Phew!

Today saw the 4th of our apartments on the south coast of England's sales complete.
That's 4 sales that I have managed to push through in the last 10 days!

We have been very unlucky: the worst storms in, apparently, more than 250 years caused a heartbreaking amount of damage to our finished, show-home style block of apartments.  Getting the repairs and redecoration done delayed existing sales going through by several weeks, and meant we had to put on hold the marketing of the flats still available.

How one of our beautiful kitchens looked

Kitchen out, plaster off: back to brick and starting to tank the wall

Wall re-plastered, kitchen starting to go back in

Now it looks like this again!
(Okay yes, its the same photo, but it really does!)

The fact that our 1 year finance agreement for the whole conversion comes to an end tomorrow, has meant the last week has been one of the most stressful I have ever had.  We're not there yet in terms of repaying all the money we've borrowed, but we are a hell of a lot closer now than we were a week ago.

I am so glad it's over!

I was in a new part of London today

No new boobs to show for it!

In the space of 5 minutes, I spotted Carol McGiffin, a little plaque that would have meant little to most of us prior to the film The King's Speech...

Wonderful story

...and the most elaborately-dressed transvestite I've ever seen away from a stage, complete with fluoro pink tights and fluoro pink eyebrows that were arched supremely at me when we made eye contact!

When there's an unexplained gap in other people's blogging, I imagine it's one of two things: either life got too busy to write about or life got too painful to dwell on.  Apologies if I'm being dramatic but things have been difficult here lately and it is easier to just be quiet.  Everything will be fine but I have to put my head down and keep driving forward.  Please bear with me.  Normal service will be resumed in time.

Perfect Day

One of the things about owning a property abroad is that everyone asks when you're next going to be out there!  It is a totally natural question, but you can't help feeling they're a bit disappointed when you say it won't be for weeks or maybe even - shock horror! - months!  Of course, having spent a year going on and on about the renovation, I understand it might seem strange not to want to be there right now and as much as we can, but the reality is, you can't live full-time in your holiday home!  Even though it might feel like a wonderful escape when you're there (which it is) and a shame to leave it empty when you're not there (which it is), life goes on and we feel we need to be here in UK for now.

On top of that, being the depths of winter, it's actually pretty cold and drizzly in Puglia just now!

Having got to know a small part of Italy, it is wonderful how much more we appreciate what has always been on our doorstep in UK.  Today was a beautiful day so we headed to a local park and I have to say, our little corner of England is so green and charming.  I'm no photographer but here's a little sample of our green and pleasant land today!

It all reminded me of the song Perfect Day by Lou Reed.  You know when a day is just right?  Lucky us!  Wonderful.

Good news!

I'm thrilled!

4 of the 8 flats in our big conversion on the south coast of UK are now under offer.  They've all gone for within a whisker of asking price and all our buyers are in a good position to proceed.  Fantastic news given the time of year, the horrific weather we've been having and that they've only been on the market a couple of weeks.

Fingers crossed there's more of the same to come!

Chocolate heaven in The Chocolate Tree, Edinburgh

In my next life, I think I'll sell chocolate!
And when I do, my little shop/cafe will look like a little shop/cafe I found today.
It felt like a cross between a magical medina and a crazy great aunt's sitting room!

Quirky decorations

including beautiful patchwork on the walls made of individual squares of wallpaper

and even a picture resembling me when presented with my favourite drink!

A perfect little cosy nook

to enjoy a shot of hot chocolate with the best churro I've ever seen!

I even spotted a Scottish twist on the French macaron: The Chieftain!

Delicious!  Be sure to look it up if you're ever in the area!

Goodbye 2013: Hello new home in Italy!

Not being in Italy means I can't take all the photos I want to create the before and after extravaganza I'm planning, but as the last minutes of 2013 tick by it seems a good time to have a review.

I'll start by introducing the property as it was introduced to us by the agent (seen below!): il palazzotto.  Strictly speaking it means little palace, and we kinda liked that so the name stuck and is how we've referred to it ever since - it just seems rude to demean a little palace by calling it a house!

So, Il Palazzotto (now its proper name!) hadn't been lived in for years.  We couldn't see some parts because they had no light or were unstable.  It was cracked, decrepit and crumbling down:

Before

After a year's TLC, here's some before and after photos as promised:
(Want a closer look?  Click on any photo.)

Entranceway: Before and After

 



Living Room: Before and After

  

 

 

Bedroom: Before and After

 

 

Kitchen: Before and After

 

 

 

Remember the first photos I shared with you of our grim roof terrace in looking-for-inspiration?  I promised you then a Sarah Beeny/ Kevin McCloud reveal and here it is:

Roof Terrace: Before and After

 

  

There's also been the creation of two apartments on the ground floor that started life like this:

Before

 

And, nearly finished, look like this:

After

 

And, simultaneously, the conversion of one giant house to 8 flats in SE UK went from this:

Before

To finished and on the market one week before Christmas, with one already sold STC:

After

   

  

So it's been a full year, a challenging year and one where I've learned a lot.  But I've never for a minute regretted our decision to buy Il Palazzotto.

And, importantly, a new oven in a new kitchen in a new country, hasn't affected my brownies!!