About Colours

I am back from Italy. And I do not know where to start. To not forget anything I wrote a little journal. It is about 33 pages long. - I could start from the beginnging with the rainy and pretty cold days in the beginning or I could do a summary about all our decisions. But for tonight it is too late, I have to recover from an Air China flight from Rome to Beijing ...


Therefore, for today, I will leave you with two pictures about colours as I have been talking a lot about how to paint the facade and I got a lot of comments from many readers. Above is our Architetto Pino Pitt looking at our house while more colour samples are going to be painted on the facade.

And below you see my husband and the architect discussing about the new eight colour samples. It is a story for itself how we came up with these eight colors. When the painter came with his colour booklet my husband was busy talking with the plumber (il hydraulico) and asked me to choose two more light pinkish tones. As I could not decide myself in three minutes, the architect helped me to go for one more pinkish tones and then choose himself five more tones. Mainly yellow based. I like yellow too, it is warm and sunny. It was funny to see, how my chances for a pink was diminishing.



So can you guess, which colors were my favorites, my husband's and the architect's? The final decision will be posted tomorrow. And it cannot be reconsidered as the architect ordered the colour the same day we made the decision (probably he knows women and their decision making process).

Bella Italia

Bella Italia, we are coming. Tomorrow I am packing, after tomorrow we are flying. It will be a long long trip for a short visit. We are going from Beijing via Frankfurt to Rome and from Rome to Lamezia. Can you believe that there is no Alitalia direct flight from the capital of China to the capital of Bella Italia? (Alitalia flies to Shanghai).

Anyway, in the following days we are getting closer to a decision for the color of the house. In the picture above (I have never seen the house from that perspective, nice! Thank you Angelo!), the two color probes on the right seems almost the same. I think we are going to decide on a lighter yellow (not a lighter pink), maybe...

Until I am posting something from Italy, you can enjoy the following pictures of beautiful houses in Bella Italia and follow the links to find more palazzi and ville. These gorgeous properties are for rent! Imagine you and your friends and family during summer time on the terrace of one of these dream homes. Salute!, Cheers!

Villa in Capri via www.CedricReversade.com (above)

Villa Bocella in Lucca, Toscany via www.Landmark-GmbH.de (above)

A villa in Toscany via www.Topvillas.de (above)

Villa Volpe in Sardinia via www.IndigoLodges.de

When the Plumber ...

The plumber, the milkman and the postman... can bring a housewife into trouble.

In my case it was a plumber.
I was told on a Saturday that the plumber will start on Monday. And I should think about where to position radiators in the living area under the roof (we start at the top floor). That was easy. I had time enough to communicate my storage concept that limits the choice…

So how can a plumber in Italy bring me into trouble in China? Meanwhile Tuesday, it was about a radiator that my husband, Angelo, the architect and the plumber wanted to install in the small bathroom under the roof. - Hey, under the roof, in Southern-Europe? It will never be cold enough to switch on a heater in the loo. And if so, you will be done before the heater is warm! - When I realized that it could be a chic chromed radiator like the one by Villeroy & Boch (left picture) with a second function to hold and warm bath towels, I was persuaded. I made a quick layout of the bathroom and indicated the position of the radiator (of course next to the shower). Only little later, I got a confused reply from Italy, if I have not seen their drawing? Yes sure, and here is my suggestion – as requested.

This was when I found out that the plumber already had done the complete bathroom plumbing on Monday. - ?! – I only had to indicate my preferred place for the radiator.

People always ask me: How can you renovate a house in Italy while living in China? That is so amazing! – Yes, it is, indeed! Now we see how it works.

Luckily the plumbing work somehow corresponded to what I had in mind (there were not that many possibilities to squeeze in a shower, a WC, a bidet and a sink into a room with a large window and two doors).

Both sides, me in China and the palazzo team in Italy, were irritated about the miscommunication. What had happened? Apparently one email attachment was incomplete and I replied late and the palazzo team was fast ... And for them a loo is a loo and not an interior design project. (mmh, I am curious about the comments I am getting now from Italy)

Sigh, yes, we should be on site. I know. And we are going to be there! Chinese New Year is the biggest holiday in China. All Chinese start to escape back to their hometowns starting this weekend. And some will take three weeks off or even longer. A lot of shops and companies close. There is no domestic help in town, no drivers… so we are urged to flee from Beijing as well. Italy in winter is not the first option for a holiday when you live in Asia. But it is for us because we are awaited to indicate positions of electrical plugs and switches to start with – to decide on the color of the facades (yes it is on hold for us) - to get a feeling for the restructured space – and to decide on more plumbing work (this is on hold since the housewife got into trouble).

View from a different angle

I received emails from Angelo and Pitt, the architect. They saw my earlier post about my granite association issue. They both tried to calm me down. The granite stone's surface is rough and not polished. Only when it is wet the dark spots are a bit bold. Otherwise it looks natural and elegant like in the above pictures. The window sills at the front facade are new. They have not been there before. I have to say, I am relieved. It looks good. Thank you Angelo and Pino Pitt for keeping me posted regularly and dealing with my concerns! Also thank you Suzy (Studio Annetta in Hong Kong) and Cheryl (From the Pines in France) for mental support!

Before and After

The location is the garden floor. And these are the outside wall of the house and the wall towards the church. The team did a great work on these two walls! On the left you see the situation before in summer 2006 and on the right you see the result after the renovation started in autumn 2007.

I wish I could present this nicer. The mosaic tool of flickr always cuts something and the ACDSee thing I use does not show how to put two photos together and the PhotoStudio 5.5 is hiding this feature somewhere... so I did screen captures. Not appropriate enough to appreciate the work that was done.

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Help needed:
Does anyone knows a good shop or website for VINTAGE CHILDREN FURNITURE ???
Grazie!