-
Two years and a half later…
It would take me more work to explain how we have spent the time than to describe what has changed since the last chapter. Work commitments, once again, combined with the unnecessary obsession of finishing our university studies, preparing for promotion exams at work, and so on, could be good reasons for having put this…
-
Simple Battens
Work commitments prevented us from witnessing the most spectacular part of the project: covering the roof structure’s rafters with insulation boards that imitate tongue-and-groove wood on the inside. The architect had told us that a new roof for a dwelling cannot be built with an insulation layer thinner than eight centimetres. The builder, however, did…
-
The Temporary Door
It may seem like a silly thing — and it probably is — yet it means a great deal for the new owner of a ruined building to make that first change, that first intervention, because it marks a turning point. Assuming the worst walls have been reinforced and the roof is done, we can…
-
It Is No Longer a Ruin
Our first impression upon seeing the house in person in September 2023 was one of desolation. The house is what it is: cracked walls, shattered windows, stones scattered across the ground… You need a great deal of imagination to picture in this building the project we are supposed to achieve. I’m not even talking about…
-
Reset
Thanks to a couple of good friends, we found a builder who was willing to renovate the house at an acceptable price. Everything moved faster than we expected: the contact, the quote, and the start of the works. Summer is coming to an end and, since the most important part is putting a new roof…
-
This is the end
The scarcity of gas and oil derivatives caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine at the beginning of 2022 triggered a sharp rise in prices. Within weeks, producers passed the costs on to their products and prices skyrocketed, causing inflation higher than during the 1970s oil crisis. Electricity prices also rose considerably, far outpacing wages, and…
-
The three builders
It was an unplanned trip, somewhat uncomfortable and rushed… but necessary. Through contacts, we had managed to arrange a meeting with three builders to show them the property, explain our plans and give them the documentation so they could get an idea of what it would cost to get this project off the ground. We…
-
A phone call
Trying to speed things up a little, we wrote to the architect asking whether it would be possible to get a list of materials for the house (I sometimes confuse buildings with cooking recipes and think all you need is a list of ingredients). He replied that this list of ingredients is usually the very…
-
Crisis
Our plans are going to the dogs. We had expected to have the first version of the architect’s plans by now so we could start requesting quotes from local builders. April has begun and we still have nothing. Impatience is not necessarily a bad thing in itself; on its own it is harmless. The only…
