While that three months was (slowly) passing by, I got to work on starting to make my plans for the house. My contractor got to work on pointing out all of the large-scale things that needed to be done to the house. First of all, there was a moisture problem on the ground floor. Not water leaking in but water seeping in under the floors and into the walls. The existing floors were not my favorite. I’m not sure what they were but they looked like a patterned linoleum.
He informed me that we needed to “waterproof” near the base of the house on the outside. Ok, but as far as inside, why don’t we just take up the flooring and put in new tile? Problem solved, right? Wishful thinking. It turns out the fix for the moisture problem was to remove the existing flooring but also to dig out the layer of concrete and 12 inches of the packed dirt that made up the foundation. After that, we need to install a waterproof rubber membrane (lining) on the floor and part-way up the walls throughout the ground floor. Welcome to renovating in Italy!
While the house itself appeared to be in sad but decent shape, it’s the hidden problems and the Italian building code that all has to be addressed first. On top of fixing the moisture problem, the house had to be retrofitted for earthquakes! Apparently they have them there (although I’ve never experienced one). But without doing that, the house will not be to code and you are not able to get a certificate of completion from the city or homeowner’s insurance. Oof!
