A Tuscan View - from Umbria

Exhale...

After a frantic week of lugging furniture around, painting, panicking and waxing and panicking again we can finally exhale. 
The back apartment is finished and furnished, our first guests have come and gone and here are the 'after' photographs we promised.  Sorry to have kept you waiting for a week but, to be fair, we have been waiting for nearly 2 years!

The sitting room and kitchen

The small bedroom

The big bedroom

The details

Of course we can't afford to slow down yet as there is still the front apartment and the studio to finish but they are oh-so-nearly there. 
I'll post the results as soon as they are ready with maybe a little break for carnevale inbetween. 
Have faith, we'll get there in the end...

The best thing I ate today:
You must be joking! No time for cooking, eating or sleeping!

...take a deep breath...

Just before showing you the results of all our labours (which is what I wanted the 100^th post to be about), I suddenly realised that it would be wiser to pause, take a deep breath, and remember what has been our daily reality for the last 18 months; building work, dust, plumbing, electrics, drains, mud, sweat, blood and tears.

Sounds a little dramatic, I know, but it's perhaps all to easy to move on now that it's pretty much done, and forget the stresses and strains it has put us all under. Proud as we are of the final result, I am much prouder of the struggle it has been and these photographs show a little of what we have been up against.

It's certainly not an opportunity for self-congratulation or gloating, because we have made countless mistakes (some we don't even know yet) and we've had a lot of help along the way, but I must admit to never expecting it to have been quite this hard, or to last this long.

Anyway, I promise that in a few days I'll get together some 'after' photos but, for now, you'll have to make do with the 'befores'