And More Progress!

Great news!  Nick and I drove an hour to the nearest city to go to our favourite travel agent.  I know there are travel agents in our little town but we have been dealing with Flight Centre for a decade now and they have never been anything but helpful.

Picture borrowed from http://vintage.johnnyjet.com with thanks

So we bought our tickets, booked the car, got the travel insurance and we are in negotiations for a housesitter!  120 days until we leave for Bella Sicilia!  I definitely need to ramp up my Italian studying.

We may be driving around Sicilia in a Fiat 500, but I will definitely be trying to keep the wheels on the road!

Other great news!  We have more pictures from Scott.  The kitchen counter is in, cupboards are up and the sink and the gas stovetop will be installed soon.

The wood stove has had a facelift and the counters are the beautiful espresso colour we asked Scott for.   

There was some leakage from the kitchen but Scott repaired the damage and you can't even see it now.

Scott sent us this message:

On a side note. The hob and sink have not arrived but I am told they will be here imminently so they will be fitted etc asap. The house is also drying out nicely. I would like to get the outside of the house rendered and finished before we re-paint so that it is water tight and no more damp can come in through the front wall on the 2nd floor (currently ruining the paintwork we have already done. (aggggghhhh) nothing for you to worry about though it will all be done in plenty of time for your next visit.

This is us flying to Sicily!  Nick is the one behind the pilot with the curly hair, then me all excited, and then Nick's buddy Bill who is thinking about coming to visit for a week or so.

More Pictures!!! Feedback needed...

Scott sent us a few new pictures of the terrazza and the kitchen and I would love some feedback.

This is the new tile on our terrazza off the kitchen.  I love it!!!

Our new countertop being installed!  So much work space!

Scott asked if we like this colour stain.  While I like this colour, I think a darker stain might make the countertop pop more.  What do you think?  I would love some input!

We Have Pictures!!!!

We have pictures!  Scott, owner of Access Sicily Property, who is doing all the reno work for us and has been and continues to be wonderful through this process, has sent pictures and an update.

The bedroom wall that had been half taken down by the previous owner has been returned to it's pristine state:

Before

After

The asbestos roof on the storage room on the top terrazza in now off and replaced and two 1000 litre water tanks have been installed.

Old storage room asbestos roof

More of the old roof

Old water tank

Beautiful new non-asbestos roof

Two new much larger water tanks

One of the discoveries as Scott worked was that the terrazza off the kitchen was leaking to the room below in the winter.  So he pulled up the tile floor of the terrazza, fixed the leak and replaced the floor and just needs to be tiled.

New floor on the lower terrazza

The kitchen has been pulled back to the wall and the structure for the new counter has been made.  The new wooden countertop is being made as I am typing this.  The bathroom off the kitchen has a new sink and taps and cistern for the toilet.

The kitchen when we bought our new home

The new kitchen in the process

Bathroom off the kitchen

But the thing I am most excited about in the kitchen is the wood stove.  The beautiful old tile has been carefully removed and the stove is being repaired.

The old wood stove as we bought it 

Tiles removed

Wood stove skeleton

Finally, our "en suite" (rather a grand expression for the bathroom close to our bedroom).  The electric hot water heater was directly over the tub with wires hanging down.  The new heater has been moved outside the bathroom and the electrical and plumbing has been moved.  

New hot water heater

Bathroom without the hazardous hot water tank

Thank you Scott!  

Visions of Our New Home

Just recently we received an email from Scott, our intrepid contractor, giving us an update.

Hi Diane

Hope you are both well, just wanted to touch base with you.  We have actually paused on your place for a few weeks to get some critical work done before the rains set in.  You have a new roof and terrace floor, and you also have a nice large garage room opened up with walls stripped off.  Bedroom wall is in and plastered.

As soon as we get back onto your place I'll give you a shout and keep you updated.

All the best

Scott

One of the things that I appreciate about Scott is the communication.  He sends us regular updates which keeps me on edge and chomping at the bit to see how everything is coming.  If I could snap my fingers it would be the end of June and we would be packing for our flight to Sicily.

Scott is on the extreme right and his partner Matt is third from the right in the blue shirt.  

Last night I was looking at the  Agenzia Immobiliare My House (realtor) photos of when it was still on the market.  So, here is what Casa Cacciato will likely look like when it is all done and furnished.

We will be keeping the upper cabinets but the sink, stove & oven and little white cabinet will all be replaced by a long wooden countertop, a new double sink and a five burner gas stovetop.

This is our bedroom.  The walls will be painted white and the plaster along the bottom of the wall will be fixed up.  The closet in the corner is a walk-in closet, small but still a walk-in.  And it comes with a safe!  Never had a safe in a house before.

This is the guest bedroom.  Again, it will be painted white.  We figured we would add colour with paintings and some of my photographs.

This is the sitting-room off of the guest bedroom.  We have almost the identical sitting-room off our bedroom as well.  The window on the right is actually part of a door that opens onto a balcony.

This is our street, Cortile Arcuri.  Casa Cacciato is on the extreme left - the grey house with the brown door.  As you can see, the end of the street overlooks the distant hills. 

Catch Up Time

Our Sicilian Home

It has been about seven weeks since Nick and I got back from Sicily.  We hit the ground running here and this is the first chance I have had to really do any writing for the blog.  So, those of you waiting for updates on our Sicilian home, my apologies.

August 24^th, after we arrived back in Canada we got the email we were waiting for.  Joe, our terrifically helpful realtor, sent us the word:

I was going to write to you this morning to tell you the good news that we signed the deeds on Thursday afternoon…  Congratulations!   Joe

Celebrating the purchase of our house with Joe our realtor (in the middle)
and Scott our contractor (on the right) the day we left Cianciana.  Nick is on the left.

And then September 6^th we got word from Scott, our equally terrific contractor/renovator saying that the work was underway.  Of course, the path of renovation never runs completely smoothly. 

…there has been a small glitch in that it has rained this week quite heavily and has unveiled that the terrace in front of the kitchen has some severe leaks through to the room below…

and

… we have been having some problems with the neighbour who is complaining that damp rising from the wall between your garage and his kitchen is ruining his kitchen. He would like to put the problem right between you…

Fortunately, the solutions to the problems have proven to be fairly easy and not too expensive – certainly not compared to the glitches we had when we renovated our Canadian house!  The leak was fixed by removing the tiles from the terrazza, laying a waterproof membrane and re-tiling with new tiles.  About 800 euros well spent.

As for the neighbour’s kitchen…our ground floor walls had been covered with a horrible vinyl wall covering that we had wanted to get rid of anyhow. 

Our ground floor.  All of these walls are now down and are stripped back to the stone.

Scott removed all the wall covering and then the render (probably plaster) on top of the stone walls.  What will most likely happen next is to let the walls dry over time and see if this improves the situation with the neighbour’s kitchen.  If not, then there is some treatment that can be done to the stone that will help take care of the damp.  I must say that when Scott emailed us with a “damp problem”, I was a bit terrified.  In Vancouver and on Vancouver Island, “damp” is associated with “leaky condo syndrome”, which frequently costs the owners tens of thousands of dollars.  But the removal of the rendering added only 150 euros to our bill.  With luck, that’s all we will have to do and we will be left with a ground floor that has beautiful exposed stone.

In the meantime, Scott sent us pictures of how the kitchen will look...

...and today we heard that he is removing the asbestos roof from the storage room on the terrazza and replacing it with a new and non-cancer causing roof.

The storage room on our top terrazza.

We picked a new colour and new tiles for the outside of the house.  Before we left Cianciana, we walked around the town and looked at colours and tiles that other people had used.  The house is on a narrow street so we thought a bright colour would be better.

Our house will look like this on the outside.

All in all, work is progressing well and we are counting the days until we land in Sicily again in 274 days (but who’s counting!)

COUNTDOWN TIMER WIDGET