Abruzzo Houses – From Ruin to Home In A Year
It seemed simple enough. Find a couple of rundown old Abruzzo houses and transform them into a home for us – and Abruzzo holiday rentals for you. Here’s what happened…
We've shown you how our Abruzzo holiday rental villas turned out. Time now to look at how our own new Abruzzo house was built in just under a year.
Here's what we first found in May 2007. Think it was just short of the 100th house we'd seen.
If you've just begun your own Abruzzo property hunt, take a look at our experiences – it'll stop you getting too downhearted !
A ruin standing in about an acre in the tiny abandoned hamlet of Cinonni, just outside the old hilltop town of Casoli.
In March 2008 it was ours. In May 2008, we got planning permission for our new house and our Abruzzo holiday rentals.
Then we knocked it all down and started again. We salvaged – as you'll see when you stay in our Abruzzo villas – huge quantities of old tile, stone and wooden beams and recycled them throughout our rebuild project.
June was a dampener. Literally. Two weeks of nonstop rain at the start.
Then the sun grudgingly put in an appearance again and that allowed us to get the foundations down.
Work in the early stages was pretty equally divided between our own house and the villas.
Once the basics had been completed though, we prioritised our house. Reason ? If we'd finished our Abruzzo villas first, you'd have been holidaying amid a building site while work continued on the house. Not an ideal scenario…
Come November and our Abruzzo house was starting to look like – well – a house.
It was weatherproof; the underfloor heating had gone in; and the first electrics and plumbing fixes were underway.
By the time Italy shut down for the Christmas amd New Year festivities, the big, traditional, curved 'coppi' roof tiles were starting to go on and the external plastering was finished.
Early 2009 saw work revert to the Abruzzo villas. Yes, we wanted the house finished first – but we didn't want a huge gap between our completion – and the end of work on the Abruzzo holiday rentals. It all called for a careful balancing act.
And it worked !
We moved into our new Abruzzo house on March 30.
And our Abruzzo villas were finished on April 15, well in time. (Well…in time perhaps…?) for our opening on May 2.
On time. Over budget. (But only a bit).
We're told that to build not only our own house, but the villas too, from scratch in under a year is a record in the Abruzzo property market.
Is there a secret ? Having permanently relocated from the UK in October 2007 and living only about 500 yards from the site helped hugely, as did being lucky enough to have a great local builder and a great designer/project manager.
We saved a lot of money sourcing tiles, windows, doors and bathroom fittings for the entire project ourselves and – perhaps most importantly – sticking absolutely rigidly to the design of both house and villas. It's deciding you want to change the position of a window that costs time and money.
And it's all finished ! We're thrilled. And your Abruzzo holiday rentals are great too. Come and take a look !
I was happy to find your blog because it seems to be in the area closest to where my grandparents came from, Lucito, Campobasso, Molise. I hope to visit the area of my ancestors before I get too old for all those hills (it may be too late already!!). I will certainly check on the availability of your Villas if the trip become a reality.
Thanks Judy – we’d be delighted to see you when you decide to make the trip. Campobasso’s not too far from us and after your visit there you could come back here…relax by the pool…and look at the hills (instead of climbing up them !)