Hallo dear DIY-lovers!
I thought that you might enjoy some snaps from my medieval quarter home, which I'm currently in the full-on chaos of pulling together for selling.
This photo is the central cantina (cellar), which is one of the walls that goes directly into the mountain that the old town is built into...
It's a very organic and living abode! In this wall, and all through the back of the house, I have layers of special 'eco-cement', which allow the wall to breathe and sweat...
And occasionally, I have to add a few layers of calce (limewash), which is a lovely job, if very messy - the cats are trying to help, but mostly just adding decorative pawprints to the floors... It is super satisfying to see the natural marks be softened into a solid white wall. Beautiful.
I've also removed the cupboard which I'd constructed years ago, around the first bathroom sink. It feels much cleaner, as there's an open shower in this bathroom, and it was hard to keep the wood completely dry. Over the years, the added cupboard had rotted a little inside, and I wanted it to be simpler, cleaner for prospective viewers...
I'm painting the wall behind and beside the sink, and there was a LOT of hard work in removing the wood and especially the silicon! Eeek!
Very lovely to have the vintage sink visible and make it a kind of feature - it is quite artistic and funky retro.
This was the bathroom cupboard before:
A dear friend, who I know through my Patreon, is working on the drawings for the house for me - I made a painting as a gift exchange, in return for doing the technical drawings - but then he kind of put them on the back shelf!
(wee painting of the Annunciation, interpreted from Leonardo Da Vinci's artwork, completed in 2020)
I didn't want to be pushy, but I reminded my friend about the drawings again recently, as things are opening up here and interest in property is warming up too - and we've had an intense few days exchanging masses of info...
It really is rather complex, just explaining the layout of the home, and how it fits into all the other buildings around it. We are part of this beautiful facade in the old town:
... Thus there are myriad complexities around plumbing, levels, entrances, shared issues with flanking properties, privacy, and movement of leaks, underground water or rainwater!
Many, many layers have been added, like a lasagna, over the centuries (the town was established between the 900s and the 1100s), leaving legal issues with neighbours rather complicated too! I'm trying to explain the chaos of the old town to my map-drawer, and it can be quite fun at times - communicating the eccentricity or artistic elements of the building and how the Arthouse fits into apartments above, below and to the sides!
These are a couple of my hand-drawn and measured sketches for my technical man to work with:
This aspect (above) was hard to explain... and it was hard to explain the context of the house, because none of the previous/ historical mapping is particularly accurate!
These are the house sketches that I got when I bought it... fairly hard to read, and absolutely inaccurate regarding the squareness of the house! The house is not square at all!
All in all, it is a glorious and even a cathartic process, simplifying my home in both the mapping, and in decluttering it - and repairing and maintaining any aspects which need attention. If one does not keep on top of a natural, living home like this (i.e. if one is not living in it year round) it can quickly develop insurmountable problems, and demand your attention. I relish the living conversation I have with it: the hands-on care and the use of natural materials to make it more beautiful again.
Wish me luck in my sale! I'm hoping to move deeper into wild nature, and have a place where I can be more aligned with elements - a large piece of land and water source... I'm getting deep into my manifesting this time around, now that the dramas of the past few years are (mostly!) subsiding.
Blessings and love on all your building and creative work!