Heart in mouth time - how is the house getting on?

I Noci, clad in scaffolding, seen from the river Tenna - with Monte San Martino in the distance.

We decided not to visit the house on the way down yesterday on the grounds that if there was anything we didn't like, it would be better to see it with Gianluigi and Mariano who would probably be able to explain things and put our minds at rest.

The funny thing with building is that it really does seem to go in fits and starts. So one time you'll arrive and be amazed by how much has happened and another time by how little. This time unfortunately was more of the latter. It was almost two months after all and, apart from the fact that the roof was finally off, progress seemed to have been pretty slow. In fact there was a lot of detail work (e.g. all the door and window frames) and most of the internal walls were in but it all felt a bit disappointing. Having said that it was, in contrast to previous visits, all hands to the pump with half a dozen guys all working away rather than the unusual two. We also had the sparks and plumber on hand and were able to go through all the detailed planing of where every bath, shower, toilet, light and electrical supply would go. The sparks is particularly good with suggestions, not only to do with electrics and sound general advice too.

There's some really thoughtful stuff going on too. For example in the the window sill of the small downstairs sitting room, Mariano has cut in two holes. Mystified, we ask what they are for. Gianluigi explains it is a traditional thing for cooking - you put embers from the fire in the bottom and the pot on the top. Mariano thought we ought to have one. Great!

After a while it gets a bit overwhelming with having to make so many decisions in such a short time and we are reeling by the time we leave to meet our lawyer Luca - he's offered to buy us lunch. As we drove up the lane to leave we stop to enjoy the view. At this time of year there are poppies everywhere and it reminds us of why we chose this wonderful spot:


Lunch at the Hotel Roverino in Comunanza with Luca, his assistant Beatrice and several of Luca's cronies (including Bea's dad). This is where all the business people of this little town go for their long, liquid lunches. On the next table are the entire staff of my bank and not far away is the President of the Province. It's Friday which means fantastic fish. Afterwards Luca takes us all to see a fantastic old palazzo in the old town which he is doing up into holiday apartments - heavily assisted by government grants. Luca is an ultra-modernist so it's all going to be glass floors and hi-tech although he will keep the frescoes with his family's coat of arms (which he also has as a tattoo.) After that, we do the mundane business of taking out insurance. And then off to Elettro Idea to buy kitchen appliances. Turns out they are a client of Luca's so he insists on coming with us to make sure we get the best price and leaving Beat to help interpret while he gos off to a meeting. We get top quality / top name appliances (Smeg range cooker, AEG fridge freezer, Siemens dishwasher - really important for marketing and to differentiate our property from the competition) and the prices are very good - although the extra discount we get from being friends of Luca doesn't amount to much.

Dinner at Contrada Durano again (and we notice they have window sills with those cooking holes). The only other guests are a pair of American veggies so most of the food is veggie (apart from our main) which is very accommodating of them but not very appetising for us. And too much alcohol again - so decide to give it a miss tomorrow. We'll probably be going for a pizza with friends anyway.

Chris had been in touch with Jimmy before we even booked to stay there, via the Italymag forum, and he had recommended a furniture shop in Servigliano which they had used extensively. Nice people (brother and sister Enrico & Forestina Marini), good prices for good quality stuff. And they also do kitchens. Concetta said they would ring Forestina in the morning and let her know we would be coming.

April – May: Operating by remote control

It’s quite hard when the biggest investment you’ve ever made is happening 1000 miles away and you rely on emails to know what’s going on. Even harder when your email isn’t working! Since we returned from Italy there were continuous problems and I spent hours on the phone to BT trying to sort them. One guy insisted that the problem must be in Outlook and so I should get on to whoever supplied the software (told him it was bought from BT). I had to be very assertive to get put through to a supervisor (“I have already spoken to supervisor and he agrees with me it is a Microsoft problem”) but I stand my ground and eventually am put through to the second tier support (i.e. the people who actually know what they are talking about.) They still don’t solve the problem but, by doing it using two different mail clients (Outlook and Outlook Express), under two different operating systems (XP and Vista) on two different machines, I am able to prove that the problem is nothing to do with any software or configuration on my PC. The conclusion is that it must be an ISP problem but as it is an intermittent fault and is not manifesting right now they can’t take it further. I suggest the other explanation is that the problem could be in the router and am told this cannot be the case – I should call back when the problem occurs again (which it does every few hours). Even if it can’t possibly be in the router my experience, going back to programming on Cobol in the seventies, tells me to try the impossible so I power down the router and leave it off overnight. Switch everything on again in the morning and it all works and hasn’t missed a beat since. I phone BT to tell them and they still insist it can’t have been in the router but, if it wasn’t, it’s one hell of a coincidence isn’t it?

The result of all this (apart from a huge amount of wasted time) is that I don’t see an email from Gianluigi with the preventivo (quotation) from Il Mobile, the company who will manufacture the windows and doors. That puts a 2 week delay in the process which could give us problems later.

Apart from that, we’ve arranged to pay the contractors and other suppliers - Luca the lawyer is doing that one our behalf - and exchanged loads of emails with Gianluigi on exact specifications. It’s not easy explaining how you want a room wired so I’ve drawn a diagram which I hope he understands.

We’ve also had to work out how we want the kitchen laid out (so the plumber and electrician can get on). The kitchen people we saw in Sarnano never got back to us despite several reminders. So we still have to sort all that out. We visit our local Ikea, in England, to have a look at what they have to offer. We really don’t want an Ikea kitchen because that’s what everybody does and out house has to have an edge over the competition. But, anyway, we should have a look. To be honest we find it rather disappointing and the quality doesn’t seem as high as we would have expected. We’ve also heard bad things about installation problems. We’ve been very decisive about most things but we really don’t know what we want in the kitchen. Should it be traditional or modern? Fully fitted or freestanding?

We arrange a visit for the middle of May to check on progress and sort out kitchens and, hopefully get some furniture too. Flights to Rome are hideously expensive at the moment so we book Stansted-Ancona and, since Stansted is a good 3 hours from home, arrange to stay in a Travelodge just off the M11.

How to buy five bathrooms in one morning

We're driving down to Rome today for a few days holiday. We need it and the children deserve it after being incredibly good about sitting in the car watching DVDs for hours on end while we talk to builders etc.

But first we have to buy five bathrooms worth of stuff so I drop Chris off at Stefano's shop at 8:30 while I go down to Comunanza to see Gianluigi to sort out his and the various contractors' bills. Unfortunately I can't actually pay them yet because the money hasn't arrived but we do agree everything and I drop off copies of the invoices for Luca to pay when the money goes through.

I'd previously used Barclays to move money but this time have gone with HiFX (basically because Barclays tried to give me tourist rates for a big transaction and then, their dealers don't even start work till 9AM), who other people have told me are good. Their rates seem OK (or as OK a they can be given that the pound has tanked against the euro and we're barely getting 1.25) and there are no charges for actually making the transfer etc - and also it's supposed to be instantaneous. In reality, it doesn't quite work like that. Having done the deal on the phone, I then had to fill in the details of where the money was to go via their website and apparently (I found out several days later when they phoned me) they couldn't make the transfer because the International Bank Account Number (the IBAN) had some digits missing. I have not found out why they didn't pick this up either when I tried to enter an incorrect number (if it was, in fact my error) or when they originally tried to make the transfer. If it comes to that, they already had the account number (which is the last part of the IBAN so they could have worked it out with half a brain). Anyway it's a bit embarrassing and I think Mariano is a little pissed off, having worked since January and not yet had a penny. (Luca says not to worry - Mariano has got loads of money).

So back to Stefano's where Chris is looking at a luxury shower unit with steam and chromotherapy (no, I didn't know either - some mumbo jumbo about coloured lights improving your mood apparently.) A few days ago we were wanting to cut costs left, right and centre as we started panicking about the total amount we were going to have to spend but now we've relaxed a bit and, having seen Stefano's prices, are becoming a bit more expansive. You can give people the feeling they are getting something really special for not much extra. So we will have 5 en suites for the 5 bedrooms: one with steam shower, two with hydromassage baths (like a Jacuzzi) and two with thermostatic showers. And the total cost of all the fittings comes to about €8,000. At that price, it's worth thinking about getting some back to the UK if we take a van down some time.

Then it's off to Rome and on holiday.

Back on site

After a quiet weekend (Easter Sunday Mass at Monte San Martino and a lot of measuring up and planning layouts at the house) it's a tight schedule today. First we have to see Stefano at 8:30 to look at bathroom fittings then meet Gianluigi and the various contractors (Mariano, Leonello the plumber and Vincenzo the electrician). Then we are supposed to be with Luca to sort out our wills around noon. Looks like something will have to give.

By 9:45 we have just about agreed the first bathroom. We'll have to come again tomorrow morning before setting off for Rome.


UP ON THE SCAFFOLDING - probably the only chance I'll get to see the roof at such close quarters.

As well as the builders, Delio Mancini was supposed to be meeting us at the house at 10:00. I'm not sure why exactly except that he obviously wants to see how things are going and retains a personal interest in the place. Apart from the fact that he is a lovely old man, it is very good because not only is he our neighbour and owner of all the surrounding land as well as the next house, he is also very well know and connected in the area. So keeping in with Delio is a good thing and falling out with him probably not. People tell us we have been very lucky with our vendor and we definitely agree. Unfortunately, as we are on our way to Monte San Martino the phone goes and a deep, sonorous voice says: "Sono Mancini". He won't be able to make it as he has to take his wife to the hospital - nothing serious fortunately. We'll make sure to let him know next time we are here.

The original design had 5 bedrooms with the largest two being en suite. However after much thought and especially advice about the North American market we have decided to make all five en-suite. Of course it's this sort of thing (when you're spending hundreds of thousands, what's another few k?) that sends costs spiralling out of control and we've certainly had some worrying moments about that. The basic contract is fixed price, which is great but, of course, there are variations plus a lot of things (e.g. the bathroom fittings) aren't included in the fixed price*. We've also worked out where we want all the internal walls. We just have to explain it all in Italian!

We manage with the help of my trusty Berlitz pocket dictionary and a fair bit of pointing and miming. We particularly enjoyed squatting side by side to show how close together you can actually fit a loo and a bidet - we weren't going to have bidets because we don't like them ourselves but everybody else seems to think they are a good thing and the Italians are horrified at the idea of not having them. Anyway, they only work out at a couple of hundred euro each. Besides we've saved a bit by not having a downstairs shower - we'll have a solar shower next to the pool instead. By the end of the morning we have decided where every bed will go (for sockets and lighting) as well as all the bathroom fittings and the TV. Vincenzo, the electrician, is especially helpful with lots of good practical ideas (and not just about the electrics either).

Then, after lunch, it's off to the lawyer's. We need to do simple wills to ensure that our property can be inherited according to our wishes (in our English wills) instead of the Italian way that does it automatically according to a formula. What we didn't realise is that, since they aren't being notarised, (at least I think this is the reason) we need to write them out by hand. Two copies each one in English and one Italian. Apart from the sheer wrist ache, it's really hard doing the Italian ones because we have to check the spelling of every word (and worse for Chris as she has less Italian then me.)

We also visit a few more shops:
* Elletrodomestici in Comunanza has a great range of cookers and white goods at what look like good prices. We particularly like a range cooker that feels like it's been hewn from the solid - for less than €1,000.
* Fallimenti in Amandola looks like a really naff garden place from the outside (including a six foot Statue of Liberty) but inside there are interestibng and cheap metal beds - which is what we had been sent there to see - but also a lot of other furniture like wardrobes and chests of drawers all made out of solid wood (no MDF, ply or veneer to be found) in a variety of styles that would suit out ideas for the house. Fallimenti means failures or, more colloquially, cock-ups. I don't know how it got the name - from bankrupt stock perhaps?
* Gibas is the factory shop of an upmarket lamp manufacturer, also in Amandola. Some of the stuff is nice but some (to my eyes) bloody bizarre. We heard that somebody got something like 17 lamps for €200 but at the moment the prices look pretty high. Maybe they have clearouts with low prices some time. Maybe we'll get one or two signature pieces here when we have some spare cash.
* Finally to Rossi in Sarnano - we are looking at kitchens here. Some are very nice but, we suspect, probably too pricey. They will do us a design and estimate and email it to us. [Update 11 April - still waiting. Must find their email address & chase them up. Update 7 May - still nothing. Write them off]

Site meeting

ESSENTIAL BUILDERS' SUPPLIES (Italian style - don't let the water bottles fool you; they may not all be water and there's a huge jug of vino cotto behind them)

Today was supposed to be the day we finally take ownership of the house but we have had a message that the notary has to go to a funeral so instead of being in Comunanza this afternoon, it will be at the notary’s main office down on the coast at San Benedetto del Tronto tomorrow morning (Good Friday) and we have to meet outside our lawyer, Luca’s office at 8:15AM (which is 7:15 according to our bodies) so means another early start for the kids. On the bright side, this is the only day we have a translator available as she is going to Rome with her family and it means we can talk to some suppliers more easily.

When we wake up we look out to see everything is covered with snow and, as we set off for the house it starts snowing again and getting heavier till we can hardly see. When we get down to the level of our house in the valley (about 200m compared to 600 at La Conca) it’s still heavy but is not settling. We arrive a bit late (no snow tyres on the car) to find the man from the gas company is waiting to sign us up. They have found a good site for the tank behind an outbuilding and it will be buried so should not be visible although, unfortunately, Italian regulations mean that it still has to have a high fence all around it and, apparently, you aren’t even allowed to grow creepers up it to disguise the thing. (We tend to think of southern Europeans as being very lax on safety and it’s certainly true if you look at the way they drive. However on things like this they are the opposite. My neighbour’s gas tank at home sits completely unprotected by anything except a hedge. Perhaps they are more dangerous because of the heat – I was told the European regs. on LPG tanks in cars are due to the temperatures in Italy.)

The main thing about the house is that we have now confirmed that most of the internal walls are not structural and so we can reorganise the layout which we originally thought was constrained by the location of the original walls (even though most of them need replacing.) So, especially on the top floor, we have almost a blank canvas and need to start again - quickly. Because of this, we can’t decide with the plumber and electrician where everything will go and so will have to meet them again on Tuesday.

We still have quite a few decisions to make. (Like do we want to line up the two French windows at opposite ends of the house exactly, which means losing another window. Or do we live with them not being quite aligned. We opt for the latter.) Then it’s time for the obligatory, and warming, glass of Mariano’s vino cotto. (See the picture at the top of today's blog) We could have had mistrà instead which is, I think, a spirit made from distilling vino cotto and is absolute firewater. Gianluigi tells us that he was hospitalised as a baby when his nonna mistook a bottle of mistrà for water and made up his formula with it!

We then go off to look at windows and agree details like whether and where we will have shutters (we opt for traditional ones inside the windows) and how they will open (some will just tilt, most will tilt and also open normally).

In the evening we have a very enjoyable dinner with friends at the Hotel Paradiso which is at the top of the old town in Amandola. So we don’t get home till gone 11 with that early start tomorrow and the very steep drive from La Conca looking like it will ice up.

To Rome and on to the Marche

Although Ryanair’s cancellation of the Liverpool to Ancona route is a real nuisance more than doubling the driving time after landing in Italy, it does have its compensations. The first of these is the view of Rome as you come into Ciampino – remember to get a window seat on the right hand side and you get to see all the sights (Colliseum, Vatican, Circus Maximus, sinuously winding Tiber and, Dominic is always keen to spot, the Stadio Olimpico). Landing at Rome we were very pleasantly surprised to find it was sunny and 18°.

Apart from the extra distance, the drive isn’t bad either as you pass through the Apennines with spectacular viaducts and long tunnels. The motorway route past L’Aquila all the way to the Adriatic is simply stunning with amazing views and a tunnel that cuts through more than 10 kilometres below the Corno Grande (and has, on the westbound carriageway, an entrance into the National Institue of Nuclear Physics buried deep beneath the mountain) the highest peak in the entire range. This time, however, I decided to take the SS4, the Roman Via Salaria, which skirts Rieti and follows he valley of the Tronto towards Ascoli Piceno. The journey is much shorter, almost toll-free and, even with the odd slow wagon, usually a bit quicker than Mussolini’s Autostrada. It also gives you the chance to stop at a proper restaurant for lunch instead of an Autogrill service area. We kept going till we saw one which, judging from the number of cars outside was OK but not full. It was called La Valle and was at Km128 just before Amatricia so we had, of course, spaghetti amatriciana. It was wonderfully rich with a hint of spice which built up the more you eat, leaving you with as tingling mouth at the end. This was followed by perfectly fine meat alla bracia and accompanied by a half litre of house red which was better than usual – we only had a glass each with being tired and me driving.

We had been told that Mariano,the builder, had some questions and would like us to come to the house. We were already scheduled to meet there with Gianluigi, the geometra, at 10 the next morning and, as it turned out they were little things (like whether to reuse certain old tiles for the window sills) which could easily have waited but it’s no bad thing to be accommodating to your builder. I made the mistake of trying to take the short cut via the ford across the river (which had been passable on my visit earlier in the winter) but the river was now in spate following the recent snows and subsequent thaw and there was no way I was going to drive through that torrent.

It was the first time Chris had seen the place since work started and, after a spectacular rate of work in the first few weeks up to my initial visit, progress seemed to have been disappointingly slow. When we looked closer, it was obvious that a lot had been done but, in contrast to the earlier part of the job, much of it was painstaking (cleaning out the mortar on the walls ready for re-pointing) or not very visible (ducting for utilities).

We had passed La Conca at Ceresola, where we would be staying and now returned. The owner, Mirella gave us the warmest of welcomes, including a wonderful home made apple tart made from their own apples. La Conca is an organic apple farm with some 2000 trees. The apartment in a cantina below the main house with beautiful, vaulted ceilings, was basic but perfectly adequate apart from the heating which was really far too low.

More money stuff

Luca is back from holiday and Domenico has resurfaced full of apologies. Apparently, I have to pay all the building costs by transfer from my Italian bank account (so the bank can tell the tax office). Now I just need to check with Gianluigi exactly how much I need to pay.

Banks

I got a phone call yesterday that nearly gave me a heart attack. On Monday the surveyor came round to value our house in England as we are using that as security to borrow the money for doing up I Noci. When he left he told me that there would be no problem. [The house is worth several times what we need to borrow.)

Then out of the blue I get a phone call from a guy with a very thick Indian accent. "Mr Grant, you applied for a mortgage with the Woolwich but the surveyor's report says the property does not meet the Woolwich's lending criteria." That's it, no explanation, nothing. WTF????? When I manage to drag my thumping heart out of my boots, I say: "so what does that mean?". "Mr Grant, it means that the property does not meet the Woolwich's lending criteria." FFS! I know that but what does that mean? "So", I say, "does that mean you are not prepared to lend the money?" "That's right." So, big pause, I ask: "So why does it not meet the criteria?" Reply: "I'm sorry Mr Grant but you will have to speak to the surveyor" and gives me the company name and a phone number in Newcastle. Hang on, I've applied for a, not inconsiderable, mortgage with Barclays [who own the Woolwich] with whom I have been a customer for over 40 years. And I get some halfwit in a call centre in Chennai [or wherever] telling me I've been turned down and he can't tell me why or what I should do about it except to pass me on to the surveyor.

So I phone the surveyor and, guess what, the number is unobtainable. So I phone my Relationship Manager at Barclays who, guess what again, is not answering but I leave a message for him to call me urgently. Then I remember the surveyors wrote to me with the appointment details so I dig out the letter and find their number which is completely different and in Manchester. The office gives me the surveyor's mobile and as soon as I speak to him, I realise what the problem is. Their lending criteria include one that they don't lend on properties with more than 10 acres of land and we have got 20 acres of grazing land (worth bugger all of course). They mentioned this in their report but said that, in view of the fact that we already had a mortgage with them on this property there was no reason not to lend and they could go ahead - the valuation itself was fine. How dumb can these people be? Not only do they already lend on the property but they have the deeds which clearly show that actually there are three properties: the house and garden and two fields so as it's the house that is worth the money it isn't even over 10 acres anyway.

How stupid are these people and how bad is their customer service that, when they [incorrectly] turn down a very longstanding customer they do it with a phone call from somebody who knows absolutely nothing except what's in his script?

Then my relationship manager, Tim, calls back and gets a right earful. He apologises profusely and says he'll sort it out. I'd have been off to another bank ages ago except that it's just so hard to change banks and anyway my experience with NatWest (hopeless) and my wife's with the Abbey (forgot to stop the cheques when she reported her cheque book stolen and then bounced her direct debits and charged her for an unauthorised overdraft when they paid out on the cheques) tells me that they are all as bad.

In other news, we have found another pool company who looks pretty good - we are meeting them in a couple of weeks at the house. If you are going for the high end rental market a good pool is a necessity and, based on our experience in Spain, you really need some way of making / keeping it warm if it's to be usable before July (i.e. for clients with no kinds or very young ones.)

House hunting in Le Marche - what we learnt [Updated]

Some of this is pretty obvious stuff that we worked out in advance but some of it we learnt by experience. I hope it will help you if you are looking for a place to buy somewhere in Italy.

• Just because it's on the web, it doesn't mean it's for sale (or for sale through that agent). This is probably the biggest single thing we learnt. We trawled diligently through loads of websites, carefully selecting the properties that we thought would meet our needs. And in the end, I don't think we saw one of them. Why? Because as far as I can tell, loads of agents will have the same house (it's not clear whether they have a contract with the owner) and when one sells it (or it comes off the market) nobody tells the other agents. Some 9 months after we agreed to buy it, a quick Google search shows that our house is still on at least three websites. In our experience, all the websites are good for is to give you an idea of the sort of places the agent might have available.


• Choose an agent that will help you to find what you want. How do you know which these are? Well, I think the best thing to do is to tell them what you want and get them to send you details of properties that they have available for you to view. You will soon get a feel of whether they are listening or not (and whether they do have anything suitable). If any of them say they can't tell you in advance (maybe only a few days, but in advance nevertheless), don't waste your time - find somebody else.


• The quality of service provided by an agent is not proportional to the amount they spend on advertising.


• Negotiate on price and other things that matter to you. Make sure you know which things are vital to you and which you are prepared to give away in the negotiation.


• Don't buy a ruin if you want an old house. What you'll get is a pile of stones and a plot on which to build a new house from them. Which is absolutely fine, and probably a lot easier than a restoration, but you won't be buying a piece of history or somewhere with "soul". It's your choice; make it with your eyes open.


• Try and build a rapport with the seller. Chances are if you're buying a ruin or a restoration project that the owner will be local and can help (or hinder) you building successful relationships with the local authorities and community. Remember many of the Comuni where people are buying houses are really small (maybe 1000 people or less)and everybody knows everybody else. If you hack off your vendor, be sure the neighbours and everybody up to the mayor will know about it. In our case, our vendor has proved to be a real gent but that isn't always the case and if it looks like they are going to be a pain to deal with you need to ask yourself if it's worth the hassle (which of course it may be, but at least think about it.)


• Learn some Italian; it really will help relationships with your vendor and many other things and if you have any aptitude for languages it is definitely worth the effort - especially since very few people, even professional people, have more than a few words of English. Learning some Italian will give the practical benefit of not having to go through a translator for every little thing but will also help you build up the personal relationships and trust that are so important to doing business here.[Language will be the subject of a future post]


• Know what you can afford and what your budget is (not necessarily the same thing.) Think about how flexible you can be if something comes up that isn't exactly what you were looking for.


• Take your time. We got lucky (touch wood!) but we were definitely prepared to go home empty handed if we didn't find the right house. It's one of the biggest decisions (at least in financial terms) that most of us will make, so getting it right is more important than getting it done quickly.

There are lots more things but they relate to the subsequent stages and will be covered in later postings.

House hunting - June 2007 (Day 4)

Time to head back home, digest what we have done and find the money and sort out the legals and .......

Ciampino is a 3 to 4 hour drive but the flight isn't till the evening so, even though it's an hour away and in completely the wrong direction, we head back to the house and, yes, it's still there and still idyllic. We also go up into the town of Monte San Martino and have a wander around. It is so beautiful with magnificent views. The only thing missing is a visit to the church which is kept locked outside service times. We'd like to have seen the wonderful medieval paintings, of which the best are by the Crivelli brothers, but that will have to wait till we are there on a Sunday and can go to mass.

After that, it's a leisurely drive back in the trusty, but extremely mucky, little Lancia. The autostrada that runs from the Adriatic to Rome (the A24) is a sensational drive with great, sweeping viaducts and long tunnels (one over 10km and containing an underground nuclear physics lab) as it cuts through the the Gran Sasso mountains and under the highest peak in the Appenines, the Corno Grande.

We are still far too early to check in so decide to head (through heavy, late afternoon traffic) to Castel Gandolfo, a suburb of Rome where the Pope has his summer residence. We drive through the town till we find a cafe perched high above the lake and sit on the terrace enjoying ice creams. I look further up and realise that, just a little above us, is something I've seen before: the Papal residence. Not a bad place for a bit of a sit down (and the ice cream is great too).

Then it's an uneventful flight home (Ciampino is a bit of a dump with not enough seats) and back to reality.

House Hunting - June 2007 (Day 3)

In the morning we drove to Amandola to see Alessia and Gildo at A&G. They were very professional and took us through the properties on their database so we could choose the ones that most interested us. Then it was off on a breakneck tour of the area. We had been warned about Gildo and his motorbike but it was still a great struggle for the little Lancia to keep up with him as he zipped through the traffic. when we arrived at the first house I pulled together my Italian to say "non è una Ferrari, è una piccola macchina" (it's not a Ferrari, it's a little car.) The first house was bit of a dump but the second was the best we had seen since Monte San Martino the previous morning. It was already partly restored and had great views. Somehow though it wasn't quite right - I think we really wanted to be in the hills and this was near Petritoli, only some 10 miles inland.

We had now seen all we were going to see and it looked like the Monte San Martino house was definitely favourite so we rang Lokation and arranged to meet them later in the afternoon to see it again. But before then we would need lunch. We tried Ortezzano first as it was only a few miles away and we had had a very nice dinner there but Tuesday was obviously when all the restaurants there closed so we went right down to the coast at Pedaso. It was getting late now and we were really getting hungry but we didn't see anywhere that looked attractive. Eventually we saw a little cafe in a modern building in a side street. Beggars can't be choosers so we decided to give it a go. It was rammed! We asked, in pidgin Italian, if there was still food available were told yes but we'd not have much choice. Just bring it on we said. And that was definitely the right thing to say. It was fantastic with the highlight being a wonderful seafood pasta served, completely without pretension, in an aluminium pan. Sadly, we didn't make a note of exactly where it was but, next time we are in Pedaso, we'll definitely hunt it out.

It was with a considerable degree of trepidation that we returned to Monte San Martino and drove down the long lane that leads to it past workers tending to the groves of fruit trees that surround the house. Waiting for us when we got there was the owner accompanied by an elderly retriever.

We loved the house first time round but would it still look as good when we saw it again? The answer was a clear yes. It was a classic Italian farmhouse, surrounded by trees with great views and the river passing by.

Delio Mancini is nearly 80 but very spry and alert; and obviously still ready to spend time in his fields. My Italian was still very limited but, after we had seen the house, he showed me round the land and we managed to chat about the land (he referred to it as "tuo" your land as though it were already mine), dogs (I explained that we have a labrador at home), neighbours ("gente brave" - good people) and just generally got to know each other. I had a really good feeling about him just as I had about the house. We had some questions about the outbuildings and whether they could be used so Delio just phoned up Lorenzo Anselmi, the local geometra and within 5 minutes he had turned up to give us his professional advice. He also looked at the hazelnut trees near the house and said we should have truffles there.

Apart from the price, the only problem was the road. Although only very lightly used (we hadn't yet seen a car pass by on either visit) it was a public road and not only did it run right by the front door, it also separated the house from its outbuildings. But maybe something could be done about it.

Chris and I went to the car for a chat and we wanted the house but we really didn't think we could go to the asking price. Before we could decide what to offer, the agent came up to the car and told us that Sr Mancini would accept a figure significantly below the asking price and would also arrange for the road to be diverted around the edge of our land at his expense. That was it, job done. We just nodded our heads and grinned and I stepped out of the car and shook hands with Delio (he's the one on the left by the way). We were going to be the owners of an Italian country house! Gulp!!!!

House Hunting - June 2007 (Day 2)

On Tuesday morning we set off for Monte San Martino but had a 20 minute delay while I parked up to take a call from company BB. I basically said that unless they told me what I was going to see, I would cancel the visit as I did not have time to waste going to places that did not meet our needs and they promised to ensure we were not disappointed and that their representative (who was now Gabriele instead of Pier) would call us to make the arrangements.

We met Lokation at the Monte San Martino turnoff on the Amandola to Fermo road and followed the car almost up into the town before going back down again before arriving at what you would think of as a typical Italian farmhouse: square, three storeys, mainly built of honey-coloured stone.

It was what is generally described as "habitable" which does not, as you might think, mean you can move right in. My interpretation is that it is basically structurally sound (and still has a roof on for example) but has little if any facilities. It did however have a colony of bats which rather freaked Chris out.

The house itself was lovely. At the time we noted: "lovely stone, bricks. honey coloured. v. attractive". Its location was unusual because the river Tenna ran (or, in June, trickled) just below it. Typically, houses are perched on a hillside but here we were set relatively low down but looking up to three hill towns and with glimpses of the Sibillini mountains in the distance. All around the house were nut and fruit trees and the land beyond was all planted with fruit trees - mainly cherries, I think. Although we really liked it, it was 50% bigger than we wanted and the price was well over the budget too. Nevertheless, we thought, if this is the first one, what are the rest going to be like? Having been worried that we wouldn't find anything, we were now really optimistic.

To be honest the rest of the morning was rather disappointing. There were some spectacular locations but there was always something not quite right: poor access, unattractive house or simply that they were ruins. We were definite now that ruins weren't for us.

And so on to company BB. It's one of the best known (or at least most advertised) in the region but what a waste of time! They had completely ignored what we said and because the guy knew the area around Montalto that was basically all they showed us. When we said that we'd told the office that we were more interested in something nearer the mountains he just shrugged and said it was too far to go and anyway he didn't deal with that area. He also had two colleagues with him taking photos of the properties and seemed more interested in this than in showing us the collection of ruins he had for us. He also peddled us various bits of misinformation about legal requirements. All in all a complete waste of time. I would definitely never deal with this lot again.

It was quite clear that the one we had both fallen for was the one in Monte San Martino. Trouble was that, like I said, it was both much bigger than we were looking for and well above our budget too.

House hunting - June 2007 (Day 1)

Having narrowed it down to 4 agencies, we would have half a day with each of them to look at 3 or 4 properties (depending how far apart they were). We made it clear to them all that our time was limited and identified which of the properties on their websites we wanted to look at (except for lokation.it who didn't have the properties on their website but exchanged details with us by email.

With A&G (a long established Italian firm based in Amandola) we agreed it would be best to sit down in their offices and go through their whole database to find suitable properties which we could then visit. The other two companies (I'll call them AA and BB) were rather harder to pin down.

Looking back now at our file from the time, I was surprised how organised we were. For each agency we had date, time meeting place and contact information. Then for each property we had a photo (if we had been able to find one) and description and a whole checklist of things to look at:

• Access
• Location - neighbours
• Plot / garden / suitability for pool
• Views
• Permissions & plans
• Utilities
• Condition and attractiveness - exterior
• Condition and attractiveness - interior
• Other comments

So, armed with maps, guidebooks and all our homework, we parked the kids with their grandparents and, at 4:00 on the morning of Monday 11 June we set off for Liverpool airport to catch the Ryanair flight to Rome Ciampino. Previously we had gone via Ancona (which is less then half the distance) but the Rome flights are daily and some (including Thursday) are in the evening which meant that we could get two full days and two half days in the region in a four day trip. As it turns out, it wasn't bad thing that we explored the Rome route because our friends at Ryanair have now pulled the Ancona flight altogether.

At the airport we picked up our hire car (one of those quirky little Lancia Ypsilons), switched on the sat nav (Via Michelin - good but a bit temperamental with utterly dreadful instruction) and followed its guidance onto the Autostrada north towards Umbria then cut across the Appenines to come into the Marche near Sarnano so that we could explore the area round there and Gualdo where there seemed to be quite a few houses available. Once you get off the Autostrada you are on a two lane, winding main road and inevitably get stuck behind slower traffic. We stopped of for lunch at a roadside restaurant and were horrified to discover a big dent in the back of the car. Why do I never check them out before signing the paper work? (Actually the answer is partly because you sign the paperwork in the airport before you ever see the thing. We have now solved the problem by buying an annual policy that covers all excesses on your hire insurance. At about £80 for two drivers for a year then for people like us who do lots of car hire it's absolutely a no-brainer for the peace of mind alone.)

We explored the beautiful countryside east of Sarnano with the help of the satnav although it did have a tendency to send you down precipitous white roads (unsurfaced lanes). At one point we passed a lane with a sign saying Liz and Barry which seemed rather incongruous in such a seemingly remote area. Later we would come to know them well.

After arriving at Casa Montalto, we set about finalising our plans for the next two days. On the Tuesday morning we were meeting Lokation at Monte San Martino, then company AA in the afternoon. On the Wednesday we would see A&G at their office in Amandola followed by company BB in the afternoon. The arrangement for AA and BB were still unclear and we had been trying to contact AA for several days. When we finally got hold of him, he had canceled our arrangement because he hadn't heard from us. Perhaps he should have answered his bloody phone! With company BB the problem was that the arrangements kept changing and they would not tell us anything about the properties we were going to see. It appeared that, although the company was UK owned, it relied on local subcontractors and they made their plans at the last moment. Also the guy who was going to show us the properties had changed again. We were not full of confidence about this company despite their high profile.

Early in the evening, Debbie from Casa Montalto took us to see a property that she knew about in Force. It was, she told us, a "ruin". and she wasn't joking as the picture shows. It was only when we actually saw one in the flesh that we fully understood what you are buying with a ruin. Essentially you get a pile of stones and, because there has been a house there, you will have the right to replace it with a house of the same size. Economically this can be attractive because it tends to be cheaper to, effectively, build from scratch but what you end up with is a new house.

Anyway, we went out for a very good meal at I Piceni at Ortezzano where we came to the conclusion that we probably didn't want a ruin. We wanted a real house with the history that entails. And so to be for a relatively early night (as you do when you've been up since just after three!)

First steps - May 2007

By the beginning of May we had definitely decided we wanted to find somewhere in the southern Marche. Chris is the researcher in the family (she's a university lecturer in Tourism and Leisure and is brilliant at finding stuff on the internet) so she set about looking through the websites of estate agents offering places to buy and restore.

There were certainly lots of sites and plenty of houses but the quality of information was very variable and was generally well below what you would get in the UK. Often just one poorly focussed photo and a few words. We filled in quite a few web enquiry forms and sent off numerous emails. the replies began coming in - mostly wanting more clarification of our requirements.

One reply came from a company called lokation.it. This was a bit of an outside bet as it wasn't even based in the Marche but their local representative came back to us promptly with a long list of questions (17 in all, including whether we thought the presence of wild animals nearby was a good or bad thing) to help pinpoint the right property. We used our replies to Lokation to build a brief that would give other agents a good idea of what we were looking for. Basically what we decided we wanted was a country house of about 200 sq m which could make a 3-4 bed house and we set a total budget for purchase and restoration of about €300k (which, at the time, was just over £200k).

However as time went on, it became more and more clear that, in many cases people either didn't bother about or didn't care what we said wanted; they felt they had a better idea of our requirements than we did. In the end, we narrowed it down to four agencies on the basis both that they had properties that appeared suitable (in terms of type, price and location) and appeared to be professional in their approach. Two were British / Irish owned, one German and one Italian.

By this time we had arranged for the children to stay with Chris's mum and dad and had booked flights to go on Monday 11 June, returning home on Thursday the 14th. We planned to go via Rome Ciampino; although this means a 3 to 4 hour journey compared to just and hour and a half from Ancona, there was an early flight on Monday and an evening flight on Thursday meaning we could look round the area on the Monday afternoon, do two full days of visits to properties on Tuesday and Wednesday and then, hopefully, revisit any property we liked on the Thursday morning before heading back to Ciampino in the afternoon. But we would have to plan it out with military precision which is not, as we might have guessed, a concept that works terribly well in Italy!

While Chris got on with finding properties and agents, I began learning Italian. I've been doing business in Spain for the last ten years and, even though it is in a holiday area where English is widely spoken and all our staff are fluent in English, I have still found it useful to be able to hold a conversation in Spanish and to read documents in the language too. In Italy, I felt it would be more than helpful because very few people (even in restaurants and other businesses catering for tourists) speak English. And it's not just a practical matter, as I was to find; just being able to have some form of conversation with people, however haltingly, helps build relationships and relationships are fundamental to doing business and making agreements. I enjoy learning new languages anyway and had already found that my Spanish was a good help with my first steps in Italian (although, as always, you have to beware the many false friends that lurk within related languages.)

With Spanish, I had gone for one to one private lessons and then used the Michel Thomas "Advanced Spanish" CDs to improve my capabilities. But now I did not have time to do once a week classes and the level of work needed would have meant spending a fortune on the lessons. So this time I decided to go electronic from the start. I bought the BBC Active Italian for beginners CD and book set but didn't really get on with it. Fortunately, I was able to pick up the Michel Thomas Italian Foundation Course (8 CDs plus revision) in Costco at well under half price. For many weeks I was almost never seen without my Ipod headphones and muttering Italian responses sotto voce. Thomas's method is, I have to say, a bit odd and you have to get past this funny rambling old man (he must have been in his eighties when he made the CDs and died recently at over 90). But, for me, they work really well and I have gone on to buy the Advanced, Language Builder and Vocabulary courses too. (If you're thinking about doing the same, be warned that the Vocab course was done after Thomas's death by an American woman who I personally find it almost impossible to listen to.) I also try to tune in my ear for the language by listening to RaiNews 24 over the web. Listening to news programmes is great because you often know or can guess what the subject is and also the pictures help a lot (just like young children use picture books when they are beginning to read).

Welcome

Hi

My wife, Chris, and I are in the process of buying and restoring a 19th century farmhouse at Monte San Martino on the edge of the Monti Sibillini National Park in Macerata province, Le Marche, Italy. See this article from the Independent's travel section for a good introduction to the Marche and Monte San Martino in particular.

There are, I am sure, many pitfalls and scary moments in any project like this - especially if you are over 1000km away from the action most of the time and I thought it would be interesting to record what happens and our feelings about it. Maybe if you are thinking of doing something similar there will be the odd thing that you will find useful but, to be honest, the main purpose is for me to enjoy writing and to have a record of what went on.

The beginning - Easter 2007
It all began with a family holiday in Italy at Easter last year. We had never visited the Marche region before but those nice people at Ryanair (about which / whom there may be more comments passim) were virtually giving away flights from Liverpool to Ancona. We found a lovely B&B, Casa Montalto, at Montalto delle Marche in the south of the region, run by an Anglo-German couple, Debbie and Thomas Manz and arrived on a sunny day with Dominic (who's now 9) and Kitty (7). We found ourselves absolutely charmed by the area and the people and, on returning home, began to think about buying a property ourselves.

We have often thought about getting into the buy to let market and have gone so far as looking at places to do up but somehow the idea of a terrace on Macclesfield or Stockport (our nearest towns in England) just never seemed that exciting. Nor had we ever really wanted to buy a holiday home. I have business in Spain and we can go there any time if we want a place of our own to stay but the idea of going back to the same place again and again wasn't really us. Nor could we afford to buy the sort of place we would like and the sort of place we perhaps could afford (a small holiday apartment in a resort) didn't especially appeal.

However, the more we thought about finding somewhere in the Marche, the more the pieces started to come together. The area is, to our eyes, as beautiful as its better known neighbour Umbria, with the added bonus of having a coastline as well as mountains. Prices of properties to do up are still low (compared to Tuscany and Umbria) and there is a ready supply of them. there is a growing profile for the area among visitors (especially from the UK) which means that good rental income should be available to cover the costs of financing our project and the value of the finished property should be more than the cost of buying and restoring it (as it should be to compensate for the work you put in and the risk you are inevitably taking.) So we could end up with somewhere that would give us a reasonable income and that would be available for us to use out of season (November to April). A decision that suited both the heart and the head.

I'll be posting the next part of the story shortly ....