springtime progress pt.1
I think it’s time for some progress updates, no? Besides being several months since writing a progress post, it’s also now been over a year since we officially broke ground mid Feb last year. Springtime has begun, and we here in Italy are unfortunately in a similar situation as spring 2020. Time is playing funny tricks on my mind…sometimes it feels that last year went by so quickly and others that the days just crawl by.
A few weeks ago I found a photo from a year ago when the plot was just cleared and ready for the piles and foundation to begin. When I see that this space was a literal hole in the ground it does made the progress feel more real. Yet when I see how much there is still to be done I have to remind myself
patience, Erin
patienza
piano piano
be in the now
This week is also the week where pre-Covid, had been the original completion date projection: Easter 2021.
However, now I’m hoping for a realistic date of August. But mostly, and continually, trying to enjoy this entire journey. I have a feeling that I’ll miss it a bit once things are all finished and settled.
All of this said, however I thought it overdue for a progress update here on the blog. This past month has crept by at a slower speed as the main contractor now is juggling a few projects so there isn’t a full team on site everyday. We are ticking off the last of the larger structural tasks one by one and slowly prepping the interior for more detailed work to come.
Since we finished the interior plasterwork throughout Jan and Feb, at this time it was noticed that the window structural frames had all been mounted incorrectly. They were mounted flush to the interior walls (which here is pretty much standard), yet the architect noticed this on some update photos towards the end of the plasterwork and gave me a couple of options.
Either I could leave them as is, but this meant loosing space on the inside, or tearing them all out to remount correctly. There was a couple of weeks of going back and forth with pros and cons.
Architect: approaching from an aesthetic point of view
Builders and window maker: approaching from a functional point of view
The final walls will be very thick… from about 42cm (16.5in) in some parts to 59cm (23in) in the main section. So the original design was to place the windows in the center of these wall depths creating more space interiorly and at the same time allowing for a “tunnel” like effect from the exterior. Also mounting the interior frames back from (not flush to) the interior walls will help the plaster walls look sculptural and unbroken by (what would have the effect of) picture frames around each opening.
But, the window maker told me, if I wanted to be able to open these windows inwardly, mounting them deeper into the wall would only allow a 90º opening leaving some windows to stick out in to the room.
Not to mention the extra time, money, and hassle, to redo all of these and replanted them as well.
This caused
many.
sleepless.
nights.
Finally I decided to just do it. I wanted it to be like the original vision as I think I’d regret it if I kept it as-is just to be easier.
As soon as we remounted the first one, I felt such relief. It changed the aesthetic of the room immediately and was so much more how I’d imagined the house. I knew all of the work to redo it would be worth it. Now the windows are little surprises to discover, and the deep inset allows for the patterns of light and shadow entering the rooms to become like a piece of art on it’s own.
…stay tune, more progress updates to come…