An Amazing Transformation

The garden has undergone nothing short of an an amazing transformation in the last two weeks. Remember this pile of rocks?

We dug up these paving stones from various parts of the garden and driveway. We found some on the surface as part of a dis-used pathway running alongside the house, and we found others buried around the trees and in the driveway.

We decided to use these stones to make a patio, which not only saved a huge amount of money, but also creates a very characteristic feature to the property as finding stones of this age and character has become very difficult (it's also a fun story to tell that the stones have come from the grounds of the house). The result: a fantastic stone terrace on which to enjoy the Tuscan summer.

In the remaining part of the garden , we removed one of the two trees. They had been planted too close to each other and had become too entwined. Leaving one tree alone will allow it to grow properly and it also looks much better. The ground has been levelled and we will lay sod in the next week to make a beautiful grass lawn in this area. The stone path leads to the stairway that goes up to the driveway and garage.

The Interior is Almost Finished

We visited the house last weekend and to find that a building site has become a home. Almost everything inside is now complete except for some finishing work. We still need to hang the curtains in the bedrooms, install the shower doors and some hardware on the doors and shutters, and touch up the paint, but all of the big work is done.

The kitchen is everything we hoped for and more:

We have begun furnishing the living rooms. . .

. . .and the bedrooms:

We are almost ready for the finishing touches and we can now certainly stay in the house.

Outside, there's been an amazing transformation, which I will save for the next post.

Closer to the Finish

Progress continues at a pretty steady pace, and it's all hands to the pumps to get things done before the end of the first week of August. That's when we plan on staying in the house for two weeks, so we want to have completed everything by then.

So far we have completed most of the interior work and everything looks great (I'm even growing to like the interior paint colour!). I especially like the main bathroom.

Some of the furniture has even been delivered.

Now that thet inside has been completed except for the final coats of paint and floor cleaning, much of the focus has shifted outside. These stones will soon become a patio.

The patio will be built in this area:

We've taken down one of the two huge pine trees in the garden as they were too close together. We had a bit of a scare when after we removed the tree, the remaining one began to sag towards the house, as it had been relying on its pair for support. The removal of a few large branches (which needed to go anyway) has seemed to solve this problem for now, and it does not appear to be in danger of falling, but we need to keep our eye on it.

The next couple of weeks are sure to be frantic ones, as we complete the stonework and landscaping in the garden.

The Latest Photos

The kitchen is almost done:


Cabinet and bookshelves:


Things remain a little disorganised:

Someday this will be a stone patio:

Work on the roof and gutters is almost complete:

More Progress

We visited the house last weekend to find a pretty chaotic scene, but looking past the confusion and clutter, the various builders and tradesmen had made significant progress. They have completed the bathroom tiling, almost completed the kitchen installation, painted the walls in all of the rooms with at least the first coat, installed the light fixtures and cleaned and stripped the floors. About half of the windows, doors and shutters have been stripped and re-painted and the remainder are in progress, and the cabinet and bookshelves in the living room have been built.

Most of the furniture has arrived, but because work continues to progress inside the house, most of it remains boxed up and stacked up in various rooms or else stored away in the garage. This of course contributes to the overall state of disarray.

Quite a bit of work remains outside. They have completed most of the work on the roof, replacing a number of tiles and ensuring it does not leak, and about half of the new copper guttering has now been installed. Exterior painting should happen in a few weeks.

Landscaping the garden is the next big job. First we will need to clear all the rubbish that has accumulated during the renovation. We then plan to build a stone patio and plant flowers and shrubs around the walls. The pathway from the garage to the street also needs significant clearing and pruning.

We met with two different landscapers Monday to get estimates, which we should have within a couple of days. The good news is that they say that they can complete the work by the end of July. The bad news (which we have not received but I know is coming) is that it will undoubtedly be expensive!

Pictures to follow. . .