January 2008 Archives

We're currently a few kilometres south of the pre-Alps, the foothills that rapidly fold and rise in Lombardy's north into the huge mountains that dominate the horizon from wherever you are in this part of Italy.

And yesterday, we saw our house, and what once was a construction site, now looks like the beginnings of a really lovely home. So there's no floors, no toilets, no heating (it's 4 ºC, who needs heat?) and no kitchen, but the windows, doors and shutters are in, and it all looks beautiful.

I was explaining the concept of 'paying through your nose' -- we failed to establish an Italian equivalent -- to my would-be mother in law whilst we scrutinised the workmanship; the solid wood that makes up the entire roof, the local white slate that covers the Stairs, the balconies and the terrace, the window frames and fantastic shutter mechanisms, they're all on a different level to the ones we tend to see in new British homes. And they cost less. And they're installed with an engineer's precision. This is all most thrilling to one so anal.

And now we're choosing paints - the man and I seem to have fairly similar views, and while we're not going overboard, there'll be a little adventure there to see that things aren't too staid.

It all makes the planning and stress seem that much more worthwhile; just the encouragement that we needed.

Time to get up...

If I'm very careful, I may succeed in bringing down my rate of posting to one entry per year.