Fast Tour Of The Garden...

On Tuesday, March 27, 2012... as You commanded on the telephone earlier this morning. His wish is ONLY My Command, or so the saying goes. Gads.

Flooring Emotions For Tuesday...

March 27, 2012... and OMG!!! Il Salotto has been layed!!! All it needs is the grouting. But first, the Work-guys must finish the center field in the Sala da Pranzo and to lay all the pavers in the Cucina. 

Progress is beautiful!!! Gads.

Another Day of Flooring Emotions...

Tut-tut... another day of laying down the terra-cotta flooring, now in the Salotto. This room is a kind of one-sided trapezoid. Does that make any sense? Anyway, we ran into A Tech-Question... to follow or not to follow the shape of the room for the interior field... or, the carpet? If we did, then both the outside & inside fields would be full of chopped up little pieces of terra-cotta, thanks to the rather rakish angle of a wall. These itzy-bitzy pieces are because the outside field pattern I chose... straight alternating pavers works well AND simply, if the pavers are layed at 90% angles to whatever they butt-up against... wall or border, etc. Creating a square center field solved the outside field issue EXCEPT that...

over in the far right corner in the photo below, there would be a whole lot of outside field. Fine. 

The Work-guys & I did several trial runs and My Vote went for how you see it. A carpet effect which is in the center of the room... ditto for the Sala da Pranza. We have obeyed the Law of Uniformity!!!
But, don't it all look nice? Gads.

The Beeg Myyysteryy...

There was an old wooden stairs which, once-upon-a-time, connected the Terrace above to the Loggia below. It was a typical model for these Lunigiana parts... 2" thick planks of fir as struts cut with angled zig-zags to place the steps. It was painted in a local signature Bordeaux, a color long since dried to the end of its Life by Sun & Rain & Wind. I loved it. And, I saw a Future for it too. In the meantime, and without asking, The Work-guys took the better part of the wooden stairs and parked it inside the Esseccatoio to await its Future, when they demolished the old terrace to build a new one. That was very nice of them. Faced with ever escalating costs, with much dear thanks to the Monti Government... an unelected entity, by the way... raising taxes, which, naturally, causes prices to AUTOMATICALLY go up. Is the Monti Government... or, any government... so stupid not to know that raising taxes is INFLATIONARY???... I had decided for adapting the old wooden stairs as a temporary solution to get from the Cucina to the bathroom in the Lavanderia. It would be a four foot jump without a ladder/stair/slide and, sadly, I can no longer take jumps of over six inches. Well, on Friday, when I left for Genoa to check on You and the Tuesday of my return, that Future Use vanished. The stairs are gone!!! Ripped off!!! Stolen!!! Kidnapped, even!!! 

Now, who, much less why, would anyone steel an old wooden stair?   

Whoever the culprit is, and for whatever reason for this crime may be, it had to be...

A)  someone who knew my Comings & Goings...

B)  someone who knew where the keys were kept to the Esseccatoio AND the Back Gate... for a quick and, undoubtedly, unseen get-away...

and...

C)  someone who knew that I was quite attached to the old wooden stairs... dammit it all to Hell!!!... and had envisioned a Fine Future Use for it too.

Smacks of an Inside Job, no???
After Searching & Investigating High & Low...

1)  the Work-guys claimed to be totally in the dark...
2) ditto for the cabinet-maker, present at the time of the stairs' disappearance, Our Builder, the neighbor's son-in-law, who likes to hang out at My Building Site since, he has nothing else to do.
So, $1,500 later, I'll have a new & spiffy wood stairs, as per My Own Personal Design. And, I could care less. I want My Old Wooden Stairs back!!! Gads.

Before & Afters...

Memory Lane versus Today's Reality...
Sala da Pranzo in 2009...
 

and last week... 
More of the Sala da Pranzo in 2009...

and two weeks ago...
Salotto in 2009... 

and two weeks ago... 

Salotto in 2009... 

and last Monday... 
Very satisfying, no?
Fasten your seat-belts for Our New Blue on all these walls!!! Gads.

2nd Day Of Flooring Emotions...

Friday's Progress... border & outside field of alternating pavers in the Sala da Pranzo is DONE.

Monday & Tuesday will see the same DONE in the Salotto. Then, another day and a half to do the herringbone pattern in the center fields in both beeeg rooomz before the Kitchen gets its terra-cotta flooring. 

Naturally, You has been pestering me to post these photos so he can do Show & Tell with his nurses. Like they don't have enough Important Things to Do down at the hospital!!! Gads.

Terra-cotta...

Flooring emotions!!! The Work-guys started laying the terra-cotta pavers in the Sala da Pranzo this Thursday afternoon. 

What you are looking at is the traditional alternating pattern from the wall to a straight run of pavers for a border around what will be a field in a herringbone pattern.

I just stood in a daze that... finally... what was a hay barn is now nearing to being Our Dining Room!!! Gads.