Villa Verde: dream comes true
Fortunately, thanks to his work at the time as an independent recruiter, Ricardo was able to spend three months in Italy to take on this preparatory phase. That did mean three months without each other after 30 years together, quite an adjustment! But he did make sure that much of the stuff was sorted out, reused or taken to the Isola Ecologica.
In September 2021, we got the green light from the Comune for the renovation and found a contractor willing to work during the winter months starting in November. Perfect timing, as this allowed them to work indoors during the coldest months. In October, we travelled to Italy to choose tiles, sanitaryware, kitchen and colours in rapid succession. Using countless mood boards and inspiration from pinterest, we had a clear picture of what we wanted.
To manage the project, we engaged Monique from le Marche Property as project manager. After all, over 1,500 kilometres away, it is not easy to coordinate everything. Monique proved to be our tower of strength; she kept the overview, organised everything down to the last detail and knew how to motivate us when we were at a loss for words.
We regularly travelled to Italy to see the progress with our own eyes. Thanks to a fantastic and reliable team of professionals - plumbers, contractors and electricians - the first floor was ready in February 2023. A beautiful and precious moment: for the first time, we slept in our fully renovated floor!
Immediately afterwards, work started on the attic. This proved a challenge, as not everywhere the ceiling height was suitable for a living space. But thanks to creative solutions, extra skylights and the determination of Monique and our geometra, we eventually got the permit for this too. From June 2023, the transformation began to show. New windows, insulation, a bathroom, slowly but surely the space took shape. In August, we lugged no less than 150 m² of tiles to the second floor ourselves, after which the finishing touches could begin. And in April 2024, the time had come: we moved into our own flat and the first floor was ready for rental.
The final touches: garden and septic tank
As if the renovation was not intense enough, we also picked up the garden plans in the meantime. In addition, the new scarico (septic tank) was due in November 2023. The day the we arrived at the house, it looked like a moat had been dug around our house, all we were missing was the drawbridge - that was a bit of a shock! But by January 2024, even that project was complete.
Then it was time for the garden. We wanted to offer our guests a green, attractive outdoor space and had an irrigation system installed. But that meant digging, digging and more digging. And of course it rained incessantly in March and April, delaying the work each time. When we arrived in mid-April, the site looked more like a BMX track than a garden. Together with gardener Alessio, we worked extremely hard and by 5 May everything was ready: grass sown, trees planted and the final stepstones laid.
That evening, we enjoyed a well-deserved prosecco. The next morning, we cleaned and prepared everything for our very first guests on 6 May. It really started now!
