Two Adventurers

As you will remember, the main reason for visiting Italy was to see how practical it would be for us to take up residence here. The popular thing here is to buy an original stone house which may be several hundreds of years old and carry out a restoration project. The houses that we have seen vary from being in a reasonably solid state to ones that are crumbling. The latter are usually torn down, the stone salvaged and then totally rebuilt. The rebuilding has to usually take place on the same footprint to avoid a very complicated planning approval process. The most important aspect of this type of project is to employ an architect/builder whom you can trust. There is a good chance of being taken for a ride.  Here are a couple of  examples of houses we have seen. This one was in reasonable condition on about 3000 m2 of land going for 45,000 Euro. It would need a new roof, windows and doors etc. plus a complete makeover inside estimated at about another 45,000 Euro. The floor area was around 150 m2 on 3 1/2 levels. The garage (?) at the back would have to be improved, eh. This particular house was fairly isolated from the nearest town being 5 km away and so no near neighbours.  This next house was rather more interesting having more land at 4000 m2 and three levels giving a total floor area of 200 m2. Stone work was in good condition but the render needed to be removed – quite the opposite trend in Australia which is to render all exposed brickwork. Again the structure was ok but a complete refit-out needed inside including new floors. The third picture is taken at the bottom of the site showing the land. Room for plenty of olive trees and a pool plus some great landscaping. The house and land was going for 50,000 Euro but our ‘man’ said 35,000 Euro would be closer. So plus another 40,000 Euro and you would end up with quite a reasonable dwelling and land package. Again this house was a little remote.  We are just looking at this stage!