The update you've all been waiting for?

So, hi, how's things?  What's new with you since, um, 2018?! 

Very soon after my last post, I became a mum of 4 and to say life hasn't been the same since would be somewhat of an understatement!  Something had to give so please excuse me slacking on the blog!

I'm updating now because I have an inkling there might be another Puglian property project on the horizon for this renovation ragazza! 

I'm a bit hesitant to say that because, one, I haven't had an offer accepted yet, and, two, because last time I committed to a new project here I got pregnant with triplets soon after (whereas the first time I bought a property here I only got pregnant towards the end of the renovation!) so I really want to be sure I'm ready for anything before buying a third Puglian property!

Incase there's nothing to share about a new project for ages, and to avoid being too anticlimactic after my 6 year hiatus, I figured I should at least provide an update on the last project that we had the offer accepted on in my last post.  That was May 2018 (without Mr RR seeing it!  Only the third time I've done that!).  We finally completed the purchase in May 2020!  (I know!  2 years!  Crazy how delays happen when you throw a new global pandemic, a new mum of triplets and a chance at an insanely generous government grant into the mix with an Italian property purchase!!)  We then proceeded with the renovation (not overly straight forward when you can't travel abroad and have toddler triplets at home!) and finally launched it on the Airbnb platform 1st August 2022 - the busiest month of the season here and a very welcome chance to recoup some of the investment.

There's an abundance of holiday apartments here, so I knew for my second project I wanted to buy something special and distinctive to be sure it stands out.  When I realised my plan A of buying a seafront property in the centro storico was going to be tricky, I had to find a new USP.  Properties here are almost all tall and narrow and split into smaller units, so a spacious, airy property all on one level for large groups to stay in together - I believed there was a real market for it.  

And so I am thrilled to introduce Primo: a luxury 4 bed, 5 bath apartment sleeping 8 adults + 2 children, all on one level, with 2 living rooms, kitchen diner plus separate kitchenette, located in the heart of the old town with balconies overlooking the intermingling lives of locals and tourists below.  Available as a whole and also divided into 2 apartments for flexibility to rent for smaller groups.

With nothing but 5* reviews and wonderful compliments on the design the last 2 years, I'm very, very proud of it and of myself!  Speaking plainly, it's challenging enough to develop property when it's what you do full-time.  Developing property in another country, while being primary parent to 4 kids including toddler triplets with no practical support due to Covid lockdowns is a whole other level!

To illustrate: the summer we finished this project, I twice stayed up literally through the whole night working on 1000 little details that remained after the builders had finished because it was realistically the only time I could get anything done.  It was the first time I've set up a property that was going straight to being a holiday let as opposed to a standard long term let.  When you rent a property to long-term tenants they bring their furniture and day-to-day belongings and sort out where to put everything.  Not so when they're guests coming for a short holiday!  It was a crazy big job and looking around at all the somewhat random second hand local furniture I'd bought off Facebook Marketplace and had had delivered via friends locally, and all the towers of boxes of decor bought off the internet courtesy of Ikea, Amazon, Sklum etc in a corner like some warehouse facility, plus of course the mounds of leftover materials and items that were surplus and needed storing somewhere, I was emphatically told by the property manager I wouldn't be able to sort it in time for the professional photographer coming.  "Impossibile!"  The fact that I did all this after spending my days toilet training the triplets was just... a lot!  I was beyond exhausted: I was broken, but I plugged in my phone and put on my tunes and got it done.  Afterwards, honestly, for a while I didn't know when I would be able to come back as I just had too much of a negative association to the town following all the stress.  I've never had that before.  This has always been my happy place.  Had I just totally ruined everything?

Please know, I don't want sympathy.  I'm fortunate to do something that I find so fulfilling, pays me well for my time and allows me to be my own boss, and that I love 95% of the time, but I've also always said this blog would share the tough times as well as the good and I don't think any project will ever push me harder.  This developing game ain't for the weak of heart!

So anyway, you get the message!  How better to celebrate all that work, stress and progress than...

Before & after photos!

First off, remember little man - then 3 years old, an only child, gorgeous hair tumbling down his back! - looking up at the giant doors to the balcony?

Well, he's not the only one who's changed a bit since then! 

Here's how it looks now...

Ready for more?  Well here - in no particular order - you go!  (Sorry, but formatting pics the way I like has got too tricky or maybe I just don't have the patience any more!) 

    

    

    

  

    

    

    

    

It may look like it 2 years to just change the flooring and expose a ton of that beautiful tufo stone but I promise it was more involved than that!!

My photos definitely don't do it justice so please visit Airbnb here to see the professional pics!

And if you fancy a challenge today: 

When renovating a property that's been someone's much loved home for decades, I try to reuse something left behind by the previous owner in the new design.  Can you look back and find where the below chandelier, previously hung in the grand, marshmallow pink entrata, now features?

Guess who's back?

Hello everybody?  Still there?  It's been a while!  How are you doing today?

Excuse me going AWOL!

What can I say except that the last project (BH) nearly broke me and it's taken me a while to feel like myself again.  What have I learned?  Running a big project alongside being a full time mum to a toddler alongside dealing with some fun medical stuff really is a bit much for me!  But you know what?  I don't want to dwell on it as it's in the past and there's a far more exciting reason for me coming back to document my property life again.

Can you guess?

Probably yes!

Just a few hours ago, we had an offer accepted on a new place in our little town in Puglia!

Whoop whoop whoop!

I say a new place, it's an old apartment that needs restoring, but what a place!  It's so grand!  The communal entrance stairs are all in marble.  The roof terrace has wonderful views of the sea, the port and the cathedral.  The sense of space is just incredible: the first room you walk into is more than 5m x 5m and the ceilings throughout are 5+metres high!

This amazing little man sat through a 2.5 hour meeting in Italian with the agent today!

It was love at first sight and I am so, so excited about the transformation to come. 

And you know, like falling in love, this probably seems a bit fast and kind of crazy to everyone else as I literally only spotted this place on the internet 2 days ago, but I just knew it was something special.

(The irony is, I only came out to stay in our house here with little man as we have rented out our house in UK and it was cheaper to fly here for a week than to find accommodation in our UK hometown!  Looks like it might end up costing us quite a bit instead!)

It's going to be a long process - even completing the purchase will take much longer than normal due to some special financing we're using - so I'm not sure there'll be too much to talk about over the next months, but I was keen to share with you that a new adventure is on the horizon.

Onwards and upwards dear friends - it's going to be bellissima!

It never rains, but it pours!

If you thought I came across a bit smug in the last post, you will find vengeful amusement in this one!

Cyclone Morgana is in town and in our home!

Dark skies on the horizon!

Yes, we have water coming through the roof!  And not just a bit of a drip either.  We have full scale water ingress - pouring through at least ten spots and trying to collect it all with our beach towels and buckets and little man's paddling pool!

Ugh!  It's just a section, so not as bad as if the whole thing was leaking, but we knew it wasn't right.  It has already been repaired twice in two years and we were making enquiries to have a third tradesman come and have a go at it, possibly even bringing over someone from UK, as we're sick of throwing money at it and then worrying about it all through the winter when we're not here to check on it.

With our kind neighbour's help we've done what we can to stop the worst of it with lots of plastic sheeting, but the water's still coming through.  If there wasn't already, there is certainly a sense of urgency now about getting it sorted before we head back to UK for the winter!  Unfortunately, the way it works is that we need dry weather to make sure this time the job is done properly so we just have to wait out the storms and keep wringing out the towels!  Oh, the joys!

On a more positive note, today I'm meeting some people who messaged me as they are keen to buy Il Palazzotto!  It's not on the market, so I'm not sure how much they think they know about it, but they are friends with someone who lives just round the corner and got my details from her.  We kitted it out to meet our needs (remember the time I took a wall down to fit the American fridge freezer in?!) and are so happy with it, plus little man is part of a gang of 4 boys all around the same age, all living seconds from our front door and already playing together, and to us that's priceless, so I have absolutely no doubt that nothing will come of it (yes, I'm so confident of that fact I'm openly declaring our leaky roof in the same post as the meeting!), but it's flattering all the same and, I admit, my curiosity has been piqued.

After all, what sort of Renovation Ragazza turns down a meeting over coffee with potential buyers?!

Daytripping

Hello all.  In the ongoing quest to become better acquainted with what's nearby our little town, we took the train up to the capital city of Bari yesterday.  I must have been to the airport on the outskirts of the city more than thirty times and we have visited the centre on a couple of occasions, but not that we felt we could properly explore and take in the sights.  So yesterday we strolled around the old town and ate in a well-reviewed osteria and enjoyed a coffee in the sun.  All pleasant enough.

Today Mr RR asked if I agreed that it wasn't anything special, and commented that we have everything we love right here, concentrated in our little town, and it's so true.  We have visited so many towns around here that people rave about from Lecce (the Florence of the south) to Ostuni (the white city) to Cisternino (it's all about grilled meat!) even our beautiful neighbour up the coast Polignano a Mare (it's sexy and it knows it! - an American film star dined at the next table to us!) and so many more. We always come away slightly bemused: Monopoli's properties are probably a quarter of the price of those in the towns we've visited, but we can't see that they come close to our concentration of atmospheric, balcony-lined, cobbled streets, our beautiful, seafront passeggiata, our clear sea and sandy beaches, our stunning cathedral, and on and on.

Of course we might be biased, everyone's entitled to their opinion, there's no place like home, etc, but what a treat to be so in love with where you are!

I do try to stay open-minded.  And one thing Bari has that Monopoli definitely doesn't?  60% of the bones of Saint Nicholas!  So that's kinda different!

Father Christmas was black!

And buried in Bari!

Drama!

I'm writing this from a little town in the South of Italy.  No, BH is not finished.  Yes, we chose to run away from it all for a bit!  But just look:

You couldn't expect me to stay in UK the whole summer knowing this was waiting for us!

A week and a half before we left, I sat down with the two teams working on BH because, even having been friends with each other for more than ten years, they were both complaining that they'd be better off having the site to themselves.  We all agreed that the builders would stay on site and finish all they could for 3 days, then the floorboard guys would come back in on Monday and have a week to finish their job so they could be paid in full before we left for Italy.  Everyone was happy with this approach and, despite the project not being 100% finished, I was happy enough with the progress over the 3 days that I gave our builder the bulk of his final payment and my blessing to take some time on holiday in Bulgaria with his family while the floorboards were done.  Hmm!  Anyone recognise this scenario yet?!

Well, maybe not, as this doesn't play out at all as I would have expected!  Monday comes around and my builder has started his drive across Europe and as much as I really, really didn't want to disturb him on his time off, I didn't know what to do when it turned out there was no sign of his floorboard friends on site by lunchtime and after a few hours of texts and leaving messages, I was none the wiser as to why.

When the floorboard boss finally phones he tells me his team have left UK for their holidays and, despite having received £2000 (more than generous for the work completed to date), they won't come back on site unless I pay them in advance the rest of the money for the full job!

Best laid plans and all that!  I thought I had everyone lined up perfectly, but instead, I was left with no-one on site.  Worse than that, I was kicking myself that, once again, I had let myself be cajoled into giving tradesmen more money than I wanted to.  On top of all that, I had let my guard down, once again, and been charmed by a builder into believing I could count on him to look after my best interests, because while this is going on, a little voice says, did your builder leave for his holiday, with your money in his pocket, knowing the other team, with your money in their pocket, that he brought to you, had no intention of being on site?  Jeez, was I still as naive as ever even after all this time on all these projects?

Thankfully, this story has a happy ending.  I was reassured somewhat when my builder was so incensed by the betrayal of his so-called friend that he said he was going to come off the German motorway he was on at the next exit and start back to the UK in order to confront him and put things right (of course I told him he better not even think about stopping his holiday with his family for this mess).  More conclusively in terms of helping me know who I could count on, 2 days later, the bulk of the money given to the floorboards guy came, via the builder's account, back into mine, along with a very bitter text from the floorboards guy leaving me in no doubt as to the pressure he'd been put under by our mutual builder friend!  I would never have imagined I'd get my money back!  Given the amount of time they had spent on site and petrol and materials, they are seriously out of pocket now!

Best quote of this whole thing came from my builder:
"I leave you alone with the site for 6 hours...!"

So, onwards and upwards!  My builder is firmly in my good books, (though I am still somewhat perplexed as to the leverage he has!) and we're now onto our third company for the floorboards (I don't think I shared with you the story of the local company I originally booked, who came out with so much racist rubbish in the week leading up to their starting that I told them to take a hike!).  Fingers crossed, we'll return from Italy in a couple of weeks to find the house full of beautiful, stained and varnished floorboards.  Is it too much to get my hopes up?  What could possibly go wrong now?! Ha ha ha!

Seeing the funny side!

Yesterday was a day of frustration, but rather than dwell on that, I wanted to share with you what, in hindsight, was probably one of the funniest moments of the entire project!

At one point, I'd uncovered a serious and unforgivable error in one of the expensive worktops supplied for the kitchen and felt fobbed off by the company responsible.  Having stepped outside to make the phonecall, I then spotted just how very many bags of rubbish had been left for recycling, by others, not by us, but on our paving slabs, off the pavement and at the top of the stairs to our back door, literally blocking our stairway.  In no way was this possibly anything other than our private property.

I've sat literally open-mouthed and lost for words when I've seen neighbours shamelessly drop their bags of rubbish there before, but today with everything else going on I just absolutely saw red!  Cue me shouting in the street at the bags "Who does this?", "How does anyone think this is this ok?", "Look at this!" and then I started kicking them!  Bags packed full of cat food tins and beer bottles!  And you know what, it felt pretty good!  Then I had to walk away before I started crying!  Like I say, funny in hindsight!

Of course, it's not going to cement my reputation as a calm, collected addition to the neighbourhood, but, hey, maybe this is my explosive Italian side coming out!  Just another day as Renovation Ragazza!

Last little push

Hello lovely readers.  Apologies it's been so long since the last update.

You may choose to look away now if you don't like the "Sometimes this is just so tough" posts!  I make no apologies for writing when I feel like this, as I always wanted this blog to be a fair reflection of the ups and downs of developing property, lest I be accused of sugar-coating the reality, but I try to be a positive person and do hate to sound like a moaner!  I feel so fortunate to be able to do something that 95% of the time I completely love, but I'm in the 5% just now!

In short, it's the end of the project.  Forgetting the sanding and staining and finishing of the floorboards, there probably isn't more than 1-2 weeks' work left.  If conditions were perfect then the floors should be done in 2 weeks too.  Of course, conditions are rarely perfect, and at this stage of the process, most everybody is physically and mentally tired, so I'm not sure talk of perfection is helpful in the slightest!

It's an ongoing battle as a perfectionist to accept myself at times like these when I know I am not performing as I like.  Of course I'm not the first working mum to feel she is letting down the little person who is used to feeling like he is the centre of her world, but now finds mummy impatient and stressed, with no time or energy to play.  I hate that this work has done that to me, when I've always been so proud of who I am as a mother, and I'm aware I'm not myself with most everyone else around me too.

Things are particularly tricky for me this time as I'm not only trying to drive a high quality finish on a project with a toddler in tow (who seems to be intent on giving me a preview of the terrible twos!), but, and please excuse me, I don't mean to be dramatic, I also have some medical stuff going on.  Nothing too serious thankfully, but hospital procedures and check ups and medication are messing with my body, mind, sleep and emotions and it's all making me such a mess right now.  I know I'm not even close to being at my best, let alone any kind of a pleasure to be around, and yet, at this final stage of the process, I feel I need to be on site more than ever to make sure the finishing touches that will be staring at me for the foreseeable future are as I envisioned and as I have fought so hard for all along.

I'll post some photos below so you can see how BH is coming along, but first, if I may, I'd like to share some nice things I've heard while working on this project.  They go a long way to help balance out just how very (not one to mince my words!) crappy I feel right now.

Firstly, from a friend and fellow mum:

"You run your own business while looking after your little boy full time and always look so glamorous: You're such a role model for other mums." 

Glamorous - ha!  But thank you, I'll take it!  

Secondly from a contractor on the project who I've worked with several times now over the years:

"I don't know how you do it.  You've done a lot of these renovations.  I couldn't do it."

So nice to hear that from someone working in the same game

Thirdly from the main builder, who is charming to everyone, but said he was being serious:

"If my wife was like you, I could take on the world."

"All of the guys on site ask how it's possible you manage a project of this size with a little one.  

I've never seen it before - you're one in a million."

"Typically in business it's men, but you're better."

"If there were a building exam, you'd get full marks: couldn't get higher." 

Like I say, charm personnified, but I like to believe there's a bit of truth in some of it at least.

So these are the things I try to focus on when I feel so drained and fed up, that, quite honestly, I just want to run away and hide.  It looks like there's another big project on the horizon after this one, but I really, really need a break.  Compliments can tide me over for a while, but heading back to Italy and Il Palazzotto for as much as I can of the rest of the summer seems common sense now, don't you think?!

So, if you're still with me after all that, thank you!

As promised, here are some photos to show you where we're at:

Gorgeous metallic splash back going up in kitchen - yay!

Some floorboards polish up great...

... bought in some similar to replace those that don't!

Gorgeous floorboards looking just as I hoped - yay!

Choosing carpet - ugh!

Fantastic skylight looking just as I hoped - yay!

Took a while to find the right one, but...

Bold colour in the living room - yay!

Bold colour in the master bathroom - yay!

So really overall I know we're getting there and of course it will all work out in the end.  Forgive me for being tired and emotional.  A ragazza's allowed a little wobble now and then, right?!

Just a last little push to get this house finished and I can be swimming in the sun in the Adriatic Sea.

Come on!