March

The renovation of the Rustico is still in full swing, when scaffolding also rises around our house. Construction project number two: over the next three months, our house will be transformed into an energy-neutral home; with a new, insulated roof, new windows, insulation boards on the outer walls and solar panels. While insulating our house was not our immediate topic when we moved to IT (we had not yet experienced a winter, nor was there any energy crisis yet), our big wish was to repaint the entire house from the outside. The beauty of this type of insulation is that the house is plastered in colour of your choice. So two birds with one stone. We are so curious to see how the house will soon come out from under the scaffolding. But first we go to anthracite (colour of the insulation boards), white (colour of the pre-plaster) and then finalmente the final color. The date is July 1, so exciting!

May

Four pairs of eyes stare at me completely glassy from the floor in our cleaning cupboard. A few days ago Nadia called me because she heard chirping in the fan: a litter! And now the young ones are ready to fly out, but they chose the wrong route, namely inward. One is frozen on his side and the other is completely still on his bottom and if you didn't know any better, you would think they were no longer alive. But I know from experience that they are often frozen with fear and I very carefully, with a cloth, pick one up. Fortunately, the initially limp body starts to make fluttering movements. I take it outside and place the little feathery ball high on a windowsill, so that our Maw, or any other predatory creature, cannot reach it. I do the same with the sister or brother who has now come back to life and is also starting to make flying movements. And then they fly out for the first time. The wonder of nature. How wonderful to be able to experience this.

Our tenants of the Mulino, Yvonne and Remmo, also have a special bird moment: on the terrace of the Mulino they discover a very special bird. It's also suspiciously tame. Yvonne uses her bird app to see what kind of special bird this is. This one is short and sweet: 100% canary. To be sure, I also ask our bird watcher and friend Hans van Oosterhout. He also reports that it is a canary. Well, someone somewhere is of course waiting at the open window until he comes back...

June

It's the beginning of June and they're already starting to apply the final plaster layer! How fast! On June 12, the last part, at the front of our house, will be plastered, but purtroppo, That evening we get a huge storm with an accompanying downpour, causing the plaster on that side to flow off a large part of the wall over our terrace and into the garden. The contractor is fantastic, they come immediately that evening to assess the damage and early the next morning there is a whole team that works hard to clean and rinse everything around the house. And then they just start plastering again. Sander also thinks it's a bit of luck. Because on that side of our house, the north side, the wall always suffers a lot from moisture, so the paint always tends to peel off there. Now our house is getting an extra layer on that side, as it were (the part that remained after the rain shower plus the new layer). Every disadvantage….

).

It is June 22 and well before the deadline, so the scaffolding is being removed. How wonderful: instead of looking at shelves, we can look outside again. And what nice light it is in the house. Our house will be further completed in the coming months. There will be two pergolas and our new windows will be installed in the autumn. These can be mounted from the inside, so scaffolding is not necessary. The outdoor taps and outdoor lighting are currently being replaced. Much of this is done with the help of our local ironsmith: Paolo. Cappoti (the insulation material that covers our walls) cannot simply be drilled. For example, a special iron construction is made for the sinks and outdoor taps that rests on the ground. Nice to mention, the white sink moved from our friends Pieter and Inke on Texel (a gift) to our house on Kerkstraat, then to our house on Regentesselaan in Baarn and now it 'hangs' in Italy. Replacing the outdoor taps is timed just right, because so far we have had 1 to 2 days of good rain every week, now the summer temperatures are also starting to arrive here and it is time to manually water trees and plants again. But what a difference from last year, when it was so dry and warm from the beginning of the year and we had to water every evening for months around this time. Now Pian del Nasso is still green even in July and the rivers are still babbling. Siamo fortunati.

In the meantime, Sander continues to work hard in the Rusticò. He tiles floors, makes window sills, installs the kitchen, paints, cleans and waxes the wooden beams, seals walls and also tidies up the garden from a construction site to a landscaped garden. I'm really proud of him. And it's so exciting, because we have one scadenza: The first guests arrive for the Rusticò on July 8…. (aiuto). But we think it will be beautiful. In the meantime, I try to ensure that everything runs smoothly at Pian del Nasso as much as possible. Mow the garden, paint the fences, take care of our guests and ensure that all items are ordered and delivered on time and all the administrative hassle involved. Very nice to be able to do that together again soon.

July

The hour U is approaching. We still have a week to go before the Rustico's guests arrive. What stress, because the interior doors were delivered way too late and now they still have to be fitted. The last thing you want is for guests to arrive and no doors in, particularly, the bathrooms yet. The plan was originally for Sander to assemble the doors himself, but the walls and window frames are so crooked that he doesn't bother and enlists the help of our door specialist. The latter informs us, that he is doing what he can to find a hole for us. But in the meantime, we don't know if that will work... (mum, mia what a stress). Monday, 3 July, we get the redeeming news: they are coming on Wednesday! Normally, according to the door specialist, installing a door takes about 20 minutes, but with these 3 doors, he ends up spending almost the whole day (the walls are not only crooked, but also warped in some places: how Rustico do you want it to be... and very sensible that Sander didn't bother). We are more than relieved when the doors hang. Yeeeeeeh! After a year of rebuilding, we can start decorating the Rustico! Nadia will come at the end of the day tomorrow with consorts to help us move in. This is no excessive luxury: our hall and conservatory are filled to capacity with boxes and furniture and we may carry them all up the hill. But things turn out differently...

On Thursday afternoon, July 6, moving day (2 days before delivery), it starts to storm, pour and incredibly hail. Within half an hour, 20 cm of water falls. As suddenly as this storm arises, it is also gone again. The devastation he left behind però is considerable. For instance, there are holes in our garden cushion box because the hail went right through it. The garden, the pool, the terrace around it are completely green, because covered with leaves that have blown off the trees. I always pray for a green Pian del Nasso (well: be careful what you wish for ...). There is mud all over the paths and around the Rustico it is a water ballet (the Rustico itself has stayed dry thankfully: the ultimate test). And we are mega lucky, because in the surrounding villages and actually from Turin to the coast, whole areas, including the famous wine region!, have been hit much worse. We had hailstones the size of chewing gum balls, but in several places hailstones varying from ping-pong ball to tennis ball size fell, which, as in Cortemilia, proved very destructive to cars, but also to solar panels, for instance. Anyway, work to do, roll up your sleeves to make Pian del Nasso presentable again and especially the Rusticò. We have one day less and extra work. It means we can't move today, because impossible in that mud mess. I am just about to app our guests in the Mulino how they are doing after the storm, when they arrive. Fortunately, everything turns out fine with them and with the Mulino; only some water on the terrace (hugely relieved to hear) and so sweet: they want to help us! Wouter immediately calls if we have a leaf blower and gets to work around the pool and on the path between the Mulino and the pool. He also offers to help move all the big furniture to the Rusticò the next day. It's fair to say that we wouldn't have made it in time without their help... Saturday 8 July, exactly 3 minutes before the guests arrive, the Rusticò is ready.

Rustico anno 2023: we made it!