Sorry for the delay...
... but we're back with a bang
It feels like only a minute since we signed over our life savings, got handed the huge sets of keys, and pulled our car onto the drive of our very first home.
But we’ve officially reached our first anniversary in the big, collapsing farmhouse. And after 12 months, I’m glad to report it’s much less ‘collapsing’ than it was, and I fall more in love every day with the building, the village, the valley & the country.
Anyway, updates! That’s what you’re here for, right? Well, the reason my updates have been so slow recently, is because we’re at a real crunch stage, essentially renovating, creating & decorating three apartments, all at once, in time for the winter season.
So, after speaking to my Mum today, and realising I hadn’t told her about the new walls, new heating, new kitchen, new windows etc. etc. etc. I realised a blog post was long overdue!
Why do one renovation when you can do four…. all at once?
The Three Apartments
Our first holiday apartment was pretty much finished & looking OK, but to make it more than OK, to make it special for our guests, who are now quickly booking up the place for the winter season, we decided it needed more work.
So… with new windows installed (and the planning office granting permission for an additional window in record time), and a new door on the way, it’s looking even better.
Radiators are being hung, heated towel rails installed, and the most eco-friendly heating system possible is about to kick in.
Outdoors, new external walls have been built on the adjoining property & new garden furniture has been bought.
Hideaway Two - The One Bed Apartment with Balcony
Apartment Two (the one we said we might put off until next year, then decided we’re gluttons for punishment) has also seen massive progress.
What used to be quite a cold, dreary space has now been fully insulated, and is almost ready for plastering & tiling.
Like the Garden Studio, we’ve made an effort to add tonnes more electrical sockets (if you’ve holidayed in Italy before, you’ll know what I’m talking about), rewired the lighting & rebuilt the kitchen so it’s now designed with heaps of useful storage & space.
Whole new walls have been built for the brand new bathroom, and we’ve spent days rearranging furniture & fixtures on my home design software & IRL, to make sure we’ve considered everything that could possibly make our guests stays more comfortable.
And, finally, Apartment Three is where we’ll be living this winter.
Building Apartment Two has meant giving up our kitchen & dining room, so we need to build a whole new kitchen & dining room for ourselves.
In the future, we plan to live entirely in the second house (confused? Here’s a quick explainer on all the property we have if you need a reminder), and therefore at some point we’ll convert Apartment Three into a holiday apartment, too. But at least for this year, it’ll be our home, and needs to be set up so we can live comfortably.
We’ve bought a (massive) kitchen and now only have the simple task of plumbing, wiring & installing it, along with a (massive) new sofa in our open plan living-cooking-dining space… but our comfort has to be put on the back burner for now…
…Because it’s all systems go on the holiday apartments, first.
We’ve also - half finished the terrace, built an external wall for the outdoor room & climbed up inside the massive chimney to clean it… but I’ll tell you more about all that another time!
Angie