Based in Melbourne, Reno Schooler Michelle Simmons, has been traveling to Europe with her husband for the past 28 years. They’ve lived there for short stints and always wanted to buy their own place. Michelle was set on Italy, her husband preferred Greece, until a friend owns a place in Puglia, on the heel of Italy’s boot, suggested they go and stay with her and explore the Puglian countryside.

It wasn’t long before Michelle and her hubby realised that Puglia ticked all the boxes for them - good food, great wine, beautiful beaches, historic villages and very affordable property prices. It also settled their Greece vs Italy dilemma as it offered them the best of both worlds because the region was ruled by Greece centuries ago and still has much Greek influence - from food to whitewashed buildings, apparently there are even a couple of small villages further south where the Greek language is still spoken.

Like a fine Italian wine, this cute little casa in the popular tourist destination of Ostuni has only got better with age… and Michelle’s magic touch. We asked her to share the story of this Italian renovation…

MICHELLE, TELL US ALL ABOUT YOUR ITALIAN RENOVATION

We purchased a country house in the ‘campania’ six kilometres outside of Ostuni about six years ago, so we know this area well. Ostuni is such a popular tourist destination that we decided to purchase a small property in the heart of the town as a holiday rental and also a close retreat for those nights when too many bottles of good Italian red have been enjoyed. We looked at a number of properties, some larger and in better condition, but decided on this one because of its price and the potential it offered. And of course, the stunning star vaulted ceiling that reaches four metres high.

WHAT WAS YOUR VISION?

Our vision was to create a calming relaxed space for couples to escape to for a romantic holiday. We wanted to be true to the building and restore her back to her former glory but the plaster was in such a state, it was past the repairing stage. I was really happy about this as I love to see the bones of a building and the walls of this building are 500mm thick solid stone. So, we set the builders to work to strip back all the plaster, revealing the stunning local ‘pietra’ stone, it has such a lovely warmth to it, much like Australian sandstone.

I have always loved natural materials and wanted to include timber along with the stone though, being in the south of Italy, quality timber is really hard to find and is very expensive so the timber elements had to be in the form of furniture. The colour of the stone really set the colour palette for the project - very neutral with splashes of deep petrol blue and lots of natural fibres like cotton, linen and seagrass. And naturally, I had to include beautiful Italian marble, which we did with a 3x1 metre kitchen island bench top. It’s cheaper than timber is this part of the world.

Because the property is located outside of the Centro Storico, we didn’t have to keep the façade white which is a Communi (Council) requirement in that area and were able to remove the plaster and restore the stone façade as well. The apartment consisted of one large room with two small alcoves off it - the kitchen and a space for a bed. There was also another room that was a stable or garage. Our plan had always been to make it a one-bedroom apartment, so we applied to Council for approval to have the garage converted to a bedroom and bathroom. The approval process was quite quick as we engaged a Geometra (surveyor) who worked as a draftsman/architect as well.

The project took three years to complete, yes, THREE! This was mainly because we only wanted work done when we were in Italy so that we could have total control over the outcome. We learnt from others that being hands on was very important otherwise you might end up with a window where you wanted a door, or vice versa. This did happen to a friend of ours!

RENOVATING IS CHALLENGING ENOUGH WHEN YOU SPEAK THE LANGUAGE!

WHAT CHALLENGES DID YOU FACE?

Renovating in another country is never going to be easy when you don’t speak the language fluently. Even if you do speak some, you never know the correct building terms. We did make very good use of Google Translate!

I have to say, renovating in Italy is a lesson in patience. Italian builders work to their own time, ‘I’ll be there tomorrow” could mean just that… or it might mean ‘I’ll see you in a few weeks.” When we were on the final home stretch of the reno with only about one week of work left to finish (minor stuff!) it took three months to get this completed. Our builders were great but when the weather was good they worked on outside jobs, and siesta is king, everyone knocks off at 1pm.

One thing we did learn and will take to our next Italian renovation is that you need to explain why you want something done in a certain way. For example, I spent a full morning going through the plumbing with the builder and plumber, providing drawings and even going to the extent of marking the walls with orange chalk paint for where the shower head and shower mixer where to be located. When I arrived the next day to inspect the roughing in of the plumbing the orange marks were still on the walls and the outlets were in different places. When asked why, they answered that this is where they normally put them! Once I explained why I wanted them in the other spots they understood perfectly and moved them and repaired the stone wall. They thought it was a great idea in the end.

It’s not all bad, they did an amazing job and we are so glad that we chose Gianni and his team. We had originally planned to use an English expat for the reno but due to the historic value of the building the Communi require the work to be completed by a builder registered with them and our English guy, though a qualified building in the UK, was not recognised. It would have been easier with the language but Gianni’s team had the experience with the type of building and the materials and were able to appease our neighbours when complaining about the noise, so it worked out for the better in the end.

WAS ALL YOUR HARD WORK WORTH IT? DID IT TURN OUT AS YOU’D PLANNED?

The end result speaks for itself, we absolutely loved the apartment and every time we walked into it, it was always a sense of WOW. It was quite sad to actually sell it but it was the right thing to do and move on to the next project.

Besides seeing the beautiful stone being revealed and how it was transformed, one of my favourite parts of the renovation was watching my design drawings for the front doors and bedrooms doors coming to fruition. Seeing them being made and finally fitted was such a sense of satisfaction and pride. The original front door was a very weather beaten, sun bleached blue and the colour went so well with the stone that we had a local paint supplier mix a colour to match it so we could paint the new doors the same colour.

WHAT’S NEXT ON YOUR RENO JOURNEY?

We are slowly renovating our country house in Italy, about six kilometres out of Ostuni, and also have plans to renovate a three storey, 18th century house in another small Puglian village. We figure if we survived renovating the Ostuni apartment we can do it again, only bigger and better!

I studied Interior Design many years ago and I really wanted a bit of a refresher as so much has changed, which is why I joined the Reno School. It’s full of extremely helpful information and offers a very straight forward process to keep you on track. It also offers great inspiration and a more methodical way of approaching a renovation.

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