And the walls came tumbling down

Another week almost over, so what news on the Rialto?

What did we do on Saturday? Go to Civitanova Marche of course, but on this occasion it was to collect things rather than make new purchases..

Our first port of call was a return to the Kartell shop to see the nicely mad lady and to collect our Stone stool/table, which is even more fabulous in full, real life 3D than in virtual 2D. Whilst there we also splurged out on one of their battery lamps – yes, I know it is not a very promising name and no doubt some people would think it a ridiculous amount of money to spend on a tiny object (I know not you, Patrick) but we think it is a truly lovely thing. Not only that, but being battery operated it is highly portable and ready to illuminate any untoward dark corner. We were able to indulge ourselves as we used our wedding gift from our friends Mary and Steve; thank you both.

Our second destination smacked of The Sweeney, as we had to wait in a car park behind a gym on the back roads of the town until the appointed time of 11am, when the man who had been fixing Stephen’s iPhone was due to arrive and open up his shop to return the said item. This is the second time the phone has been repaired since we arrived in Italy, as Stephen has taken a liking to dropping it whenever a suitable moment arises. If he only manages to crack the screen and not disable the touch operation fully, he keeps dropping it until it gives up the ghost entirely. I’d have thought there’d be more productive hobbies he could take up, but I suppose if it keeps him happy…

Other than that we spent the rest of the weekend working on the house, with Stephen stripping back the wood on the fireplace to a more natural colour and painting our upcycled dining table an unnatural one and both of us getting down and dirty sweeping and cleaning – well we have to make some space for more dust to settle otherwise where will it go?

And talking of dust, just when we thought we were winning the nice builders decided to spend Monday and Tuesday creating more when they turned their attention to enlarging the doorways to the three rooms off the vestibule. I’m not sure whose idea it was to make the doors bigger – as ever with any DIY question my answer is: “Don’t” - but think it was some misguided belief it would be cheaper to make the frames to fit standard doors rather then doors to fit the frames. How foolish we were.

Stephen’s report of the state of affairs on Monday (it being too traumatic for me to view the mayhem) was that walls were crumbling, dust was everywhere and the workmen had managed to sever the wire to the light switch that Alessandro had recently rechanneled. It was, therefore, with breath held and buttocks clenched that I went to inspect the scene on Tuesday – and to my relief there was hope. Admittedly, bits of wall were missing and dust covered the house like a mini Pompeii, but rebuilding had started and there was an air of positive purposefulness.

This continued on Wednesday, when all visions of mass destruction were put aside. The walls were complete once again and the tiling of both the bathroom and the splash backs to the kitchen was underway. The only slight tremor was when we found out from Lucia at Dream Ceramiche that the glass cubicle for the shower will take fifteen days to arrive; seemingly it couldn’t be ordered till everything was in place, to ensure the correct fitting.

Do not panic, though, as Leaping Luca, who had not graced the building for a while, came to cast his beady eye over proceedings and apparently found nothing to criticise and had no unsolicited advice to give. I would be concerned that he is ailing, but that might make it seem that I’m bothered. We are, despite everything, happy with how the house is progressing and know it will be as we want it in the end.