permission granted

    26th August, 2013. I pinned to the wall, as required, our notification to the world that we are making

improvements to this little relic of history. It's been a long and costly grind, and is in fact our second permit it the ten years of working on this property.
   After 10 years you'd think there would be something to show off. That's a long time. But, sadly, there's not much to show. Most of it is under the building or hidden in the walls. But, time does allow evolutionary improvements through 'environmental selection.' A ten year record rainfall has demonstrated leaks in the basement and flooding in the garden, which we've been dealing with all summer. After years of observing the changing seasons, the prevailing winds, the path of sunlight, and traffic patterns around the house, we have made numerous changes in our approach to the final layout of land, rooms, doors and windows. The result improves with time.

'photo-shopped' concept of east elevation

    For example, in our main sitting room on the ground floor, I discovered that the east windows described in our original plans wouldn't work. They made some sense on paper but when it came time to plan wall demolition and construction of reinforcing elements there just wasn't any room for all this. Further, one of the windows would be so close to the corner of the building it would threaten the integrity of the wall. Not only did it violate common sense, it violated the building code. Knowing the inspectors were only keen on external changes that improved symmetry, I began to imagine replacing the two windows with one 'door.' The room already has two exterior doors and another large window so the light appeared sufficient, especially considering the ratio of glazed area to floor space, however the openings were all on one wall. Illumination was coming from only one direction leaving dark shadows everywhere and giving every face a dark side. I made a couple of re-touched photographs to illustrate the idea to all the doubters (which included everybody) and eventually I convinced our 'geometra' (architect/inspector) Ettore to submit a new design incorporating the changes.
   We needed to submit an extension of the permit anyway (for more time) and we had decided to move the

project from our old geometra to Ettore's office where we felt much more comfortable. Ettore speaks english, is young and well educated and has a keen affection for old buildings. What we didn't expect is that to accomplish all these changes, we were better off submitting an entirely new project requiring a whole new set of drawings, a repayment of filing fees, a new design review, and subjected us to a new set of anti-seismic laws following the earthquake in Aquila.
    It's a great relief to be back on the job (digging in the foundations felt like a serious reversal of fortune), but the job has gotten even bigger with the requirement of steel reinforcements. We have contracted our steel framing and Giles and I are having fun making a great big hole in the wall.