{"id":1516,"date":"2025-10-06T13:36:59","date_gmt":"2025-10-06T13:36:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ouritalianfarmhouse.com\/ourstory\/?p=1516"},"modified":"2025-10-17T18:58:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-17T18:58:07","slug":"momentum","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ouritalianfarmhouse.com\/ourstory\/2025\/10\/06\/momentum\/","title":{"rendered":"Momentum"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By the end of October the project gathered momentum; sometimes it was hard to believe work had begun just one month earlier.  Scaffolding rose beside the finished concrete works below ground (cantina) and at ground floor level (kitchen floor and exterior parking pad).  Further construction there would comprise the kitchen and our master bedroom, directly above on the first floor.  The new rooms would be joined to the remaining portion of the original house, a delicate business that would involve, among other things, removing and replacing the roof.  Inside the original ground floor rooms, men laid drainage pipes and poured the first new concrete subfloors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The builders also presented their first invoices at this time.  Our general contractor hired other artigiani for work that was outside of his own area of expertise, restoring old buildings.  The concrete crew, electricians, plumbers, heating specialists, all invoiced the contractor who then requested payment from us.  In the middle was Paola, our senior architect, whose role as director of works included reviewing every stage of work and approving each invoice.  These roles and procedures were spelled out in our contract with the builders.  On 13 October we had paid five percent of the estimated total cost of the project \u201con account,\u201d a sort of deposit to allow the builder to order materials.  According to the contract, we would receive and pay an invoice every time 10% of the project was completed and approved; on 24 October we received the first such invoice for the demolition\/new construction phase.  Everything was getting real.  Work was progressing quickly, and we had to start paying for it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Before beginning the work of connecting new construction to old, architects, engineers, and builders met to examine the original building closely for structural integrity.  They concluded two important things.  First, the old east wall was fragile and would need reinforcement with new brick and an intonaco finish.  Also, before they removed the old roof the house would require temporary bracing with iron beams and a permanent girdle of concrete reinforcement at the roof level.  The cost of this work was beyond the estimated total, but necessary to ensure stability during restructuring.  We gulped, agreed, and requested an estimate for the extra work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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My husband and I were busy with other tasks as well.  We began looking at materials; soon we\u2019d have to choose flooring\u2014wood for our bedroom, tile throughout the other rooms\u2014and wooden ceiling beams and boards.  We returned to local window factories with clearer ideas of the sizes and shapes we would need.  The new part of the house would have a modern look, with oversized windows and glass doors, while the restored portion would have small, traditional windows.  The serramenti<\/em> (windows and doors) would be important to the overall appearance of the house, and we wanted a harmonious balance between new and old.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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By the end of October the project gathered momentum; sometimes it was hard to believe work had begun just one month earlier.  Scaffolding rose beside the finished concrete works below ground (cantina) and at ground floor level (kitchen floor and exterior parking pad).  Further construction there would comprise the kitchen and our master bedroom, directly
+ Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1516","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-our-story"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ouritalianfarmhouse.com\/ourstory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1516","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ouritalianfarmhouse.com\/ourstory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ouritalianfarmhouse.com\/ourstory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ouritalianfarmhouse.com\/ourstory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ouritalianfarmhouse.com\/ourstory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1516"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/ouritalianfarmhouse.com\/ourstory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1516\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1580,"href":"https:\/\/ouritalianfarmhouse.com\/ourstory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1516\/revisions\/1580"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ouritalianfarmhouse.com\/ourstory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1516"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ouritalianfarmhouse.com\/ourstory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1516"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ouritalianfarmhouse.com\/ourstory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1516"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}