After years of effort we are finally having to give up the dream of completing the villa, so it's up for sale. Most of the boring bits have been completed, it's the fun, pretty stuff left to do to make it habitable.
godzillavilla's activity
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A friend and I recently traveled to my place in Scurtabo where we managed, with only a crowbar at our disposal, to remove all the revolting old ceilings.
Thu, 05/10/2012 - 07:50
I've just posted a full set of internal photos of our wreck of a villa so you can see the full extent of the job ahead of us. I'm sure some of you have been through this stage of things.
Wed, 03/07/2012 - 09:08
I've just posted a full set of internal photos of our wreck of a villa so you can see the full extent of the job ahead of us. I'm sure some of you have been through this stage of things.
Wed, 03/07/2012 - 09:08
http://wp.me/p1TZTg-4i Spaghetti Westerns: A post about the weird attraction of American-style rodeos in Italy.
Thu, 02/09/2012 - 17:59
A short blog entry about learning to live at an Italian pace; it seemed popular with other expats so I post it here for your entertainment! http://wp.me/p1TZTg-3z
Tue, 01/17/2012 - 23:07
http://www.warmboard.com/warmboard-explained/ I came across this product, which looks like a good alternative for infloor heating in all-wood floor construction (such as ou
Sun, 01/01/2012 - 13:45
A short blurb on a pretty amazing manifestation of Ligurian ingenuity; back in the 1980's, as their town was dying, the government of Varese Ligure had the bright idea to develop an entire organic territory, resulting in being the first valley to
Thu, 12/29/2011 - 15:07
Our first garden sculpture: the remains of our old roof! Added a piece of Rebar and an alms cup from a scrap of copper gutter and now we have an Angel http://wp.me/p1TZTg-1P
Mon, 12/12/2011 - 20:40
Visited the apartment we keep near Varese Ligure after a closure of several months (including most of summer) and found dozens of huge wasps, now dead from the cold. No sign of the nest. Chimney maybe? Anyone have experience with this?
Fri, 11/25/2011 - 18:26
Comments posted
Sorry to be so long replying to your note! The roof was completely demolished, including all the beams, a new steel collar was built around the top of the house to hold it together, and a new roof put on. So now a bomb could go off and it will probably stay intact! The ceilings on the top floor are all coming out though - so it will be 'trave a vista' to the roof. The master bedroom furniture looks better in the photos than in real life - they suffered water damage - but with a coat of paint they might live on. Thanks for your wishes!
Once you've paid it, keep the little receipt slip as a reminder for the next year (and a way to remember how to fill it out). The comune are generally casual about when it gets paid if you're non-resident, just as long as every year it does get paid. I have our ICI account number and I just pay it through the Post Office every year. Hopefully in the bill they sent you it indicates how much the regular charge is per year, not just your four-year total.
Are you at your place often (or all the time?) I'm hoping to be in Varese around the first week of April and would be happy to give you a tour.
There is a lot to consider for sure, and getting used to life in Italy can be surprisingly difficult; I have to say throughout the time I lived in Milan it was the British who were most frustrated by the Italian way doing things. All the same, people tend to regret the things they didn't do more than they regret the things they did! It doesn't have to be an all-or-nothing decision. If you own a house in England, rent it out for a year and rent a place in Italy for yourself. That way you get to try out the area you're interested in, too. Or try a house swap. In any case I'm sure you'll find this forum both useful and entertaining!
That's a very good question! Originally we were living in Italy and thought to create a B&B. But life changes faster than the house progresses...now that we're back in Canada, my first thought is simply to complete the house. I'm thinking of it more as a rental than a B&B at the moment. Theoretically these decisions would affect how we build it, but because all the interior walls are massive stone we can't actually change that much. The bottom level would make a great B&B space but to be 'in code' these days we'd have to dig up the cement floor, excavate, and create a new floor with space under it - which also means creating a new steel collar all around the base to make sure the place doesn't collapse when we do all that digging around the pitifully shallow foundations. All this to say - making it livable first, then we'll worry about the rest. Be prepared to spend way more than you intended! But it's a really fun adventure.
Yes our new roof is (thankfully) completely insulated and vapour barrier'd etc. A very nice job in fact - totally worth having it well done. No roof, no house, as the villa's original state can attest. The roof had been allowed to fall apart, and everything inside was ruined as a result.
I have friends in an old stone house north of Milan and they have put sughero panels on the inside of their walls on the north side and in the thin parts of the window wells. They put up wood batting and attached the panels to that, then plastered over the whole lot (mano grezzo, etc) just as though it were the stone. You can't tell the difference in terms of the final look of the plaster, but it's neutrally warm to the touch in winter.
Not sure which ones you mean. Our permesso di soggiorno process as non EU members, in order to be resident in Milan, was arduous but greatly aided by a paid consultant who specializes in that area. My husband's company paid for her but if I were trying to enter without a company to back me I'd pay to use her myself, she made it all so much smoother. For the rebuild of the house the permits were all handled by our local geometra and that was relatively simple, apart from some issues of perceived 'volume enlargement' because we were raising the roof to the rafters.
Glad you liked it, thanks for the feedback. Piano, piano is right!
Many thanks for the forum links, I'll check them out!