Capitolo Tre: One Step Forward, Ten Steps Backward
Welcome to Chapter 3 of my posts on our DIY renovation of our tiny Italian villa! If you didn’t already catch them, click the links to read Chapter 1 and Chapter 2. In this post, I’ll explain why you should think twice before saying things like “oh, we renovated our home in [insert any non-Italian city], we can just renovate a villa and turn it into an AirBnB ourselves in a month or so.” Renovating a property in Italy by yourself (sans contractors) is much harder than you’d expect and way less glamorous than you see in the movies.
One of my favourite, not-so-glam tasks, was breaking up several, massive wire-glassed windows stored on our roof by the previous owners. I spent hours smashing the glass with the back of an axe, porting the shards and frames down our rickety metal stairs. Days later, the shards of glass were piled into the car and we took them to not one but two recycling centres until we could offload them. Definitely not on my expectation list when I agreed to start this renovation project.
Everything in Italy takes longer for a variety of reasons. Heat is one of them. It’s frequently hot, especially in the south, so work needs to happen early in the morning or later in the evening. There’s a whole chunk of the day in which it’s almost impossible for regular humans to do substantial work outdoor or indoor, even with air conditioning, it can be unpleasant. Not to mention paint only dries properly at a certain temperature, which is, unsurprisingly, not 40 degrees Celsius. We thought we would get up at a normal time, ease into our day (it’s Italy after all) and put in a hard day’s work. Outside at 11:00am in the baking sun attempting to move anything or complete any simple tasks was unbearable. Inside, with the air conditioning cooling us, we didn’t get far either before feeling exhausted by the heat.
Hours of operation also seem to get in the way of making progress. For example, if you are not near a large chain hardware store when you run out of paint or need a specific tool, you may need to wait until Monday at 8:00am to get back to work. Or if your local ferramenta is open, they may need to order the product and ask you to return later in the week. The pace of Italian life is what most people aspire to, so that needs to translate to construction projects as well. What needs to be done will get done, eventually. Piano piano.
Building permits are also a nuisance. They can halt renovation work and/or take years to get from your local Comune. One province here has halted building permits for a while now due to government corruption. Tough luck for anyone desiring to add a floor, build a foundation, or put in a pool. Work needs to be done with the legal permits or you risk having to dismantle the work when you sell the house down the road. Older houses have non-standard fixtures, requiring custom replacements or full upgrades. This could mean you now need a permit for something for which you wouldn’t require a permit at home.
Finally, availability of products (or products you are used to) can slow progress. After one critical error, we now scour the labels of every paint we purchase. Some need to be diluted, some are ready to use, some need a primer, some need a fixative type of primer, some require a particular cleaning agent before painting. This versus how we paint walls at home – go to Home Depot, buy paint, apply. I guess it’s not unlike the variety of products at home except that, to us, everything here is new and different.
With each new project we start, even if we’ve done something similar 20 times at home, we need to review the materials meticulously, ask questions and obtain multiple opinions before jumping in. In a few cases, something that would be simple (e.g. take us less than a half hour at home) ends up in a multi-day fiasco and the hiring of a contractor to finish the job.
Our latest such fiasco was the simple painting of our main room (originally a sunshine yellow colour) and the small room leading to the bathroom (originally what could only be described as cotton candy pink). The other rooms were easy to patch with stucco, sand and paint, but these two spaces were the primary cause of our blood, sweat and tears thus far. After applying the paint that was recommended (traspirante, a breathable paint for humid areas such as in hot, humid Puglia), we wiped a wall with a cloth and the paint came off. Not a good sign.
One professional opinion told us to use a primer product. We did, it melted the paint off the walls. Plus, patches that previously had no issues bubbled up and could be easily scraped off the wall in big chunks. Fun. Professional opinion number two said to scrape off the old paint as it wasn’t properly adhering to the surface. Professional opinion number three said that we were actually dealing with stucco and it had to be scraped off the walls to proceed. Sure, easy peasy, days later we scarcely managed to scrape one full wall. It was a disaster. Our final professional opinion on this one area (number four if you are counting) said not to scrape the walls but rather to add MORE stucco. What?! That was the last thing we wanted to do, but alas, desperate for white walls, we re-stuccoed, re-sanded, added special primer and three coats of high coverage paint later, we got to a good enough end point. Ugh.
Fiasco complete and we are relieved (for now). This was our first time in home renovation history that we had to undo hours and hours of hard work. One step forward, ten steps backward…then, frustration, bottle of wine, one step forward again. In Canada, we are used to doing things at our rapid pace so we can re-join the hustle. Italy requires us to slow down, yet again, embrace the setbacks and savour the finished product.
More to come on Under the Puglian Sun: Adventures in Renovating Our Italian Villa. Don’t miss a post, follow the blog below!
Stay tuned for Chapter 4: Why Not Throw in a Bureaucratic Hurdle or Two?