Renovation Diary

For fun and to remind ourselves that we are making good progress when times are tough we have chronicled the house project here. 

As the garden and the Jungle, as it is affectionately known, is a  project in it's own right we have a separate Gardening Diary for the exterior work.

We arrived at the house for the first time on 22nd May 2020.

Driving down it dawned on us that we had bought a house in a rural Ticino village and might not be welcome. How wrong we were. We were greeted by most of the village in our kitchen, some local sparkling wine and nibbles.

One of the attractions of The House over other properties was that it was almost habitable. The roof had been replaced about 20 years earlier so was already in a good state (although there was significant rot in the attic floor, probably in part as a result of water ingress).

The house layout was interesting to say the least. It had been occupied by members of the same family, however, it was split in two: two kitchens, two bathrooms, two electricity meters, two boilers and each room had a lock and a number on the door.

One of the kitchens was functional and the two minimal bathrooms worked too. Heating was limited to two open fires in the two ground floor kitchens. A step up from living in a caravan in the garden, albeit a small step.

When we bought the House it had two separate kitchens, both with open fires (the only heating in the property). Ultimately the smaller of the two is destined to become a "snug". A cosy room to relax, enjoy the fire, a drink, conversation and perhaps board games.

No television, no technology, just people time!

Our first step was to make it usable. We removed the old kitchen sink, repurposed the plumbing as a temporary place for a dishwasher. We also painted the old fireplace (blackboard paint so we can keep scores on it).

We also removed the old sink and made inroads into removing many kitchen tiles.

The original fridge didn't work particularly well and sounded like it was trying to leave the building of its own accord. 

Removal meant we could reuse the space for appliances. Any excuse for more destruction.

One of the out-buldings had a very very old lock with quite a special key. I removed it to clean and have a proper look. Both a piece of art and a piece of history.

Before we could light the fires we needed to get all three chimneys swept and inspected. They all needed repair, the one in the snug produced a substantial wasps nest to add to our collection of detritus.

Of course, the wine cellar.

We had two obvious issues when we arrived. The bottom section of the back door was rotten, letting wind and rain into the property. The front door was in need of repair too.

The rear doors are oak and we think the front is mahogany. Both near impossible to lift. We had P.G. Genini and Son take them away and refurbish them for us. The results made us very happy.

When we arrived the windows and balcony doors of the House where a mess. Single glazed, wooden frames, with much of the putty falling out. When the wind blew a large proportion would come straight into the house. Rain would also find its way into some of the rooms. 

The window frames had been (badly) painted a horrible brown colour. The crest on the outside of the House says the last renovation was in 1936. We suspect the windows were from then.

Beneath the paint we had some beautifully made art deco handles!

It was clear the windows needed to be replaced, however, that would be both a big job and an expensive one. As a first step we needed a quick and cheap way to keep the weather out so we resorted to silicone bathroom sealant. Not pretty but it helped the situation.

All of the wooden floors in the House were very dirty, many have tracts left by woodworm. Our first step was to sand the floors in the rooms we wanted to use as bedrooms. This meant the whole of the first floor.

Our first experience with a rotary sander was interesting to say the least. The first couple of attempts resulted in Pete being thrown across the room like something from a Tom and Jerry cartoon. He came close to giving up. However, a few bruises later he got the hang of it and was able to finish the job.

We then used (Osmo) Hard Wax Oil to finish the surface.

When we bought the House it didn't have a parking space so we where reliant on using our next door neighbour's drive-way. Having a parking space was a priority, especially as we needed access to the building for our construction work.

This was our first major project (and expense). It was also your first encounter with the Acquarossa planning process.

When we bought the House we knew the attic floor needed some significant work. We expected to replace some floorboards. Our first step was to remove the second floor ceiling to see how bad the mess was (July 2021) . We found joists so badly rotten that we could tear off chunks of wood with our bare hands.

Between the ceiling and the attic floor we found a range of stuff ranging from nesting materials and old documents to the remains of a husk of corn.

In October 2021, Mike (Mickey) Dunlop came over for a week to help us remove the old attic floor. A week of very physical dirty work. His help was greatly appreciated.

When removing the attic floor we found some interesting artefacts.

The 1928 tax document on our House History page. The sketch below was on the underside of a floorboard, probably drawn by one of the carpenters during construction of the House.

We had been comfortable replacing old floorboards with new, however, we decided that replacing the joists as well would be too big a job for us to do ourselves. We recruited local carpenter Piergiorgio (P.G.) Genini.

We also had an issue with the joists being abnormally far apart. The original floor boards where 45mm thick and the thickest we could buy retail where 22mm.

They helped us extract the stubs of the joists from the walls. They where dovetailed in, it looked like the walls had been built around the joists.

A week after the boiler repair we came back to the House to find water running down the garden path. The boiler had become unstuck from the wall (rusty bracket) and had clearly been dripping for some time.

The joy of home ownership!

When we arrived at the house:

• Electrical protection comprised old style ceramic fuses in the corridor on the ground floor.
• We had two electricity meters which reflected the House's previous use as two separate households. 
• Most of the wiring was still had canvas insulation inside surface mounted metal conduit.
• Power was supplied via overhead cables, entering the property at roof level.
• The property didn't have a safety certificate. When tested a number of issues where identified.

First steps:

• We replaced the legacy consumer unit with modern circuit breakers and relocated the panel to the cellar. 
• We consolidated to a single electricity meter.
• SES (the power company) reworked the power supply for the whole village, replacing the overhead cables with an underground supply (conveniently this happened after we had one our original work, resulting in rework and more bills for us)
• We now have a safety certificate for the building.

During our conversation about insulation our architect recommended we replace the old small, single glazed skylight with a newer, larger, double glazed version.

Before we could insulate we need to have the attic walls plastered so we can have a clean seal between the vapour barrier and the building. A small step but it made quite a differnce.

In preparation for our heating installation we needed to prepare the floors on the second floor. The back bedroom was covered with a layer of modern floorboard which we decided to remove (and find out what we have). The rest where dirty and grey. The small front bedroom was full of detritus from previous work.

Our main 2023 project was to install heating. 

We removed an old hybrid (wood / electric) stove. We wanted to relocate and reuse the stove in one of our outbuildings but sadly its removal involved dismantling with the help of an angle grinder.

We were able to reuse the chimney from the stove to exhaust fumes from both the ground floor and second floor pellet burners and to duct hot air from the ground floor burner to the first floor and from the second floor burner to the attic.

Also, we removed old metalwork from the fireplace in the snug to make space for an enclosed wood burner which also vents hot air to the smaller bedrooms on the first and second floors.

Finally, we installed a chimney liner into the third chimney so we can continue to reuse the open fire in the kitchen.

When we bought the property it had no insulation in the attic.

Whilst insulating we noticed a damp patch, we had no idea how long it had been there or even if it had already been repaired. As there was no way I was going out on the roof we invited three contractors to look and make offers for any repairs that would be needed.

The first two visited and told us it would cost CHF 5000 and CHF 6000 respectively. When the offers arrived they where for CHF 6000 and CHF 20,000. One of the two indicated that, if I didn't accept his offer he would charge CHF 1000 for his visit.

The third guy came out, went onto the roof and looked, when he came down he said "it's fixed"! One of the coping tiles had become dislodged, he lifted it, added a dose of sealant and put it back. When the invoice arrived it was for CHF 260. Sorted.

The House was built in 1895 and, according to the crest on the front of the building was renovated in 1936. We have a strong suspicion that the windows we were about to replace where fitted then. Single glazed, mostly rotten, their replacement was essential for us to be able to live in the house.

The ground floor windows had been replaced about twenty years ago with modern double glazed ones.

By far the biggest step we have taken was to replace all 24 windows and two balcony doors in one hit. Too big a job for us so we had a contractor do the work. 

The replacement was completed within a couple of weeks, however, the planning and arrangement work took many months. Silvia Mazzella was a great help in making this happen.

We initially invited offers from three companies, the range off prices was incredible:

Given the number of windows we needed to replace and despite the numbers being very large, an average price per window of CHF 1600 is not actually that bad.

We decided to use Unilux "Heritage" frames in Larch with retro styled hinges and handles supplied and installed by ALC in Biasca. The replacements are as close to the ones we replaced as possible, with the exception of them being modern triple glazed units.

Th old windows were made in a different time. The handles and latches where too nice to throw away so we decided to keep them for use elsewhere.

Also, we found that the timber from the frames was in surprisingly good condition. By using my "thicknesser" to remove the paint and the top layer of wood we were left with beautiful larch and chestnut pieces to use elsewhere.

We had no idea how the new windows would make us feel until they were done. 

This step felt like a significant step towards making the house habitable, to the point that it became emotional.

Up until now the majority of our woodworking effort took place in what will soon become our second floor bathroom. This ensured we had a liberal coating of dust through the house and as a lot of the wood was old it wasn't very pleasant.

We therefore decided to make the old "workshop" into a "Workshop". Using old joists from the attic and sheets of OSB chipboard bought for another purpose we have installed a solid floor and we have started to migrate our tools there. The space is 2.6m x 4.4m so quite sizeable.

We are now on the look out for second hand windows. Perhaps we can find one to fit the boarded up hole in the back wall of the room?

A small but meaningful step forward (and good because we had most of the materials waiting).

Work In Progress!