by Helen | Mar 28, 2018 | Renovation
In the year that we have lived in The House, the small downstairs bathroom has gone through a number of changes. It’s not in the most ideal location, being right off The Well Room, which will eventually become another living/dining room. However, we know that we are lucky to have two bathrooms, especially with visitors coming and going, so getting rid of it wasn’t an option. We tarted it up as best as we could last year, but like most rooms in the house, layout didn’t seem to be a priority for the previous owners. The shower cubicle was tiny, with a tap attachment which scalded you whichever way you positioned yourself – and to escape it you were constantly banging in the horrible plastic tri-folding doors. The toilet was positioned right opposite the door – which hadn’t been fitted and hung properly, so didn’t properly close. Nothing quite as nice as the first thing you see being a toilet, when you come into the house.
The sink was of tiny proportions – more suited to a small cloakroom set up than a bathroom, so anything other than brushing your teeth was nigh on impossible. And then the terrazzo tiles. I know these can be expensive and I know the previous owners really liked them, but just not to our taste. A fawny kind of colour, that was neither here nor there, they covered the floor, shower cubicle and most of the walls. When we moved in, the walls hadn’t been painted, so this was our first job, and we have lived with it not being too bad for the best part of a year…
However, with work going on in the kitchen and the Well Room, we decided that the time was right to bite the bullet and try and get all of the mess over and done with at the same time. Famous last words!
So that there was no going back, we bought the new bathroom at the weekend and ripped out the shower frame so that the room was unusable and so that the work had to start. And start it has! The shower & toilet are out, the tiles have all been drilled off and the floor has been smashed up so that the new soil pipe etc can be installed. We’ve taken the opportunity to completely reconfigure the bathroom so that as a space, it just works better.
The new shower will now be positioned where the sink and toilet was, meaning a much bigger cubicle. The new toilet will be fitted where the shower used to be and the new sink opposite the door, which will now be a sliding door, fitted on the outside, meaning more space as it won’t be opening into the bathroom. This morning, it all looks an absolute mess – but out of mess and chaos we’re hoping something very beautiful will emerge.
And, yes, that is a toilet, sitting in The Well Room…
So, currently, apart from the living room, that’s all of downstairs in utter disarray. But hopefully it will mean that when our first visitors arrive mid-April, we’ll have a kitchen and bathroom to be proud of. We hope…
by Helen | Mar 26, 2018 | Lifestyle
When we lived back in Didsbury, we often used to eat out on a Sunday – and no Sunday lunch was ever really the same, such is the variety of restaurant types in the locality. Here in Istria, we have a lot of excellent restaurants near the house, but the closest are of the agristurismo variety. Whilst there are menu differences, what tends to dominate are truffles, cheese, pasta and meat. We have been longing for one of these restaurants to start serving up wood fired pizzas but it’s not going to happen as they are Istrian restaurants, not Italian.So, we are now delighted that yesterday we finally investigated Pizzeria Alto, located in the small town of Karojba, just outside the beautiful medieval hilltop town of Motovun. Nowhere here is really quite as convenient as it used to be in West Didsbury – although we do have four restaurants very close by, and two are are definitely in walking distance. This pizzeria is a 20 minute drive away, but we’re now used to this and when drives are as scenic as the ones we now do, it’s not a problem at all.
Alto is pretty basic and rustic and clearly a much loved place for locals – there was a steady stream of diners when we visited. It looks as if it’ll be very popular in the summer too, with additional outdoor seating and grassed areas for children. The menu isn’t massive, but there’s plenty of choice, especially if all you want is a pizza or an Italian style pasta dish. We had two medium pizzas which were delicious – thin crust, very generous portions of very fresh toppings and not overloaded with cheese. They were medium and looked enormous, but were just right because the crusts were nice and thin. Just like they should be…
Best thing of all though was the bill. As well as the pizzas we had a large beer and half a litre of very tasty local Istrian wine, and it came to 120 kunas. That’s £14.01! And, as much we liked a trip to Pizza Express (and will probably still do it on visits back home), it is a bit of a surprise that this whole meal came in less than one pizza, from PE…
by Helen | Mar 25, 2018 | Renovation
Oh, didn’t I just end the last renovation blog post on a bit of a high? Loving that the undercoating was about to start in the kitchen, meaning we could almost, but not quite, see the finishing line. Well, the undercoating did start, but we fell at the first hurdle…
Our house seems to be full of tins of paint. Some bought here, so in terms of the kind of paint, often incomprehensible Croatian or Slovenian. The kind of paint where we have to rely on the linguistic skills of people in the DIY store. We also have paint that we brought back from England after Christmas. You can’t buy Farrow & Ball here – the nearest stockist that I’ve found is in Treviso, so a bit of a trip for a tin of paint. However beautiful it is. So, we have tins of floor paint and paint for walls and undercoat, a lot of having been mixed here. Being a bit disorganised, we didn’t think to carefully label the paints as we went along, and so you can probably what’s coming next. Yes, the undercoat, which we gave to Misko, and which he kept saying was a bit unusual, turned out not to be the undercoat after all. And, the realisation slowly dawned on me…In the paint buying flurry back in England, we’d completely forgotten to buy undercoat for the walls, and so what was being rollered on the ceiling, was undercoat for the floor. That’s right – a lovely, silky undercoat, meant for wood or metal. The wise words of Misko – “This doesn’t look right, Helen…“
The next dawning realisation, was that he’d have to continue painting the ceiling with the wrong paint, so that at least it’d be wrong in a uniform kind of way. Then, let it dry, sand and start again. We gave Misko a very big beer…
One day on, and thankfully, the situation has been rectified. The right undercoat was bought and has now been applied, giving an idea of what our beautiful new kitchen might look like when the Farrow & Ball Hague Blue is finally applied.
While the kitchen is being finished, the next room renovation is beginning – the small bathroom which adjoins the Well Room. This is starting to be ripped out, in preparation for a complete renovation, which will involve re-configuring the layout we’ve inherited, so that the space is better used. It’s odd to think that our new bathroom is inside all of these boxes, ready & waiting…
Meanwhile, while the builders work, we’ve not been idle. With better weather and lighter evenings, the push to get the shutters finished has intensified. The Well Room is back to being a Shutter Hospital as we try and restore each one. It’s a very slow process, but we’re seeing progress as we start to get them back up.
by Helen | Mar 23, 2018 | Renovation
We think we are now on the final hurdle, kitchen renovation wise. It seems like we’ve been living forever without a decent working kitchen we can call our own – in fact, since we sold our house in West Didsbury, back in January 2017, we’ve been making do in the kitchen area. The one we inherited in this house was pretty awful and so we were glad to see the back of it, last October. But now that we’re halfway through March, we’re definitely ready to be cooking up a storm in a brand new space. The last renovation blog shows what we’ve been up to and where we are now.
It’s been really interesting to watch the plastering process going on. This hasn’t been a case of just doing one layer of plaster – oh no, it has been like watching a work of art developing, as fine layers are applied and skimmed and sanded, a number of times. And, then when we thought all looked perfect, a huge light was brought in and every inch of the plastered walls were illuminated so that every imperfection could be sanded away. I think we must have the smoothest walls in Croatia! A sealant has been applied and the next stage is the undercoating of the walls – and then the underfloor heating is installed before the new flooring is laid.
It’s great to finally be seeing the semblance of a room beginning to emerge. And you never know, we may actually have kitchen units and appliances fitted some day soon…
by Helen | Feb 13, 2018 | Lifestyle
Having lived in West Didsbury for a very long time, we certainly appreciate good restaurants. And now, having moved to Istria, and initially being a little concerned that we would have to forgo culinary delights, we are super impressed with what we’re finding on our doorstep.
We don’t have the choice we had back in England – we do short trips to the bigger Istrian towns or border hop into Slovenia or Italy if we crave more than the typical Istrian fare of pasta, mushrooms, truffles, stews etc, but we do have the quality. We’ve not seen a single chain restaurant in the whole of Istria – I’m struggling to think if I’ve seen even the ubiquitous McDonald’s. All restaurants are independent and certainly, where we are, usually family owned. As is the case with Agroturizam Nežić, in the village of Zrenj. You have to be in-the-know, to get a table here. You definitely won’t be in luck if you turn up Monday – Saturday, because it’s only open on a Sunday. However, this doesn’t deter carloads of Italians crossing two borders to come here every weekend. We see from our house, the weekly convoy of Italian licence plates, heading up towards the village – and we know exactly where they are going. Agroturizam Nežić.
We made a booking on Sunday as it had been a while since we’d been in – but the welcome from Paolo and Nadia was very, very warm. Don’t forget, we only arrived here last March, but they have become good friends, helping us out in lots of ways, most notably recommending Dennis who we bought our cars from. Good people, who greet you in in the Italian way, with effusive kisses.
There is a menu, but Paolo, who works front of house, whilst Nadia manages the kitchen, prefers to let you know what is available and seasonal. And, after all, he knows – so we went with his recommendations on Sunday. To begin, and the picture may not convey this too well, we had the most amazing melted Istrian cheese, coated in butter and then covered with black truffle shavings, with the most delicious warm, home-made bread, to mop it all up…
These black truffles are like nothing I have ever tasted before. They are an Istrian delicacy – in fact, Livade, about 5kms from us, is know as The Truffle Capital – and are astonishingly good. It’s difficult to describe the taste as it’s quite unusual but earthy, with a slightly sweet kick, is how I find them. We shared this starter – one each, and we’d have had to be rolled home, as it is very filling.
For the mains, I opted for home made tagliatelle and wild mushrooms with black truffles. Utterly, utterly delicious. The other main was a red wine infused goulash with homemade gnocchi. Again, delicious – but not as photogenic.
The two mains were very, very filling, especially as we’d also shared quite a heavy starter. But these Istrians like to feed you up, and on that note, we weren’t going to get away with no dessert. We weren’t even going to get away with *sharing* a dessert. Two portions of chocolate cake, then. And, like a lot of Istrian food, you get exactly what is described. No additional extras, like cream or ice-cream or any kind of a sauce. Apart from the grappa – which is brought to your table in the unlabelled bottle, because it is another product that the owners make themselves, and give away at the end of a meal. And boy, is it strong! It nearly blows your head off…
However, it’s not just the food that the Italians come here for, every Sunday. It’s also for Paolo and his accordian, which is another musical tradition in these parts. When the wind blows in the right direction, we can often hear the raucous grappa fuelled singing of Italian classics, but this Sunday we got see it and hear it up close and personal…
by Helen | Feb 12, 2018 | Lifestyle
Today has been a beautiful day, weather-wise. Yesterday, we had brilliant blue skies and sunshine all day, but man, was it cold! And, last night, when we returned home from a local restaurant, the inky-black sky was littered with sparkling stars, like we haven’t seen since the heady days of summer.
Because we aren’t overlooked at all, we don’t have curtains or blinds at the bedroom windows (but we do have the obligatory shutters so when you want darkness, you can have it), and because we are high up, we can see the weather rolling in. And this morning, we woke up to fields of white, as the snow came down from Slovenia…
We did worry, when the snow started falling heavily, that we may be snowed in, especially as we don’t live on a busy main road. However, our worries were unfounded as Croatian efficiency – brilliant when it happens – swung into action, and soon a snow plough was trundling up and down the road, making sure it was clear at all times. Once we had navigated our access, out of the garden, we were on our way, out on a snowy expedition…
Cleared roads…
by Helen | Feb 11, 2018 | Renovation
It’s the weekend, but that doesn’t stop our builders. Give them their due, there’s some work ethic being displayed here! We *think* that the major drilling work might be over for this phase of the house renovation, so whilst Misko & Edin got on with the cabling and first plastering of the ceiling, we were finally able to begin the process of cleaning up a little bit. By Saturday evening, we actually had a living-room, of sorts, back…
Although it mightn’t look it, this has been a weekend of progress. The pipes, casing the new wiring, have all been plastered in, as have the new water pipes. The new step is in and the concrete has been laid on the floor. Tomorrow, the exciting stuff starts to begin, with the plastering of the walls and the laying of the underfloor heating. We think it’ll still be a week or so before the kitchen itself is installed, but at least it’s taking on the shape of a room again, rather than a construction site.
Meanwhile, we’ve also been busy, with a bit more DIY work going on in the main bedroom. The new ebony stained floor looks amazing, and we’ve taken things a step further by staining the light bed frame to match.
Still a long way to go on this bedroom, but it’s looking a whole lot nicer than when we first moved in. Next up is new lighting, painting of the beams. building storage space inside a big recess and sourcing Moroccan style doors. Oh, and hopefully, the best bit. A free-standing bath! All coming up…
by Helen | Feb 6, 2018 | Renovation
It’s been a while since I’ve recorded anything about the kitchen renovation, simply because nothing massive – or Instagram worthy – seems to have happened recently. But actually, a lot has happened and we are hopeful that the dirty, grimy work is now almost over. So, where are we up to?
Well, still camping out kitchen-wise in the Well Room. Still eating and wearing a constant film of fine dust. And still shivering as icy blasts blow through newly opened holes. But, big progress is being made, even if it’s still the messy, smashing up and drilling kind of work. The new window is in, the newly exposed ceiling has been boarded out and plastered, ready for fine sanding and skimming, the tubing through which the new electric cables will be fed are all in position for sockets and new lighting, new plumbing has been installed, the terrazzo floor tiles are up, ready for the self levelling concrete to go down and a new step has been made, into the kitchen.
For most people, the above will look still look horrendous, but we think we’re almost onto the good stuff. Plastering, new concrete window cills, installation of sockets, lighting and then underfloor heating and new boards, followed by painting before new kitchen is fitted. All sounds easy-peasy but bet we’re still kitchen-less in a month’s time!
Still, the joy of walking into the kitchen, up that smaller step, is making it all worthwhile currently…
by Helen | Jan 30, 2018 | Renovation
Who’d have thought stairs could be so problematic? To be honest, I’ve never really given stairs a lot of thought, because they’re just…there. But our stairs need a lot of thinking about, because they’re pretty unusual. We have one set going upstairs from the living room, and another going down into what will become The Snug, from the living room. They are both open staircases, and I read on a website that these…
provide a sense of freedom, as open stairs do not feature risers, allowing you to look through the staircase enjoying the rest of an interior…
All well and good, BUT when they have been quite poorly installed, and the treads are very narrow, and there is no handrail and the banister at the top of the stairs – to prevent anyone falling – is very rickety, all of a sudden, that “sense of freedom” doesn’t quite seem a selling point.
We’ve looked at having both sets replaced, and maybe it’s a language thing and we keep getting lost in translation but we’re finding it to difficult to get across what we want. And, for some reason, stairs (or the construction of), seem to be prohibitively costly in Istria. We originally had someone out to quote on concrete stairs. My dream, but these must stay as a dream as we wouldn’t be able to afford to eat if we went with his quote.
But, if we are to live a comfortable life and be able to get up and down the stairs with ease – and be sure that our guests will be safe – we need to arrive at a solution. Currently, they are quite awful – half finished, cheap looking and fairly poorly fitted. It’s a job which has been added to the ever-growing list and which we are fairly confident will be shunted down when other projects become more of a priority. In the meantime, we’ll just watch our feet and try not to climb or descend after a drink too many.
by Helen | Jan 28, 2018 | Renovation
Although our house is quite old – we think parts of it are over 200 years old – and is quite traditional in structural style to many of the stone houses in Istria, we are determined to stamp a contemporary feel on it. Apart from The Well Room where the floor is stone flags (therefore very beautiful, but extremely cold in the winter), and which will be dealt with a separate project, the rest of the floors are fairly recently laid pine boards. Fairly recently, as in within the last ten years. As no-one has really lived in the house, they’re not in bad condition – but have never been treated. This is good for us as we don’t need to do that awful sanding, but they are ripe for a refresh, especially as they are all of that golden-ish colour, which we don’t really like.
Pale pine boards about to have a make-over…
We’ve systematically gone through the house, with our paintbrushes, white-washing all of the walls, which were largely bare stone. Again, lovely – but too much of it and too cold. So, with white walls and white ceilings, we decided that certainly in our bedroom, we wanted to take the floors very dark. The room is big, with exposed original beams and a very high vaulted ceiling, so we figured we could go dark on the floor. Rather than paint (which we’ll be doing downstairs), we decided to stain and varnish the boards. Having seen some boards which had been treated with a walnut coloured stain, we went for this colour. Or so we thought…
DIY/building/renovation is as big in Croatia as it is back in the UK, and so we have absolutely no shortage of B&Q-like places. Our language skills are currently not good enough to go local and independent when shopping for DIY related things, so off we went to Bauhaus, in Pula, purchasing what looked like walnut wood stain, from the colour swatch on the tin and from what we could glean from our translation app. However, when we finally started to stain the boards this weekend, what a disappointment! The colour could only be described as the honeycomb colour of a Crunchie bar. Even more “golden” than the boards in their untreated state…
The disappointing honey coloured stain…
The original, unstained boards are to the forefront of the photograph, the boards stained with “Walnut” to the back. It was pointless even continuing, as there is a lot of floor area to cover and it just wasn’t right, so there was nothing for it, apart from to hotfoot back down to Bauhaus in Pula. We were going to have dark floors and after a bit of googling, decided the only thing to do was opt for an Ebony stain. And hurrah, it has worked!
The colour we wanted – “walnut” – is called “ebony” here. Lesson learned for the future…
There’s still a long way to go – this is only a third of the floor space, and we then are then going to hard varnish it for extra durability. The floor will then be done – and we will hopefully be ready for the next stages of the bedroom renovation/transformation. The plan is a free-standing bath (woop!), with shelving built around it and then building storage into a big recess, with Moroccan style wooden doors. Fingers crossed it all works out, so that finally, we shall a have bedroom which is not just a dumping ground for clothes. And, with such a high ceiling, we’ve gone for two over sized pendants – they’re only from IKEA and may, at some point in the future, be replaced for something a bit more original, but currently, just the thought of accessorising the bedroom is sufficient…
