Home sweet Home...
Archive post May 25, 2019…
Ten years now, You & I have inhabited il Poggiolo. We closed on the house in May of 2009 and here we are heading out of May 2019. In that time, we have survived the emptying of my bank accounts to re-build the place from top to bottom, dealt with the shenanigans of Our berserk-but-bravo Builder who, after encounters using many other local builders, ranks as The Best of the Bunch. No wasted memories on the earthquake back in 2014, a phenomenon I hope never to experience EVER AGAIN!!! And what a nagging pleasure it has been to see the tripling of our real-estate & trash taxes, not forgetting the pummeling we take monthly now at the hands of ENEL electricity, Beyfin gas and Gaia water companies. You avidly pursues accumulating stuff and at an amazing rate too, I might add, yet miraculously, he finds them good homes in our home. While I either let our garden’s plants grow unencumbered or, unwittingly kill them off, because I got knocked in the head by a branch. And finally, The Dogs have taken over… You would say wrecked… any comfortable furniture regardless of location or end-use. No truer mark of a Home.
There IS this nagging thought though that we did not get a few things right with il Poggiolo. It’s a periodic musing. And, blessedly, I don’t have to take tranquilizers to numb the regrets. Nope. I am brave. Fearless, Reflective. Learn from Our Lessons…
April & May’s cold temperatures have reminded me… we did not successfully tackle heating. Cannot calculate the number of discussions You & I had with Our Geometra on how to warm il Poggiolo from November to… this year… June. Our General Reconstruction Concept or, GRC, devised shortly after purchasing Our dilapidated Tuscan Farm-house, was to have a Winter HQ in La Casetta… the Medici-style house below the bulk of il Poggiolo… installing radiators and a gorgeous enclosed fireplace in its Second Floor salotto. The former meant connecting the water heater to a whoppingly expensive gas line. Hard to be conservative with the thermostat when a nameless person is ALWAYS cold, if the outside temps aren’t 90F. The rest of il Poggiolo would be Our heating-less Summer HQ. Who cares about it then? Reflection and the current weather has conjured this meditation… There should be heating throughout.
Che era non sara’…
Our discussions on heating alternatives at what was then the current technology, and now ten years old, lead us to confirm and reinforce Our General Reconstruction Concept. Budget and time issues, mostly. There were always problems with the alternatives and pitted against a heavy gas bill for five to six months each year seemed an acceptable way to beat the odds. Here’s a run-down…
The orientation of il Poggiolo’s roofs did not lend itself to solar panels, Thank God. Ugly things. Expensive too. Even just a couple to heat water turned out to be a No Go. Cost versus productivity thing.
Putting in a huge gas water-heater connected to twenty+ radiators throughout the complex was beyond The Budget. Besides upping the building costs… we were Boys on a Budget… to add the luxury of steam heat, the monthly gas bollette would have been prohibitively expensive, nearing the territory of…Yikes!!!
Back in ‘09, the oncoming fashion to heat was pellets… think crushed wood chips… and their special furnaces. A boom ensued. Back at Our Ranch, You invoked… Over my dead body. I agreed, which forestalled You’s drastic resort.
Our geometra discouraged us from putting in a central furnace with the option of using firewood or pellets to heat water for showers to dish-washing and to make radiators warm throughout. He ruined this alternative for two firm inconveniences… no three. 1) Would require a tone of firewood and how to get it to where you want to put it was iffy at Our House. Il Poggiolo is not easily accessible to tractors though they can arrive at Our Back Door. 2) The wood has to be stacked near to the furnace. Fine. But, Our Geometra said wood and furnaces are a messy lot. Not fine. 3) The darn thing has to be stuffed and primed with firewood or pellets at night when the furnace kicks on to heat as temps dip. Neither You nor I thought we would be up to negotiating 4) all of the above.
So, we are paying the Beyfin gas bollette. You is happy to have 72F degrees. And, we are waiting for Destiny to intercede with Our Geometra and yet another builder to put in two fireplaces in La Casa Grande. A home is not a home without a hearth. We will have four, eventually for Our Home Sweet Home.