update

Wow, more than a month has passed since my last posts (about the bathroom) and my yesterday post (about the stuccoed ceiling) !?

Our "contactor" Angelo, my father-in-law, has been back in Northern Italy for a break.

In the meantime, I have been busy setteling into our new home in Bangkok. We found a lovely appartment and moved in beginning of September :

new Bangkok home

In October, our son had his first break from school and we decided to visit our old home in Beijing, China for the first time since we moved away two years ago :

old Beijing home

 Now, we are all back on track. Me in Bangkok and Angelo in Pizzo. Last week, he "pushed" me to decide on the tiling and equipment in two more bathrooms, since he wants the bathrooms finished before the parquet laying. Of course I have thought about these bathrooms a thousand times and had many pictures collected in my files. But when it came to the selection of sinks, I realized that I do not have the exact measurements of the walls and the distances between sink and toilet etc. Also we had never finally decided on tiles or mosaic. So can you imagine, how I felt? Thousand of miles away from the construction site. My husband in the office and busy with other things. And Angelo who does not want to see mails and mails with my brainstorms, but just clear instructions?

It is a challenge ! And it's fun ! It is a project that distracts me from my (sometimes) boring day to day life. Although I cannot say that I my day to day life is boring yet, after having moved just three months ago to South East Asia. Probably it will never be boring. But for someone who has worked fulltime for almost 20 years, it is like a fun job ! I wonder what I do, when we have finished this project ?! But probably there will be always something to do ! I even might convert it into a B&B for holidayer from May to October.

Have you noticed the door got big bullen nails (borchia f., borchie pl.) !? (photo below).

And look, we got a door bell and plates with our names ingraved ! So you could ring the bell and if I would be home, I would open you the door and offer you an aperitivo... 

 

 in progress: Italian home  

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a "still lifes" photo by Angelo

This is Angelo's bike in front of our main entrance door. Apparently he drive his bike every morning from Vibo Marina to Pizzo, about 4 km along the coast (is the coastal road open again?). The above photo he sent to me with the message that the door is almost finished. The only thing that is missing are the borchie ("deco nails") for the lower part.

cancelli di ferro battuto

Another - good - result of long distance renovation:

Our iron gates, cancelli di ferro, are ready for mounting.

When I received an email this morning with the above subject and attachment, I was holding my breath until the attachement opened ... and I was so relieved when I saw it ! What a surprise!

What ? Surprise ? We had the draft of the design and agreed on it (below). Why surprise ?

WAIT - that's not the whole story.

Apparently, after we had agreed on the design, the 'artist' got inspired by my posts about iron gates (here and here). And he got a new idea. He wanted to integrate some design pattern that appears in our basement.

Maybe similar to my photo editing (below).

Okay, fine, we said. But, please send us a new drawing to make up our mind - soon.
And we waited and waited.

Yesterday, we asked again: "How about the new design?"

And here came the confusing answer:

"The gates are ready for mounting!"


"Scusi ?! What about the drawing ?! What if we do not like the design?"


The last message send out to Italy yesterday night:

"Please send photos immediately before mounting !"


So that's why, this morning, I am happy and relieved to see the gates made after the originally agreed design.

No extra pattern, no sweet curves, no flowers or hearts or "s".

What a nice surprise !

Now, let's wait how they look fixed - coming next.

wrought iron doors - part II

Since we knew that we need to think about wrought iron doors, I always took pictures on our trips to Italy when I saw an interesting design of wrought iron work, no matter for doors, archways or windows.

Since we talk doors, I will post doors first. The following pictures are taken by myself or taken from the WWW, mainly via flickr. (You need to click on the pictures for better details.)

Let's start with Italy:

Iron gates at the Colosseum in Rome - very simple but colossal




Two small iron gates at the Castello degli Angeli in Rome. The first one is a very pretty small two wing gate.



Venice and an impressive iron door gate on the canal.


A beautiful watercolour impression by Donna Coreless (via flickr): iron portal in Venice



Sarzana, near La Spezia in Liguria: this is a very beautiful little medival town with lots of antique shops. These shops are protected by tall two wing iron gates that are leaned against the outside walls during the day when the shops are open. It is a very simple and elegant solution for wrought iron door gates. I also could picture these as a solution for us.



This is a little church in the middle of a forest in Calabria. When the church is 'closed', the altar is protected by this simple round but pretty two wings gate. I like the idea of having a more dense structure until mid hight.



This iron gate with simple "s" decor opens up to a garden in Seminara, Calabria. Seminara is famous for its unique ceramics.



This is an old iron door in Monteprandone, Marche via flickr (by pizzodisevo).



This door has a plane iron part at the bottom. This could protect from rain (splash water) and dirt. The decor is not special but the position at mid hight and upper end are interesting. Although, here, I would prefer arrows at the end.



Last Italian photo shows how the iron gates are fixed to the wall or stone door frame. The inside doors open to the inside and the iron gate or door opens to the outside.




More doors:

An iron door in Honfleur, France via flickr (Rudy Vega)



A castle door in France



A gate to a secret garden via flickr (by visionsbyccat).



Beautiful entrance to a church via flickr (by Sator Arepo).



Are very elaborated wrought iron gate from the 16th century (Germany?).



'Merletti in ferro battuto' - fine lace in wrought iron, via flickr (by piesse/patrizia)



And if you have followed me this far, I thank you and say bye for now with this beautiful impression:

'Iron shadows' via flickr (by Simon Monk).

Black Magnetic Chalkboard

I love this big black magnetic chalkboard sliding door by Christine Lane!

My sister has a big black magnetic board till the ceiling in her kitchen.

And I want one as sliding door for my son's playroom.

It will be fun to stick his drawings on it instead of just filing them somewhere. It will be fun for him and his friends to draw on it. It will be fun to play teacher and student. It will be fun to write poems on it. Maybe in Chinese characters. It will support our creativity and be decorative at the same time.

I researched chalkboards on google images and found so many nice ideas. Sfgirlbybay did a peak worthy chalkboard round-up.

Get inspired and DIY !
Get magnetic primer and chalk paint in green or black.
Make a bold statement on a wall in your home office, entrance, kitchen or kids room or loo. Let guests leave a comment.

Entrance of Front Hotel, Copenhagen via hyggehouse

The New Year starts with New Decisions

Finalmente we got the long awaited drawings of our doors. Okay, after all the pictures we had I could have done it myself, but our architetto kept promising to do it for us.

And I am glad he did it. When it is visualized it is easier to imagine and to decide.

We, in the family, agreed on the design. But we have not decided yet whether we will have the borchie in ottone, the brazen bullen nails, on all three doors or only on the main door.

And when I started the discussion with my husband, who translated ottone first into the wrong German term - thanks to LEO I found the correct one, 'Messing', brass, I saw that there is not only the question about how many doors we do in that style but also:
Is brass the right material? I don't want it too shiny, non mi piace troppo lucido, maybe it is possible to have it more dark ...

....like in this door below:

or maybe also like this door, which seems to have brazen bullen nails:


I will email with our architect to ask his opinion and meanwhile I invite you for another voting! On the blog roll on the right (remark: if it is not there, then it is because of technical problems, sorry, please send instead your comment below, I try to fix it):

A: All three doors with decorative bullen nails
or
B: Only the main door gets the nails ?

FYI, the far left door leads to the guest apartment, the far right door is kind of a back entrance that leads to the kitchen through a storage room.

And here one more time the front view of the house to support the decision making:



Thanks for your help and once more Happy New Year , Buon Anno!

---
Above drawings copyright by Architetto Pino Pitt, Pizzo

Door Doors Doors - part II

Maybe you remember my 1st doors doors doors post when we started to think about how our (three!) entrance doors should look like.


Meanwhile Angelo, my father-in-law (grazie!), has collected impressions of doors. See above or my flickr door set for details. They are all from the area, especially Pizzo and Vibo Valentia with a few exceptions, maybe from Vibo Marina and Tropea.

We are spoilt for choice!

... but here it is:

Our choice: two 'sections' of wood per door wing. While the main door has two wings, the other two side entrances have one door (one wing) only.

The lower part of the main door should have 'nails' (chiodi) like this one:


However the door grip or handle (maniglia) is not decided yet. It will NOT be the one in the 3rd picture.

Doors, doors, doors

These are some doors we like. We have to do one main entrance door and two smaller doors on each side of the main entrance. All doors are part of the facade facing the piazza. Beside choosing the right design, I was wondering: should the three doors be in the same style:
1) simple yet elegant, like the two left doors in the pic
2) more elaborated, like the two right doors in the pic
or maybe show a bit of contrast
3) main entrance elaborated and the smaller doors simple?

My favorite is alternative 3): prominent main entrance while the two side doors, both in the same style, can be more simple. Imagine, each door has its own street number! - My husband however, thinks all three doors should look the same. Last but not least because the house is one entity.

Any suggestions?