A new pergola

 

We have a new pergola on our roof terrace. It does not only protect us from the sun but also from rain! Lovely to sit outside and listen to the rain drops falling on the sail fabric.

One more month of summer. And my little Cycas palm tree will grow.

 

And if you think the cycas palm was planted in a plastic pot - no way! It is an not easy to find real terra cotta pot. The weight? 30-40 kg! I got two of them, and a strong guest who carried them two floors up! Thank you! :-)

And if you wonder how we got such a nice pergola - just in case you wonder - yes, of course, it was Angelo, as always, who managed to fix all by himself, although the given measures of the ordered pergola (Unopiu) did not exactly suit our terrace. Here you see him at work:

 

He worked on the construction a couple of days. All we were able to do was to provide drinking water, clean up after him and worry about him climbing around on the balustrade. The longest work was the drilling with the wrong drill bit, but at the end it was all fixed and perfect! It even survived the first rain storms!

 



Beautiful! Thank you! Now the roof terrace comes to life, with shade and palm tree(s).

I was thinking it would be nice to have a ping pong table up here to play table tennis. But maybe the winds are too strong. Or a hammock... framed or not... let's see!

ringhiera blu

I am jealous myself ...

I can't be there right now.

Instead I am sitting here in super cold Germany with 10 degrees and rain.

But at least I have something to dream about !!! :-)

PS: one would almost not see the antenna....

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

And here to compare one "BEFORE blue paint" picture:

-----------------------------------------------------
photo update of the completet ballustrade:

Fantastic job, Angelo ! Salute, cincin !

blue blue blue

Isn't this colour amazing ?

This ringhiera (balustrade) is not for bellezza (beauty). It is for safety.

But now, with this blue coat of paint it became really beautiful !

And here we have the first bathroom to come to life !

With some blue colour it looks so inviting !

Many ask me what the palazzo is doing. It is progressing so fast ! You won't believe it because I have no time to blog. But Angelo is still on site and pushes the work continiously. He is there everyday. And he sends me pictures everyday. I just can't keep pace with him and post everything new and pretty.

BTW, I am back from Bangkok (back in Germany). I spent there three full days. We did decide on the school for our son. But not about the place to live in. Actually, I could start the countdown for the move to Thailand now ...

Unfortunately our German school holidays for this summer start late (end of July) and the British international school holiday in Thailand end early (mid August), so there is no time to spend summer holiday in Italy in our house and on the beach. It seems that we have to wait until next year to enjoy what Angelo is preparing and organizing so well.

Do you know how big of a role does football play in Italian men's life ?

That big:

- our 6 m high TV antenna -

I am filing this post under the label "Now I have to live with this". BUT I am NOT going to live with this. Either out neighbour is going to sue us, or I am going to buy a metall sew ! - was my first reaction.

I wrote a post and saved it as draft, because I cannot publish something I am too emotional about.

So I slept over it - one night - two nights ... now it has been almost four weeks. It kept me from writing about other nicer things a lot. But now, this thing needs to be introduced. 

My husband explained to me, that the antenna needs to be six meters high because of the mountains behind Pizzo, and in order to capture some channels that he would not get otherwise - some football channels.

Got it?

Italian men's first priority in life: FOOTBALL.

Italian men's sense for aestetic, that is very high, comes after football.

It seems that I am the only one in the family who disapproves this ugly monster antenna.

Italian women probably are used to this technical support for their husband's hobby.

Even my little half-Italian son seems to not understand me.

He said about the photo : "Wow! How cool! Looks like a space station's antenna !"

(He is 6 years old)

Well, I hope it must be possible somehow to move that thing to the left (close to the wall of the house). If one sets a foot on the terracce it should not be the first thing to see. It needs to move. I will keep you posted.

----
update: it was possible to move all to the left! :-)

What we did today

Pizzo weather today:
20 degrees Celsius (in the shadow), calm sea, Stromboli view

This was a beautiful moment:

Seeing our son playing with his friend from the neighbourhood - on our terrace for the first time - it felt like we finally live here ! Although it is not the case yet. So, while kids were playing, others were working...

Inside CC was grinding the beams (travi) to prepare them for the paint job

I was making sure to order the right quantity - and the right size of tiles (6,5 cm x 25 cm) by drawing the pattern with crayons on the wall (I opted against 12,5 cm x 25 cm, which looked too much like bricks).

And : I decided on the hight: 1,20 on the wall with the sink and max. 1,30 on the wall with the toilet flush push botton. (for internal use: 6,45 m2, Ricordi, bianco Capri, finitura lucida, d'Agostino)

Outside, others tried to clean the facade from some spots with a high-pressure cleaner.

Some minor kids scribbles were scratched away and Angelo wanted to repair it with colored plaster

Angelo at work.

I discovered that this time a I have a wide angle camera to shot the entire house in one picture ! And while making more pictures I scented some lovely fresh and sweet fragrance in the air....

 

... I looked up and saw this orange in neighbours garden right above me. The flower of the orange tree does not only look like Jasmine it also scented similar to Jasmine. What a lovely surprise this morning !

More oranges in neighbour's garden

See, while others were working I was taking pictures.

In the afternoon, we drove to Vibo to place the orders for the first bathroom - finally. And when arriving in the shop, CC stumbled over a Bisazza mosaic sample - that we added to our order spontanously (just to have some colour over the sink) - and CC almost ordered a tourquis colour because he liked the first picture in my flickr set (see last post) that much ! (I sent him the link last night) I am pretty lucky with CC's taste !

How time flies - with capers

Over the weekend I checked my photo files about our palazzo. That means I had to go through summer holiday files of four years ! And we do not have just one summer holiday file per year. It was quiet a lot ... but of course very enjoyable. Not only to see the progress (the slow progress!) of our renovation project but also to see our child grow.

I found these funny photos below, that we apparently took every year. I call the serie "capers harvest on our terrace" (capers = caperi).

caperi August 11, 2006

This picture was taken when we saw the house for the very first time.

My Italian mother-in-law - always having space in her handbag - is collecting capers with our son.

This is still at the very first visit to the house in August 2006.

One year later: July 2007

Meanwhile the house is ours.

But we have not started the renovation yet.

Still harvesting capers ...

... and enjoying the view (summer 2007)

March 2008: renovation in progress

The terrace is the roof of the second floor and needs sealing.

The caper plant was taken out and the balustrade paint plastered.

Tow years later, August 2008 : uups ! A tiny caper plant popped up again !

The roots must be very stong and resistant.

Not good for roof and walls underneath. Water could infiltrate. Special treatment is necessary.

Three years later, August 2009 : Done !

No more capers. New tiles and security grid.

Although the tiles are beautiful and the iron grid is necessary - I still can't stop thinking that I like the charme of the old dilapidated condition - more? This is one of the difficulties, I think, when renovating. How to stop dilapidation without changing the character of a building or interior too much.

To get a broader picture, I am posting the sea side facade before and after:

August 2006, not our house yet

Sea side facade March 2008

August 2009

The palazzo from the sea, 54 meters above sea level

Some readers might know my sea side pictures. But since I am posting for almost three years and the renovation progress is so slow, some of you might have forgotten about the "look". Here are some more before and after posts.

*

Terrace : Amalfi Style

The water blue tiles (color Zaffiro, serie Emozioni) and the listelli, that make the decorative border are both from Fornaci d'Agostino in Salerno. This company is one of the well-known producers of famous Vietri ceramics (Ceramica di Vietri). The ceramic's name comes from the small village Vietri Sul Mare with its many ceramic crafters, located close to Salerno at the East of the Amalfi coast. The beautiful colorful ceramic tiles became famous together with the picturesque dream destinations Positano at the Amalfi coast and the island of Capri.

With all these mouthwatering names and links, I am sending you some warm and sunny greetings from Italy. Happy day !

Planning: Under the Roof

After having started the renovation from the outside, now, the interior renovation should start - top down - under the roof.

Since we have not been well organized while choosing the tiles for the terrace (we went into the shop and bought what we liked), this time, I want our team to commit to shared ideas.

Under the roof pitch the space is small and the ceiling is low.

So, I suggest a light color scheme. White walls, white ceiling (yes, the wooden beams need to be painted white!) and very light colored flooring. Maybe large natural stone, beige color or a white painted concrete floor.

Ralph Lauren's Jamaica residence via Cote de Texas

(sorry, no source ? )

The advantage of a light mono-color scheme:

• the space feels larger


• the ceiling feels higher


• the felt room temperature is lower


• it's an adaequate contrast to the blue terrace tiles and the sceenery


• there will be enough color from furniture (a large blue sofa) and accessories

BTW, don't get jealous, our actual situation looks like this:


...

Sweet 200

The rejuvenating cure and aesthetic surgery of the main facade are almost done. The lady looks pretty and her peach skin immaculate. Almost like a 'torta'. Sweet 200 (years)!

And the new iron grids look so sweet with their quirky elaborations matching the grids of the balconies and the one over the main entrance.



... yes, it was our decision.

We thought we need some curlicues to not have the grids look like prison grids.

Before I start again wondering if it was the right decision ... we need to see the whole picture, the entire facade in real, on site.


Pictures sometimes don't show you the way you look at the things in reality.

Take the blue balkonies. First I was not 'amused', then we got more pictures from different angles. Like this one below.
I love the reflections !

More blue...

My house has a blue balcony.
And it has a blue terrace as well.
ba dee da da da...

The simple finish - I think looks good (see picture above).

But I am not sure if I like this 'sweet' Vietri border... that I have approved last year ...


... and the asymmetric finish ? (the frame is not in the middle of the terrace).
... ba dee da da da...

My husband had a good comment:
"It is not bad. We probably will like it more when we are older".

So funny! Glad I am not alone with my sceptic.

And of course, we have to see it in reality. So far we see it only from these photos.

Hey, below is a nice one: our blue terrace, between the sea and the sky:



-----
Source: the water blue tiles and the 'listello' (border) are both from Fornaci d'Agostino.

Outside In

As the frequent reader already knows, we renovate from outside in.

Here is an update of the work done on the balcony. It is probably finished by now.

Do you like the diagonal finish?

It happened like this:
My husband asked me last week around 10pm at night, if I want the tiles on the balcony laid diagonally or parallel?
Me: Mmh, do I have to make the decision tonight?
He: Yes, they want to start with this work tomorrow.

For your information, we have bought the tiles more than ONE year ago ! Also a decision that needed to be made quickly at that time ...

So I took a paper and a pen and drew the balcony (I know the shape by heart). And as it is not even and a bit round, the architect recommended a diagonal finish. In Italy quiet common.

I know it is common for small rooms as well to make them appear larger. - So, why not. My drawing looked okay.

And here is the work in progress.



PS: we are all wondering if we still like the blue tiles we bought a year ago... (There are more blue tiles for the terrace! Larger ones.)