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... until you settle in and I'm sure you will find the person you are looking for to manage the place.. Likely on here as you may have already gathered.... Good luck... :)

I will watch with interest Pam how you get on in your 'new' house - good luck.  We have just bought in the same area so much of the advice you receive could be very relevant to us also.  We will be doing work to our place at some point but are hoping we can persuade friends and family to come over for working holidays.  In the mean time, we will have to suss out local buliders merchants, paint suppliers etc etc and also learn enough �������� to be able to ask for the things we need!! (Should be fun)  If you have any info on the best place to buy stuff (paint, cement, sand, paving slabs, chippings etc.......) anywhere between Barga and Bagni di Lucca, please let me know. Good luck with everything and I hope you have a great time.  We are flying out on Thursday for a long weekend and I can't wait. Jan

I can't help with your walls query as I don't have a practical bone in my body but I wanted to say "Welcome" to the community.  I'm sure you'll find lots of help here and make a lot of friends. Pat

Hi, thanks for all your kind comments.  Jerry, thanks for the info. When we were over a few weeks ago we discovered how expensive paint was and how rubbish the first huge tin of it was that we bought! It's all part of the experience I suppose and the wine helps... We're heading off by car on thursday and looking forward to it.  We have so much stuff to take with us we're desperately searching for a last minute roof box purchase!!  Will let you know how we get on.

Our flying visit to our new little �������� home went much too quickly!  However, we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves and any doubts we had about buying (did we really have any - I don't think so!) have quickly been dismissed.  We got so caught up in just being there, we didn't find out much about builders merchants, suppliers etc although we passed a builders merchants on the way back to the airport on the way home - I'm thinking it was probably Diecimo?  At this point of our return journey however, I was having a bit of an altercation with the sat nav (bought new for the very purpose of getting us to and from Pisa airport without any problems!) she was telling me one thing and I didn't agree, so I didn't really know where I was!  The rest of the journey to Pisa went from bad to worse, despite finding the signs to the airport we still managed to find ourselves back on the autostrada heading north only 20 minutes before our gate closed!  By some miracle, we managed to drop off (or was it abandon?) the hire car, get to the airport and on to the plane.  Unfortunately we missed the check in for our suitcase so we did abandon that (luckily with nothing in it - it's amazing what you can stuff in  your hand luggage if you have to!) so apologies if there was a bomb scare at pisa airport last week!  (Only joking out of the corner of my eye I saw them scan the case - phew).   I will now have to work out how to put Pisa airport into the sat nav correctly.  I'm prepared to give her a second chance even if she did let me down badly.  Jan

... and if like ours you can point to the rental car park in Pisa aeroporto and there you go... Done it a couple of times coming off the fipili and she done ok... :)

Sorry, I have been away for a few weeks. A good place to look for paint, materials and DIY needs is Leroy Merlin at the "Il Giglio" Shopping Centre just before you reach Florence. We have done the trip several times from Bagni di Lucca as you find many things you would not find elsewhere. Pam, I had a similar problem with pain a few years ago when we were refurbishing a house in Granada, (Spain). A specialist recommended to use a base coat which was specially formulated for this purpose and we did not need to strip the old paint which was very flaky. Unfortunately, I cannot remember the name or the brand.... but it was a miracle product. Perhaps your brother may be able to find out. Good luck with the renovations!

Hi My Cousin, Roy Santi has an estate agents in Barga, sul Fosso, inbetween the pharmacy and Riccardo's restaurant, opposite the car park and the wall entrance that takes you into Barga old town. Housesintuscany.com is the website.  Roy has loads of contacts regarding workmen, to be fair all my uncles and cousins are builders and construction workers of one type or another.  So he would be your best bet. Kind regards Richard