February 2008

I hope that you will find it useful and if you have any news or information that you would like to contribute please email me

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SHOPPING

For items for your house like rugs, cushions and even furniture if you head for both the Piccolo Big store and Mercatouno near castorama in Pescara you'll find a good selection for low prices.I saw some very nice floor coverings in Mercantouno.

Mondo Convenienza has a huge choice of furniture from contemporary to rustic and you can browse online

BUYING UNDERCOAT

I found it impossible to by undercoat for wood any colur apart from white.If you use the white colour add a few spoons of Burnt umber earth pigment and mix well.This will give grey/brown colour.

There seems to be a problem with the enel website but hopefully it will be fixed soon! Many customers who've been paying online in the UK have had to get neighbours in Italy to pay for them.

Copper pipes continue to dissappear from houses.An alternative to copper is copper coloured aluminium that costs around 16 euros a meter.Another choice could be the copper coloured plastic pipes from Castorama.The thing about these alternatives is that they simply do not last as long as copper so in the long run end up costing you more!

What to do?

Houses for Sale Privately click here

I have added a section on my site where I can show picures and details of houses offered for sale privately in the Manoppello area.

PROGRESS REPORT

We are just back from an exhausting 2 weeks working on our house in Abruzzo.Finally the ebay door I bought in July has made its way into position aided by carpentar Nicola and local craftsman, Roy .Our door may be old but our security system is state of the art as Nicola insisted on fitting a lock that wouldnt be out of place on the safe of a bank! According to him yale locks are 'toys for children '! And the heifgt of the antico portone has caused a great deal of mirth.I hope no-one over 5ft ever wants to visit us!

As well as seeing to the door we also knocked down the cement walls of the old bathroom and got all the cement off the floors and were delighted to find that underneath lay the same old floor bricks used in the other rooms.They'd been taken out in the corner to fit the waste pipe so we'll need to get a few to replace.

I managed to prune back two olive trees but you really need a chainsaw to tackle these properly.i also bought 3 traps for the moths that have ruined our olive crops.Hopefully the number of pests will be lessened after a colder winter.

C

Red garlic from Sulmona is supposed to have special health giving properties and now its easy to buy it directly from a shop in Sulmona.

Eurogarlic is at 45 Via Arabona,Sulmona, Itay info@eurogarlic.com

Roy Freezer is a woodworker from Pretoro who can rennovate any type of windows/doors/shutters.This could save you lots of money and help the environment

He also has a workshop with various items of Abruzzi style antique furniture for sale.

For more info click here

Roy and his wife Christine also have a B&B in Pretoro

For more info click here

Any good hotels? I will add a free link to my page on staying in Abruzzo if you email me with details!

Thanks to Roy for the tip of a quarry in Pretoro known as 'Pretoro Cave' where you can ask for stone to be cut to any size for lintels /stone steps etc.The prices are very reasonable but you will need to ask about delivery,I certainly could not get our size step into the Smartcar!

In San Giovanni Teatino ,close to the airport

Via Aterno 125 info@mariodicesare.it

0854460224