We've Done It!
An August 2025 update
Although I’m writing to you from a rainy, grey Manchester, I promise this update is (mainly) sunshine & joy.
It’s been a long, long time since I’ve posted about our progress on the renovation of the big, collapsing Italian farmhouse. But we’ve reached a major milestones in the past couple of weeks and in doing so, I’ve got just a smidgen of extra free time to sit down and write.
So, what have we been up to?
The first Hideaway Apartment opened for business for winter 24/25 and was booked out continuously throughout the season, getting 10/10 reviews from all our guests. After all the hard work we’ve put in, it’s so awesome to know our guests are having amazing holidays staying at The Hideaway.
If you haven’t seen the work that went into the Hideaway One you can watch our progress on Channel 4, back when we were fresh faced and woefully naive about what was to come!
We stopped renovations on apartment two during the winter and Ash turned his attention to running Ski Away Day trips to Montgenevre from Sauze d’Oulx, organising ski lessons and equipment hire and working day & night to build his Monsguide business.
And although I was holed up in my office for a significant portion of the season working on my book, we managed to find plenty of time to get out on the mountain and snowboard together again after a successful surgery to remove all the screws from my broken leg.
I couldn’t have asked for a better season to be back on the snowboard again. Blue skies, fresh powder, great friends and great times!
But the minute the lifts shut and our final holiday guests went home it was time for Renovations Round Two…
We learned A LOT from renovating the first holiday apartment and although time & money was tight, we went all out to make sure Hideaway Two would be even better than the first.
We added a little more character to this apartment, swapping out our original tile choices in both the kitchen and bathroom for something a little more interesting and have left space on the wall for a big, handmade wooden art project.
We hadn’t intended on touching the floor, as it was fine before. But after spending the winter mulling over what would make for the best experience for our guests, we bit the bullet and replaced it all.
Ash spent long nights building our absolutely stunning tea & coffee station niche and with only days before our first guests arrived, I woke up at midnight in a cold sweat certain that we simply must repaint the entire balcony and outdoor staircase.
Honestly, we were both running on fumes by this point but when you’re in for a penny…
…So we kept going, to make it perfect. Ash polished up the bindings from skis we found in the attic to make coat hooks, I handmade curtains. If you lined up all the siliconing Ash did, it would stretch around the globe twice. Meanwhile I planted as many flowers as the garden centre would sell to me each day.
And, finally, we welcomed our first guests as the floors were still drying from their final mopping.
Then we had a nap, drank a beer and did what we’ve been wanting to do since we moved here 18 months ago.
We went for a gorgeous hike with our friends and the dog, ate awesome food, drank great wine and relaxed without worrying about the renovation To Do List for the first time in six months!
Angie & Ash