Another long week

Well, it's more like 2 weeks, but the time flies so fast when there is a lot to do.  

We had another appointment to get an appointment but that is just the way things work here. I'm getting used to it now.  

It has been a time of deliveries. We are starting to settle in.  The previous owners of the castle removed everything.  All the lights, the appliances.  Everything.  We've been slowly buying pieces of furniture that appeal to us but that also fit with the puzzles and the castle theme.  We can't have modern glass and steel furniture in a 14th century building.  We had originally ordered 2 sofas from Ikea that were to be delivered before Brian and Leigh arrived.  Sadly, they didn't show up on time.  They came in after they left.  Typical.  We put them together and set them up in the salon so we would have a place to entertain.  Now, I didn't like the feel of the covers.  They were comfortable, but rough.  

A week or so back we went to a local place and ordered sofa sleepers. 8 of them in fact. I wanted 12 but we are only allowed to order 4 each.  Apparently there is a black market in sofas.  Anyway, they arrived this week. We swapped out the Ikea sofas to an upstairs bedroom, and brought two of these into the main room.  The rest are populating the upper floors of the hotel waiting for our furniture from Boca to come in and fill out the remaining rooms.  

We also ordered a kitchen table that is very similar to the puzzle table we purchased for the museum in Boca.  In addition we ordered a dozen small end tables of the same design. These too have been distributed between the castle and the hotel. Sadly the kitchen table is too big for the kitchen so it has been banished to the apartment downstairs.  This is not a terrible disaster, if we have longer staying guests, they will have a place to eat.  Now to finish that apartment. 

The best purchase was a small one.  It is simply for our comfort.  I ordered a memory foam mattress topper for the bed. What a difference that makes. We sleep well and wake without pain. It's the little things that are making this a home for us.

I showed a sneak peak of the mirror room last week, and I've continued to fill it with mirrors.  Recently I purchased a very ornate gold framed piece from the late 1700's.  It will be delivered this week.  But more importantly, we have light! 

I've been on a used market kick and have had great fun looking for unique pieces for our new home.  This week I found a chandelier for the mirror room. It has 10 lamps which in itself is rather unusual.  The light is crystal of course and has a beautiful shine to it.  Our Antonio fixed it right up when he saw it and now we shine brightly.  

We purchased a nice marble table for the library as well as a biblioteca.  This is a fancy Italian word for library book shelves.  The piece is from the early 1900's and cost over 1 million Lire when it was originally purchased.  This is worth about US$2.50 today.  In hindsight,I think I over paid.  It's beautiful. I don't care about the cost.  But boy does it need cleaning! I'm sure once it is dewormed, cleaned and polished it will look amazing.  There was also a coat hanger, 7 chairs, a small cupboard and a library table all included in the deal.  I'm still in need of chairs for the tables, but those will happen in the future.  

I managed to find some bolster pillows that I could use on the mirror room daybed.  I'm beginning to think the only way I'll find a new mattress is to make one myself.  Does anyone have any spare horsehair they could loan me?

I hung a few Berrocals and George has removed the ugly light strip from the salon.  The room looks so much better without that ugly thing hanging there.  

And!  We now have Optic Fiber!  The internet is so much better here than it was in Boca.  I can't believe that we can get good service through 13 foot thick walls without the need for boosters. In Boca we had 4 in the big house and 2 in the museum.  Amazing!

There is a house 3 doors down (um....2 football fields) that is in terrible disrepair.  We looked at it to purchase, but with the $ being low, and their asking price, it would cost more to remove the pigeon poop than the building.  You see, they put up plastic curtains in the windows that broke, and the pigeons saw through that cheap trick and have moved in.  The upper floor is covered in shit.  It's a real health hazard. Anyway, we don't like the birds for obvious reasons, and they drive me mad as they sit on the window sills.  Some of the windows have bird stakes, but most do not.  One day on a silly whim I hung a monkey in the window and discovered that it keeps the birds away!  Now all of the windows have hanging monkeys. I can only imagine what the neighbors think. 

We have had some amazing weather here lately as well.  There was a wonderful hail storm.  It looked as though  it were snowing.  I can only imagine how beautiful winter will be if hail is like that.  The rains have been coming in fast and furious and we've now got a long list of leaking windows.  It is everyone of them.  When we first noticed it, I though the monkeys were wetting the floors but since there are stuffed toys, I knew that was not possible.  As it turns out, the previous owner of the castle did not believe in maintenance and we have been going full tilt restoring and repairing everything he let go to pot.  Buildings this old, while they have lasted the test of time, do not self heal.  They need a lot of work.  

The beams have all been dewormed, the roof has been waterproofed, new gutters have been put in, the old broken plastic windows have been replaced with heavy duty flexible plastic while we wait for a bit more work to be finished on the upper floor.  The giant crack in the tower has been repaired, and another will be tackled when we next go on a long trip.  We've engaged an engineer to repair the ceiling that is slowly caving in above the door of the dead cat room, to open the connections between the two buildings, to open up the wall between the master bedroom and to be made master bath, and to instal an elevator in the museum. There are many electrical issues that need fixing and a few minor repairs in the castle, but those can all wait.  I'm getting used to seeing cracks and no longer panic when I spot one I hadn't seen before.  This building has many stories to tell, and I'm very sure those cracks hold some great ones.

We finally changed the utilities to our name.  I'm very curious to see the cost of them.  I'm afraid to get the first bill.  I've just received a bill for the elevator maintenance that was from last May.  It turns out that the previous owner not only didn't repair the castle, he didn't pay his bills.  It's bad enough they took EVERYTHING out of here, but it is really very nasty of them to leave debt to us as well.  I hope we can find some recourse with this.  Only time will tell.

Oh, and in other important news, we now own the dead cat room. this was only 124 signatures and 3 hours time.  The translator this time gave me a reduced cost because I paid in cash.  I'm beginning to see how Italy works.  

Last weekend we went to an antiques market in Arezzo.

It is supposed to be the largest in Europe.  It is big. I think it took up 3 city plazas and the roads in between. George and I went up and stayed for the weekend. I thought it would take 3 days to go through the market. It didn't.  But that is because I knew what I wanted to look for and how much I was willing to pay.  The prices there were just crazy.  As an example, I did purchase a mirror.  The man wanted €1000 for it, but I managed to talk him down to 550 plus delivery after quite a bit of talking.  

My Italian is coming along nicely.  No one there spoke any English so I was thrown into the deep end and came out swimming.  The weekend prior we went south to a different antiques fair that had closed down.  On the way home we stopped in Orvieto for a wander around. It's a beautiful city.  

We also purchased a five new armadios and 2 more tables for the castle.  I'm really enjoying "thrifting" here. I hated it in the states, but everything I saw there was rubbish.  Here the antique furniture can be bought for a song.  It's amazing really. 

George has completed my exchange puzzle and works diligently on his.  I believe he is getting into a rhythm with it now and will be finished soon.  Thank heavens!  The laser cutter doesn't belong in the salon. Once he has finished, it will be moved over to his workshop in the hotel. He has power there, and ventilation.   I know he's going to love that room. 

Our Antonio has cracked his ribs so most of the work has stopped until he is feeling better.  He continues with simple things that don't cause him pain, but I've put him on 1/2 days until he has healed.  The man never stops but I don't want a completely broken man on my hands.  All work would cone to a grinding halt.  

Fino alla prossima settimana, arrivaderci e continua rompicapo.