Kensington2's activity

I was looking through my old posts and thought I would post an update. It is now 6 years since my origional posting. The build is now complete. We are sitting in 450m2 of the most incredible house I have ever seen. It was a long slog through. 2.5 years to get the permissions, 18 months to build plus other time just messing rounds with technicalities. The price.....my heart and soul!! Really, budget on €2000 per m2 for top end quality (stone on the outside, anti-siesmic construction, solar panels, efficient heating system - top end but not overboard) including all fees, IVA and courts costs - yes the builder decided we were not paying enough for our beautiful building that he had created and extracted another €50k out of us - we paid just to end it but that hurt. So...am I glad we did it - absolutly 'yes'....Would I do it again - "NEVER'! If you are reading this thinking you can do it - you can but it is a serious undertaking, the Italians are like shifting sand compared to our American/English mentality and they are all at it. My price is realistic talking all that into consideration but you will go grey!!! Enjoy the experience if you are brave enough and let us know how you get on.

Telecom Italia will rent you a wi-fi router. If the signal drops when you go out of the room where the router is located you will need some boosters. I have three in my house and get wi-fi everywhere (even in the garden). Once telecom have done their bit (for me they just posted the router and left me to install it which was no problem - connect the electricty and the phone line and tap in the password (located on the underside of the router) into your pc). For the boosters i used a computer shop man - he came out and checked how many i needed and in which locations and then installed them. Simple really....

I have an accumulator linked to 5 solar panels as well as my wood boiler and a wood stove. In the summer I rely on the solar panels. In spring and autumn depending on the weather i may need to start the boiler to 'top' up the heat in the accumulator. If i am only using hot water during this time, one firing of the boiler will give me enough hot water for 2 or 3 days. Cooking is a mix of conventional cooking in an electric oven (and a induction hob) together with an outside bread oven. You do need an upgrade on the standard 3kw of electricity to use this combination though. Hope this helps.

Think of wood...its eco friendly, cheap and it heats my home for 1200Euro per year compared to 5000Euro for gas. I have a large house on the side of a mountain so I need the heat! The men come and stack the wood for me and all I have to do is put it in the boiler. I love it!

I have not seem them in Italy either. I have just bought some from an online shop from the UK but they would not send them because their courier was worried as there was a minute piece of radioactive material in them??!! Thats what they told me but apparently this piece makes the CO2 alarm work. In any event they arrive next week!!

i would be very interested. Would you come to the Montepulciano region of Tuscany? i have two basset hounds called Harold and Maude and a collection of chickens on my small farm - idillic living i hope! Let us know. We have nothing planned but a contact who would be ineterested to house/pet sit would be great!

I am in Tuscany - Montepulciano area and no way could i get a price like that here - well done you.

Unfortunately the prices seem in line for a double wall flue but get a discount for cash! It would be very worth while though with gas prices going through the roof!!

Thank you Gala... this is food for thought. Presumably they got this price because of the quantity. I shall have to negotiate a bit more next time. I only bought 20 quintale this time to check the quality, next time i will buy about 8 tons (80 quintale)! Once again thanks.

Ok, so the answer to the question is... 13 Euros per 100kg (quintal) plus 1 euro for staking in a neat pile. As i have a gassification wood boiler and a huge accumulator tank the specialist reckons on between 8-10 tons of wood per year for my house depending on the temperature i want and the severity of the winter. I will let you know what happens. the first delivery is on Tuesday so i can get the boiler fired up after that. For those that have been following my limited posts on here, i have knocked down the old 1950's house and built a new one in Tuscany on three floors (Inc the basement - where the wood boiler and accumulator are), all made of local stone, chestnut windows and doors, cotto floors, solar panels on the roof etc etc etc. So i am a fountain of knowledge on building costs and techniques!!:) The house is nearly finished - we are about three weeks away and this journey has taken 4 years to realise. Loads of people have asked if i would do this again and my answer is very simple. I am glad i have done it and (almost) come through the other side but i would never do it again. Maybe a little time will soften the dramas of the 4 years but it is very unlikely I will be building another house...anywhere! Oh and FLIP....... who wrote this..... Who ever you get it from, I now hope he stiffs you on the price! There is always one tosser in every woodpile.