Saturday, July 31, 2010

Early Days

Hello Everyone.
Welcome to Sara and Alec's Blog. We are embarking on a journey of creation.
As some of you will recall we purchased our piece of land in Northern Italy a couple of years ago, and have been in the planning process since. We now have all our permits and are commencing the project.
The House as purchased (1)
As many of you will also know, Sara and I have built 2 houses so far. We do most of the work ourselves, only "subbing" out the things that 1) we cannot do legally, 2) that require specialized machinery, 3) and that we don't like doing. This house will be no different, although I expect we will do even more, as I have better equipment this time. Sara has informed me that she intends on supervising, drinking wine and eating olives. Joe, of course will follow the food. Pretty good gig.....;)




So, this is the house as when it was purchased:

The house as purchased (2)















Many things have happened since starting the process. We have rerouted electrical wires (to get rid of overhead lines, which we view as ugly), drilled a well, dealt with torrential rains, dodged calabrone (an aggressive large wasp like insect that hurts when they sting you), loaded 2-40ft containers in Calgary and finally, knocked down the house in preparation for excavation.





Here are some pictures of the demolition process:

Gianpaolo on the roof removing the beams.

Alec in the backhoe knocking down a wall.

Power lines have been removed and ready for complete demolition
Front part and columns are down.

And everything reduced to a pile of rocks.