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The View From Above

Trullo rooftop

When we embarked upon this project, we would never have envisaged we’d have ended up here. My last blog was on 16th March when Italy was in full lockdown and the UK a week away. We would have wished that people like yourselves would now be enjoying well-earned holidays at Genista and enjoying all that Puglia has to offer.

But its not all bad news. As I write this, the builders have been back on site for two weeks. Most of our issues currently are overcoming small hurdles such as availability of tiles and wall toppings. It could be a lot worse.

New plaster Genista extension

You’ll see from the image at the top of this post that the new roof is now complete on both the new extension and the old part of the house which we’d had to get re-done as a result of some clear evidence of water leakage inside the hall.

Here you can also see that the new doorway has been cut to the right size and the plastering is finished. The issue with the tiles in the shower is not fully resolved yet. We have found someone who will cut the bigger tiles down to a smaller size so we can bend them round corners but they are still looking to charge us more than we would wish to pay given this is an oversight on the part of the builder who designed the shower curved. That was not our choice so we don’t believe we should have to pay. But we’ll see.

Cisterna water channel

One huge improvement just now is the paving across the whole property has been cleaned up and repaired where necessary. This has included the digging of a channel from the front gate of the house to the cisterna enabling us to make use of the agricultural water supply which comes at a much cheaper price than the regular water suppliers. We’re a tad concerned that they seem to have used slightly smaller stones to over pave the channel which makes it stand out more than it should. It’s clearly visible on this photograph. However, we are hoping that it will bed in with age. All in all though it’s looking a lot tidier and a lot more finished. We are definitely getting there and all things considered we should at least be finished in time for next summer.

Just one major issue still now remains. The ongoing saga of the permit for our swimming pool. Back in December (I think it was) we were told it would be issued in January. Then, in an effort to curb corruption, the entire Communé was subject to a total overhaul and all departments were switched around. We were still hopeful that by February we should have it in our hands despite the change of offices. Then of course lockdown happened and, well, who knows?! It could be anywhere. We remain hopeful. Our next trip, Covid and airlines permitting, is on 28th July. We pray that our arrival fosters good news.

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Flooring, rendering but a tiling issue

Wall tiles

We really liked these tiles for the walls in the new bathroom. The aim was to try to bridge the gap between the old and rustic and the sleek and modern. These seemed to do that nicely.

curved shower wall

Slight problem! This is the wall of the shower which just happens to be curved. The thing about big wide tiles, as nice as they are, they don’t bend around corners. €800 says they’ll cut them into smaller, mosaic -style squares and get around it that way. But that seems incredibly steep and at some point on these projects you do have to start putting a safety net over the bottomless well of expense that they become. Plus we figure this is an oversight on the builder’s part rather than ours. We await a solution.

Rustic floor tiles

On a more positive note the floor tiles have arrived and are now in the process of being laid to match the style of the original floor. There was a slight problem again here. And here is a word of warning to anyone thinking of embarking on a project like this from afar. It’s these small details that you sign off when you are present that can come back and bite you on the proverbial when you’re not around. The tiles chosen for the en-suite were a slightly smaller depth than those we chose for the bedroom floor. Which means there was a step down and a potential tripping point when re-entering the bedroom from the en-suite. The decision was taken, therefore, to floor the bathroom in the same tiles as the rest of the floor as shown here. Remember that bottomless pit of expenditure we spoke about earlier? These tiles of course are €20 per square metre more than the previous ones. And so it goes on but the end result will be a whole lot better.

Rendering on the new build

Last time we were at the house in January, the builder took me to one side and explained that the rendering of the outside of the new building would have to wait until May when the weather had improved. We were pleasantly surprised therefore to see this picture that shows that they appear to have done it already. We don’t know whether they had a particularly fine spell of weather that allowed them to do this or if the original excuse about waiting until May was a bit of a fabrication. But for these small wins, we shall be grateful.

Our next visit is due mid-March but at the time of writing Italy is suffering more than any other country in Europe with the Corona virus outbreak. At the moment the North is the worst affected and we hope that they are able to contain it in time for us to still go. Fingers crossed for all.