An Abruzzo Renovation! 5 successful tips to make the most of your holiday home in Central Italy
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An Abruzzo Renovation
Everybody who buys a second home in Abruzzo, a region of Central Italy, has their own vision of how to turn it into their dream family home. Properties in Abruzzo are very affordable (more) and within a 30 minutes’ drive you can be swimming in clean beaches or skiing in the mountains. Buying a house to do-up can cut the initial cost of purchase dramatically leaving you to create a home to your own personal taste. Our experts can help you all the way in this process (more). Abruzzo is renowned as a top 10 worldwide location for retirees and is considered the green region of Europe (more). Here are some tips to transform a tired and abandoned house into your dream holiday location;
1. Manage water properly
Old farmhouses may suffer from land movement and cracks. Before building new containment walls, there are some ideas to consider. Water management can create serious foundation weaknesses that can be mistaken for subsidence. Check out the roof rainwater guttering is connected to the sewage or flows away from the house. Consider the proximity to the house of the septic tank, which can soften the land around the tank. Water leaks from the water meter or outside taps that are ignored can erode the land. If there is a road or patio study where the water flows. These issues can be inexpensive to correct and avoid big problems over time.
2. Flower wall Containment walls
When designing your house you will want to make the most of the views and outside space. The close beach to mountain proximity offers a landscape with rich diversity of rolling hills, valleys and steep slopes. It makes the views incredible but the challenges significant of managing gardens and land, as they are seldom flat. Local builders will suggest containment walls to terrace your garden and block the unwanted movement of land. Their preferred solution is reinforced concrete, which can be expensive and unattractive. Instead you should use interconnecting cement vases which are cheaper, look more natural, and become an attractive focal point of your outside space. They are designed to produce a colourful wall of flowers and the more closely packed together the less flowers you get. If you are not a great fan of gardening you had better pack the vases tightly together so nothing grows.
3. Avoid long private roads
A personal nightmare of mine are private roads leading to your farmhouse. The council does not manage them so you are responsible for their upkeep and if you share the private road with your neighbours, agreeing on who pays how much for maintenance can be tricky. Keep an eye on the weather forecast, if it snows you can be blocked into the house and the council is not obliged to dig you out. The locals leave their cars at the entrance of the private road when snow is forecast, so, although they need to walk a few steps, they don’t get snowed in.
4. Terrace your townhouse roof
200-year-old town houses in mediaeval centers are extremely attractive and perfect for history lovers. They are quirky with irregular, wavy stone walls, odd rooms, original materials like oak lintels, vaulted ceilings and terracotta rooves. Church bells echoing through the original cobbled, narrow streets and each corner presenting a coffee shop or bar full of people chatting and playing cards.
You romantic history lovers out there need to firstly check out the roof. Often, the rooves are old and in need of renovating. Consider, changing the old roof from a traditional sloping roof to a new flat sun terrace. Can you imagine a perfect place for the stairs to access your new roof? What would the views be like from the top? You will never imagine how beautiful they could be. This is a fantastic improvement to add real value to your house when you are faced with changing the roof anyway. You will need to speak to our technician first, but the investment could be very advantageous and allow you to get so much more out of your home.
5. Don’t panic at Damp
Traditional town houses in Abruzzo often have brick or stone structures and no wooden core so there is no risk of the house rotting away from damp. There are many factors that can cause damp, and allowing air to flow through vents in the walls may be one solution. There are specialist plasters that can block the damp and in certain cases, applying resin has also been very effective. There are solar powered fans that can blow warm air into cold dark spaces, the use of solar means you can leave it running even when the house is empty. There is always a solution to damp, and our technician can find the most cost effective answer.
Renovating is an adventure that intrigues and captivates all of your emotions and everything is so different in Abruzzo. We would love to help you through the process and have a huge amount of experience (more). Embrace Abruzzo's laid-back life style and the Abruzzesi will smile back at you while you sit back, relax and watch your home become ever more yours.
Written by Phillip Carleton from www.Abruzzo.House