When Alan and I first bought our place, lots and lots of work needed to be done. For starters, when we opened the door to the place after the closing, we discovered mold covering the ceiling and walls of our bedroom!














In horror, we called our American friend, Ellen, living the ex-pat life in Milan with her Italian husband, Enzo, and little boy, Nicolo. As we explained in shaking voices that our condo was falling apart around our ears, eaten away with mold, Ellen burst out laughing and said, "Welcome to Italy!"


The next day, we got started scubbing the walls with amonia and bleach (needless to say, not at the same time).



































The kitchen was very outdated and needed not only painting, but complete remodelling. We contracted with a wonderful local company who redesigned the room from top to bottom and agreed to paint the walls a soft, soft yellow.













Although you can't really see it in this picture, the walls wound up a kind of putrid lime green. This was NOT the color we had in mind. We decided to do it ourselves this time. The original owner had installed a t.v. above the living room window, which we wanted to take down... that was a challenge in itself!


















At the end of the day, we collapsed into bed, "he with his Economist and Zap, I with my Robert Frost."