New Shoes!

I finally finished my new shoes! That is, I still need to put in the insoles. But Sr. Zoppini sort of forgot about that part when he stated that they were done and I didn't inspect too closely. So that can wait until the next lesson! I'm on hiatus until after Christmas, though, or no one will get presents around here.

Here they are! I have yet to try them on because I'm wearing thick wool socks today. But since we used my special form (previously created by him), we're fairly confident that they'll fit well

They are tri-color black, blue, and grey. Funny note: when he was talking about polishing them, he aroused my suspicions somehow...it seemed as though he expected them to be all black when they were finished? I reminded him that I WANTED them those colors, and he acted rather surprised.

This explains why my favorite (made by him) shoes have blue scratches on the toe-cap: clearly, he uses any old scraps of leather that will work for a project, and then puts thick black paint on them!

Love,

Alexandra


 P.S. When I explained my next project to him, he declared it to be "geniale" and positively giggled! Stay tuned...

We wiſh you a merry Chriſtmas...

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More walls down!

Today's update:

The bathroom block on the main floor is down, but they're still working on removing the flooring. That will be finished late this afternoon or tomorrow; they were hard at it when we went over there at 4 today, but it's nearly quitting time!

The puddles that accumulated from upper pipes have been stopped up and mopped up, so we don't have to worry about the downstairs neighbors.

The doorway to the guest room has been re-opened.


The upstairs bathroom is being gutted (slowly).













And the wall to our bedroom has been attacked!

Looking into the bedroom from the bathroom

View from the bedroom into the bathroom

What's still there, you ask? The view.

 And the truck with the waste funnel

Love,

Alexandra

Construction Has Started! Or, at Least, DEstruction!

We returned from our wonderful Thanksgiving with Eleanor yesterday to discover that the workers were actually beginning the job as planned! I hesitate to say "as originally planned," since the initial idea was to start work the day of closing. However, it took a while to get the estimates, contracts, and so on in gear. One of the reasons we chose our builder is because he could start quickly.

Guest room: no more ugly chase!

The primary reason we chose him? Because we adore him. His name is Umberto Perugini, and he has helped us in numerous ways throughout our years here. He is an angel in a builder's overalls. His love of humanity in general and us in particular absolutely shines.

Bathroom block going away

Dining room clear!

So far, they have torn down the dividing wall between the landing and the dining room. We would like to put a very large defining archway rather than having the simple wall, because that will provide much more light to the space and will give us the option of extending the table when/if we have larger groups.

They are currently working on the bathroom(s) on the main floor: first step, of course, was to rip out the existing block, since we are moving the whole piece about 30 cm to allow a larger living room.

Waste Chute!

And we have our waste chute! These make us insanely happy, for some reason.

Love,

Alexandra

Bonus photo: ramp onto truck for tank removal

Bonus photo: I have removed these tiles for use in the front hall

Girls' room with torn-out paving

Girls' room: a bit more to go!

Jeremy and I found the method of tying-in door frames to be pretty interesting:
Looks like they insert angled pins into the mortar, then later attach the frames.

Tee hee hee!

You ſeemed to need a bit more to chew on...

House Update

Given that we're still in the planning phases, there's not a whole lot to report. That said, our carpenter Enrico has been working steadily to remove the interior doors and all the shutters (some are interior, others exterior) for stripping and refinishing. At least one of the sets of doors date to the mid-1800s, according to the local carpenters (including the simple brass handle!), and the others are relatively new, being 1920s or so. Nonetheless, they have mostly been deemed of sufficiently high aulity to warrant keeping them.

On my way home from an errand, though, I couldn't resist stopping by to check out the view from our balcony on this rather misty afternoon. I wasn't disappointed.

Love,

Alexandra

All Souls' Day...time to make cookies!

All Souls' Day comes on November 2, and is generally celebrated with a Mass at the local cemeteries. As is common with holidays, there is a special food associated with the event: fave dei morti. Literally, "beans of the dead"...as in, used to weight down eyelids, I suspect, these are not actually beans but rather oval-ish cookies made with almonds and cinnamon.

This year, I decided to make my own, since I'd found ground almonds in my pantry (originally purchased for a different reason, and then forgotten about quite promptly). Consisting of butter, sugar, ground almonds, flour, a couple of eggs, and cinnamon, it's actually a pretty easy thing to bake. And at the end, if you're lucky, you get a morsel that is lighter than marzipan but just as scrumptious.

Love,

Alexandra