Renovation Ragazza: Tufo love!

Due to a shameful lack of consumer research, I don't know whether you lovely readers prefer posts about work on the house or whether the realities of becoming an expat and the subtle (and not so subtle!) differences between UK and Italian culture are more interesting. Perhaps you'd like to leave a comment and let me know. In the meantime, I feel I have been neglecting those who are here for the renovation part of Renovation Ragazza. So today, for those of you who were kind enough to tell me you shared my love for the old tufo following The beauty of tufo stone revealed, more piccies of the old dear revealing what's she's got underneath as she continues the transformation from decrepit to chic!

Bathroom has shed her plaster

It's all coming off in the bedroom!

Stripping off in the living room too!

Au naturale! Star vaulted ceiling in tufo

To avoid damaging the stone underneath, the best way to remove the old plaster is by hand. After that, they fill the joints, holes and cracks (there's a joke there somewhere!) and then the stone is cleaned.

Painstaking work

Sorry girls: it's not warm enough for shirts off!

Exterior tufo wall of the house all cleaned up

I have to confess, I'm so taken with how beautiful the tufo looks when all cleaned up I'm considering leaving more exposed. Seems a shame to hide it away again, but moderation in all things, yes?!

The previous colour scheme was rather bold: a triplet blue-green combo in the living room (evidence below) and you can't have missed the delightful palette of marshmallow pink, yellow and blue above in the bedroom! Alongside the choice of colours, some of the previous handiwork isn't what we'd replicate today! Here, for example, is a section of the last building work carried out however many decades ago:

The last mezzanine level wasn't the sturdiest!

Daylight through a "solid" wall isn't good!

And just for an insight into builders' mentality (in Italy you have to pay a special health and safety inspector to come on site and check they are wearing hard hats and sensible shoes!), here are some bonus piccies that make me smile: