A Recap of 2011

On the whole, 2011 was a great year for us. We did not spend as much time in Italy as we would like but life on Whidbey Island is always interesting.

In January, I began walking regularly with Ladies of the Beach. The Ladies meet on Monday mornings and mostly do beach walk. It is an informal group ($5 lifetime membership!) and they have divided the shoreline of the island into forty-eight numbered walks. If you complete all of them you have circumambulated Whidbey Island. When the tides are uncooperative there are lots of inland walks that are also interesting. I completed about twenty walks this year so it will be a while before I "graduate."



 Of course, Dom and I skied as much as possible but never as much as we would like. This is from last winter but we have already been on snow two days this season. We have had great early snow.

 The bulk of the winter was spent remodelling our master bathroom (see earlier post). The above picture is after we installed our fabulous storage units from IKEA. We still have a few things to do to be 100% complete.

Dom in his work gear last winter. He is a rock star when it comes to DIY!

As you know from previous posts, we spent seven weeks in Italy during which we completed the purchase of our new condominium. At the end of May, on our way back to Nice, France to fly home, we stopped in Monte Carlo for lunch and a walk around the Formula 1 track. It was the Wednesday before the race and there was lots of activity. It was the last nice weather we saw until mid-July. The Seattle area had a horrible summer.

My niece Kate graduated from 8th Grade. It was a lot of fun attending her graduation. This is Kate, her parents (my brother Charlie) and her two brothers.

I continued walking with Ladies of the Beach during the summer. Sometimes our access to the beach can be pretty exciting. It has been interesting exploring the Whidbey shoreline and it is a great group of women.

 We have a bubbler fountain on our waterside deck. The birds often use it for baths. They like to sit right on top of the bubbler. We have christened it the Birdy Bidet!

Over the summer we sold the Mercedes SUV and bought my mother's Lexus sports sedan. The latter is a fun car to drive but I sometimes miss the larger vehicle, especially when I want to haul something large. Thankfully we still have the Toyota Tacoma pickup.

Living on Puget Sound we see some really strange floating vessels. This was the oddest--a giant floating radar dome heading out after being repaired in Everett. This past year we have also see aircraft carriers (goodbye Abraham Lincoln!), lots of submarines, floating cranes, freighters, tugs and barges and all sorts of other ships and boats. Also, one day we watched a pod of orcas frolic in front of the house for well over an hour.

 We had four weddings to attend this year. Here's Dom at one of them with our dear friend Leeds.

 Here we are at another wedding with my parents.

 In mid-September Dom's brother and sister-in-law came for a visit. They took this picture of us on the ferry from the island to the mainland. This is the ferry we take ALL the time. It is only a twelve minute ride--just enought time for coffee and pastry in the morning. Otherwise, we rarely leave the car during the crossing unless we have guests.

Here are the guests themselves--Ang and Frank.

Right after Ang and Frank left, I received a job offer. So, I have been doing consulting work since late September. An old friend asked me to job share with her and we have been developing a competency assessment and training system for a pathology laboratory in Seattle. Mostly I work from home but usually go to Seattle once a week for meetings. It has meant a lot more driving but I am really enjoying it. The project will last until early spring so I will be free to leave for Italy in April.

Since we returned from Italy Dom has been making good progress on his Formula V project. The body is done and he is working on the rest of the racecar. He says it should be finished before we go to Italy but we will see.

 In October we went to another wedding in San Francisco. Above is Coit Tower from the top of the Serpentine on Lombard Street. We had a couple of days to sightsee but kept the trip short because of my work commitments.

 My second cousin Amy and her new husband Tim cutting their cake. It was fun to see most of our San Francisco based family.

 Not going to Italy means we spent October in Western Washington for the first time in twelve years. It was interesting seeing how the garden changed during the time we are usually away. Here is a shot of one of our many maple trees. This is a Lion's Head Maple which is one of the last to lose it's leaves.

 We spent Thanksgiving at Alpental with my parents, my brother Charlie and his friend Tracy. It was quiet without any of the kids but we got a lot of chores finished. My parents did a big remodeling job on the place over the summer and there have been a number of things to do afterwards. This picture was taken at dinner the day after Thanksgiving and includes our friend Ingrid.

Christmas will be spent at Alpental with lots of family. In addition to my parents, my sister, her husband and two kids and my brother and his three kids will be there. It will be a really full house! The nieces and nephews are getting very grown up and now range in age from twenty to twelve.

Dom and I send you our very best wishes for a joyful holiday season and a happy and successfull 2012.

The Bathroom is (mostly) finished!

Here are some photos of our remodeled bathroom and bedroom. There are still a few things to do as is noted in the picture descriptions below.

This is the view from the door to the bedroom. You can see the toilet room door through the main bathroom door. The old closet is now the blank wall at the foot of the bed.

This part of the bedroom is pretty much the same.

We installed these two cabinets from IKEA (our favorite!) to replace the dresser space we lost. They are incredibly functional.

We replaced the switches on the bedside lights with pulls and I made these beaded chains so we don't have to lever ourselves up to turn off the lights at night.

Here is a closeup of the beaded pulls.

The double sinks will eventually have a cabinet built around the base. The new window is my favorite part of the remodel. It makes the area feel very spacious and bright.

Eventually we will intall glass doors on the shower but for now the curtain works just fine.

Here is a shot of the sink area with the lights on. The mirrors are deep medicine cabinets with loads of storage.

Opposite the sink and shower is the closet area. We have a cabinet (recycled from the old bathroom) to install on the right side right next to the tile. Behind it will be an area with hooks. I just finished painting the cabinet and board for the hooks last week.

Here is a look deeper inside the closet area.

Inside the toilet room. You can just see the magazine rack on the right side.

As you can see, we are back in and using all of it even though we still have a few projects left. In addition to the inside work we also still need to redo the exterior around the windows. Only one was new but we also had to move the old window. We are slowly plugging away at all of this. I am also trying to get the yard weeded it. That is something that got ignored ALL winter while we worked on the bath. It is really nice to be at this point--nearly, if not completely, done.

The Finished Product

Here are some photos of the "finished" product. We finished all the work on Friday, in spite of both of us having colds. Dom was on the mend last week but I was miserable. By Saturday I felt somewhat better which was good because I had to clean the house. Our summer guests arrived on Sunday and it has been "Italy 101" ever since. We are confident they will take care of things for us and enjoy being there.

This will probably be my last post from Italy this spring. Tomorrow we do some errands, pack up our things and leave early Wednesday morning. We will be back on Whidbey by late afternoon on Thursday.

The kitchen

Dining and living areas.

Looking towards kitchen.

Patio with table and chairs and chaise lounge in far corner.

Our room--future guest room.

The main bedroom.

Main bedroom with IKEA furniture assembled--J&J's shipped luggage in corner!

Main bathroom.

Powder room.

Third bedroom--office, guests, ironing, laundry drying...

Coat hooks and linen storage at end of hallway.

That's all for now!

The BIG Ikea Run

Yesterday we went to IKEA near Florence to pick-up the wardrobes and dresser we want for the main bedroom.  Our original plan was to rent a roof rack and bring them home looking like the IKEA commercial.  However, the racks have a load limit of 50 Kilos and we were planning to transport over 200 kilos.  So, we rented a truck. It was a rickety thing but got the job done.

The next hurdle was getting the pieces into the apartment. It is on the 5th floor (6th floor American) and there is an elevator. The elevator is about average for around here (meaning tiny--4 person limit and that would be cosy!). Eleven of the wardrobe pieces were too big for the elevator. That meant we carried them all up the stairs. Did I mention it was a warm day?

It took us a couple of hours to do it all including rests but we did get it all done. Now the pieces are awaiting assembly--one of tomorrow's projects. After that we had to drive back to IKEA (about 30 minutes each way), return the truck, pick up a few more things and drive home. We were so tired that I went and got pizza and gelato for dinner. Neither of us had much appetite so it was early to bed.

Today we skipped our early morning marcia (Dom is still coughing a lot and we were both still tired). Later in the morning we went to Partigliano to have lunch with some friends there. It was a fun time and then we came home, put on our sweats and have spent the rest of the day reading and napping.

It rained today for the first time in a while. The cool air is a nice change and the air is now crystal clear. Sunset is just starting and the clouds are turning rosy-pink. Tomorrow there are supposed to be more showers but if "red sky a night" means a fine day tomorrow it might beat the forecast.

This was the truck we rented.

Dom at the wheel.

Friday I cleared out the room so we would have assembly room. The pieces are waiting.

These are the four doors still in their packaging.

The stairs!

It rained and blew so hard this afternoon that the covered patio got wet.

The view of the villages in the hills. Often it is hazy enough to somewhat obscure them.

The Alpi Apuane - Cararra is on the far side of those hills.

A Little Sun, A Little Fun and a Lot of Work

The days seems to be running together a bit.  The gap in posts can be explained by a number of things but mainly we ran our internet "chiavetta" out of time over the weekend so it was yesterday before we could get it recharged. Also, we had our first guest.

On Friday or Saturday (the days really do run together) I washed down a number of items on the patio including the chaise lounge and the patio itself. Luckily there is a drain from the patio so I could slosh around to my heart's content and not bother any of the other residents. After the patio and the chaise lounge dried I was able to "use" them. We really need a small table and a couple of chairs as I miss eating outside. That will be coming soon after one more project (cleaning and oiling the TALDI bench) that will occupy the patio for several days.

On Sunday we went to the marcia podistica at San Cassiano a Vico. It was a 6 km. walk in an area not too far from the apartment. We met Mary Caselli and Doris Fortino there and saw a number of friends from Partigliano. It was a beautiful morning and a flat route which we always enjoy. The local roses are in full bloom and it was fun to see all the different colors and types. One day I need to walk around here and photograph the roses as there are all sorts within a few blocks of the apartment.

On Sunday afternoon our friend Nancy McDonald arrive by train from Modena. She is making a three week tour of Italy mostly staying with friends. Both her nieces participated in Gonzaga's Italy program for a year and one of them made friends with a number of Carabinieri who were studying English (?) in Florence at the same time. Nancy met them when she visited her niece and all of them have stayed in touch ever since. She has a cousin and other friends here as well so she is doing a lot of socializing and not much sightseeing. However, it is not her first trip and she is just happy to be back in Italy after about eight years.

We went out to dinner on Sunday night and then on Monday Nancy and I drove to Florence for a bit of shopping. Actually she did a bit of shopping and I did a LOT of shopping. The photo below shows how loaded down I was. Some of it was commissions but I did buy two purses for myself plus some scarves. We meandered around the center of Florence and had a great time.

At about 4 pm, after dropping Nancy and her suitcase at her hotel, I headed to IKEA to pick up a shelving unit for the pantry. Today I put it together and organized the pantry. It is now so lovely I just want to stand in the doorway and stare at it. The biggest problem is making sure there is enough space for the three different garbage bins that need to go in there. I might have mentioned before that Capannori's recycling program is on a par with Seattle's but here you have different four different bins and there is pick-up of one sort six days a week.  Paper and non-recyclable are each picked up once a week and multi-material (plastic, glass, metal, etc.) and organic/compostable are each picked up twice a week.  I do keep the little brown organic bin on the patio but the others now fit neatly in the pantry.

I also put up holders for mops and brooms and a number of hooks so everything has a place. There are actually a few things I should get rid of but for now it looks pretty good.

This afternoon when I was in the back bedroom I looked out and saw an elderly gentleman sitting in the sun in his lovely back garden. I also saw a huge (for the plot of land) tractor pull into the plowed area next to his garden. Pretty soon two men were in the plowed field chatting about something and the elderly gentleman was looking over the hedge to see what they were doing. The nice thing about being on the top floor in the middle of a town is that there is always something going on.

Dom has been nursing a cold today but says he will be back at work tomorrow.

The nice clean patio and chaise lounge

The view from the chaise lounge--it is actually a lot better than this

The other end of the patio from the chaise lounge. I have to plant the pots soon.

Sunday morning walking near San Cassiano a Vico

Roses in bloom

The lovely pantry!

Neighborhood activity