by Helen | Nov 23, 2017 | Renovation
For the past few days, we’ve been clearing out the kitchen and creating a makeshift one in the Well Room, as work is beginning on the first big renovation project. Things are getting serious!
Meanwhile, our builders have been beavering away in the kitchen, stripping out the false ceiling. This was low and only plasterboard, and knew from the external shape of the kitchen roof, that there’s likely be beams above it – a hammer through the ceiling confirmed this and so there was no going back. We were going to have an apex ceiling, with beams.
After yesterday’s excitement of taking down the false ceiling – plus removing a dead mouse, numerous critters and a hornets’ nest – today was always going to be a bit of anti-climax in terms of progress. However, in the short time that Misko and Sergio were here, they achieved an awful lot. In order to get the positioning of the new window spot-on, they did a bit of a mini move-around of cupboards and appliances. And after nine months of a poorly laid out kitchen, they temporarily nailed it – could have saved ourselves a bit of money
And, today, the scaffolding arrived. It was brought to us by Edo, a lovely Dutch guy who has really helped us ease into Istrian life, as he did the same thing 12 years ago. He brought the scaffolding to us because he was already going to Sergio’s, as he was taking hay for Sergio’s horse. Which Sergio doesn’t ride. He keeps it as a pet. Just when we thought we couldn’t like Sergio any more.
Anyway, it was lovely to see Edo again – plans were made for getting together after Xmas, when he’s back from Rotterdam and we’re back from our travels. It feels good to be forging friendships in a foreign country.
The walls in the house are very thick – at certain points being nearly 80cms thick. One of those points is where we want the new kitchen window, which we thought would present quite a challenge. Not so! With only a hammer drill and a chisel, huge slabs of stone were quickly being removed, revealing what had once been an internal chimney, still full of the black soot – and red soil, which Misko told us what was used pre-concrete days. All of the stones have been saved and these will be re-used, probably in the garden. Waste not, want not.
Pretty soon, the hole was sufficiently big enough for us to get an idea of what the kitchen will eventually be like when daylight floods in. (The current window is north-ish facing, so apart from very early in the morning, we don’t get much sunlight in the kitchen – the new window will give us sunlight in the afternoon and into the evening).
The brickwork at the top still needs to be removed, and that will be done tomorrow – and then in will go the newly cut Istrian stone surrounds. The frame and casement windows have been sanded, prepped, undercoated and glossed, so they’re ready too, for their new home.
Because the weather today has been sunny – and warm, when the sun has been at the front of the house – we’ve also had to take the opportunity to get as much as we can get done, in between client design work, to crack on with the exterior woodwork. This might not look too high, but our living room window is probably 10 foot above ground level – it took a little bit of coaxing to get my super decorator up the ladders, but he did it!
Meanwhile, we think that for a good few days yet, we’ll only have a plastic sheet between us and the elements, as work still needs to be carried out on the stone lintels, before the window can be fitted.
by Helen | Oct 24, 2017 | Renovation
We’ve done IKEA kitchens and while they’ve largely been great and just what we wanted/needed in the past, schlepping to Zagreb or beyond Trieste (the two nearest stores to us), just seemed a bit far, this time. It’s OK to do these trips to buy bedding and candles but we needed somewhere a bit closer. Somewhere where we’d get some great personal service, where the person we were dealing with could speak good English – as much as we are trying, our technical Croation/Italian isn’t that good just yet – and where we could get something a little bit different. And we found it.
Step up to the plate, the curiously named LesninaXXXL, located in Koper in Slovenia. We can get to this town in under 40 minutes – and get our regular dose of normality. Back in Manchester, we avoided places like the Trafford Centre – but in Koper, City Park, is a breath of fresh air, with reassuringly familiar shops, and some interiors stores that are a cut above what we’ve found so far. It’s a bit more expensive in Slovenia than Croatia, but still less expensive than the UK – and we’ve found, with a lot more choice – so we do hop over the border frequently. And, that’s how we came to find ourselves kitchen shopping in Slovenia. Not a phrase I ever thought I’d be saying!
We’re fans of less-is-more, unfussy and uncomplicated and probably a bit on the industrial side of design. As in, not overly polished. So concrete – and concrete effects – float our boats, and we saw this and the search was over, with plans being drawn up there & then…
With a few (!) tweaks here and there, we think we might have just achieved what we’ve been looking for kitchen-wise. Plans are done, deposit has been paid, visit has been booked in by planner just to make sure our measurements are actually correct, and we’re ready to go in January! Looking forward to our visitors next year, having a much more pleasant kitchen experience…
by Helen | Oct 23, 2017 | Renovation
The summer has been a time for travel, seeing family and friends and lots of white-washing of walls. The house feels much more light and airy, now that the bare stone walls are much softer. And now, as autumn starts to take a hold, our thoughts are turning to the bigger renovation projects. The ripping out and starting again of the kitchen and the two small bathrooms will be done largely by professionals – we have clear ideas of how these will look, but we’ll see how that all comes about in translation! Especially as some of the ideas are none too traditional for these parts.
We definitely don’t have a sky’s-the-limit budget, so whilst we’re happy to leave what we can’t do in the hands of those who can, we’re also pitching in ourselves where we can. And one of the places – or should I say *many* of those places – are the windows and shutters. It would seem that when these were originally installed, we think about ten years ago, they were only ever painted with one coat of what looks like a coloured undercoat. They were certainly never treated, sanded, filled, properly undercoated and glossed. They have had ten hot summers, ten cold, wet winters and have been battered by high winds and storms. So, they’ve been in a mess since the day we arrived. We’ve deliberated about having them replaced – and that might still happen – but we thought we had to give them a fighting chance and see what could be done to repair them and make them fit for purpose again.
As you can see, peeling paint, warped shutters and in some cases, fairly damaged hinges. In total, we have fifteen windows. Twelve of them have double casement windows and double shutters, three are single windows and shutters. Plus the front door, and an external cellar door. The windows are all also quite small, making any kind of a repair job, pretty fiddly. But the house is potentially beautiful, and we feel that the windows need to look the best they possibly can – and therefore hopefully be saved. And this is the project we have just embarked up on. Maybe not the best timing, as the weather is just starting to turn and so drying of paint takes a lot longer – but unlike our windows back in England, these don’t have to be painted in situ. They can easily be lifted out and so the Well Room has become a sort of window hospital.
Even though the paint that’s on there now has long since seen better days, we did quite like the greeny-blue shade. We wanted to avoid the very dark grey we’d done the Didsbury house with, as – sorry to say – it’s generally very bright and sunny here, and so wanted something a bit more uplifting. The decision was made to abandon the much loved Farrow & Ball “Railings” and opt for something much softer. Because of space etc and wanting to be able to re-hang the frames at night when it is now a bit colder, this is a slow process. Each frame has to be repaired, sanded, filled, taped up, undercoated twice and then painted with the above satin wood. Repeat the process for the shutters and doors.
We may be here some time, but, we think we’ve made a good start and may be breathing new life back into some sorely neglected woodwork.
by Helen | Oct 12, 2017 | Spain, Travel
Although much larger than Frigiliana, and perhaps not quite as immediately pretty, Cómpeta is another of Andalusia’s white-washed towns – the famous pueblo blancos. In the Axarquía (meaning ‘East’ in Arabic) region, with beautiful traditional architecture and ancient customs, Cómpeta is known as the Cornice of the Costa del Sol, because of its location.
Competa doesn’t have a large modern shopping centre. on its outskirts – instead, it offers wonderful boutique shops. Wander the pretty tiled streets, and you will find art galleries, shops selling hand-made soaps, rugs, pottery, honey and olive oil. There are also many multi craft shops selling traditional Spanish wares. You will also find a good range of small supermarkets, fishmongers and grocers. Saturday is the day for the Competa Market on Avenida de la Constitucion, from 10am to 2pm. Here you can buy clothing, crafts, spices, pottery, fruit and much more. It’s colourful and vibrant and extremely popular. Although our visit was very short, it was noticeable that the town has many bars and restaurants. Judging by the menus we looked at, each restaurant offers a unique variety and and a wide selection, and it was great to see that vegan, GF and vegetarian diners are all well catered for, too.
So, another one on our list of places we must return to…
by Helen | Sep 2, 2017 | Lifestyle
So, this morning we set off on what we thought would be a quick trip. A trip into our nearest town (20 mins away) to finally increase the amount of electricity we have at the house. But first, let me take you back a few weeks. When we did this trip for the first time…
The electricity board offices here are a bit of a throwback to a previous era. Austere in decoration, staffed largely by very serious people (with one exception we shall introduce you to) and with systems that were probably quite groundbreaking. In the 1950s. Anyway, we queued, as you do out here. And queued. We finally got to the front of the queue to be told we were in the wrong queue. We had to be in the *other* queue. Thankfully, there wasn’t a queue so we thought we’d be dealt with very quickly and be on our way. Not quite as it turned out.
The member of staff couldn’t speak English and our limited Italian and Croatian just weren’t cutting it as we tried to get to grips with the complexities of increasing our electricity supply. But, it turned out there was someone who could speak English and he was summonsed. Unlike all of the other staff, this young man was very smiley and amiable. He didn’t really need to explain that he’d been “to lunch” as his staggering gait and enveloping whiff of wine sort of gave the game away. It was 11.30am. Still, he could speak English, and to be fair he was most helpful. The only real stumbling block came when we couldn’t produce a map showing the plot of land we owned. No problem we thought – we’re actually paying for electricity to the property and had to initially show proof of ownership, so we put this down to him having had a glass too many. No, on the contrary, we had to have the map and we had to go the Katastar (the equivalent of the local Land Registry) and get the map. Once we had the map, we’d be rewarded by paying the electricity board nearly £500 to increase the power supply so that when we had the dishwasher and washing machine on together, we didn’t trip the power.
We have experience of Croatian bureaucracy and know now to try and only do one task at a time. Otherwise we’d end up like our new friend, taking an early lunch at 11.30am. So, it’s taken us three weeks (because we have had other bureaucratic tasks in between) to return to this particular one. But, this morning was bright and sunny and we felt ready for all that HEP could throw at us.
First port of call was to the Katastar to get the map. Forms filled in, signed, all seemed to be going well – until we were advised that we needed now to go to the post office (or to a tobacconist) and buy 15 kunas worth of stamps (the equivalent of £1.75) and bring these back, so that they could be stuck (with a pritstick, I kid you not) on the form we had just filled in and over-stamped with three official stamps. And when all of this had been done, we had to pay another 30 kunas. For what we have no idea. But, we had *the* map. Which looked remarkably like a number of other maps we have in the house folder but which were deemed not quite the right map. But never mind, we had it. And back off to HEP we went to finally increase our electricity supply.
We arrived at 11.15am to find a man waiting outside the door. The blinds were down. We had a feeling what was coming next. Yes, he informed us, they are on their break. They re-open at 11.30am. The whole office shut. For a break. FFS! We knew definitely not to go away and come back as there would be a queue, so we waited. Fair play, at 11.30am the door was unlocked and in we went again. But we were a bit more savvy this time and instead of joining the big queue, we went straight to the other window. The window that deals with increasing your electricity supply. To see a new sign with new opening hours…
8.00am to 11.00am
Yep, you couldn’t make it up. The saga continues. But on the bright side, at least our favourite HEP employee – and new friend – can make an earlier start on his lunch…
by Helen | Jul 29, 2017 | Italy, Travel
Capo Testa is located in northern Sardinia and is a wild and pretty remote part of the island. For thousands of years, the powerful wind over the Mediterranean has shaped Capo Testa, into an unreal world of lunar rock formations. Smoothed from the sea breeze, the huge, imposing rocks have been contorted into curious formations, almost as if they were formed by mythical giants, making this place a really mystifying sight and ensuring that it very popular with visitors, who also come to swim in the crystal clear waters.
As the closest Sardinian shore to Rome, the peninsula where Capo Testa is located, was at one point used for mining granite, by the Romans, who set up a small town around the mines, extracting large amounts of the stone for many of the buildings in the Italian capital. The caves where the stone was quarried were last used as a source of building materials in the early 20th century. The rocky, granite peninsula, which is attached to Sardinia’s mainland by an isthmus, is only about ten kilometers (6.2 miles) across. So, pull on a pair of sturdy shoes with a strong grip and hike around the eroded rocks to admire the formations smoothed and shaped by the wind. When you’re here you also realise how close you are Corsica, as the shoreline of the French island is clearly visible, even on a day like the one we visited, which was grey and at times, misty.
Sardinia really is an island of stark contrasts, from the bustling and cosmopolitan city of Cagliari to the more sedate northern port town of Alghero. From the remote, deserted western beaches with huge sand dunes, to the glitz and glamour of the Costa Smerelda. And from beaches of golden sands, which stretch fro miles and slope gently into azure blue waters, to the other-wordly rocks of Capo Testa. The northern coast of Sardinia is like no other coast we have ever visited – and this was our first experience of this area…
The sheer scale and size of the rocks can be easily seen, above – look at the people clambering over the tops of the rocks!
Capo Testa is easy to get to by car, but be aware – parking is at a premium and you will get ticketed if you’re not obeying the parking rules. It can also be very cold if you’re out of season, as we were, as the wind does whip in from that strait, so make sure you have more than a T-shirt to wear. Also, and I can’t stress this enough – FOOTWEAR! Flip flops will not see you across those rocks – they can be slippery and they are riveted with cracks and dips and loose stones. Sturdy trainers, all the way. Or, as a lot of people were wearing – hiking boots.
by Helen | May 24, 2017 | Lifestyle
In a few days time, we go on holiday. Our holiday this year will be a bit different, as we’re flying back into Manchester to visit family and friends. Returning to the city that has been our home for so many years, has made us reflect a little bit on the last five months – and although we are still (and will be for a long time to come) grappling with many of the nuances of Croatian life, we reckon we’ve made a pretty good job of settling in…
We’re onto unpacking the very last boxes of everything we brought over from Manchester. On 2nd March, we were a little bit overwhelmed when every last thing we owned, arrived on a lorry and was deposited in front of the house. Five months later and everything seems to have a found a home – most temporary as we renovate, but at least we’re rid of packing boxes and bubble wrap…
We’ve negotiated the complexities of car buying in Croatia. I’ve blogged about this before, as it’s just not as obvious here, as it is back in the UK, how to actually buy a car. Although there are plenty of new car garages, here’s no obvious second hand dealerships, no obvious Exchange & Mart publications, internet searches throw up confusing results. As with most things we’ve discovered here, it’s not what you know here, it’s who you know. (Top tip – make it your business to get to know good people!)
The buying of the car is the least confusing thing – you’ve then got to negotiate the paying for it. We now live in a land where cash (or cash transfers) is king and so you need to factor in numerous trips to the bank. And work out which branch has the best English speakers – very important for key financial transactions. Insurance is another thing that we’d have fallen foul of, had we not had the advice from the garage owners. Our years of no-claims in England would have counted for nothing out here, if we’d taken out our own insurance. A way around this, thanks again to our garage owners (remember, it’s not what you know, but who you know!), was for them to initially insure in their business name and for us then to transfer into our names. We are now fully insured and the owners of two Croatian registered cars! Handy if you come to visit, as we have a nippy little Fiat Punto ready and waiting for guests to use.
Sorting utilities and transferring into our names has made me yearn for the head-mash of the UK utilities companies. Although there only seems to be one electricity company – the national HEP – and one water company, we’re sure that there must be more providers. It’s just that we couldn’t find them – and it just seemed easier to transfer the accounts from the previous owners. It took about three months to finally sort it all out – but again, we are now legitimate in the eyes of the utilities companies. And paying way, way, way less than we were in the UK.
We’ve now got residency status in Croatia, again making us more legitimate. This was a fairly simple process, involving visiting the local police station with our documents, answering a few questions and proving that we had bought the house. (Although another blog post will explain the issue of BOUNDARIES – oh, yes. Boundaries are a major issue out here, and could scupper potential property purchases if you’re not aware of the complexities…)
We’re getting used to crossing borders and remembering what we need to do at each one and always having our documents with us. We now understand that if we go over into Slovenia we need to buy a vignette to display on the windscreen – necessary if you’re going to be driving on the motorway, as you’ll get a hefty fine if you’ve not purchased one. We’ve made some fab friends already, who have greatly eased our transition into a whole new way of life – and who have recommended brilliant people to work with us on the renovation of the house. People have been extremely kind, too – a very common trait here – bringing us gifts to welcome us into our new home. We even had a recent delivery of wild boar steaks & locally produced wine from our builder.
It’s been a roller-coaster five months, and looking back, we can’t quite believe the progress we’ve made. We’ve still a LONG way to go – fixed line internet is still to be resolved, the Croatian language (beyond “hello” and “thank you”) needs to be tackled, the renovation of certain parts of the house needs to begin – but we feel at home. And when you can easily get to places like this, we feel very, very, very lucky in our new Croatian home…
by Helen | May 11, 2017 | Renovation
So, this was the first glimpse of our third bedroom, when we did the initial viewing in July 2016. Suffice to say, as with every room in the house, we really need to stretch our collective imaginations and see past the cheap wooden doors, bare floors, unplastered walls and bare stone. But, we definitely had a vision and we knew that eventually we’d restore this house and breathe life back into it. It just took a little more grit and determination than we anticipated…
To be fair, the rear of the house was as dismal as the interior – but again, we felt that there was more than enough potential. Bedroom Three is at the top left of this photo – the view did leave quite a lot to be desired in the early days, but we knew that this was about the worst it would ever look again.
The people we were purchasing from, did offer to sell the house furnished. Unsurprisingly, we declined the offer, not really being able to imagine too many of our visitors bedding down for the night in these conditions. So, all was taken away and we did begin with an absolute canvas of a house. As all rooms were empty, the advantage of this, was that once all of our belongings did arrive, we had ample storage space, for the furniture which wouldn’t be being used for a while and for boxes which we weren’t ready to unpack. This meant that Bedroom Three did begin life as a storage unit, but it also meant that as we worked on various parts of the house, we were able to hide away a lot of our belongings, behind a closed door.
For a good couple of months, we rarely ventured into this room as it was full of boxes etc, but slowly but surely, it started to empty and the space gradually reveal itself again. We had been focusing on the two other bedrooms, trying to get them into some kind of order, both for ourselves in the main room, and in Bedroom Two, as visitors had started to arrive! But, with the exciting news that our next set friends were due to arrive – with their teenage boys! – we had to get onto Bedroom Three pretty quickly. And, that meant not only decorating, but also sourcing beds, suitable for teenagers. The next phase of the renovation had started…
by Helen | May 4, 2017 | Lifestyle
I think my blogs about things which cause us confusion, will go on for some years to come. Because, at the moment, just about everything is causing us to be be confused. We are muddling through, with the help of new found friends, the internet & just generally having to deal with daily cock-ups when they happen.
So, what’s been confusing us lately? Cars. That’s what. In England, when you want to buy a car, you have a number of options :
- Go to a garage
- Look on E-Bay
- Buy one from a friend
- Choose one from Auto Trader
As literally everyone in Istria has a nice car – ranging from the super-duper to the cutesy, vintage Renault 4s – we thought it couldn’t be that difficult to buy a car. In fact, we were so confident, we decided we’d buy two – one as a runaround and the other a more powerful, solid, reliable 4×4 type which would take us on long journeys. But we just couldn’t crack the code for buying a car. We’d see garages with cars outside, but it wasn’t clear if these were for sale or in for a service. We searched online – nothing in the vicinity and we didn’t fancy our chances heading to Zagreb to buy from a stranger. We headed to the big city – Pula – and hurrah, we finally found garages. Lots of them. But we still felt out of our depth as a) we don’t know a huge amount about cars, apart from what we like and b) it’s difficult enough to negotiate a car deal in English, let alone Croatian/Italian.
But then we had a breakthrough – and this is where the old adage, “It’s now what you know…” is so true. We visited one of the local restaurants in the village – Agroturizam Nežić – and met the wonderful owners, Paolo & Nadja. They assured us they would help sort out our car situation – and true to their word, their friend Denis, who owns a garage not too far away, sourced for us a runaround Fiat Punto and by far the best car we’ve ever owned, a Honda CRV. Nothing has been too much trouble for Denis and his wife, Rosanna – and we will be eternally grateful as they helped us to navigate the tangled web of car buying.
Our purchases were relatively straightforward as both cars had all documentation completely up to date, with full service history. Getting the insurance and road tax and breakdown cover was also quite straightforward – as Rosanna essentially did it all for us. Insurance would have been more tricky if we’d done it ourselves – although we have many years of no claims in England, that counts for nothing here, so we were starting from scratch. However, sound advice from Rosanna means we have good insurance – but definitely not something we’d have worked out ourselves. The paperwork is endless – again, we would have been completely lost as you have to register with a number of authorities, including the police. Not something we would ever have known – but definitely something which now makes sense to us.
We did, in the early days of our car looking, spot a reconditioned Renault 4 which was for sale. These retro cars are still driving the roads of Istria – but as funky as it would have been, we think we did the right thing in not buying from a stranger in a supermarket car park, and instead going with Dennis and Rosanna. And, it’s not every day you pick up your new car and the garage owner has picked wild asparagus for you…
by Helen | Apr 30, 2017 | Renovation
We’ve never had huge outdoor spaces anywhere that we’ve lived previously. In our last house in West Didsbury, we managed to create quite a funky little haven, out of scaffold planks. But it was still a bit of a tight squeeze and although we loved it, we never had a feeling of space. Well, we’re now discovering we have space. More space than we’ve ever known! And as spring continues, we’re also discovering just how beautiful, and filled with all kinds of nature, it actually is…
When we viewed the house initially, we just didn’t appreciate the land outside the house. Perhaps it was because nothing had really been done with it, that we didn’t see its true potential.
The trees were quite bare and the grass uncut and the steps and patio were ingrained with dirt and mud. There was just no colour. However, now that spring has sprung, we’ve made a determined effort to spruce up the outside – because we do hope to spending quite a lot of time out here! The first job was the powerwashing of the steps and the patio area. It was a big job, and all told took about three days but that’s a lesson learned right there. Keep on top of the jobs!
We hummed and haa-ed about transporting our potted bamboo trees and bay trees from our West Didsbury garden – but with the help of friends who stored them for us and the brilliant company who moved all of our belongings, they are now with us. It’s taken a while to work out where they are best situated, but they now form a natural wall, giving us quite a lot of privacy. And, the natural curve they follow, will soon become a natural stone wall – so they’ll be on the move again.
We’re not experienced growers, so have had to rely on a local garden centre to get the much needed initial injection of colour and nature going. Lots of rain and lots of sunshine seem to be doing the trick, as the front of the house now looks so much more lived in and colourful…
We want to create different areas to the garden and so have sourced furniture which will enable us to do this – important, we think, for guests and visitors who may want to have some privacy, too, and not always be sitting with us. There’s quite a large area outside the door – perfect for a small table & chairs for two. The patio area (which we hope will also eventually house a pool – yipee!) is the perfect place for a larger dining table and chairs and sun umbrella, and at the far end of the garden, under the shade of a large, mature tree, we’re trying to create a bit of hideaway. I’ve been searching for weeks now for a vintage wrought iron garden set, but nothing was ticking my boxes. The tables were too small, or they were too new or they were poorly made. Until last Sunday when we drove through the nearest small town – and there it was! My perfect vintage French-style wrought iron garden furniture. Original, too – with bits of rust to prove it…
There’s still a very long way to go – the side of the house and the back of the house need to be tackled, although we hope that these areas will be the subjects of some very exciting blogs as plans are afoot for developments here. Because summer is apparently very warm here, we are planning the installation of a swimming pool – in the meantime we have a big blow up one, so visitors can cool down. The wall for privacy needs to be built – although we’re not overlooked by anyone, the road isn’t too far away. It can also get quite windy and we think the wall, wrapped around the pool – eventually – will be a natural windbreak. And, out door lighting needs to be carefully planned and installed. But, all in all, we don’t think we’re doing too badly, only two months in…
Oh, and by the way, if you think the sun shines all the time, here – think again. Every day last week was a day like this – but without it, we wouldn’t be surrounded by such lushness.
