We visit the house in Italy

The house we found was not at all in the same condition as most others houses in the area. No one has lived in this house for the past 30 years. Also no one has ruined it with ill-conceived renovations either – painted with the wrong color or (horrible thought) replaced all the windows.

However, a gentleman has lived in the separate apartment for several years. Signor Armando, who we believe is a friend of the family and who lives there for free in return for taking care of the property. It is an approx. 60 square meter three-room apartment that has been renovated with a terrible tiled floor, orange walls and new windows and doors. There, however, unlike the rest of the house, there is a functioning bathroom, kitchen and heating. Our thought is that over time this could become a nice Airbnb. Now it doesn't look too fun...

At the end of April we finally flew down to look at the house. We had had a lot of contact with the real estate agent Barbara Meyer who had been incredibly helpful. She has done several small film clips and really didn't try to embellish anything. In addition, she arranged for us to meet two builders when we came down who could look at the roof and give us a quote.

We flew to Nice, rented a small Fiat 500 and headed for the Italian Riviera. We stayed in Torre Papone in Ott and Karl's house (Catharina's sister and brother-in-law) but as soon as possible we went to Via G.B. Ansaldo no 44 in Vasia to see the house in reality.

Vasia is a relatively large village with close to 200 inhabitants, located about a quarter of an hour up in the mountains above Porto Maurizio. We park by the church and walk along the road towards the house. It is a well kept village so we will soon see which house to look at. So beautiful.

We greet Barbara and step inside...

My God... It's dirty and full of crap everywhere.

We can see some neat and cool gadgets but mostly... rubbish. The electricity hangs loose with the cobwebs and some doors can barely be opened. But we love it. The feeling that arises is – at home.

Luckily we had Karl's sister Helena Monti, who has lived in Italy for nearly 30 years, on the phone. She was there via FaceTime and was able to interpret between us and the builders who were on site on day two. In addition, Franka Saluzzo, one of the sisters selling the house, also appeared. She lives in Vasia.

We measured all rooms and in the evenings we draw, plan, furnish and dream...