It’s been a little while since I posted an update on Casa Pura, our humble house in the North of Italy. I just returned from a very short trip last weekend and the renovation is going quite well I can say.

Let me start where I left you: beginning of March. As I said back then, we were in the process of gathering proposal from various suppliers, such as the elettricista, the tubista and the muratore. The main goal for 2007 was to install the electricity, water heater and the tubing / piping for the water (both hot and cold). If possible, we also wanted to make a passage from the first floor to the second floor (at the moment, the only way of getting to the second floor is from the outside–which is a little cumbersome in Winter).

Part II - April/May 2008

As I said earlier on, we prepared detailed documentation of where we wanted the electricity installed. Finally, after having visited Italy in March and after having communicated a lot by email and phone, we had an appointment late April to start installing the electricity. Although we had documented everything very thoroughly, it is vital to be present when the elettricista first arrives. The documentation gives some guidance, but in no way gives him enough of an idea about the specifics of what you want. So, be there when the guy starts his work.

In two days, the elettricista did all the milling in the walls and got the electricity working. Not with all the fuse boxes and sockets and all, but the basic stuff was working. After having done this, the muratore would have to come and fix the tubing in the walls. Then, the elettricista would finish his job, by installing all the sockets, the fuse box, et cetera.

So far so good. Beginning of May and we had the first part of the renovation behind us: electricity is installed.

Then the second part started: looking for a tubista and a muratore. During the week in which the elettricista finished his work, a tubista and a muratore were also contacted to look at what needed to be done. The tubista was okay with all our requirements and we set an approximate date for the works to start. The muratore also came to look at the house, but wasn’t particularly interested from the looks of it. While the geometra was inspecting the house with his, he was smoking cigarettes outside. Well, maybe that’s how things work here in Italy we thought.

Part III - June 2008

Anyway, about 6 weeks later we had planned two weeks on site and that’s when we had also set up appointments with the tubista (or idraulico as others seem to call it), muratore and elettricista. We had planned for the muratore to first arrive. He would have to fix the tubing of the elettricista after which the sockets and the fuse box could be installed. Next, the tubista could come to install the tubing for the water and gas.

We arrived in a Saturday and had expected the muratore to arrive first thing Monday morning. Before that happened we first decided to tear down the wall separating the two small ‘living rooms’. The prior owners used one of those rooms as a bedroom and the other as a living room I think, but we wanted to get more light in there and start using it as a living room. Tearing the wall down was done in about half an hour, but taking the rubble down to the garage (we’re storing a lot of rubble there we gather all over the place) took us about 6 hours. The end result was good though.

Fast forward to Monday morning. Apparently, the muratore had figured since we were going to be there for two weeks anyway, he might as well just come in the second week. In other words, he didn’t show up! Hmmm, this screwed up our entire game plan. Second problem: the tubista that was originally planned for didn’t want to come anymore. He had a different gig somewhere else. Nice going!

Luckily enough, the geometra was able to arrange a new tubista on the spot and on Tuesday the guys started to install the tubing. This was done in two-and-a-half days and that was all for the first week

Then the quest for a new muratore began. I dropped by the geometra who was not able to find a new muratore at first. I dropped by the local flower shop (the owners of the flower shop own the house next to us) and asked for a muratore. They knew some, but all of them were busy. I then dropped by at the hotel in which we stayed for a while before the house was ours. They also knew a few guys that could get the job done, but all were occupied. Just as I was thinking I was out of options, a guest in the hotel overheard our conversation and chimed in. He told he knew a muratore. He gave me the phone number and off I went, back to the geometra. Long story short: Monday morning (after first having promised Saturday, but one of his guys was ill) he turned up with four guys and in little under 8 hours, he had fixed everything. Phew…

The next two days were great. It was the connecting the dots: doing a little painting, having the elettricista install the sockets and the fuse box, having the tubista do the hot water. Almost half a year of preparation resulted in a massive change in the looks of the house (internally at least) within a few days.

Other things we did in the two weeks we were there: a lot painting (not just inside, also outside), cleaning the garden, buying tiles for the bathroom, buying a toilet, buying a natural stone kitchen surface.

Part IV - July 2008

The next major challenge was the bathroom. We had originally planned for my dad to drop by in the two weeks we were there to do the tiling. But due to a family emergency, he wasn’t able to come. My mom and dad however did want to go to the house, so they planned for two weeks of holiday in July. Right after the party for my 30th birthday they left and took all the stuff with them that was needed to do the tiling. In two weeks, they took care of installing the tiling, cleaning a lot more and fixing three little supporting walls on which the kitchen surface would have to be fixed.

Together with my dad I fixed the kitchen surface this month in a short weekend trip to Italy and also did some more painting. Unfortunately my dad wasn’t able to get the tiling on the bathroom floor done, but this is not such a big deal as for now, we take a shower outside. We’ll probably fix the tiling on the bathroom floor somewhere later this summer.

All and all, I think the renovation is going quite well. We’re still on schedule to getting most of it done and over with by the end of the summer, or at least, before the winter season. One thing we won’t be able to get done is the inside stairs. Well, it’s okay to have this wait until next summer or so.

Money-wise we’re going slightly over budget, but it’s not more than 5% or so, so we budgeted things quite realistically. I’ll try to post a budget overview later on.

Some lessons learnt:

• Always confirm appointments twice, thrice or four times. Be sure to confirm appointments two weeks in advance, one week in advance and also one, two or maybe three days in advance. This helps at least making sure the workers turn up
• Don’t rely too much on prior documentation. Ask for price lists, hourly rates and do the calculation yourself. A fixed price offer: forget it
• Be there when the workers first arrive. This is when you need to explain what you want, where you want your tubing, et cetera. Even though workers might have seen the house before they start working, you need to make sure you’re there to finalize the specifics of the works

p.s. note that the old pictures have been taken with my Pentax K10-D and the new pictures with my iPhone, so the old ones are of way better quality than the new ones. I think the contrast with the old situation is even more than the pictures show.

p.p.s. A big thanks to my dad and mum: they’ve been great in helping out so far!!!