Holiday Cottage in Tuscany update

Okay, let’s talk about Italy. Prior to a pesky global pandemic, our Holiday Cottage in Tuscany, aka Woodfarm Tuscany was due to be finished and ready for you to go and stay at the end of May 2020. However, as we all know the brakes went on for a few months. It is all very much moving towards completion again so I thought I would bring you up to speed.

Before I go any further I will explain why I have been quiet on the subject until now. The thing is, nobody is going to want to go there just yet. I for one I am not ready to sit in a pressurised metal tube with 300 others for a couple of hours at 30,000 feet, and I don’t suppose you are. Not only has the coronavirus pandemic cost me a fortune in lost revenue here in the UK, it has also put me well behind in my beloved Tuscany. But I’m still not moaning. There’s nothing any of us can do about what’s happened, so we just need to “stai calmo e vai avanti”, or as they say in Blighty, “keep calm and carry on”.

The fact of the matter is that it will be safe for us to travel at some point, and we will wish to do so. But as I write this at the beginning of August, now is not that time. However, work is progressing nicely, and we are heading towards a lovely finished Holiday Cottage in Tuscany.

For those interested in a future stay I thought it might be nice to bring you up-to-date with what’s happening. The interior is pretty much done, with the exception of fitting a kitchen, the exterior has all been treated with a thermal render to keep it cooler in the summer and warmer in the winter, and the wiring is all in for the air conditioning system, which will also act as heating. The bathroom window has been lowered to enhance the views across the valley, which you can now enjoy from the comfort of your roll-top bath, and the wet room looks fabulous.

As you will know by now I bought this house for the views, and in order to fully appreciate the Vista that this house enjoys, my intention from day one was to build a large terrace in order for my guests to chill out with a morning coffee or a home-made pizza in the evening. I am very excited to be able to report to you that that terrace is now a reality. Work on the railings will begin soon. As you can see from the photo, steps lead down to the rest of the garden. You’ll notice the photos aren’t the best; My builders are good builders, not photographers!

So that’s about it for now. I had intended bringing you more regular updates but I didn’t allow for a pandemic in that plan. I hope by the time that we will want to start going abroad again, that the house will be ready. My focus since June, as we planned to reopen, has solely been on Woodfarm Barns and Barges, and the safety and security of a Staycation as a well earned break away from lockdown. I am very pragmatic about our Holiday Cottage in Tuscany and the adventure, as I really bought this house to fulfil a personal dream. It makes absolute sense bearing in mind what I do for a living, to share it though, as I can’t use it all of the time.

I know it still looks like a building site, but I hope that you can begin to get some sense of what we are going to achieve out there. Once we are in a position to share the house with you, I hope that many of you can fall in love with the views, just as I did at first sight.

EDIT OCTOBER 2024 – If you want to see the whole story of renovating Woodfarm Tuscany, we have a blog and video for you.