an eventful month
Looking back, February 2022 ended up being quite an eventful month. Strides were made both on the exterior as well as the garden, and the rhythm was interrupted by an unfortunate injury.
The larger glass panes arrived for the glass cube …but it would end up being a couple of more months until the largest of all arrived for the sunroom which then finally closed the house. Outside the initial plasterwork was moving right along and slowly covering the red block. And in warmer breaks of the winter weather, the courtyard and sidewalks were poured around the house. I looked back on instagram and saw this post I’d made with the progress next to the initial rendering. It was so satisfying to see it come together slowly but surely.
Meanwhile some more of the exterior work was being completed like the stonework on the top of the retaining wall, and more excitingly the specially crafted pivot front door arrived and was installed with an amazing team from Florence! This door was one of the aspects of the initial design that I knew that I’d wanted and was one of my “non-negotiables“. It was one of those special pieces that I’d set money aside for from the beginning so that when the build was continuing and all I was seeing was money flowing out, that it wouldn’t be something I’d decide to skimp on out of fear of expense. I’m so happy that I held the line and splurged on this custom-made piece. After it was installed, I was sure to make the inaugural entrance into the house and it felt like a bit of a symbolic gesture. I remember thinking that this was the first of so many entrances - not just by me, but by family, friends, and a place that would welcome so many. It was later that the matching dark walnut paneling was installed in the full entrance niche.
Inside the carpenter had started to install some of the flush closet doors and cabinetry - this photo above is of the entrance room with the push-pull doors and the roll out shoe rack. Eventually the doors were finished in the same plasterwork as the wall to look like a continuation. More custom-made tiles were delivered which I’d designed for the terrace off of the bedroom. These were done in the same “bucchero” grey clay finish as the ones I’d made for the bathroom niche.
And towards the end of the month, as I was stepping down from a small step ladder after doing some interior plaster, I snapped my ACL of my left knee and was carried to the emergency room - later in the week learning after a couple of appointments with specialists, that I would require surgery, and/or months in rehab to regain use.
This is a story for another post - as there is a quite astonishing and unexpected outcome to this tale - but needless to say, this halted my hands-on work for a while and I tended to set up on a bucket next to my crutches to call out orders instead! hah!
One of the more exciting things that happened in this month was the delivery of the new olive grove. On the very first designs for the house, the idea was to hide the house from the road with olive trees and so this meant I would need to buy grown trees from the start rather than waiting for years for smaller trees to grow. This also meant a big investment… then one of the earth-movers that we’d been using for various projects around the land mentioned that he knew a friend from across the lake who had planted a grove 30 years ago and had intentionally spaced the trees too close so that he could sell off every-other tree years later. Traditionally around here the trees are placed about 5 meters apart to allow for expansion. So I went to meet the seller, see the grove, and still was expecting a high price for these 30+ year old trees….knowing the price of similarly-sized trees at a nearby viviaio (plant nursery).
When I asked him the price and he responded I thought I’d definitely misheard but I had him repeat it and couldn’t believe it. It was about 1/8 of the going rate! He knew that it would be the majority of the cost to remove them and transport - and he also needed to have them removed from his land to help his remaining trees so we were in a way doing each other a favor!
I ended up buying 16 (as this is the number we had at the old farmhouse which gave us oil for the full year). Plus we brought one with us from the old house which was initially brought from the UK as a memorial tree for a family member who’d passed. All of these were first pruned (quote severely as to help the new growth instead go towards the roots) to on site, carefully unearthed, wrapped, and brought 2-3 at a time by truck to the site where they were placed, planted, and cared for. It took the first two years of looking after these trees for them to start to flourish, grow, and just last autumn produce their first harvest for us!
Each one is such a member of this site and now this current spring we’ve said that they’ve finally come into their own, created coverage and privacy for the house, and each one has settled in nicely and thrived.
