One Look at the View

I was surprised by the view from the balcony. I looked across the valley and into the distance. Clusters of homes and church steeples dotted the small villages on the other side. I could
imagine enjoying that view every day. I was enchanted.

Three of the upper four rooms were pretty much the same and fairly nondescript. Probably bedrooms or a living room. They were all very separate from each other, though. No connection between rooms unless you went out into the hallway and through another door. The fourth room we entered was a different story, though. It was in really bad shape with a big hole in the stone wall. Maurizio explained that, given the size and shape of the hole, it likely was where the original stove and stovepipe were located. How the heck do you fill a hole that big and that shape in a stone wall, I thought? And the ceiling was awful. Filthy and beat up.

The wall between this room and the one in front is 18″ thick. I was having trouble trying to figure out a functional layout. All of the exterior walls were 24″ thick and solid stone. The walls running down the middle of the house, on the sides of the hallway, were also 24″ thick. I asked Maurizio whether the walls separating the front and back rooms could be removed. I thought if you could combine those two rooms, you could potentially have more of an open concept. He said we could, but not without it being costly and labor-intensive. All I heard was that “we could.”

I don’t know! I just don’t know, I thought. This was a huge commitment and undertaking. But I love a good project, and the idea of working on one in Italy was soooo tempting. The asking price of the house was 90,000 euro, but Maurizio told me he knew that the seller would accept 70,000. After one restless night’s sleep, I decided to go for it. Why not? I had two things going for me. My friend was living there, so I would have someone to hang out with. And the investment (the house with a few upgrades), given that I was starting at only 70,000 euro, would be manageable. Little did I know that both of those things were about to change in a big way.