People’s opinions of my decision to undertake a renovation project from afar seemed to range from brave to crazy. I felt very calm and comfortable about it. During the pandemic seemed like a perfect time too — I couldn’t have been there in person for most of the renovation period, and the apartment wasn’t habitable when we bought it so it all made sense to me. Not to mention the fact that our current home in Northern California had been purchased before I actually moved to the Bay Area — so it, too, was chosen through photos and instinct. Also, for financial reasons we needed to live in said house during the six months of renovations that ensued. That was a total and complete nightmare. I don’t recommend doing this. Ever. Nope. Just nope…So, being just under 10,000 km (6,200 miles) away from the 13 months of construction, restoration, and renovation sounded…as the Italians would say…perfetto!
Our geometra sent videos walking through each room and a detailed floor plan with measurements. I went through our house with a tape measure so I could decide on the minimum size requirements for various rooms. He sent his recommended designs to me and I sent my desired layout to him. The floor plans had very little in common at the beginning so after explaining the why and the what of my suggested floor plan, the only sticking point was the kitchen. I wanted to make sure that the rooms with the three frescoes were located in rooms we’d use and enjoy every day. For example, one of his initial suggestions was making the chapel an ensuite bathroom for the guest room. Now, while that would have looked super cool — sorry future guests, the chapel is not for you — I wanted a more frequent purpose for the chapel so we decided on it being the study. I decided to put our bedroom in the frescoed room at the far end of the apartment — as there are no hallways I didn’t want to have to traipse through our bedroom to get to the kitchen, or living room or whatever. The room with a fresco in the middle of the apartment therefore got designated as the kitchen. However, it was not quite big enough to accommodate an island or a dining table.
Our geometra at first said no to moving a wall, as it would disrupt the fresco, so I tried to make peace with a smaller kitchen. This would be a much larger kitchen than in any of his plans — but smaller than I was hoping for, nonetheless. But at some point he came around and came up with a plan to both allow enough room for an island and not disrupt the fresco. Yay! I was hoping to have either the sink or the stove in the island. I lost this particular battle, but I just assumed it had something to do with Italian building codes, or that it’s a 500 year old building, or whatever. I made peace with it and carried on my designing of the space.
It’s interesting to me that all the stuff I consider integral to a kitchen is considered “furniture” in Italy. So when our geometra first told me he would recommend an architect who can provide kitchen furniture I wasn’t quite sure what that meant but quickly got on board and set out to design the layout of the kitchen — back and forth via emails — of the cabinets and appliances.
I am the queen of research. I love to research everything to the nth degree. Trying to search for Italian appliances — sold in Italy — proved a challenge. But I did manage to find some stores and pricing to give me a baseline of what to expect. I needed to learn the names of all the appliances and decipher the energy ratings, and try to find reviews of specific models available in Italy.
If at all possible I recommend avoiding living in a place during construction and restoration like the plague…Just say NOPE!
Through dozens and dozens of hours of online searching I found sources for the bathroom vanities (again, considered furniture), and the lighting. Our geometra sent links for various suppliers of tile, showers, toilets, bath tubs, etc. and I set about choosing most of the finishes. Later also came choosing both paint colours and finishes — but it was with authentic and location appropriate materials — which also meant no VOCs and the possibility of Venetian plaster finishes — which I opted for in the living room.
Although our geometra doesn’t speak English (nor do any of the other artisans that worked on our apartment), I made it clear at the outset that I wanted very detailed written updates and photos. Well…I got the most amazing updates. Every Friday morning I received an email with a written account of the work that happened that week, a wealth of photographs, and a floor plan that indicated the exact spot he was standing when he took the various photographs. For 13 months this was the highlight of my week. It was so thorough and so complete that I really didn’t feel like I needed to be there in person at all. These updates were awesome. They really made us feel like we were part of the process and on top of what was going on in our piccolo palazzo. And although some weeks there seemed like I had a litany of decisions to make on this, that, or the other thing to do with the construction, in retrospect, all these choices, and all this focus on our future Italian abode were a life saver for me. It really helped me deal with my grief and have something positive to focus on. I was able to find joy every week in planning and plotting our home in Orvieto.
It was absolutely wonderful to see it in person when it was complete, but to be honest it wasn’t as emotional as I was anticipating because everything looked exactly like I expected it to look. Maybe the ceilings were slightly lower in the living room than I was expecting, or maybe the walk in closet was quite a bit bigger than I was expecting, but I really wasn’t surprised by anything. Don’t get me wrong…it is beautiful and I love it and I’m so excited about our apartment and flinging open all those brand new wood shutters to take in our views was definitely emotional. But for me, my ability to envision the finished space from photos and floor plans allowed for a really positive construction process — and we didn’t have to listen to any of the construction noise or deal with the construction dust. Even if circumstances were different and I had to do it all again, I would not hesitate to go through the process remotely again.
When I met our lovely next door neighbours in Orvieto I made sure to inform them that our next door neighbours in California were carrying out — very loud and very dusty — renovations for virtually the entire time. I think they were comforted to hear it!