Rock Wall Before & Afters...

The latest rock wall's Before...

and its After. Nice curve, no? Gads.

The Latest Kitchen Design...

The kitchen design for the Upstairs Apartment is relatively finished. "Relatively", because there are a couple of "issues" to sort-out still. Please remember, the Kitchen is to be built into the niche of the old fireplace. It was the Oven & Cook-top in the olden days. To its left is a stone sink tucked into another niche... the sink goes to the Bathroom... thus completing the two key elements of Water & Fire.

#1... I do not know the actual height of the new finished wood floor. This is important. If you compare the height of the little figurine... at my exact height of 189 cm or, 6 feet 2 inches... to the two brackets holding up the boxy valence above them, then, you can see there is the risk of bashing a head against one of them. I have a hunch the floor will be even higher than I have drawn. The valence will have to be re-thought, the sink & cook-top might be pulled closer together by a few centimeters and the entire counter could also be pulled-out some from the old fireplace's niche for additional "Bracket Clearance". I did play chef on site to check to see if there was enough space to properly place a kitchen in the 177 cm between brackets. It seemed possible. However, I do feel the need of a second opinion. That will come from Giorgio, our brilliant cabinet/door/window maker. He is also an experienced builder of kitchens. Living dangerously, what IS SET is... the sink goes on the left and the cook-top on the right of the 240 cm long counter in between those 177 cm of the two brackets. That's vital info for the Plumber.

#2...  depending on how #1 turns out, and as the kitchen design stands, I doubt I will have built a hood on top of the valence. Its motive is to cover the traces of the old & asymmetric flue... the fine dotted lines climbing up from the two brackets in the left-hand drawing. The Kitchen with the hood strikes me as being too monumental a construction to tolerate. Instead, I might have a re-cycled beam... we have lots of used beams to choose from... installed against the wall to run across & hidden by the top of the valence, so the flue above it can be smoothly filled-in. I am not concerned for covering-up the traces of the old fireplace. The wall above will look cleaner, simpler. Mr. You & I agree that Kitchens ought not over-whelm open spaces, decidedly against the American tradition of contemporary in-your-face kitchen design.

#3... and, depending upon #1 & #2, the Kitchen might actually be constructed as an armoire!!! Doors will open out to show an evidentially functioning Kitchen... the Perfect AND Ideal Solution for any Kitchen, especially mine!!! Gads.

Electrical Plans...

A bunch of funny-looking symbols but... finally... the electrical plans that might pass muster. 

The gist of the lighting scheme for the Upstairs Apartment is...

no up-lights...

no down-lights...

and not much mounted on a wall. Nope. Instead, lots of lamps. They aren't shown on the plan. Their outlets are, like unsightly nasal hairs, if you look carefully for tiny circles-with-2-prongs symbols scattered along walls/partitions/other. Trust me. They're everywhere. There are even two on top of the fireplace, so Mr. You can put small lamps on the mantel. Yes. He thinks of everything.

As for the Stanza dei Tini... the future Laundry Room with Bathroom, Tool Shed & Water Storage. This last item is one way to recycle the tini... or, the enormous vats used for making wine. Remember the famous episode of I Love Lucy? Peasant garb, dancing in a vat & sampling the fruits of the vine? Since The Garden has not a vine in sight... too damn humid... the tini make excellent & convenient reservoirs for furnishing acqua for the entire Il Poggiolo complex... will have ONLY wall mounted lights. In my mind, there is nothing drearier than dangling ceiling-mounted light fixtures. Gives the impression of an unfinished basement. Nope. Don't want that. Gads.

Taking stock...

I have just spent a miserable week in Codiponte, weather-wise. All it ever seems to do down there... and in the rest of Italy too from many the reports of the smartly decked-out Il Capitano del Meteo on RAI 1... is rain, rain & blow cold winds, rain & dump snow, rain & sling sleet, rain, rain, rain. I refuse to show you a picture of this!!!
Last Tuesday, during a down-pour, and thus, unable to do anything important outside... like find fertile homes for the box-wood recently trucked-in when the sun was shinning... I wandered around The Garden in my high-top Wellies and took stock. I discovered that I have a major water problem.
You see that ramp coming down from the Upstairs Apartment? Well, on that day, it was a dry river bed. When it rains, however, it becomes a Mississippi River. There is a secondary ramp on the left too, marked by the wheel-barrow. It's the Ohio River. All the rain-water comes pouring down from these two mighty rivers and floods La Spianata... or, plateau???... so the grass-seed can't take hold for an eventual badminton court. Let's pause here for A Desperate Note...
On the 30th of April, a Saturday, 100 or more of Mr. You's relations are destined to descent upon us at Il Poggiolo for a family reunion. We've got to have a bdaminton court ready for them!!! 

Ditto, the same situation at L'Esseccatoio. That somewhat grassy ramp is nothing more than a conduit for tons of water & silt. We now have grass growing where we don't need it... on the Cortile. Remember, it took Mr. You & me an entire day... lo' those two years ago... to scrape-off the 15 to 20 years of sod build-up, which had accumulated on the Cortile, as per all that nourishing water & silt. 

So, when once again in Codiponte, I will need to bring in Earth-movers & Marcello to reshape the ramps, dig & bury pipes to take the run-off somewhere else. Had I been real, real, real smart, I would have gotten Marcello back last August, when re-building The Garden's terraces, to dig troughs for the water to scurry right into the Fish Swimming Pool. Apparently, programing infrastructure ain't my bag. Gads.

Wall Labors...

Here's the latest Garden Mathematics...

One... take a stretch of garden-terrace badly needing facing in stone...

Two... add stolen rocks, if none are legally lying around...

Three... add too a good stone mason available to artfully place said stolen rocks after a shoddy attempt at do-it-yourself...

Four... equals a new garden-terrace wall, if only the rains were to abate long enough to finish the damn thing!!! Gads.

The Next Winter Task...

The Weather-man said there is a good possibility of snow by Wednesday. So, The Dog... as my Canine Construction Super-intendant... & I have got to get this next Winter Task done in a jiffy. And that is to build a mortar-less rock wall...

...with these stolen goods. It's time to hide the evidence. Gads.

Spring's Here?...

It might be. This flowering quince is the first thing in The Garden to bloom this year. Though the skies are grey and the air wet with rain today, the plant's pink flowers lend an optimistic note. 

Taking a tour around The Garden... Mr. You has already texted me three times asking for updates... I have noticed crocus sprouting through the hard gravely clay down by the Fish Swimming Pool. I thought they had been bull-dozed into oblivion. Along the stone path, which leads to the Castle of Codiponte, another series of bushes, ones I had planted over a year and a half ago to build a green privacy wall, are now rife with deep red leaves of sudden new growth and are soon to be caped by their odd bouquets of furry beige flowers. And, the lille bushes above the Cortile's massive stone wall are a veritable convention of buds waiting, perhaps, for the days to last just a half-hour longer before breaking-out in their waxy green leaves.
There has been some tragedy too. We lost three pyracanthas... a pretty bush with tiny green leaves the whole year-round, graced with bright orange berries during the Fall & Winter... highly poisonous ones too...  but, they come equipped with stabbing spikes. Anti-dog devices. A neighbor's dogs have all of Nature to donate their "hard-stuff" but, where do they choose to leave it? In My Garden!!! Another plant, whose name I cannot recall... I called them the Chinese Restaurant Plants since, every Chinese restaurant  has them in planters at the entrance... also were burnt to a crisp brown by the extreme cold & ice of late. They will not be replaced.
Having lived through a year's turn of seasons here in Codiponte, I am coming to know what are the real climatic conditions of My Garden. I know where the sun strikes, where it is very humid, where it is too cold and where it is hot. For instance, I may have to move the hydrangeas from above the retaining wall below the Fish Swimming Pool, if the willows there have not grown enough to give them more shade. I will know shortly.
In the meantime, I must get cracking on pruning, cleaning beds & planting the next installment of plants. 40 more are due next Wednesday. Then, there is a rock wall to repair... with my own hands. Gads. 

Stolen Rocks...

Shhhhh!!! Stolen rocks. I stole them. Quite bold, no?

I discovered that I had been speaking with the WRONG PEOPLE about stone/rocks/bread-box-sized-boulders and their sources for replenishing my now non-existent back-stock. You do not talk with housewives & children!!! No. I asked builders and every one of them said when queried... I drive a flat-bed tractor down to the river and get them there! So, that is where I went with Our Stone Mason  last Thursday afternoon. He has a very handy flat-bed tractor. We went to an area that was once the in-field of a Motor-cross track down by the Torrente Aulella. The track died from too many Italian Rules & Regulations. There might have been some nasty accidents too.... kids, suddenly separated from their dirt-bikes, flying through the air & landing in the hospital with broken collar bones, etc. The spot was a buffet of stones/rocks/bread-box-sized-boulders. Plus, they weren't so rounded like the ones you pull right out of the torrente's waters. Relatively square. We happily returned to Il Poggiolo with our load. I would have greatly appreciated had Our Stone Mason refrained from mentioning that, if we were caught by the Forestry Service, there would be a hefty fine to pay. Blessedly, we were undetected!!! Gads.

Wall's Junk...

Today's Yard Work... well, I don't understand. Before I could shove some of Mother Earth into the gulf left behind the new rock wall... 

I first had to clean-out all the junk/crap/toxic-stuff I found dispersed... a dark blue T-shirt, a rubber tube, plastic sacks, plastic netting, plastic bottles, plastic NestaTe cups, plastic candle-holders, plastic, plastic, plastic...

a tin pot with attached spoon, metal rods, metal wire, metal hinges, metal hooks... metal, metal, metal...

and frigging styrofoam!!!... probably, the innards from a color TV-set bought in 1977.

So, again, I don't understand. The local contadini... or, peasants!!!... proudly bring me the Fruits & Vegetables from their orti... or, gardens... they break their backs curating their olive groves & in their harvest to present me with bottles of olive-oil, yet, they also treat The Land... especially, if it ain't theirs... as if it were a garbage dumpster!!! Gads.

Today's Winter Task...

Kind of a sad collection of plants & bags of potting soil. Delivered this afternoon, once I had met up with the nursery owner cum delivery boy at the local bar for a caffe' and his four attempts to win Euros with those Scratch & Win!!! cards. He ended up in the RED. The cost of the cards and the two caffe's cost more than his winnings of five Euros. Afterwards, it took me eight wheel-barrow trips to cart the stuff down to The Garden of Il Poggiolo. Tomorrow... Yard Work!!! Gads.

Near Codiponte...

This photo is for all those of you who think that the only part of Tuscany worth its salt-less bread is near Florence or Sienna. Please, take a gander at this little village, a gem of a borgo... or, stone village... in the Lunigiana... in Tuscany!!!

Mezzana is perched on a hill above Codiponte, which is down on the other-side. The stone church & its stone capanile is on the right, nestled in a grove of cipresi... or cedars. The stone village runs along one single road. And, the stone cemetary is on the left, again, marked out by its collection of cipresi.  Normally, in the central "classic" part of Tuscany... San Gimignano & its ilk around... any house to Medici villa is stucco-ed & painted in A Standard Issue cream. But look... stone!!! And hey... no traffic-jam of campers sporting bikes & scooters with German tags, pre-fab factories & warehouses, construction cranes, bed & breakfast or agro-turismi littering the landscape. Only a truly authentic Tuscan borgo, as it has been for a 1,000 years... in the Lunigiana. Gads.

An Update for My To-do List...

Gorgeous day in Codiponte today. The Dog & I arrived mid-afternoon after I had a nice meal in a local restaurant and The Dog sunbathed in the way-back of Mr. You's AUDI. 

So, what have I accomplished in the remaining light of Tuesday? Well, back to The To-do List...

1. See the new re-inforced concrete & rock wall... taking beaucoup du photo... Done!!! Check out another blog for today.
2. Go & pick up the 30 odd plants I ordered two weeks ago for the kick-off of Spring planting... Done!!! The plants/bushes/shrubs arrive tomorrow afternoon by truck. I ordered 10 120 lb. bags of universal potting soil. Let's see how long they last. There's quite a gulf between The New Wall and the plants  above it and planted a year and a half ago.
3. Put to order the area above the new rock wall with new flora... and several kilos of universal potting soil too... Numero Uno!!!... to be tackled tomorrow.
4. Trim the hedges all around our property, so the new growth will fill in the gaps rather than reaching for I don't know what...
5. Bind the rose bushes to the wire trellis I put up against L'Esseccatoio...
6. Build a dry rock wall... no mortar... on the ramp leading up to the upper terraces...
7. Repair the long rock wall in front of the Upstairs Apartment...
8. Call Our darn Geometra to find out when we might have the written estimate from Our Builder...
9. Finish painting the Bird-houses...
10. Finish painting the paint trials for the wall color in the Upstairs Apartment...
11. Finish the darn Electrical Plan and the schematics for the Laundry Room, Fireplace, Kitchen and, naturally, the Bathroom too...
12. Truck the outdoor chairs we bought at a flea market to have them restored... somewhat... you can sit in them but, the paint stays on your clothes...
13. Fertilize everything green, semi-green, budding, sprouting, etc.
14. Spray the Cortile with weed killer. I am slogging through a gardening book written by the Garden Critic... is that possible???... for the Financial Times. He is an effete snob. However, he thinks bio is all Well & Good if you have A Staff like HRH The Prince of Wales. Otherwise, he does composting & stuff and resorts to chemicals for dealing with fertilizing AND KILLING!!! I now feel entitled to do the same without The Guilt.
15. Build a work bench and something to get my equipment off the darn cement floor...
16. Catch up with my friends in Codiponte, drink wine, eat good food and go to bed Happy!!! On its way!!! Coffee planned mid-morning with my English friends, Sarah & Jonathan, and lunch at a different local restaurant with a Codiponte Fan and her husband!!!
17. And, a New Entry... Call Lucio to get the names & telephone numbers of his plumber for an estimate on outfitting La Casetta & Il Poggiolo with running water for all.

Tomorrow yet is another day. Gads.

The Newest Rock Wall...

Done!!! And, if there aren't any Little Local Ears lingering about, the project was entirely built out of... shhhhhh... river rocks!!!
 

You can see a difference between the two walls in the photograph. Our Stone Mason's first re-inforced concrete & stone-faced wall for the ramp leading down from the Upstairs Apartment down to La Spianata... or, what? Plateau???... was constructed with stones ripped from the bosom of Mother Earth years ago. They are rectangular and thus, required much less mortar. Whereas, the river rocks, being naturally rounded by the rushing water of the Torrente Aulella, required a lot more concrete to fill-in the bigger gaps between each stone. 

I am fine with this difference. The first or, Ramp Wall, attached to an outside wall of the Upstairs Apartment, looks original or, at least, much older. It conveniently blends with the walls of Il Poggiolo. The other recently constructed walls, the one above the ramp leading up to La Casetta and built nearly two years ago, the Fish Swimming Pool Wall built last August to stem an imminent collapse of one of the terraces shoved into form by the bull-dozer and the latest one constructed last week all look similar, newer, stronger, etc. They will all be covered by draped flowering plants later this Spring.

Tomorrow, I need to fill in behind the new wall and re-distribute the plants Mr. You & I planted nearly two years ago. I've got my work cut out for me. It's The Adventure!!! Gads.

After Harvest Tasks...

After the olive harvest...

you manure!!! It is the Scent of Spring in these parts. Gads.

Cabin Fever...

I am on the tail-end of the flu. It laid me low. I have been stuck in the house here in Genoa since the disease decided to strike me in a double whammy of its intestinal AND respiratory chaos. I gulped antibiotics and I feel Good Health may be in sight. But enough of sickness. There is too much to do down at Il Poggiolo. Here's the List... not necessarily in the order of importance. I type as they come to me, in other words...

1. See the new re-inforced concrete & rock wall... taking beaucoup du photo...
2. Go & pick up the 30 odd plants I ordered two weeks ago for the kick-off of Spring planting...
3. Put to order the area above the new rock wall with new flora... and several kilos of universal potting soil too...
4. Trim the hedges all around our property, so the new growth will fill in the gaps rather than reaching for I don't know what...
5. Bind the rose bushes to the wire trellis I put up against L'Esseccatoio...
6. Build a dry rock wall... no mortar... on the ramp leading up to the upper terraces...
7. Repair the long rock wall in front of the Upstairs Apartment...
8. Call Our darn Geometra to find out when we might have the written estimate from Our Builder...
9. Finish painting the Bird-houses...
10. Finish painting the paint trials for the wall color in the Upstairs Apartment...
11. Finish the darn Electrical Plan and the schematics for the Laundry Room, Fireplace, Kitchen and, naturally, the Bathroom too...
12. Truck the outdoor chairs we bought at a flea market to have them restored... somewhat... you can sit in them but, the paint stays on your clothes...
13. Fertilize everything green, semi-green, budding, sprouting, etc.
14. Spray the Cortile with weed killer. I am slogging through a gardening book written by the Garden Critic... is that possible???... for the Financial Times. He is an effete snob. However, he thinks bio is all Well & Good if you have A Staff like HRH The Prince of Wales. Otherwise, he does composting & stuff and resorts to chemicals for dealing with fertilizing AND KILLING!!! I now feel entitled to do the same without The Guilt.
15. Build a work bench and something to get my equipment off the darn cement floor...
16. Catch up with my friends in Codiponte, drink wine, eat good food and go to bed Happy!!!

Gads.

Electrical Plans...

I have the flu. I've had it since Tuesday. Flu KILLS any desire to do anything but...

A) Sleep...

B) Moan & Groan...

and/or...

C) Find Fault with the World.

I fell into a HUGE vat of C) today!!!

My Error was to begin re-drawing the Electrical Plan for the Upstairs Apartment. This task landed on the To-do List right after last night's stunning AND unexpected Victory in winning Mr. You's Approval for a New Bathroom Design. New design, new lighting plan. 

Oh, never mind about outlets & switches. What I really, really, really dislike is to specify where & how & what with light fixtures. I don't know what kind of lights I want in the first place. 

The Bathroom's niche is a good example... according to the New Bathroom Design, the sink goes in the niche. The niche has a gentle arch for a roof, so to speak. Do I want to put a light in the arch... OR... do I want two lights on each side? 

Yes... I guess I could trot over to our local light store... a marvelous man, Paolo owns it and he's a genius, not forgetting to mention that he is very elegant too... to select some light fixtures, and then, draw up the electrical plan afterwards. 

Well...

A) I am sick and prefer not to infect The Whole World... though I would gladly infect a few politicians...

and...

B) I am not in the mood right now!!!
and...

C) It is 2011, right? Why do we still need to feed electricity through wires? I say... it is time Science... or, Engineering... or, some Wizard Inventor... eliminated the wires run through plastic tubes under flooring & up walls and replace them all with telepathically savvy lights, appliances, laptops... hair-dyers, for cryin' out loud!!! We should have electrical stuff which can beam their electrical needs to & from a central electrical feed-box... like wireless Internet connections. Simple.

I feel I have blogged about this before. Knowing me and My Standard Complaints, I have. Forgive me, please. Now, it's time for my medicine. Gads. 

It's A Winner...

...for now.

How fickle doth blow the Winds of Design... I reiterated to Mr. You how I felt about Candidate #4 for the Upstairs Apartment's Bathroom. He was scurrying past me jamie-clad & holding his dinner plate to go upstairs to watch his favorite TV show, Seconde Chance, a program much like Ugly Betty but,  zsey awl speeeek sza Frwencch and, thankfully, sans la Betty. Thus, his reply was brief...

OK. Make sure the door has water-proof paint on it!

Gads.

A Wet Door...

Remember this from yesterday? It's been enlarged to make a point. 

I showed Mr. You the Winning Candidate for the Bathroom design last night and all he said was...
The door will get wet from the shower.

Excuse me???

I have put the shower in every corner of the bathroom. It has gone along every wall and even in front of the only window too. And, despite the fact that several of these locations were either too small or too inconvenient to the other items so necessary in arranging a bathroom... like a toilette and a sink!!!... Mr. You now worries about a door getting wet? The Italians are so shifty.

My answer to this will be... now that I have thought of one... is the door can be painted in a water-proof paint. Done. All else remains as the Winner came through the posts. Gads.

New Upstairs Apartment Bathroom Designs...

What a title. Indicates a need for an Instruction Booklet?

OK... after much sketching, doodling & erasing too, I have come up with these late-breaking attempts to satisfy everyone's criterion... damn-it... for the Upstairs Apartment's Bathroom. And, I think we may have A Possible Winning Candidate. But, here now, are a few designs along the road... 

Candidate #1... the idea of moving the new wall on the right in the photo out from underneath the beam... those two parallel lines running vertically along side it to the left... was happily furnished by a Fan. Thank you, Fan. The WC... or, toilette, in our American parlance... would go behind the door... as per Mr. You's Numero Uno Richiesta... the shower would be tucked into the corner somewhat blocking the niche. Thus, the sink would go opposite the shower. The niche would be reserved for shelving to house all the towels Mr. You has recently forced me to buy though bought ON SALE. I am not totally content with this design. Seems sort of ridiculous to have the niche as a shelving unit. Onwards...

Candidate #2... how about a sliding door for entry into the Bathroom? Now, the shower is in another corner, accompanied by the WC and... EVVIVA!!!... the sink can go in the niche. Of course, I am not crazy about the zig-zag journey from my Bedroom into the Bathroom. I might need Ground Control Radar to make it properly to the WC without KILLING myself on the edge of the marble shower platform. Progress but, onwards again...

Candidate #3... I wanted to see what would happen... visually, spacially, etc... if I were to leave the new wall underneath the beam, put the shower in front of the window but not squished into the window's niche, place the WC in the corner between the shower and the sink... miraculously, still in the niche. Does not look like a happy place to spend more than 5 seconds and I like to sit & read. Anyhow, onwards... 

Candidate #4... door into the bathroom is basically aligned with the Bedroom's door. Not bad. The WC is not the first thing you'd see, unless you have eyes on the side of your head. It just fits on the short new wall & in front of the window. You'd get a view with every sit-down. OK. We may be rockin'. A smallish but workable 80 x 110 cm shower can be tucked in the corner as you enter. And, yes... the Sink can stay safely in the niche!!! There might even be enough space to boogie while drying off without tripping over, bumping into, etc. on something hard... like a marble shower platform. Seems like A Winner to me. What do you all say, folks? Gads.