I wouldn’t take out the fireplace it’s beautiful & keeps moisture out of your home. The kitchen cabinets are good don’t spend money if you don’t need too. Enjoy your beautiful home 🏠
@@gracesuranovinciguerra7275 we just got the estimate for our remodeling plans and they are going to have to be adjusted. 🤷🏼♀️. Now the fireplace will stay, although we are going to get a stone facade for it. The kitchen cabinets are also going to stay. We will give them a good cleaning and put some new hardware on them. Thankfully they are in good condition. Thank you. ❤️
Dear Lorrie , my dream is to move to Italy maybe Sardinia Island. Can you tell me please that what’s the name the most popular Bank in Italy so I can open a bank account? With American passport can I open a bank account in Italy?? Thank you for your help Aloha from Honolulu. Sincerely Janos Nemeth @@Where_in_the_world_are_we_now
I wouldn't take out the fireplace or even some of the original features of the home. I'd say paint the kitchen cupboards and railings. Its the beautiful charm of your ltalian home in a village in ITALY. Live in the house for 1yr and you may appreciate what is there vs taking everything out to what you are use to in North America. Enjoy italian life.
@@hilda4114 thank you for watching and commenting! ❤️❤️. We will not be taking the fireplace out. We are in the process of making a lot of changes to our plan because the cost has become way too high for us. We just had to pay the engineer over $8,000 usd for his part alone. 🤦🏼♀️. It has become quite shocking to discover the costs of having other people do the work. We have remodeled almost every one of the houses we owned in the states and did the majority of the work ourselves. It has been rather discouraging, to be honest.
Pls consider again that it’s an old historic house, keep it like it as much as possible. The fireplace in kitchen, keep it, pls ! Youcan take the wall between living room and kitchen down to benefit the fireplace warm.
Fair play to the two of you for taking this project on, you are an inspiration to myself and my husband, we are also hoping to buy in Italy. We look forward to seeing your renovations, happy travelling.
@@ValerieBarris-wr5mv thank you for watching! ❤️❤️. We will not be removing the fireplace after all. The budget does not allow us to. We will be putting a stone facade on it, though, which we think will make it more to our liking. 😁. The wrought iron staircase railings are very hard on our hands. We might see if we can get a wood handrail to go along the top of it for more comfort. We really appreciate you taking the time to comment.
@@dwells264 appreciate the comment and thank you for watching. ❤️❤️. The contractor has told us that the wiring runs under the flooring because of the thick, stone walls. 🤷🏼♀️
@@Where_in_the_world_are_we_now I’m so sorry to hear that -your floors are beautiful. We bought a small house near Rainno in Pratola Peligna. Our contractor is channeling shallowly into stones walls under the plaster and plastering back over it. We are having all our electrical rerun also. Wish you all the best in your travels. Good Bless.
@@dwells264 we have friends that bought a house in Pratola. 😉. Thank you for the compliment on the floors. I guess it’s a matter of personal taste. We don’t care for the shiny floors that are slippery when they get wet. They are also loose in many places. We also prefer to have the same flooring throughout the whole house. Maybe someday we can meet. 😁
@@luciodeluca3257 thank you so very much! Thank you for watching and commenting, too. We appreciate it. ❤️❤️. We will make sure to do some videos every 3 months when we come back, to show the progress. 😁
@@ncicc4295 thank you so much for watching and for commenting! ❤️❤️. We used David Benton from ‘A Home in Italy’. We had watched his videos for about 4-5 years and knew that if we chose Italy to live in, he would be the guy we used. 😉
Well done for buying in beautiful Italy. Lots of stairs..as we say in Ireland ye will be fit as fiddles in no time at all. Love yer plans for the house. Upstairs in the bedrooms could the contractor cut into the walls below those short windows to give you longer ones? Easier to reach the open/close handles and would leave more light and air into each room up there. Love the idea of changing the hard steel industrial looking stair handrail to something ye prefer. Will you please ask an engineer to check that the balconys are safe including the railings. Cannot wait to see the finished work..yer new home. Wishing you both all the happiness in it.
@@ClaireWhelan-s8l thank you so much for watching and for your lovely comments! ❤️❤️. Unfortunately the windows in the bedrooms can’t be altered because they are dormer windows that are close to the roof. ☹️. We’re excited because when we talked to our contractor today, he said we could put wood handrails on the railings! 😁👏🏻. This will save us money on replacing the wrought iron spindles. We will just paint the spindles black. We have had an engineer over and he checked the balcony. We are going to put a different support bar on it that will not only be functional but pretty.
well said ! Right your advice, those areas have been abandoned for many years, Further checking is a good idea but I believe those houses were checked for safety. I;m Italian love the Irish,Ciao !
Congratulations on your purchase and what a great price! Have fun on your upcoming travels. I'll look forward to seeing what Turkey and Romania are like. How exciting! * And as an answer to your question; I like seeing regular updates on people's remodels.
Nice property with so much potential. About the remodeling: I'd love to see the bit by bit videos, obviously if it's compatible with you travels and Schengen-shenanigans 😆
@@MrPooties thank you so much for watching and for commenting! ❤️❤️ Love the ‘shenanigans’ term! 🤣😂. I think we will probably take your advice. We will do an update every 3 months when we return. 😉. We are excited about seeing our vision for the house come to life. 😁
Thank you for watching. ❤️❤️. We wanted to move the fireplace into the living room where we would enjoy it more. However, the budget requirements now make us have to keep it where it is. Are you referring to taking out the bathtub?
You have a walk in on the top floor and can add one to the main, keep the tub. Also, the garage bedroom may be loud due to street noise. Keep the garage as it has great resale value.
@@MeretSeger thank you for watching! ❤️❤️. The garage will remain a garage, we will just have a guest bed in there. We will be putting in a new garage door that will add some natural light and some insulation. This way, when we die, the house can be used by our sons or sold, but it will still be a garage space. Thank you for your suggestions. We appreciate you taking the time to do that. 😁
Taking out the customary Italian fireplace in the kitchen but painting the ceiling in the living room to make it Italian.🤔. You should keep the door on the guest suit, its a plus to have the private entrance. And then when you can't get up and down all those stairs you can use the suite for yourselves, and rent out the home. My other comment would be you are putting alot if work in the cantina for it to be storage, its already storage. You could make it a guest bedroom if you are letting light in etc., maybe an en suite, unless you want storage. But why put so much money in to make it so nice for storage? The furniture they left that you don't want, you should surely sell it. It seems to be pristine. But you know you can put a softer mattress on the bedframe.
@@casandrala8370 thank you so much for watching and for taking the time to comment! ❤️❤️. We will be leaving the fireplace in the kitchen but we will have a stone facing put on it. The guest suite has been moved back up to the 3rd floor. It will share the space with the craft room. The garage will stay a garage but will be painted and have a tile floor put in. We will use that space as a traditional cantina. The original cantina will go back to being used for storage and firewood. It’s a matter of personal taste, but we just don’t prefer the furniture they left. It’s very difficult to sell furniture like that. It’s difficult to move and so many people leave their house full of furniture. The furniture is not of good quality. We also want it to feel like our home and not another airbnb we’re staying at. 😉 The budget has made us reconsider a lot of things. We will be sure to do an update on it when we get back to Italy in January.
New subscriber here. Nice 0lace you bought. I would love to see the remodel as you go along please. I am also looking forward to seeing Turkey and Armenia too!!
Absolutely love the home! All your renovation plans are great! I am in the works of planning for my retirement in a few years and relocating to Italy has become my #1 plan!! I am also looking at Raiano as a place and also Palombaro, Vittorito, Casoli or the like. I love the mountains so one of those hilltop villages would wonderful!
@@ScottyP713 thank you so very much for the lovely comment and for watching! ❤️❤️. How exciting! I think your choices are excellent ones. There certainly are a very large selection of towns and villages to choose from, so I’m sure you will find one that speaks to you. Have you been to Abruzzo yet?
@@cornelisadrop 😂🤣😂🤣. I don’t know about the ‘young’ part but we do love Italy! I hope ‘young at heart’ counts and not just years. 😉. Thank you so much for watching and commenting! ❤️❤️
So so happy for you both. I have been following you and have really been enjoying your travel videos. I also watch A Home in Italy weekly, as I too dream of living in Italy some day. You made a great choice in Raiano. I have been drawn to that town as well. Personally I would totally enjoy watching as you remodel your home. Congratulations to you both and safe travels.
@@SusanHayoz oh, thank you so very much! We appreciate you watching. How wonderful that we might become neighbors someday. ❤️ If you ever get to Raiano please let us know. We’d love to meet you and show you around town. We truly love it here and it feels like home already. I know it’s going to be difficult for us to leave, but thankfully it won’t be for very long. 😉.
Where are you going to be living when the enormous renovation will be taking place? Do you know about the delays to get the required permit to build even inside a house in italy? I read it could take up to a year before you can even start. Would love to hear your comments on what you were told or know about this. Lovely house for you guys! ❤
@@aloha1005 thank you for watching and commenting! ❤️❤️. We have to leave Italy and the Schengen area every 90 days, for 90 days, until we get residency (which will hopefully be next summer). So, that will take care of part of the problem. Our contractor didn’t want to start the work until we left so we hadn’t gotten anything done before we left 2 weeks ago. Yes, things move very slowly in Italy. Thankfully we had all our permits done and ready in about a month. 😁👏🏻. We have an ‘engineer’ who is working with our contractor and got all the permits and necessary paperwork done at the commune for us. The permits are good for 3 years. After that, the engineer will file all the paperwork about the work that was done, so that everything will be legal. If you have any other questions please feel free to ask.
I love the walk through and I think an update on renovation and your learnings would be great. I wouldn't repaint the outside except for clean up the door frames. I love the colour😂😂, you can invest that money indoors. Love the idea with the garage. And the upstairs bathroom I immediately thought that corner with the window would make a great shower. If it's just not getting authorization to take the window out, could you just put a glass wall in front of it from inside🤔.
@@SabineSabineP thank you so much for watching and for commenting! ❤️❤️. We talked to the contractor again the other day and he said we could turn that into the shower! Yay!! 😁👏🏻
Nice house. I actually like yhe color of the home, loos freshly painted. I like the kichen cabinets and the fireplace too. It would be a great heat source since it sounds like the heating cost can be high. Is there a hospital in town? Do you use public transportation or have a car? Congrats!
@@kathybastianelli6982 thank you so much for watching and commenting! ❤️❤️ We got the estimate for our remodel Thursday and we are going to have to make some ‘adjustments’. 😉. The kitchen cabinets will remain. We will give them a good cleaning and put some new hardware on. Thankfully they are in good condition. The fireplace is also going to stay. We are going to get a stone facade put on it and I think I will like it much more that way. No, there is no hospital in Raiano but we do have 4 doctors here. There is a hospital in Sulmona which is only 7 miles from here. We will be relying on public transportation, walking and e-bikes. 😁
Congrats on "la sua casa bella". We also purchased a home in Raiano. We are interested in ordering home internet. Could you please provide the details of which company and package you ordered? Thanks, Ted A.
@@tedanderson6635 thank you so much for watching and commenting! ❤️❤️. How exciting that you bought a place in Raiano! Will you be living there full time? We used Speednet for our home internet service. However, be forewarned that it may not be any easy process. 🤦🏼♀️. Hopefully you can learn from our mistakes and things will go more smoothly for you. We first tried to get TIM service. We spent over TWO HOURS messaging with them. When it came to the final step, they went through everything to verify it was all correct. The representative asked for my phone number. When I gave it to them (I still have a US number), they said that won’t work, that it had to be a WhatsApp number. I told them it WAS a WhatsApp number and they said no, it has to be an Italian number. 😡. Why they couldn’t have said anything during the 2 hour conversation is beyond me. 🤦🏼♀️. We then went to the Speednet office in Pratola because we have friends that bought a house there and they had gotten their service through them. They spoke English there, which helped a lot, too. Our friend has an Italian number, so they allowed me to use his number. Our plan cost $25 a month for fiber optic connection. They provide you with a modem that is free of charge! 😮. It took 3 weeks to get it hooked up, but that was because we were getting it done in August. 🤷🏼♀️. I believe under normal circumstances it would still take a week or more to get it hooked up. Nothing is fast in Italy. 😉. We also have it set up for direct withdrawal from our Wise account, so even when we’re traveling, we never have to worry about it. (I just realized that I should tell you that having a Wise account is important, too. Either that or an Italian bank account. For us, having a Wise account was much simpler and easier.) We’ve only had the service for 1.5 months, but we have been pretty happy with it. Hope that helps! Looking forward to meeting some day. 😁
@@Where_in_the_world_are_we_now we will be there at the end of Nov for 2 months. Then return full time hopefully in 2025 if when all the paperwork is complete and accepted. fingers crossed.
@@tedanderson6635 that’s great! We will be going to the states for 3 months in April and applying for our ERV then. Maybe we can get some tips from you then. 😉. Best of luck to you!
One other question. What are you going to do about a car? We have a small garage, I was thinking of purchasing a cheap used car, but from what I've read, you can purchase a car in Italy, but you cannot legally own it until you are a resident...
@@tedanderson6635 it has always been a priority for us to be able to live somewhere that we didn’t have to have a car. That’s one of the reasons we choose Raiano. I’m not sure about purchasing a car, but I do know that you cannot legally own a car until you are a resident. From what I have heard, just getting a drivers license is a nightmare in Italy, especially if you are not proficient in Italian. Even if you pass the test there are very strict requirements and limitations under which you can drive for several years.
Wow! Congrats! Ive been watching shows on houses for sale in italy. You are truely blessed to have this one! Do you meet other americans who are single and have purchased there? My husband died and its just me now and ive always wanted to do what you both are doing! Looking forward to seeing more vids from you! God bless you!
@@Nulife23 thank you so very much for watching and commenting! ❤️❤️. We have met a single, American woman who bought a house here in Raino. She does not live here full time as she is still working and won’t retire for a while yet. I’m so sorry to hear about your husband. ☹️. If you have any questions I would be glad to answer any that I can. 😉. One thing I can tell you is that it is very safe here.
You have courage! We are Belgian and have just bought a large house in France in the countryside. After busy careers we have the right to rest. I worked 2 years in Tennessee. We subscribe to your your channel. See you soon! Ciao
@@alstrada1 thank you so very much for watching, commenting and subscribing! ❤️❤️. How lovely that you have a home in France! 😁. Maybe at some future time we will be able to meet up.
Yes, please, as much as possible we would love to see the renovations as you are doing them or having them done. Do you mind my asking if you have a price on your renovation yet? I kniw its gonna be beautuful
@@tinafrye4865 thank you again. ❤️❤️. I’m pretty sure we will be doing a short video every 3 months or so, when we can return, to show what progress is being made. We actually just got an estimate today. All that we wanted to do would have been around €83,000, not including the kitchen and new doors and windows. 😭. That’s much more than we had wanted to spend, so we will be going back to the drawing board and figuring out what things we can live with to cut the budget. 🤷🏼♀️. There are things we need to do but we will need to cut some of the wants. We will still love our home regardless.
Maybe leave the fireplace where it is . Removing one and rebuilding a new one in living room is very expensive. Maybe take down the wall 🧱 between the kitchen and living room, to open up that area ❤. The kitchen just needs alittle remodeling. I'd make kitchen smaller due to function. You cook for minutes to eat . But with so many affordable restaurants, who wants to cook in their house when it 95 degrees out 🥵. I'd keep the garage as a garage . Maybe you will buy a small car 🚗 to drive to all the lovely places in Italy or trips to France or Switzerland. You have sufficient space for guest room . Just ideas I thought of when you stated you needed change your remodeling ideas. 83K is too much to spend on a new house you just bought. I assume your retired. So huge remodel is steep $$ and expensive . ❤😊 can't wait to watch your videos of remodeling 👍 Do a videos with each remodel, trips to places in italy and shopping at the Mercatinas (sp)
@@Kim-J312 thank you so much for watching and for your wonderful suggestions! ❤️❤️. Yes, we have had to scale back and make some adjustments to our remodeling plan. We are not comfortable with spending that much money, especially when that’s more than what the house cost! 😮. We have done all the remodeling on our homes in the US, so we had no idea what to expect for costs when using a contractor. I feel all his prices were extremely reasonable and I have seen his excellent work. We just need to adjust our vision. Traveling has taught us to be flexible. 😉. We will be leaving the fireplace where it is now. We will see about possibly getting a stone facade put on it so it will be prettier to look at. We want to leave the wall between the kitchen and living room for two reasons. On the living room side we have purchased a beautiful antique hutch to go along that wall. On the kitchen side we will still have the refrigerator there, just a new one. We are also not going to replace the windows. They are in good condition and we will just have to deal with the color of them. 🤷🏼♀️. We are excited to make changes within our budget that will still make our home a comfortable place to live our ‘La vita dolce’. 😁
Congratulations! You are living my dream. We wanted to buy a house but alas my husband's Alzheimer's is progressing much faster than we had hoped. Now our plans are to find a reasonable place to rent from May through July 2025. What area of Italy do you think would be the best? I think you have a beautiful place!enjoy life. You deserve it.
@@tinafrye4865 thank you so very much! ❤️❤️. Thank you for watching. I’m so sorry to hear about your husband. ☹️ Of course, we love Raiano. 😉. I don’t know what to recommend for where you should stay, though. So much depends on what you are looking for. Beach, mountains, big city, small village, public transportation, close to hospital and many other things that might be important for you. Italy is certainly a beautiful and varied country, so I’m certain that there is a place that would be exactly what you’re looking for. I’m certainly not an expert on Italy but if I can help in any way, don’t hesitate to ask.
New subscriber here. Lovely home but when you are a certain age, all those stairs don’t work. I am wondering if you will invest in an elevator in the house. I also hope they can increase the windows in the top bedrooms as they are very gloomy. I have a home outside of Rome which I was born in but I don’t ever see myself moving back. When you have lived most of your life elsewhere, it is very difficult to adjust. Good luck.
@@AD12396 thank you so very much for watching, commenting and subscribing! ❤️❤️. Thank you for the lovely compliment on our home. We are not sure what the future holds but we will face that problem when, and if, it happens. We are doing our best to try to maintain a healthy lifestyle. Unfortunately we cannot adjust the windows in the upstairs. ☹️. They are dormer windows with no room to make them larger. 🤷🏼♀️
I can see getting that one room turned into a full bathroom. But I think I'd get ride of the sinking there as well. Maybe put in a place to put your towels and extra sheets and things .
@Where_in_the_world_are_we_now nice my best friend lives In Missouri and owns Missouri ridge distillery and brewery. I stoke up on all his stuff and bring it home with me . I go and see him every two years. So I have to bring some back
@@davidparrish3538 oh, David will be so jealous! 😉. We have been to quite a few breweries and brew pubs across the US, but unfortunately that’s not one of them. ☹️. We lived in Missouri for a few years some time back.
@Where_in_the_world_are_we_now well he is In Branson Missouri. If you ever go there.he has won gold in his whiskeys and silver and bronze in his shines and I think he has a gold in his shine as well.but not sure . Either way it's good stuff.
@@cathiphilibert9145 hi neighbor! 😁. Thank you so much for watching and commenting! ❤️❤️. Yes, we found the house through them. We went on the May tour. We didn’t see this house then but we stayed an extra 10 days in Raiano after the tour. Domenico took us around one day to see other homes and we found it then.
@@Where_in_the_world_are_we_now Fantastic! We were scheduled for the May tour as well but saw the video of our place in March and decided to pull the trigger. Would you believe we’d never been to Italy until we got the keys in June! Just thrilled with the place and Dave, Dom and of course Silvana were awesome. We’ll need to get together for un cafe at some point!
@@cathiphilibert9145 that is so amazing! I think we would have purchased remotely (that was our original plan) but I am very thankful we were just across the Sea in Albania when an unexpected opening became available on the tour. Some of the things we thought were important turned out not to be so. 😉. We had never been to Italy before that, not even Europe. 😮. We would love to get together with some time for a coffee! We have friends from Maryland that bought a house in Pratola, too.
@@TeresaMom1 David Benton has a UA-cam channel called ‘A Home in Italy’. He is not a real estate agent but offers a service for people who want to buy remotely (or in person) in Abruzzo. We bought our house through his service. Dominico is a real estate agent who works with David. He is the one who showed the house to us.
The house is charming and somehow looks familiar. Perhaps I've seen one like it while watching those "buy a house in Italy" UA-camrs. Best of luck with your venture. I'm a little curious: what is the total budget you have allocated for this entire project?
@@ZeeZeeCat thank you so much for watching! ❤️❤️. We bought the house through ‘A Home in Italy’ but he never had a video done of it. 🤷🏼♀️. We are hoping to stay around $60,000 but I don’t think that is going to be possible. Hopefully we can get as close to that as possible. We may also consider doing some things at a later date.
Sorry, I cant take any more listening to this tearing out of perfectly good functional features. You're going to waste a lot of money needlessly. It's a lovely house as it is. Sorry.
@@mariadange06 thank you for watching and commenting! ❤️❤️. You are correct. It will not add value to the house. Real estate here is very different from the US. We just want our home to be the way we want it. 😉. The garage will still be a garage, it will just have a guest bedroom in there. Garages are very valuable here.
@@kathybastianelli6982 we don’t mind at all. 😉. We used David Benton with ‘A Home in Italy’ and would recommend him, especially if you’re purchasing remotely. We have also heard from a friend who used Sara Di Censo and were very happy with her service.
@@kathybastianelli6982 we also used David Benton. A Home in Italy are not realtors but they work closely with a few good realtors in the Abruzzo area with Domenico being their primary guy in the Raiano, Popoli. Sulmona (etc. ) area. This team is awesome and their service simplifies what can be a very complicated process (in a completely different language). Highly recommend. Honest lovely people
@@JSD777 yes, yes He is!1 🙌🏻🙌🏻. Thank you so much for your lovely comment and for watching! ❤️❤️. There are some English speakers in town. We speak very little Italian and between hand signals and google translate we get along okay. We are learning Italian and will continue to but it is a process, so it will take time. The Italians are very helpful if they see you are giving effort to speak their language .
Hopefully during the remodel you consider wheelchair accessibility meaning wider doors and space to move around. Unfortunately its a reality in the golden years..
@@New-bw4kz thank you so much for watching! ❤️❤️. Unfortunately that’s not possible in this house because it’s 3 stories. We did consider that future possibility of that but decided to risk it. Thank you for the suggestion, though. 😁
@@tedanderson6635 we have made some changes to our plan due to budget restraints. We will not be using the garage as a bedroom. We will use the garage as sort of a cantina. Since we have no outdoor space, we will use it as an outdoor seating area. 😁. We have no plans to buy a car. We will be getting some e-bikes, though.
Sorry for the repetition, I just saw your reply from a previous post. We are thinking of shipping a small car to Italy, I understood you have a year to get it registered. Looking at a FIAT 500L with a 1.4L engine. I cannot image not having a car. Guess that is the American in me. Hope all is well, Ciao, Teddo
Buongiorno, Thank you for the video. We are retired American educators considering moving to Italy with our social security and my teacher's pensions to qualify for the Elective Retirement Visa ERV. We hope to tour the country in the spring. Please feel free to share any advice or recommendations. We might buy in the 7% zones but travel north to Estonia during the hot summer months. Grazie! Dean & Cindy
@@DeanRamser thank you for watching! ❤️❤️. How exciting that you are considering moving to Italy! I agree that traveling north during the summer months is a wonderful idea. After being here for the whole month of August we will be sure to travel elsewhere for that month every year. Not only is it hot but it is also vacation month. That means a lot of businesses, government services, etc are closed. It also means that the sea and mountain towns are much busier than usual because that’s where most Italians go to vacation. The only advice that I can think of right now is to make sure that you do your best research into the good and frustrating parts of living in Italy. We feel the good outweighs the bad but some of the frustrations are an inevitable part of life here. As long as you know that going forward you will do well here. 😁. I’m not an expert, by any means, but if you have any questions I will be glad to help any way I can. Good luck on finding your la vita dolce!
@@Where_in_the_world_are_we_now Thank you for the reply. After watching several videos and talking with a few UA-camrs, I agree that extensive research and living in the area FIRST is highly recommended to discover the nuances of living in a non-American city. la vita dolce!
@@DeanRamser one of our priorities was to become immersed in the Italian community we chose to live in. We are thankful that we have some English speakers here but it is certainly not the majority. We enjoy the challenge but we also appreciate having easy conversations every now and then. 😉
@@Where_in_the_world_are_we_now I understand and agree. It was always a pleasure when we met someone who spoke English in Ukraine, Poland, or Estonia. We loved the walking to places routine. And the cafes!! la vita dolce!
Hi,I'm Italian why do you all want to come to Italy? I understand that life in the States has become difficult in many ways, Despite some problems, Italy is beautiful,but don't think it's a paradise, l, I advise you to try to stay here for a while before buying a house. Ciao P.s south of France is beautiful too.
So odd that literally everything came with the house like pots & pans, etc. Bedding too? So different from the US especially the price for homes. Another UA-camr explained the long stay visa & residency process in Italy as taking many months and even a year or longer because of how laid back & slow the bureaucracy are there. He said they don't do anything fast and that's if you can even contact one of them in a timely manner.
@@TeresaMom1 thank you for watching and commenting! ❤️❤️. It is actually pretty rare to have everything left in the house. Most Italians even take the kitchen with them when they move. We were fortunate that the former owners of our house hadn’t lived here for quite some time. They live in France and just used this as their holiday home. The long stay visa ‘should’ take 90 days or less to get approved. We will be able to apply at the Houston consulate which has a reputation of being very good and easy to get through. We, of course, are hoping that will be the case for us. 😁
@@Where_in_the_world_are_we_now Did you find him through a recommendation or on your own? I saw your quote in another comment and honestly thought it didn't sound bad!
@@tmink1 He was recommended to us by some friends we made here that are from Chicago. He did all the work in their house and it is gorgeous! We felt his prices were more than fair and reasonable, it’s just more than we had wanted to spend.
Good to know that you've seen his work! I feel your pain. We are selling the place we bought there - we were misled on renovation costs when we purchased and we just didn't feel it was going to be worth putting the money into it to make it what we wanted. Doing less would have meant the place wouldn't work for us long-term.
@@GH-zy2dh sure! First, thanks for watching! 😉❤️❤️. The estimate came to €83,000. That does not include the windows and doors or the kitchen. ☹️. We have had to make some changes to what we dreamed of doing because we do not want to put that much money into the house. That’s more than what the house cost! 😮. Life is all about adapting, though, so we will make changes that are necessary and scale back some of the ‘wants’.
Are you referring to getting our long stay visa? If so, no, it is not possible to get it in Italy. We have to return to the states and apply for the visa at the nearest consulate to where our residence is there. 🤦🏼♀️. I wish it was as easy as applying here.
@Where_in_the_world_are_we_now well that sucks . .awesome it hard to do. Having to travel back and forth. Especially when Italy are asking for people to move there into some of the smaller towns I've been looking at the 7%flat tax places . If I was to move there.
Hello David and Lorrie! I too have just purchased a home in Raiano, via A Home in Italy. I will be there Oct 8 - Jan 5. I may just barely miss you two but hope to get to meet you if timing works out! I’d love to chat via WhatsApp or IM. Let me know if you would like to connect!
@@juliepalmer9393 oh, how wonderful! Congratulations! 🍾 We would love to meet up with you! Yes, definitely we would love to chat, too. 😉 Thank you so much for watching and commenting! ❤️❤️. Looking forward to meeting a new neighbor.
I wouldn’t take out the fireplace it’s beautiful & keeps moisture out of your home. The kitchen cabinets are good don’t spend money if you don’t need too. Enjoy your beautiful home 🏠
@@gracesuranovinciguerra7275 we just got the estimate for our remodeling plans and they are going to have to be adjusted. 🤷🏼♀️. Now the fireplace will stay, although we are going to get a stone facade for it. The kitchen cabinets are also going to stay. We will give them a good cleaning and put some new hardware on them. Thankfully they are in good condition. Thank you. ❤️
Dear Lorrie , my dream is to move to Italy maybe Sardinia Island. Can you tell me please that what’s the name the most popular Bank in Italy so I can open a bank account? With American passport can I open a bank account in Italy?? Thank you for your help Aloha from Honolulu. Sincerely Janos Nemeth @@Where_in_the_world_are_we_now
Hi Lorri what the name of the Bank you guys using in Italy. Do you transferred money from America to Italy? @@Where_in_the_world_are_we_now
I wouldn't take out the fireplace or even some of the original features of the home. I'd say paint the kitchen cupboards and railings. Its the beautiful charm of your ltalian home in a village in ITALY. Live in the house for 1yr and you may appreciate what is there vs taking everything out to what you are use to in North America. Enjoy italian life.
@@hilda4114 thank you for watching and commenting! ❤️❤️. We will not be taking the fireplace out. We are in the process of making a lot of changes to our plan because the cost has become way too high for us. We just had to pay the engineer over $8,000 usd for his part alone. 🤦🏼♀️. It has become quite shocking to discover the costs of having other people do the work. We have remodeled almost every one of the houses we owned in the states and did the majority of the work ourselves. It has been rather discouraging, to be honest.
Pls consider again that it’s an old historic house, keep it like it as much as possible. The fireplace in kitchen, keep it, pls ! Youcan take the wall between living room and kitchen down to benefit the fireplace warm.
@@ulvi4216 thank you watching and thank you for taking the time to comment! We appreciate it. ❤️❤️. We will be keeping the fireplace. 😁
Fair play to the two of you for taking this project on, you are an inspiration to myself and my husband, we are also hoping to buy in Italy. We look forward to seeing your renovations, happy travelling.
@@DeirdreLovesTuscany thank you so much ugh for watching and commenting! ❤️❤️
Its to bad you want to replace the wrought iron staircase, and the beautiful fireplace.
@@ValerieBarris-wr5mv thank you for watching! ❤️❤️. We will not be removing the fireplace after all. The budget does not allow us to. We will be putting a stone facade on it, though, which we think will make it more to our liking. 😁. The wrought iron staircase railings are very hard on our hands. We might see if we can get a wood handrail to go along the top of it for more comfort. We really appreciate you taking the time to comment.
They can do the electrical on the outside of the wall. So you wouldn't have to tear apart the floors .
@@davidparrish3538 thank you for watching. ❤️❤️. We want new floor tiles so it doesn’t bother us to have the floors taken up. 😉
There is no need to pull up the tile floors to run the electric as they can channel up and around through the walls and from floor to floor.
@@dwells264 appreciate the comment and thank you for watching. ❤️❤️. The contractor has told us that the wiring runs under the flooring because of the thick, stone walls. 🤷🏼♀️
@@Where_in_the_world_are_we_now I’m so sorry to hear that -your floors are beautiful. We bought a small house near Rainno in Pratola Peligna. Our contractor is channeling shallowly into stones walls under the plaster and plastering back over it. We are having all our electrical rerun also. Wish you all the best in your travels. Good Bless.
@@dwells264 we have friends that bought a house in Pratola. 😉. Thank you for the compliment on the floors. I guess it’s a matter of personal taste. We don’t care for the shiny floors that are slippery when they get wet. They are also loose in many places. We also prefer to have the same flooring throughout the whole house. Maybe someday we can meet. 😁
Gratulation zu diesem sehr schönen Haus!
@@katharinastreitner thank you so very much! Thank you for watching and commenting. ❤️❤️
Nice house! Congrats! It would be nice to see videos along the way of the remodeling stages.
@@luciodeluca3257 thank you so very much! Thank you for watching and commenting, too. We appreciate it. ❤️❤️. We will make sure to do some videos every 3 months when we come back, to show the progress. 😁
Did you find a local realator on your own. Love all you stories and travel experiences. Thanks for sharing.
@@ncicc4295 thank you so much for watching and for commenting! ❤️❤️. We used David Benton from ‘A Home in Italy’. We had watched his videos for about 4-5 years and knew that if we chose Italy to live in, he would be the guy we used. 😉
Well done for buying in beautiful Italy. Lots of stairs..as we say in Ireland ye will be fit as fiddles in no time at all. Love yer plans for the house. Upstairs in the bedrooms could the contractor cut into the walls below those short windows to give you longer ones? Easier to reach the open/close handles and would leave more light and air into each room up there. Love the idea of changing the hard steel industrial looking stair handrail to something ye prefer. Will you please ask an engineer to check that the balconys are safe including the railings. Cannot wait to see the finished work..yer new home. Wishing you both all the happiness in it.
@@ClaireWhelan-s8l thank you so much for watching and for your lovely comments! ❤️❤️. Unfortunately the windows in the bedrooms can’t be altered because they are dormer windows that are close to the roof. ☹️. We’re excited because when we talked to our contractor today, he said we could put wood handrails on the railings! 😁👏🏻. This will save us money on replacing the wrought iron spindles. We will just paint the spindles black. We have had an engineer over and he checked the balcony. We are going to put a different support bar on it that will not only be functional but pretty.
well said ! Right your advice, those areas have been abandoned for many years,
Further checking is a good idea but I believe those houses were checked for safety. I;m Italian love the Irish,Ciao !
Loved your tour and cannot wait to see your remodeling plans become a reality just the way you have planned!!! ❤
@@kellyhaynes9348 thank you so much!! ❤️❤️
Congratulations! Love the exterior paint color. Don’t change it! It’s amazing!
@@marlashurn8612 thank you so much for watching and commenting! ❤️❤️. We are going to leave it that color for quite some time. 😁
Congratulations on your purchase and what a great price! Have fun on your upcoming travels. I'll look forward to seeing what Turkey and Romania are like. How exciting!
* And as an answer to your question; I like seeing regular updates on people's remodels.
@@ahealingteacher1514 thank you so very much for watching, commenting and the lovely compliment! ❤️❤️. We will be doing updates as we go along. 😉
Nice property with so much potential. About the remodeling: I'd love to see the bit by bit videos, obviously if it's compatible with you travels and Schengen-shenanigans 😆
@@MrPooties thank you so much for watching and for commenting! ❤️❤️ Love the ‘shenanigans’ term! 🤣😂. I think we will probably take your advice. We will do an update every 3 months when we return. 😉. We are excited about seeing our vision for the house come to life. 😁
Why would you rip out a working fireplace and take out thr bath. To make an american style house
Thank you for watching. ❤️❤️. We wanted to move the fireplace into the living room where we would enjoy it more. However, the budget requirements now make us have to keep it where it is. Are you referring to taking out the bathtub?
You have a walk in on the top floor and can add one to the main, keep the tub. Also, the garage bedroom may be loud due to street noise. Keep the garage as it has great resale value.
Use the cantina as the guest suite. It has its own door and window and is quiet. Use the garage as the cantina if you don't have a car.
@@MeretSeger thank you for watching! ❤️❤️. The garage will remain a garage, we will just have a guest bed in there. We will be putting in a new garage door that will add some natural light and some insulation. This way, when we die, the house can be used by our sons or sold, but it will still be a garage space. Thank you for your suggestions. We appreciate you taking the time to do that. 😁
Great. I have not seen many homes with a garage. And the huge cantina room will be a great second bedroom or lounge for the guest suite.
Taking out the customary Italian fireplace in the kitchen but painting the ceiling in the living room to make it Italian.🤔.
You should keep the door on the guest suit, its a plus to have the private entrance. And then when you can't get up and down all those stairs you can use the suite for yourselves, and rent out the home.
My other comment would be you are putting alot if work in the cantina for it to be storage, its already storage. You could make it a guest bedroom if you are letting light in etc., maybe an en suite, unless you want storage. But why put so much money in to make it so nice for storage?
The furniture they left that you don't want, you should surely sell it. It seems to be pristine. But you know you can put a softer mattress on the bedframe.
@@casandrala8370 thank you so much for watching and for taking the time to comment! ❤️❤️. We will be leaving the fireplace in the kitchen but we will have a stone facing put on it. The guest suite has been moved back up to the 3rd floor. It will share the space with the craft room. The garage will stay a garage but will be painted and have a tile floor put in. We will use that space as a traditional cantina. The original cantina will go back to being used for storage and firewood. It’s a matter of personal taste, but we just don’t prefer the furniture they left. It’s very difficult to sell furniture like that. It’s difficult to move and so many people leave their house full of furniture. The furniture is not of good quality. We also want it to feel like our home and not another airbnb we’re staying at. 😉
The budget has made us reconsider a lot of things. We will be sure to do an update on it when we get back to Italy in January.
@@Where_in_the_world_are_we_now 😀 I'll stay tuned.
New subscriber here. Nice 0lace you bought. I would love to see the remodel as you go along please.
I am also looking forward to seeing Turkey and Armenia too!!
@@barbarakloise6790 that is so very kind of you! Thank you for watching and subscribing! It means a lot to us! ❤️❤️
Amen, i love your faith and your story.
@@ncicc4295 oh, thank you so very much! ❤️❤️😁🙌🏻
Absolutely love the home! All your renovation plans are great! I am in the works of planning for my retirement in a few years and relocating to Italy has become my #1 plan!! I am also looking at Raiano as a place and also Palombaro, Vittorito, Casoli or the like. I love the mountains so one of those hilltop villages would wonderful!
@@ScottyP713 thank you so very much for the lovely comment and for watching! ❤️❤️. How exciting! I think your choices are excellent ones. There certainly are a very large selection of towns and villages to choose from, so I’m sure you will find one that speaks to you. Have you been to Abruzzo yet?
Good to see young blood moving to Italy
@@cornelisadrop 😂🤣😂🤣. I don’t know about the ‘young’ part but we do love Italy! I hope ‘young at heart’ counts and not just years. 😉. Thank you so much for watching and commenting! ❤️❤️
Lovely house! Thanks.
@@itsmetaran thank you so much and thank you for watching! ❤️❤️
So so happy for you both. I have been following you and have really been enjoying your travel videos. I also watch A Home in Italy weekly, as I too dream of living in Italy some day. You made a great choice in Raiano. I have been drawn to that town as well. Personally I would totally enjoy watching as you remodel your home. Congratulations to you both and safe travels.
@@SusanHayoz oh, thank you so very much! We appreciate you watching. How wonderful that we might become neighbors someday. ❤️ If you ever get to Raiano please let us know. We’d love to meet you and show you around town. We truly love it here and it feels like home already. I know it’s going to be difficult for us to leave, but thankfully it won’t be for very long. 😉.
Where are you going to be living when the enormous renovation will be taking place? Do you know about the delays to get the required permit to build even inside a house in italy? I read it could take up to a year before you can even start. Would love to hear your comments on what you were told or know about this. Lovely house for you guys! ❤
@@aloha1005 thank you for watching and commenting! ❤️❤️. We have to leave Italy and the Schengen area every 90 days, for 90 days, until we get residency (which will hopefully be next summer). So, that will take care of part of the problem. Our contractor didn’t want to start the work until we left so we hadn’t gotten anything done before we left 2 weeks ago. Yes, things move very slowly in Italy. Thankfully we had all our permits done and ready in about a month. 😁👏🏻. We have an ‘engineer’ who is working with our contractor and got all the permits and necessary paperwork done at the commune for us. The permits are good for 3 years. After that, the engineer will file all the paperwork about the work that was done, so that everything will be legal. If you have any other questions please feel free to ask.
Congratulations it’s a Beautiful Home ! Enjoy every day in it 💖🍀
@@gracesuranovinciguerra7275 thank you so very much! ❤️❤️
I love the walk through and I think an update on renovation and your learnings would be great.
I wouldn't repaint the outside except for clean up the door frames. I love the colour😂😂, you can invest that money indoors. Love the idea with the garage. And the upstairs bathroom I immediately thought that corner with the window would make a great shower. If it's just not getting authorization to take the window out, could you just put a glass wall in front of it from inside🤔.
@@SabineSabineP thank you so much for watching and for commenting! ❤️❤️. We talked to the contractor again the other day and he said we could turn that into the shower! Yay!! 😁👏🏻
lots of luck in your new home
Thank you so much and thank you for watching. ❤️❤️
Nice house. I actually like yhe color of the home, loos freshly painted. I like the kichen cabinets and the fireplace too. It would be a great heat source since it sounds like the heating cost can be high. Is there a hospital in town? Do you use public transportation or have a car? Congrats!
@@kathybastianelli6982 thank you so much for watching and commenting! ❤️❤️ We got the estimate for our remodel Thursday and we are going to have to make some ‘adjustments’. 😉. The kitchen cabinets will remain. We will give them a good cleaning and put some new hardware on. Thankfully they are in good condition. The fireplace is also going to stay. We are going to get a stone facade put on it and I think I will like it much more that way. No, there is no hospital in Raiano but we do have 4 doctors here. There is a hospital in Sulmona which is only 7 miles from here. We will be relying on public transportation, walking and e-bikes. 😁
Congrats on "la sua casa bella". We also purchased a home in Raiano. We are interested in ordering home internet. Could you please provide the details of which company and package you ordered? Thanks, Ted A.
@@tedanderson6635 thank you so much for watching and commenting! ❤️❤️. How exciting that you bought a place in Raiano! Will you be living there full time?
We used Speednet for our home internet service. However, be forewarned that it may not be any easy process. 🤦🏼♀️. Hopefully you can learn from our mistakes and things will go more smoothly for you.
We first tried to get TIM service. We spent over TWO HOURS messaging with them. When it came to the final step, they went through everything to verify it was all correct. The representative asked for my phone number. When I gave it to them (I still have a US number), they said that won’t work, that it had to be a WhatsApp number. I told them it WAS a WhatsApp number and they said no, it has to be an Italian number. 😡. Why they couldn’t have said anything during the 2 hour conversation is beyond me. 🤦🏼♀️.
We then went to the Speednet office in Pratola because we have friends that bought a house there and they had gotten their service through them. They spoke English there, which helped a lot, too. Our friend has an Italian number, so they allowed me to use his number.
Our plan cost $25 a month for fiber optic connection. They provide you with a modem that is free of charge! 😮. It took 3 weeks to get it hooked up, but that was because we were getting it done in August. 🤷🏼♀️. I believe under normal circumstances it would still take a week or more to get it hooked up. Nothing is fast in Italy. 😉. We also have it set up for direct withdrawal from our Wise account, so even when we’re traveling, we never have to worry about it. (I just realized that I should tell you that having a Wise account is important, too. Either that or an Italian bank account. For us, having a Wise account was much simpler and easier.)
We’ve only had the service for 1.5 months, but we have been pretty happy with it.
Hope that helps! Looking forward to meeting some day. 😁
@@Where_in_the_world_are_we_now we will be there at the end of Nov for 2 months. Then return full time hopefully in 2025 if when all the paperwork is complete and accepted. fingers crossed.
@@tedanderson6635 that’s great! We will be going to the states for 3 months in April and applying for our ERV then. Maybe we can get some tips from you then. 😉. Best of luck to you!
One other question. What are you going to do about a car? We have a small garage, I was thinking of purchasing a cheap used car, but from what I've read, you can purchase a car in Italy, but you cannot legally own it until you are a resident...
@@tedanderson6635 it has always been a priority for us to be able to live somewhere that we didn’t have to have a car. That’s one of the reasons we choose Raiano. I’m not sure about purchasing a car, but I do know that you cannot legally own a car until you are a resident. From what I have heard, just getting a drivers license is a nightmare in Italy, especially if you are not proficient in Italian. Even if you pass the test there are very strict requirements and limitations under which you can drive for several years.
Congratulations 👏👏👏
@@ericmyers8005 thank you! ❤️❤️
Wow! Congrats! Ive been watching shows on houses for sale in italy. You are truely blessed to have this one! Do you meet other americans who are single and have purchased there? My husband died and its just me now and ive always wanted to do what you both are doing! Looking forward to seeing more vids from you! God bless you!
@@Nulife23 thank you so very much for watching and commenting! ❤️❤️. We have met a single, American woman who bought a house here in Raino. She does not live here full time as she is still working and won’t retire for a while yet. I’m so sorry to hear about your husband. ☹️. If you have any questions I would be glad to answer any that I can. 😉. One thing I can tell you is that it is very safe here.
You have courage! We are Belgian and have just bought a large house in France in the countryside.
After busy careers we have the right to rest. I worked 2 years in Tennessee.
We subscribe to your your channel.
See you soon! Ciao
@@alstrada1 thank you so very much for watching, commenting and subscribing! ❤️❤️. How lovely that you have a home in France! 😁. Maybe at some future time we will be able to meet up.
Yes, please, as much as possible we would love to see the renovations as you are doing them or having them done.
Do you mind my asking if you have a price on your renovation yet?
I kniw its gonna be beautuful
@@tinafrye4865 thank you again. ❤️❤️. I’m pretty sure we will be doing a short video every 3 months or so, when we can return, to show what progress is being made.
We actually just got an estimate today. All that we wanted to do would have been around €83,000, not including the kitchen and new doors and windows. 😭. That’s much more than we had wanted to spend, so we will be going back to the drawing board and figuring out what things we can live with to cut the budget. 🤷🏼♀️. There are things we need to do but we will need to cut some of the wants. We will still love our home regardless.
Maybe leave the fireplace where it is . Removing one and rebuilding a new one in living room is very expensive. Maybe take down the wall 🧱 between the kitchen and living room, to open up that area ❤. The kitchen just needs alittle remodeling. I'd make kitchen smaller due to function. You cook for minutes to eat . But with so many affordable restaurants, who wants to cook in their house when it 95 degrees out 🥵. I'd keep the garage as a garage . Maybe you will buy a small car 🚗 to drive to all the lovely places in Italy or trips to France or Switzerland. You have sufficient space for guest room . Just ideas I thought of when you stated you needed change your remodeling ideas. 83K is too much to spend on a new house you just bought. I assume your retired. So huge remodel is steep $$ and expensive . ❤😊 can't wait to watch your videos of remodeling 👍 Do a videos with each remodel, trips to places in italy and shopping at the Mercatinas (sp)
@@Kim-J312 thank you so much for watching and for your wonderful suggestions! ❤️❤️. Yes, we have had to scale back and make some adjustments to our remodeling plan. We are not comfortable with spending that much money, especially when that’s more than what the house cost! 😮. We have done all the remodeling on our homes in the US, so we had no idea what to expect for costs when using a contractor. I feel all his prices were extremely reasonable and I have seen his excellent work. We just need to adjust our vision. Traveling has taught us to be flexible. 😉. We will be leaving the fireplace where it is now. We will see about possibly getting a stone facade put on it so it will be prettier to look at. We want to leave the wall between the kitchen and living room for two reasons. On the living room side we have purchased a beautiful antique hutch to go along that wall. On the kitchen side we will still have the refrigerator there, just a new one. We are also not going to replace the windows. They are in good condition and we will just have to deal with the color of them. 🤷🏼♀️. We are excited to make changes within our budget that will still make our home a comfortable place to live our ‘La vita dolce’. 😁
Congratulations! You are living my dream. We wanted to buy a house but alas my husband's Alzheimer's is progressing much faster than we had hoped. Now our plans are to find a reasonable place to rent from May through July 2025.
What area of Italy do you think would be the best?
I think you have a beautiful place!enjoy life. You deserve it.
@@tinafrye4865 thank you so very much! ❤️❤️. Thank you for watching.
I’m so sorry to hear about your husband. ☹️
Of course, we love Raiano. 😉. I don’t know what to recommend for where you should stay, though. So much depends on what you are looking for. Beach, mountains, big city, small village, public transportation, close to hospital and many other things that might be important for you.
Italy is certainly a beautiful and varied country, so I’m certain that there is a place that would be exactly what you’re looking for.
I’m certainly not an expert on Italy but if I can help in any way, don’t hesitate to ask.
New subscriber here. Lovely home but when you are a certain age, all those stairs don’t work. I am wondering if you will invest in an elevator in the house. I also hope they can increase the windows in the top bedrooms as they are very gloomy. I have a home outside of Rome which I was born in but I don’t ever see myself moving back. When you have lived most of your life elsewhere, it is very difficult to adjust. Good luck.
@@AD12396 thank you so very much for watching, commenting and subscribing! ❤️❤️. Thank you for the lovely compliment on our home. We are not sure what the future holds but we will face that problem when, and if, it happens. We are doing our best to try to maintain a healthy lifestyle. Unfortunately we cannot adjust the windows in the upstairs. ☹️. They are dormer windows with no room to make them larger. 🤷🏼♀️
I can see getting that one room turned into a full bathroom. But I think I'd get ride of the sinking there as well. Maybe put in a place to put your towels and extra sheets and things .
@@davidparrish3538 thank you for commenting. ❤️❤️. My husband brews his own craft beer, so that sink will be for his brewing. 😉
@Where_in_the_world_are_we_now nice my best friend lives In Missouri and owns Missouri ridge distillery and brewery. I stoke up on all his stuff and bring it home with me . I go and see him every two years. So I have to bring some back
@@davidparrish3538 oh, David will be so jealous! 😉. We have been to quite a few breweries and brew pubs across the US, but unfortunately that’s not one of them. ☹️. We lived in Missouri for a few years some time back.
@Where_in_the_world_are_we_now well he is In Branson Missouri. If you ever go there.he has won gold in his whiskeys and silver and bronze in his shines and I think he has a gold in his shine as well.but not sure . Either way it's good stuff.
@@davidparrish3538 wow! 😮. Impressive!
Congrats guys! We’re just down the road in Popoli! Would love to see the renovations. Curious if Dave and Domenico found the house for you.
@@cathiphilibert9145 hi neighbor! 😁. Thank you so much for watching and commenting! ❤️❤️. Yes, we found the house through them. We went on the May tour. We didn’t see this house then but we stayed an extra 10 days in Raiano after the tour. Domenico took us around one day to see other homes and we found it then.
@@Where_in_the_world_are_we_now Fantastic! We were scheduled for the May tour as well but saw the video of our place in March and decided to pull the trigger. Would you believe we’d never been to Italy until we got the keys in June! Just thrilled with the place and Dave, Dom and of course Silvana were awesome. We’ll need to get together for un cafe at some point!
@@cathiphilibert9145 that is so amazing! I think we would have purchased remotely (that was our original plan) but I am very thankful we were just across the Sea in Albania when an unexpected opening became available on the tour. Some of the things we thought were important turned out not to be so. 😉. We had never been to Italy before that, not even Europe. 😮. We would love to get together with some time for a coffee! We have friends from Maryland that bought a house in Pratola, too.
Who is Dave and Domenico? Is it a UA-cam Channel by chance?
@@TeresaMom1 David Benton has a UA-cam channel called ‘A Home in Italy’. He is not a real estate agent but offers a service for people who want to buy remotely (or in person) in Abruzzo. We bought our house through his service. Dominico is a real estate agent who works with David. He is the one who showed the house to us.
Great video!
@@rodolfoayala299 thank you so much for watching! ❤️❤️
Love the home.
@@ericmyers8005 thank you so much! ❤️❤️
Nice property 👍👍
@@SylviaDPaxon thank you so much and thank you for watching! ❤️❤️
Benvenuti in Italia!
@@LoredanaAmendolara grazie mille!!! ❤️❤️
It’s a lovely home.
@@sharonwalshthompson8185 thank you so very much and thank you for watching and commenting! ❤️❤️
The house is charming and somehow looks familiar. Perhaps I've seen one like it while watching those "buy a house in Italy" UA-camrs. Best of luck with your venture. I'm a little curious: what is the total budget you have allocated for this entire project?
@@ZeeZeeCat thank you so much for watching! ❤️❤️. We bought the house through ‘A Home in Italy’ but he never had a video done of it. 🤷🏼♀️. We are hoping to stay around $60,000 but I don’t think that is going to be possible. Hopefully we can get as close to that as possible. We may also consider doing some things at a later date.
Sorry, I cant take any more listening to this tearing out of perfectly good functional features. You're going to waste a lot of money needlessly. It's a lovely house as it is. Sorry.
@@watthaile2053 thank you for watching and for taking the time to comment. ❤️❤️
Not sure all your work and substantial costs will add extra value to the property, plus the garage is an asset.
@@mariadange06 thank you for watching and commenting! ❤️❤️. You are correct. It will not add value to the house. Real estate here is very different from the US. We just want our home to be the way we want it. 😉. The garage will still be a garage, it will just have a guest bedroom in there. Garages are very valuable here.
One more question... If you dont mind and would recommend, who'd you use as your real estate agent?
@@kathybastianelli6982 we don’t mind at all. 😉. We used David Benton with ‘A Home in Italy’ and would recommend him, especially if you’re purchasing remotely. We have also heard from a friend who used Sara Di Censo and were very happy with her service.
@@kathybastianelli6982 we also used David Benton. A Home in Italy are not realtors but they work closely with a few good realtors in the Abruzzo area with Domenico being their primary guy in the Raiano, Popoli. Sulmona (etc. ) area. This team is awesome and their service simplifies what can be a very complicated process (in a completely different language). Highly recommend. Honest lovely people
Congrats dear people. One request I have is for better lighting on your videos.
@@louiscecere5636 thank you so much for watching and for taking the time to comment! ❤️❤️
Congratulations 🎉🎉🎉 God is great!
Do people in the town speak English? My husband and I want to do the same, but we speak no Italy.
@@JSD777 yes, yes He is!1 🙌🏻🙌🏻. Thank you so much for your lovely comment and for watching! ❤️❤️. There are some English speakers in town. We speak very little Italian and between hand signals and google translate we get along okay. We are learning Italian and will continue to but it is a process, so it will take time. The Italians are very helpful if they see you are giving effort to speak their language .
Hopefully during the remodel you consider wheelchair accessibility meaning wider doors and space to move around. Unfortunately its a reality in the golden years..
@@New-bw4kz thank you so much for watching! ❤️❤️. Unfortunately that’s not possible in this house because it’s 3 stories. We did consider that future possibility of that but decided to risk it. Thank you for the suggestion, though. 😁
I was thinking one of those stair lift chairs but it may be too narrow. Those stairs will get old really fast.
@@MeretSeger 😂🤣😂🤣. We keep telling ourselves that they will keep us fit. 😉
Another question, since you are converting the garage into living space, will you not be purchasing a car?
@@tedanderson6635 we have made some changes to our plan due to budget restraints. We will not be using the garage as a bedroom. We will use the garage as sort of a cantina. Since we have no outdoor space, we will use it as an outdoor seating area. 😁. We have no plans to buy a car. We will be getting some e-bikes, though.
Sorry for the repetition, I just saw your reply from a previous post. We are thinking of shipping a small car to Italy, I understood you have a year to get it registered. Looking at a FIAT 500L with a 1.4L engine. I cannot image not having a car. Guess that is the American in me. Hope all is well, Ciao, Teddo
@@tedanderson6635 no problem at all. 😁. I’m glad to answer any questions I can.
Buongiorno,
Thank you for the video. We are retired American educators considering moving to Italy with our social security and my teacher's pensions to qualify for the Elective Retirement Visa ERV. We hope to tour the country in the spring.
Please feel free to share any advice or recommendations. We might buy in the 7% zones but travel north to Estonia during the hot summer months.
Grazie!
Dean & Cindy
@@DeanRamser thank you for watching! ❤️❤️. How exciting that you are considering moving to Italy! I agree that traveling north during the summer months is a wonderful idea. After being here for the whole month of August we will be sure to travel elsewhere for that month every year. Not only is it hot but it is also vacation month. That means a lot of businesses, government services, etc are closed. It also means that the sea and mountain towns are much busier than usual because that’s where most Italians go to vacation. The only advice that I can think of right now is to make sure that you do your best research into the good and frustrating parts of living in Italy. We feel the good outweighs the bad but some of the frustrations are an inevitable part of life here. As long as you know that going forward you will do well here. 😁. I’m not an expert, by any means, but if you have any questions I will be glad to help any way I can. Good luck on finding your la vita dolce!
@@Where_in_the_world_are_we_now Thank you for the reply. After watching several videos and talking with a few UA-camrs, I agree that extensive research and living in the area FIRST is highly recommended to discover the nuances of living in a non-American city. la vita dolce!
@@DeanRamser one of our priorities was to become immersed in the Italian community we chose to live in. We are thankful that we have some English speakers here but it is certainly not the majority. We enjoy the challenge but we also appreciate having easy conversations every now and then. 😉
@@Where_in_the_world_are_we_now I understand and agree. It was always a pleasure when we met someone who spoke English in Ukraine, Poland, or Estonia. We loved the walking to places routine. And the cafes!! la vita dolce!
Hi,I'm Italian
why do you all want to come to Italy? I understand that life in the States has become difficult in many ways, Despite some problems, Italy is beautiful,but don't think it's a paradise,
l, I advise you to try to stay here for a while before buying a house. Ciao P.s south of France is beautiful too.
So odd that literally everything came with the house like pots & pans, etc. Bedding too? So different from the US especially the price for homes. Another UA-camr explained the long stay visa & residency process in Italy as taking many months and even a year or longer because of how laid back & slow the bureaucracy are there. He said they don't do anything fast and that's if you can even contact one of them in a timely manner.
@@TeresaMom1 thank you for watching and commenting! ❤️❤️. It is actually pretty rare to have everything left in the house. Most Italians even take the kitchen with them when they move. We were fortunate that the former owners of our house hadn’t lived here for quite some time. They live in France and just used this as their holiday home. The long stay visa ‘should’ take 90 days or less to get approved. We will be able to apply at the Houston consulate which has a reputation of being very good and easy to get through. We, of course, are hoping that will be the case for us. 😁
Would love to visit
So beatiful
@@bellabetty.mejorandotuauramlm thank you so very much! Thank you for watching and commenting, too. ❤️❤️
P!ease leave the fireplace in the kitchen. It contributes to the historical charm of the house.
@@MeretSeger we will be leaving it there. 😉
95 degrees wowza ...still getting to surprise :)
ok great i am friends and family weeeeee🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉
yeah no lol
@@sickoffakenews thank you for watching! Yes, it gets quite hot in the summer. We had several days in the low 100’s. 🥵🥵🥵
Thank you for the video. Would you mind sharing the name of your contractor?
@@tmink1 thank you for watching! ❤️❤️. His name is Luciano. I don’t know what his last name is. 🤷🏼♀️. He lives here in Raiano.
@@Where_in_the_world_are_we_now Did you find him through a recommendation or on your own? I saw your quote in another comment and honestly thought it didn't sound bad!
@@tmink1 He was recommended to us by some friends we made here that are from Chicago. He did all the work in their house and it is gorgeous! We felt his prices were more than fair and reasonable, it’s just more than we had wanted to spend.
Good to know that you've seen his work! I feel your pain. We are selling the place we bought there - we were misled on renovation costs when we purchased and we just didn't feel it was going to be worth putting the money into it to make it what we wanted. Doing less would have meant the place wouldn't work for us long-term.
@@tmink1 oh, I’m so sorry to hear that! ☹️. Will you buy another place here?
can you share the approx costs for all that...thanks
@@GH-zy2dh sure! First, thanks for watching! 😉❤️❤️. The estimate came to €83,000. That does not include the windows and doors or the kitchen. ☹️. We have had to make some changes to what we dreamed of doing because we do not want to put that much money into the house. That’s more than what the house cost! 😮. Life is all about adapting, though, so we will make changes that are necessary and scale back some of the ‘wants’.
@@Where_in_the_world_are_we_now very nice i wish you the best, we are as well looking in italy from the US, I will watch your journey
@@GH-zy2dh thank you! If you have any other questions, feel free to ask. 😁
@@Where_in_the_world_are_we_now i will thank you kindly
Can you not do that at a embassy. Instead of coming all the way back to the states
Are you referring to getting our long stay visa? If so, no, it is not possible to get it in Italy. We have to return to the states and apply for the visa at the nearest consulate to where our residence is there. 🤦🏼♀️. I wish it was as easy as applying here.
@Where_in_the_world_are_we_now well that sucks . .awesome it hard to do. Having to travel back and forth. Especially when Italy are asking for people to move there into some of the smaller towns I've been looking at the 7%flat tax places . If I was to move there.
Nice house.god bless.and good look connie dublin ireland 🇮🇪 x❤
@@KathleenKeogh-s9i thank you so much and thank you for watching! ❤️❤️
Le porte sono assolutamente da cambiare.quegli allumini negli anni 70 sono stati una piaga
@@fosterbuster2840 🤣😂🤣😂. I think you are right. They do seem to be everywhere! Grazie per aver guardato e commentato! ❤️❤️
Hello David and Lorrie! I too have just purchased a home in Raiano, via A Home in Italy. I will be there Oct 8 - Jan 5. I may just barely miss you two but hope to get to meet you if timing works out! I’d love to chat via WhatsApp or IM. Let me know if you would like to connect!
@@juliepalmer9393 oh, how wonderful! Congratulations! 🍾 We would love to meet up with you! Yes, definitely we would love to chat, too. 😉
Thank you so much for watching and commenting! ❤️❤️. Looking forward to meeting a new neighbor.