garden vision realised…

garden vision realised…

by | Aug 29, 2023 | Renovation

Ever since I saw this photo, I knew exactly what the garden at the rear of the house needed to look like. And, luckily, our builder was totally on board and could see the vision we had. Now, four months on, I couldn’t be happier with the way it has turned out. For six years, we’ve tinkered around the edges of the space at the back of the house, not really knowing what to do with it, because we weren’t entirely sure what we wanted to do with the little stone house we’d bought from a neighbour, to increase our footprint and to ensure that no-one else could buy so close to our property. It’s been through various stages of “renovation” but nothing we did ourselves, ever seemed right, as our attempts were pretty amateurish because we aren’t builders.

However, I think even our pretty unprofessional attempts did improve the area, from what it was like when we first moved in. The photos above show what sat behind our house – and it was in this state for a good three of four years, as we focused on other renovation priorities. But gradually we did start to tackle this tumbledown mess, and clear it, whilst still working out what we were going to do with it eventually. Would we renovate it? Would we demolish it? We kept coming back to these questions, as we tinkered around the edges, but we know that either option could be a potential money pit. So, the house walls were cleared of the years of accumulated vines – we couldn’t touch the roof, as this was too unstable and would need a specialist who knew what they were doing, and the area around was dug out and cleared, too. White stones were laid and conifer trees, in pots, were finally put in place, to create a “wall” for privacy and also to demarcate our boundaries.

But, even when cleared, this still seemed very makeshift and I think our minds were made up over Christmas 2022, when, in high winds, some of the roof tiles and stones were dislodged and fell into the house. It was becoming a potential danger and so we set about planning the demolition and creation of a private, walled garden. Demolition work started in February 2023, and we thought that by the start of spring, we’d have a beautiful walled garden. Wrong! It was in fact August, by the time it was all completed. partly due to a prolonged rainy spell in the spring and also due to me asking for lots of changes. I do probably need to stay off Instagram and Pinterest.

However, thanks to our two lovely builders, we do now have the garden of our dreams. We also took the decision to have the living room window (middle one in the photo above) replaced with French doors and with a small balcony leading out and steps down into the garden. During the initial stages of the build, a neighbour also insisted that everything stop and we have our boundaries double checked, causing a pretty costly delay. But hey, that’s all behind us now and we’ve been able to totally kick back and enjoy our Mediterranean inspired garden. The absolute garden of our dreams.

construction continues…

construction continues…

by | Aug 16, 2023 | Renovation

It seems as if we have once again, shared our home and garden, with builders, for a considerable period of time. But we haven’t really – it’s only been four months – but we’ve been so keen and excited to get to the finishing line, that it just seems like we’ve lived in construction chaos for a long time. It’s now all done at the rear of the house – the last lick of paint has been applied, the last payment tranche has been made and the plants and sunbeds and accessories are all in place. And finally being used! I suppose we should be delighted that all work has finished, but it never really does, does it? And, so the builders are back – this time tackling the steps and small balcony at the front of the house. An area which should have been done way back, as the steps are horrible, the concrete has cracks in it and the balcony has no wall, so anyone could take a tumble. But anyway, back to the rear of the house and how our beautiful garden emerged…

Next up.

How we designed and filled our Mediterranean inspired garden…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

secret garden progress

secret garden progress

by | Jun 30, 2023 | Renovation

It’s only called the Secret Garden because it’s partly hidden from view and it sounds a whole nicer than the back garden. Since the weather broke and we’ve had lovely long days of hot sunshine, the builders have been beavering away, trying to recreate our vision. Back in Manchester this was easy, as we just discussed with our builder, what we wanted. Here, it’s a bit different, as we have four languages on the go between us – English, Croatian, Italian and German – and so we’re reliant on translation apps, long word docs translated and diagrams. We’re delighted that this diagram is being interpreted pretty well, and soon, we should in reality, what we’ve been holding in our heads for a very long time.

So, lots of progress has been made over the last couple of weeks.

  • the istrian stone surrounds have been finished around the opening for the French doors;
  • a beautiful Istrian stone slab has been laid just inside the doors, in the living room;
  • the French doors, after much tussling and manoeuvring to get them to fit snugly against our wonky walls, have finally been installed;
  • the concrete platform, outside the living room has been constructed, with a lovely wall around the edges, and the steps going down into the garden are in now in place – the wall has been rendered and tomorrow all will be painted white;
  • the digger has arrived and the excavation in the new garden has started to create the two levels which will be joined by wide concrete steps – however, work on this has stopped as more drilling machinery has to be brought in to smash up a HUGE foundation stone (from the old house) which has just been discovered:

But, things are now looking very different and a real shape is beginning to emerge. The attention to detail to which our builder pays is absolutely second to none, and we are so delighted with what is emerging. A particularly lovely feature – which seems very small and inconsequential – is that at the bottom of the balcony (which has been built with a very slight decline), there is a square shaped “hole” and a metal plate inserted, where the rain water will flow into, and off and away. To us, this is a massive bonus, as when it rains here, it really rains, and the last thing we want is water pooling outside the living room.

We’ve also had major progress along the side of the house. This area, when we bought the house, six years ago, was nothing more than a track. Quite pretty in the summer, when the grass grew and we had wildflowers but a complete mess in the winter, when it was bare and it turned into a mud bath when it rained, because the cars churned it up. This access road also made finding the house for anyone, quite tricky, as it did look like part of a field – and who accesses their house via a field?

The house, when we viewed it...

The house, when we viewed it…

When the rains came...

When the rains came…

Mudbath....

Mudbath….

This situation obviously couldn’t continue, but we couldn’t just address it ourselves, as this used to be the old road into the village and is owned largely by the local municipality, and also a number of locals. The road is no longer used as a road – there is a dead end and it’s only used by us to access our house and occasionally, one neighbour to access the rear of his property. So, we approached the local council, who came out to see the “road” and agreed that something had to be done about it. The result being that a big lorry load of stones arrived and the road was hard surfaced, all the way from the main entrance to beyond our house. We were very grateful for this, as it happened in the winter time, and so for the first time since we moved in, when it rained, we could drive into our property without fear of skidding, when it was muddy. However, as with most things which are done by other people who don’t perhaps have the same investment as you, over time, it became clear that the road really needed to be “finished off”. Large stones were still at surface level, because they hadn’t been properly compressed and this made walking on it, quite tricky in places. The stones also didn’t go to the edges, and it was starting to look a bit raggedy. So, we decided to complete what had been started.

This week, our go-to-white-stones guy, delivered twelve cubic metres and along with one of our builders, who’s been compressing the stones with proper machinery, we’ve been spreading and levelling…

We’re still not entirely finished – there’s still raking and filling to be done, but wowsers – it’s an improvement from 2016!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

and another garden wall is built

and another garden wall is built

by | Jun 8, 2023 | Renovation

With a reliable builder finally working with us, we’ve decided that we can’t let him go to waste, and so are adding jobs to his ever-growing list. The weather has been pretty dire the last week or so – rain, thunder and lightning – and so work on the rear garden and window etc has stalled, as he hasn’t been able to get a long, dry run. So, we discussed the construction of a wall in the front garden, and because this is a smaller job, to our delight, he dropped off the concrete blocks on Tuesday morning, and built the wall yesterday!

We decided that, with the house going on the market, we needed to make it VERY clear to potential purchasers, that the piece of land, which is under the green wall, and so technically within our garden, doesn’t actually belong to us. It belongs to the abandoned house. Totally ridiculous, as it can’t be accessed, apart from through our garden – and we definitely won’t be giving anyone access rights. So, since we moved in, we’ve looked after this little piece of land, and currently, it’s looking very gorgeous. Levelled, geotex laid and fixed and covered in white pea gravel. It was on two levels, because it had been used as landfill, presumably when our house was first “renovated” by the people we bought it from. We never tackled this area, simply leaving it as two uneven and pretty unfinished levels and it never looked good. But, we’ve finally done it. All of the big stones have been removed and it’s been dug out and the soil redistributed, so now it looks like a finished area – especially as it’s now covered in beautiful white gravel.

So, absolutely no-one else uses it or has ever tried to access it, in all the time we’ve been here. A handful of the co-owners (there are 25!) live nearby and must be aware that we’ve maintained and improved it, so we’re all good with keeping on doing that. But, we wanted to be absolutely sure that anyone who comes to view the house, knows from the get go, that this piece of land does NOT belong to us. And, this is where the wall comes in.

The wooden beams were placed to prevent the stones from falling, as the patio is slightly higher, but they also mark out our boundary, so it was easy for the builder, as he already had a concrete base, once the stones were raked back, on which to build the wall.

Rather than just have a low wall, at the same height all the way along, we decided to go for something a bit more unusual, and have it raised, in steps, towards one end.

The wall now needs to be rendered and painted white – which we thought would happen today. But then we realised that today (8th June) is Corpus Christie, and so a public holiday in Istria. So no builders today. One step forward and all that!

Those stepped bricks are going to prove handy when we need a bit more height to cut back the vines, which can overhang. But even better than that, as practical as it is, is that they will also become “shelves” for various lanterns. Which of course I now have to and buy, as none of the lanterns we already are anywhere near suitable…

 

 

 

 

 

pea gravel perfection

pea gravel perfection

by | Jun 7, 2023 | Renovation

So, finally, the whole of the front garden area – the piece we don’t actually own, but care for and improve – and the concrete patio, are now covered in a thick layer of beautiful white pea gravel. Six cubic metres have been wheel-barrowed and distributed and raked and smoothed over, and are looking absolutely fantastic. The front of the house is gradually undergoing a very dramatic transformation – and it just makes us question why we didn’t do this a very long time ago, instead of spending a fortune on ill-fated projects. Still, I suppose you live and learn.

The small pool has been relocated to under the living room window, so completely tucked away and private, seen by no-one. It’s also now out of the sun, so in a lovely, shaded spot. We’ve planted up the area under the green wall with potted plants, and added the redundant shutters from our house to the lower windows of the abandoned house, which we’ve exposed by cutting away the vines.

The concrete patio has now a total makeover. With new furniture and a bit of a change around, as well as lots of new bay trees planted up for privacy, it’s looking like a proper garden now, rather than something which will make do, until we get around to tackling it. Three palettes have been painted white and made into a table, now looking very pretty, sit amongst the potted olive trees and turquoise 70s retro satellite chairs.

I’ve also been searching and searching for those lovely fringed Bali sun umbrellas, but not finding much that would give me a lot of change from the €300 mark, I’d given up on my Balinese dream. Until I spotted them in my new favourite store – Jysk. €37! Two purchased on the spot. And, although I know the ones costing a few hundred euros will undoubtedly be better made and probably more sturdy, but our two beauts will definitely see at least this summer out. The colours are perfect too – pale blue, white and soft grey.

Today, summer seems to have returned. All building work – rear garden, French windows and balcony and steps – has been held up because of the rain, but today the builders are back. And whilst the rear of the house is a priority, because we currently have gaping hole in the living room wall, covered with plastic sheeting, they are working in the front garden today, constructing a very lovely stepped wall. All to be revealed very soon…

 

 

demolition…

demolition…

by | Jun 2, 2023 | Renovation

We’ve thought long and hard about how much current renovation we want to do in our Istrian stone house, as it is imminently going on the market, as we have plans for a whole new adventure. However, with the demolition and clearance of the small stone cottage behind the main house, and the construction of our beautiful new, white, rendered garden wall, we have to think about the practicalities of the access to the new rear garden.

Currently. to get to get to the rear of the house, you have to walk along the newly gravelled side access road. Not a huge problem, and this road is only used by us and one neighbour, but it still doesn’t feel quite right that there isn’t an access from the house. So, at the start of this week, we discussed with our builder the possibility of enlarging the living room window which overlooks the rear of the house, and installing French doors, and having a concrete platform and steps down, into the garden, built. Not much ever happens here very quickly – you have to have lots of patience  – so we were expecting a good few weeks to pass before we even got a quote for the work. How wrong we were on this occasion!

Quote in the next day. Agreed. And, Wednesday evening spent moving furniture away from the window and re-configuring the living room, so that plastic sheeting could be put up, for the work to commence the next morning…

Very little happens quickly here. It’s just something you have to get used to. Days can often drift by between discussing a job and it actually starting. It all usually depends on availability of materials. Or what other jobs the builder may have committed to. Or the weather – sometimes too hot, sometimes too cold, sometimes too windy, sometimes there may be a threat of rain. Or it’s a public holiday – and if that falls on a Wednesday or a Thursday, definitely discount the next couple of days, as a long weekend will always be had. Or the builder just goes AWOL. They always return, just maybe not when you expect them. So this speedy turn of events has taken us by surprise. At the beginning of the week, we still had a wall and a window and only the start of a plan. Now we have a huge hole in the wall. Although, we have to say, it has been the neatest demolition job we’ve ever experienced, with not a speck of dust inside the house, although much Istrian stone once again, back in the garden…

Our job this weekend is to begin the sourcing of the French doors. We’ve been scouring the internet and know exactly what we want – the challenge now is to find somewhere that sells them, and help us to realise something like the beautiful image below…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

garden makeover : white stones

garden makeover : white stones

by | May 24, 2023 | Renovation

Way back in 2016, we viewed our house for the first time, and this was the garden. Although “garden” is a bit of a stretch, looking back. A mucky, concrete patio and a patch of scrubby land, full of rubble and stones – proper ankle-breakers – and vines attached to an old house, which had been half cut back. And we still fell in love with it!

Fast forward a couple of years, and we decided that we had to tackle this outside place. Now, there’s a bit of a curious tale attached to this piece of land. Although it abuts our garden, and sits underneath our living room window, it’s not actually ours. It actually belongs to the abandoned house – which currently has in excess of twenty owners, some on the other side of the world. So, we figured it wasn’t going to sell anytime soon, and as the only way to actually access it, without crossing our land, would be to crawl through those small windows, it seemed pretty certain that if we up-kept the land, no-one would object. And, so far, that’s what’s happened. We’ve tidied it up, looked after it and everyone seems OK with that.

The first attempt at our diy garden, involved moving all of the ankle-breakers away, and putting the smaller stones around the perimeter. We’d have needed a digger to get them all out and we just needed it to be tidied up, as we’d never really actually be using it. The vines were cut back, the soil turned over and levelled and geotex matting secured to stop weeds penetrating. The whole are was then filled with red bark chippings, which now, over time, have faded in the sun and turned a bit mulchy after winter weather and rain.

The concrete patio, to the right of the red bark, has always been pretty horrible. It’s not the prettiest and was definitely not done by someone with an eye on aesthetics, so we had the bright idea to paint it. With pale blue exterior concrete paint, which we were assured was durable. It cost an absolute fortune and to be fair, did look beautiful. For a few months…

The paint on the steps up into the house has survived, but the patio is now back to concrete. A summer of very hot sun, saw to the “durable” exterior paint and the following year we had to pressure wash it all off, as it was too flaky. So, we’ve had a major rethink and we’re now doing what we should have done right at the beginning – white stones. Taking inspiration from the beautiful hotels scattered across Puglia, in particular, we’re going for white and Mediterranean.

Masseria Moroseta, Pulglia : Image - Andrew Trotter

Masseria Moroseta, Pulglia : Image – Andrew Trotter

The option of white stones is also massively less expensive than the eye-watering concrete paint. At €40 for three cubic metres (plus delivery), we’ll be able to do the whole garden, and finish off the access road along the side of the house, for considerably less than the paint job! We’ve just laid the first delivery of stones in the area where we had the red bark chippings. Against the green wall, they look lovely and really enhance this very unusual feature in our garden.

The next delivery of stones, for the patio, has just arrived but we’ve been slightly diverted by another improvement, which is being put into action. And which has led onto another idea. We’re having some of our shutters replaced and the old ones have been propped up in the garden. We think we can definitely make use of them at the far end of this stoned area and cover the old wooden door, with pale blue shutters. They’re not good enough to hang at the windows, but they are perfectly fine, in their weathered state, to cover something even more weathered. And, when that’s done, we’ll be implementing the new idea, then levelling the next load of white stones on the patio.

It’s great to be finally seeing huge progress in the garden – by the end of today, things will look considerably improved. And, by the end of the week, we’re very hopeful that the construction of the wall to the rear of the house, will be almost there, ready for rendering next week…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

garden wall construction begins…

garden wall construction begins…

by | Apr 29, 2023 | Renovation

Having lived for six years now with the view out of our living room window being the small stone house we purchased from a neighbour, things are going to be looking very different, very soon. The vine covered, tumble down house has been demolished, the boundaries of the land clarified, the foundations in and the wall, constructed of concrete blocks standing at well over a metre now, with more height still to be added. The “garden”, inside the wall, is currently an absolute mess – a mix of rocks and stones and the thick red, clay like soil, we have around here. It’s also on an incline. Looking out from the house, the wall to the left is lower in height than the wall to the right. So, we’ve had to address this and we’ve had to consider :

  • do we want it to be levelled and lose height on the right hand side of the garden? This would need to be built up, rather than digging out on the left hand side, as we’d then be digging lower than the foundations. We probably should have addressed this before the work started, but it was difficult to see the incline, and so it needs to be addressed now.
  • or, do we create a garden on two levels, higher on the left and lower on the right connected by concrete steps?

We’ve decided that the second option will give us a more unusual garden and so we’re going with that. It will inevitably add to the overall cost, as we hadn’t factored in this kind of design, but we’re in it now, and so we want to do a proper job, rather than making do to save a few euros. We think that the ground level of the garden will be concrete to give us a solid base, and the steps will also be concrete – wide and shallow treads so that they are more of a feature than just functional steps. The higher level, which will get the most sun, will then be covered in sanded and treated scaffold planks – of which there are more than a few being used for the construction, so we’ll repurpose them – and the lower level will be covered in white stones, with the steps being painted white. Overall, we’re thinking rendered walls, painted white, with white stones, timber, natural style furnishings, structural plants in pots, and perhaps a climbing honeysuckle or bougainvillea. However, we’re still a few weeks away from plumping up the cushions on the new sofas and chairs – currently housed in our bedroom, as we spotted them at a bargain price and with only one set left, had to buy there and then. But, it’s definitely coming on…

Scaffold planks which be sanded and treated to create a decked area for sunbathing and general catching of rays…

Day to day, because we’re living on top of it all, we feel we don’t see much progress. But, looking back on photos, it’s clear that real progress is being made and we’re getting closer to the Secret Garden. And, perhaps a new owner..,

the start of the garden wall…

the start of the garden wall…

by | Apr 28, 2023 | Renovation

So, with the demolition of the small stone house of the way, and our boundaries having been established way back in 2020, and the securing of a local builder, we felt that finally we were on a bit of a roll. The guys who had demolished the house, agreed to also dig out the trenches for the concrete foundations. They were provided with all of the documentation relating to the boundaries – which had explicit measurements for each section of the proposed wall – and most of the original metal stakes were still embedded in the rich, red clay soil, therefore giving even more guidance for the area to be dug out. Knowing the obsession with boundaries in these parts, we advised that we wanted the trench to be dug WITHIN our boundary. Only by a matter of centimetres, but sufficiently enough that it could be seen that we were not edging onto anyone else’s land. Although no-one else here would give away even a millimetre of land, we figured that a small loss in this way, would ultimately prevent any future disputes over miniscule pieces of land. And, we then left the guys to it. What could possibly go wrong?

Well, quite a lot, as it turned out…

In a *helpful* turn of events, one of our neighbours decided to assist the guys digging the trench, and use a can of red spray paint to demarcate the boundary lines. Now, spray paint is used here, by surveyors to pinpoint where stakes will be hammered in, or where there is a corner point point, for example. Not however, to mark out the actual boundary – what with spray paint not being very accurate a measure and all. And of course, another neighbour spotted the rather fat, wobbly red lines and declared that work must stop and a surveyor return to mark out the boundaries.

Now, we realise that anyone reading this from anywhere other than our current particular part of the world, might just be thinking, why didn’t they just tell the neighbour to sod off and continue with the work? The answer – it would have come back to bite us, because – and we cannot stress this enough – boundaries are more important than, seemingly, life itself. We also hadn’t spotted the Playschool red lines ourselves, because with all of the demolition and digger work, and open trenches, it was pretty difficult to actually access the site. And, so, we really felt we had no option other than to get the surveyors back out. Thankfully, we now know these guys quite well, and despite being busy, they got the urgency of the situation – builder on standby – and came out the very next day.

There is actually a very happy ending to this particular saga, for us. Maybe not so much for the red spray painter. Whether by accident or design, his spraying of the line between his and our land, was found to be very, very erroneous. His red line was about half metre inside our land – meaning he would have gained a sizeable chunk of land, if the other neighbour hadn’t insisted on the boundaries being re-confirmed. And, we’d probably never have known that we’d lost a sizeable chunk. But, all’s well that ends well, and he probably didn’t even know he was so far out with his measurements…

So, with a second set of identical boundaries now in place, and the trenches re-dug, the concrete was finally poured in for the foundations.

It’s taken what feels like forever, to get here, but if there’s one thing we have learned, it’s that in Istria we need to have patience and resilience and not be too affected by setbacks. A couple of weeks on from the foundations going in, we now also have what is beginning to look like a wall, which will afford us privacy and enable us to create the secret garden we’ve always wanted. And, of course, it has meant that other ideas have been added to the mix, including the knocking out of our living room window and having vintage style (if we can source them!) French doors installed, with steps down into the garden. Working on this plan right now, so we shall see what emerges over the next couple of weeks.

What we'd like - sadly without the sea view...

What we’d like – sadly without the sea view

 

 

 

 

 

the demolition of our small stone house

the demolition of our small stone house

by | Feb 27, 2023 | Renovation

the story of the little stone house

When we bought our house in Istria six years ago, this little tumble down cottage sat to the rear of it.There are lots of properties like this scattered across Istria and Croatia. There are many reasons for the properties being abandoned – wars and conflicts which displaced people, emigration, people dying and properties passing to multiple descendants, often scattered across the world, complicated boundary issues which can make buying such a property very, very problematic. In our village alone, there are more than a handful of these properties, overgrown with vines and greenery, the stone underneath crumbling and often falling. Thankfully, a lot of these properties are being salvaged and renovated and in the vicinity we have some amazing hotels which have grown out of an abandoned house. One hotel – San Canzian, in nearby Buje – is actually a renovated village, which we think is just wonderful.

So, back to our little house. We were totally naive in hindsight, as apart from knowing it belonged to a neighbour – who we were yet to get to know – we didn’t even consider where the boundaries between the two properties might be or what would happen if someone else became interested in it and purchased it, and the land around it. Luckily, we avoided a tricky situation when the neighbour agreed to sell it to us, once we had considered the implications of another property being so close to ours. It wasn’t a swift process and all told, took nearly two years to complete on – considering we bought the main house in about three months, this seems such a long time, but looking back, once we’d signed the pre-contract, there was no massive urgency as we’d secured it and it wasn’t our main dwelling. And, our solicitor had to navigate the new waters of Brexit, as half way through the process, we found ourselves as “third country nationals” (although luckily, with Croatian residency) and this muddied the situation for a while.

Over the past couple of years we’ve tinkered around the edges of this house, our main focus being on the renovation of the big house. We did ensure that we had a surveyor to establish the exact boundaries of the property and the land, and we did set about clearing it as much as we could ourselves and tidying it up. We seriously considered having it renovated – inside, a mezzanine level could definitely have been created as there is the height and it could have become a very beautiful self contained annexe. But, all of that comes at a cost and even though family and friends would definitely have got use out of it, for much of the year it would probably have stood empty, so we shelved renovation plans, opting instead to create a makeshift garden.

So, for the past year, we’ve had quite a nice outlook to the rear of the house – a natural boundary of conifer trees, in terracotta pots, white stones, a big new olive tree and a little table and chairs. But, it still hasn’t solved what to do with the house, which as the months have passed, has become more and more unstable. It also hasn’t resolved the issue that the rear of the house feels disconnected from the rest of the house. A bit of an add on. So the decision was made – demolition…

arranging the demolition

Not as easy as you’d think. Back in the UK, we’d have had contacts or been able to google easily enough, to find builders who could do it. Here, we do have contacts, but they all have the same contacts and builders here are currently in very short supply. Post pandemic, there’s a lot of construction/renovation work going on in Istria, which is great, but it does mean that reliable workers are very, very thin on the ground. We were really struggling to find anyone, but finally had a stroke of luck. Work has been going on the village recently and our neighbour introduced us to two guys who were doing some other demolition work, and after a site visit, they agreed to take on our work. Another stroke of luck was that a contractor who was working with the local water company, who are also currently digging up the village to lay new pipes, knew our neighbour and so helped with the discussions re the work and was able to translate a lot for us. A price was agreed and a schedule of works discussed. Our understanding was that we needed to clear out the house and work would begin the following week, and would take approximately a week, followed by the site clearance.

Not everything happens as you expect though, and the day after we agreed everything, the two guys arrived – on a Saturday morning – and set about clearing out the house, with wheelbarrows full of rubbish being trundled away. This was a bit of an unexpected result, as we’d assumed we had to do the clearance. A bay tree has been growing outside the house – we think it was a tree we brought over from Manchester and which wasn’t faring too well, so it was left to its own devices, and having taken root in the thick, rich, red Istrian soil, has flourished. So, we asked that this be dug out so we could relocate it, prior to any demolition work beginning. Within half an hour, it was sitting in its new home. There’s still lots of planting and landscaping to be done, but we think our bay tree will thrive much more in its new position.

Almost as soon as the tree had been removed, the digger was swinging into action – quite literally – as the stones started to be removed from the house. We had initially had wild thoughts that we could actually take the house down ourselves. Surely all we needed to do was hire a cherry picker and swing a lump hammer and it would come down. And then the fairies would take away the stones and clear and level the site. We are now quite thankful that we didn’t actually pursue this ridiculous idea, because whatever we are paying these guys, they are professionals and worth every cent.

We’re now a week on, and the house has all but been taken down, stone by stone, and they are currently being taken away. We could have used these stones to construct the new wall, but to be honest, we’re a bit over Istrian stone, as the main house is constructed of it, we still have exposed stone (albeit painted white) internally, and we are surrounded by it outside. The stone is also of differing sizes and quality so it would have taken a long time to sift through and sort and store, so we’re just letting the guys get rid and if they make a few euros out of it, good for them. We’re a few weeks away we think, from us being able to even begin thinking about the new wall, but we are just very delighted that, finally, the little house is no longer standing and our vision for our secret garden, is a little nearer. Meanwhile, chaos reigns…

The guys are back on it currently, and the digger is hoisting huge slabs of stone onto the back of a lorry to be taken away. Although the view from our rear living window is horrendous at the moment, we have to go through this, to achieve what we want to achieve. The stones will be cleared. The ground will be levelled. A beautiful white, rendered wall will be constructed, with big chunky wooden struts to hold climbers which will form a natural sunshade. And our hideaway will be an oasis of calm and peace and solitude. Just maybe not yet…