In this video update, take a behind-the-scenes tour to see what our Italian countryside house in Piemonte looked like when we bought it. This is before we started to clean it out and prep for future renovations. The house is 5,000 square feet so it was easier to break the house tour into parts. This is Part 1.
What You See in the Video
- See the ground floor of the house along with outdoor space, barn, and cellars.
- Check out all of the furniture that was in these rooms, including so many antiques!
- Peek inside the barn spaces and three cantina (cellar) rooms below the house.
The Story Behind-the-Scenes
The first few days in the house was like being in a kind of amusement park fun house where we needed to go from room to room on a series of treasure hunts. We still couldn’t believe this old house was actually ours and, with each cabinet door or dresser drawer opened, we learned more about the house and family who had lived here through the countless old photos, postcards, books, and personal belongings still there.
The ground floor was an interesting layout because only part of it was connected to the rest of the house. The first rooms you see on the ground floor were part of the main house but they’d never had pipes or radiators. Interestingly, these rooms also had two doors leading to the street.
In the video, you’ll also see a door from the courtyard that goes into a room with an old kitchen. All the rooms here on this side of the house could only be reached by going through one of the doors in the courtyard. The market room was part of this and it also had two doors leading to the street but these had long since been locked up and no longer used.
Remarkably, the orange-tiled bathroom on this side still worked, as did all the electricity on this side of the house. There were also a few radiators in these rooms but the plumbing and the boiler were very old and could barely take the chill out, nevermind heat the rooms.
From the moment I first saw these rooms, I could see how incredible the market room, or the shop as we began to call it, could be. The ceiling is incredibly high and made of a series of barrel vaults that were covered in old, peeling plaster.
As if the house wasn’t already enough of a playground in those early days, the barn was endlessly fascinating. We found old tools, an antique stove, animal feeders, and more beautiful brick vaulted ceilings in the porticoes. The only way to take a peek at the upper level of the barn was via metal rungs running up the side of the barn from the courtyard.
And downstairs in the cantinas, we couldn’t even begin to wrap our heads around what these spaces could be with everything else at ground level. But we knew for sure that one day we’d have some very nice bottles of wine staying temperature-controlled in these rooms!
Where To Next?
See all the renovation updates in order by heading back to this renovation journey page.
Or watch more now using the navigation links below.
Next Renovation Update Video: House Tour Part 2: Upper Floors
