, when are you over there for? We're in Montefino which is pretty close to yours and have some experience. For 2nd hand furniture, go to Mercatino Usato. There's one in Montesilvano and Pescara, there's also one in Teramo. Re: DIY stores, Castorama and Obi are quite expensive and we've heard that there's a cheaper one somewhere in or around Villa Vomano. however haven't been there yet so I can't give you any further info.

Cheers

Simone[/QUOTE]

Taking on board that Castorama and OBI can be expensive for certain things, one thing I have certainly found is that it is often worthwhile paying the costs. The time and effort involved in searching for the best deal often does not allow the time to actually do the work. Considering the cost of going there, I have certainly found that the extra cost is more than outweighed by the time saved and work completed during the visit.

That said, there are some very good deals at these two. For example, on my last visit, I bought all the light fittings from OBI's sale for 150 euros. Considering these are all chrome finish with glass shades and there were nine of them and one of them cost 70 euros, it was actually quite a good deal. 10euros each for a wall mounted chrome and glass wall light cannot be considered expensive!!!

Regards

ANdy

have sent you a pm message .... we live close by.... in fact cermignano has some of the best agriturismo in this province so we pop up that hill every so often... congratulations

Thank you for the valuable info Andy and everyone else, I thought we were going to be on our own and struggle with every thing, glad to see there are so many people out there willing to give advice. Thanks to all.

hi welcome we are in the next commune to you in basciano have sent you a pm sharon

Hi ya and welcome

It's worth a vist to OBI and CASTORAMA, I find their catalogues very useful when I nip down to our local builders merchant.

Also I can plan the next project in the UK and pick what I need when I land at Pescara.

I might start this as a seperate thread

I guess Andy S 's advice is fair - based on my experience trying to take a ladder that bent back to the store. (It was a foldable ladder)

I took the ladder back - and had a real problem for them to even accept the ladder was faulty - until I persuaded them to find a spare wall - and walk up it...

Oh - it bent in half - now theres a surprise ..

They would not refund my money - all I could do was but another product ..

Fortunately - they had a better quality make in the store - which I recognised (the previous owner of my house had bought this type) - so I bought that - it was a few Euros more - but have been very happy with the purchase -

Moral of the story is - dont buy cheapest!!!