venerdì 29 ottobre 2010

Recreation - Walnut pasta, medieval ruins and scuba diving.

The last major construction job inside the house had been completed at last and all members involved in the process were very relieved to see it done. Thus a round of celebrations followed, beginning with the cooking of our very first meal! The necessary stove had already been in the dining room, being placed there some time ago by Aureliano's aunt who had no further need of it. A gas canister with some remaining fuel was discovered nearby and connected to the fitting in the stove. Some walnuts and limes were gathered from the garden, and in a short while we were all enjoying a beautiful meal of pasta with a walnut/garlic/rosemary/lime sauce cooked by Aureliano.
The kitchen stove.



The ancient and ginormous walnut tree
in the garden, which leaves the ground
covered in walnuts after a strong wind.


Aureliano making dinner while Peppe Pavone and Aurelio
dance in the kitchen.


The crew enjoying a well-earned dinner.
From left to right: Aurelio, Peppe Pavone, Aureliano,
Alfio and Sergie.


It looked fairly simple on the plate but man, this was probably one of the best pastas I've ever eaten in my life. --|||||Sergie|||||


Dinner was followed by wine which was followed by an incredible jam session, the highlight of which was Aurelio and his telling of a captivating story (first in Italian and then in English), with a backing soundtrack performed by the rest of the crew.
Alfio laying down a groove.

It felt so satisfying to eat meals inside the house that the next day we cooked lunch as well.


Peppe Minniti, Aureliano and Sergie enjoying another meal
of pasta.


The fantastic lunch was followed by a trip to the Sicilian countryside where some old culture was observed and respected:


Sergie, Aureliano and Peppe Minniti love castles.
The journey then took the gang to see an old friend, Elia, who lives in the town of Mirabella Imbaccari. It turned out that Elia was involved in doing some restoration too, on a property given to him by his aunt. Intrigued by the story we asked to see the property and were taken by car into the nearby countryside to experience these unique sights:
A cold Aureliano and confident  Peppe Minniti striding past
the main entrance to the property.


The inner courtyard.



Elia taking us further.....



....and further into the property.



Elia, Aureliano and Peppe Minniti observing ancient
structures....



....like this rather old arch.

Doing some exploring amongst the crumbling walls....



....which Peppe and Elia have no problem climbing.



Some sheep near our jeep.



Window view.


The surrounding countryside.



From left to right: Peppe Minniti, Elia, Aureliano, and Sergie.

As can be seen from the photos, the property was much older than we could have imagined. Indeed, the story of the place goes back way before the medieval period. In the Roman times, this area was quite close to a major road which connected the Southern city of Gela with the towns in the Northern area of Sicily, and therefore received a fair bit of traffic in that time. In the age of the Crusaders, the area was used as sort of "pit-stop" for knights to fix up their equipment, specifically equipment related to their horses. The old ruins which can be seen in the photographs are the remains of a large tower structure built sometime during the 15th century, used to house the nobility which gave protection (in return for grain taxation) to the peasants and farmers living in the surrounding area. Eventually the property became divided and Elia's aunt gained possession of the property containing the structural remains. The surrounding country is currently divided into 12 blocks of land which are all owned by non-relatives of the family and the blocks are currently not being utilized in any meaningful way.
Elia wishes to restore the structures and plans to start up a Bed & Breakfast to accommodate the tourists that pass through the area annually during the time when the local cycling marathons are held. One of the obstacles in his path is the lack of communication between him and the other 12 surrounding land owners.

We thought there is immense potential with this property. Perhaps when the time is right, Elia can be introduced to the principles and techniques of Permaculture, in the hopes of sparking an interest and giving him a new perception of the possibilities which lie before him. --|||||Sergie|||||


The following day, festivities continued with a trip to the nearby fishing town of Aci Trezza where Peppe Pavone was taught the basics of scuba diving by our resident in-house scuba diving instructor, Peppe Minniti. The water was a frosty 18 degrees Celsius and absolutely crystal-clear, thanks to the national reserve restrictions put on the area.
The two Peppes, suited up and ready to go.



The area is well-known for having a lot of Mafia, so our diving instructor
Peppe Minniti always carries his knife...



.... and just in case, he says a prayer too...



.....and uses an advanced technique when entering
the water, in order to confuse them.



Paddling around.



Satisfaction? Oh yeah.





This concluded our few days of relaxation and renewed our energy to continue working on the Casa di l'Amuri project.

Personal thanks #1

At this point in time it is felt necessary to mention a few of the individuals who have paid visits to Casa di l'Amuri in the past few days, seeing as their involvement and presence here has been valued and deeply appreciated.

#1: Giuseppe Pavone (Peppe Pavone)

Peppe Pavone has been a good friend of the Casa di l'Amuri crew members for many years, but only made his first appearance in the house a few days ago. He has been quickly assimilated into the project and has been cheerfully involved in the daily activities in the house almost every day ever since his initial appearance.
The recent discovery of a local school offering English lessons has coincided with Sergie's arrival in the house, providing a great opportunity for some (absolutely hilarious) English-Italian language exchange. He plans to start attending weekly classes from next Wednesday, along with the other Giuseppe (Peppe Minniti).

Apparently, his last name means "peacock". --|||||Sergie|||||


#2: Giovanni Tuccio

Giovanni has been a good friend of Aureliano for quite some time, and was invited to review the house structures based on his expertise in performing high-quality restorations on old delicate structures such as cathedrals. According to Aureliano, Giovanni has a passion for Sicilian culture and traditions which has heavily influenced his decision to remain in Sicily, even though job opportunities seem much more bountiful in other areas of the world, especially for someone of his caliber.
Upon visiting the house earlier this week, Giovanni made some very interesting observations of the house structures, noting several areas of the house which have traditional architectural significance. The related visual and textual information on these is currently being compiled and organized, and will be posted sometime in the near future.
Giovanni would like to do some work on the uncovered windowsill in the main room, so it is likely that we will see him again quite soon.
During his visit he also informed us about the existence of a rather interesting nursery in the area which we did not previously know about. --|||||Sergie|||||


3: Sasha and Ottavio

The ongoing events at Casa di l'Amuri were discussed with Sasha on 17th October, when we converged with him at a local seed-trading and sharing festival held in the town of Macchia di'Giarre. Upon hearing about the existence of the House of Love, he told us that he has lots of love to give and therefore wants to help us in our mission. He was here the next day with Ottavio, another enthusiastic individual (with whom he used to travel together in a camper van across Sicily). With their help, the walls and ceiling of the dining room was painted in under an hour.

4: Renato Basile

Renato was called upon for help by Aureliano when he uncovered the ancient window-sill in the main room, and was also asked for advice when the wooden flooring was being installed in the indigo-room. He helps run and organize events in Re Ba, an art shop/cafe and project space used to host art exhibitions and music performances in Catania. In his free time he also works on restoring a property which is quite similar to Casa di l'Amuri.

5: Daniele

Daniele is a computer science student in Catania, and creator of the Re Ba website mentioned above. He visited the Casa di l'Amuri a few days ago to discuss with Sergie the skills and computer languages necessary to learn in order to transfer this blog into a website format sometime later in the future.
He also fixed our wireless internet so that now we can surf from anywhere in the house. Wooohoo! Thanks Daniele --|||||Sergie|||||

Progress update #1: "Indigo room" flooring

In recent days, quite a lot of spaces have been worked on in the house and the main task at hand has been to break up the developments into easily readable separate posts. To cover the developments in this fashion, we should start on the area which was being observed in the previous post: the "indigo room". At this current moment in time, the main bulk of the flooring installation job has been completed and the photos of the progress can be seen below.

At the time of writing the previous post, it was found that the floor also had irregularities which had begun to cause one side of the wooden panels to become suspended above the floor by about a centimeter. A quick make-shift solution was implemented where some leftover linoleum carpet was folded up and tucked underneath the panels to provide support and fill in some of the gap. This solution was quite likely not the best in terms of professionalism but was found to be quite effective, economical, waste-utilizing and the final result came out to be fairly presentable. No severe irregularities can be found, and all sections of the flooring react in an equal fashion when human weight is applied.

Upon completion of the flooring installation, two major observations were made. The first notable change in the space was the temperature, which (like magic) suddenly became much higher and now remains at a very cozy and comfortably warm level at all times during the day and night. The second change was noticed in the acoustics of the room, which now seem to embellish any produced sound with a rich quality of sustain and reverberation. It was agreed upon that the quality of the sound has been improved even further, providing us with an incredible opportunity to do some beautiful recording.

Future developments on the list include the construction of a multi-level platform to be placed at the entrance point of the room, which can be utilized as a shelf for the placement of shoes and periodically as an audience seating space during artistic performances.
The stage at which the flooring installation
was left at in the last post.
Peppe Minniti sitting on top of the flooring with rolled-up
linoleum to balance out the imperfections in the floor.

Aureliano using a bottle of water with an air bubble
and some paint to create a home-made level measurer,
used to confirm the insignificant change in angle of the
flooring.

Sergie adding the last panel.

The finished product, with some mattresses donated by
Aureliano's aunt.



Everyone is really pleased with how this space turned out. After spending just €105 on the flooring (everything else that we needed was already lying around the property or in possession of our friends) we now have a great space to drink lots of wine, pretend to be Pavarotti and fall asleep, in that order and all in the same place too. --|||||Sergie|||||

lunedì 25 ottobre 2010

What has been done so far? Part 5


traduzione di Grazia Sciuto        


English below

L’ultimo spazio interno della casa a ricevere seri interventi di recupero è la stanza posta in fondo alla casa, approssimativamente grande la metà della “stanza principale”.
Abbiamo subito notato che l’acustica in questa stanza era semplicemente eccezionale, ed abbiamo concordato quindi che qualsiasi modifica effettuata su di essa non avrebbe dovuto alterare la qualità del suono in alcun modo. Poiché lo spazio è alquanto ristretto ed ha una finestra non troppo piccola in cima alla stanza, siamo arrivati alla conclusione che la quantità di calore ed energia sonora che essa sprigiona è inferiore rispetto al resto della casa. Si è giunti all’accordo che questo spazio dovesse rappresentare per noi un ambiente calmo, relativamente isolato e protetto, quindi adatto al sonno ma utile anche alla realizzazione di performance musicali o come sala di registrazione. Lo spazio ci è sembrato adatto anche ad ospitare incontri di meditazione e performance artistiche per audience limita.

Il colore scelto per questa stanza è l’indaco, allo scopo di riflettere gli scopi di questa stanza. Secondo il nostro guru mistico Aureliano, il colore indaco rimanda al chakra della fronte che governa l’area della percezione interiore e la percezione delle cose immateriali. Esso ci fornisce anche i legami necessari per utilizzare le nostre energie creative. Io non so granché in materia, ma i colori scelti per decorare la casa sembrano tutti accordarsi con gli scopi individuati per ciascuno spazio e lo stesso scopo è accompagnato da schemi di pensiero completamente differenti, dipendenti dalla stanza nella quale ho elaborato ed interpretato quello stesso scopo.
Strano, continuerò le mie osservazioni su questo….




The last interior space inside our section of the house to receive serious touch-up work was a room approximately half in size of the "main room", tucked away at the rear end of the house. It was quickly noted that the acoustics in this room were simply incredible, and it was agreed upon that any developments made in this room should not interfere with the possible sound quality in any way. As this space was rather narrow in configuration and had a fairly small window at the head of the room, we came to the conclusion that the amount of thermal and sound energy which leaked from this room was much lower when compared to the rest of the house. Thus it was agreed upon that this space should provide us with a quiet, relatively well-insulated and generally protected sleeping environment, while also periodically facilitating our musical performances and recording sessions. The space also seems very suitable for meditation sessions and artistic performances for small audience groups.

To accompany and reflect the purposes of the space, the color was chosen to be indigo. According to our guru on all things woo-woo (Aureliano), the color indigo relates to the chakra of the brow which governs areas of introspective perception and perception of immaterial things. It also provides us the necessary links to tap into our creative energies. I don't know much about these things, but the colors chosen in the house all seem to "feel" right for the purposes intended, and the same task is accompanied by totally different thought patterns depending on which room I perform the task in. Strange, I'll continue my observations of this. --|||||Sergie|||||

Giuseppe and Aurelio si rilassano nella stanza prima diventi indaco
Giuseppe and Aurelio relaxing in the space, before the indago restore

Aureliano pronto alla pittura
Aureliano ready to paint.

Mischiando i colori - Mixing the colors.


Pitturando il muro - Painting the walls.

 

Quasi Finito! - Almost done!


Sergie ammira il lavoro fatto - Sergie admiring the work


Dopo che il colore è stato mescolato e applicato ai muri e al soffitto, la nostra attenzione si è rivolta al pavimento che manteneva una temperatura fredda costante. Prevedere un sistema di isolamento si rendeva necessario affinché noi potessimo dormirci in modo confortevole. La soluzione: un vecchio rotolo di linoleum che i vicini avevano buttato fuori come se fosse spazzatura. Dopo avere ottenuto il loro permesso per poterlo utilizzare, siamo andati alla locale falegnameria per chiedere consiglio su come utilizzare il linoleum come materiale isolante e per sapere i prezzi di alcune tavole di legno da mettere sopra il linoleum. Sono state scelte le tavole più sottili (per evitare l’eccessiva distorsione della qualità del suono all’interno della stanza) e ci è stato detto che lo strato di linoleum poteva essere utilizzato sotto le tavole per creare un maggiore isolamento sulla pavimentazione. 


After the color was mixed and applied to the walls and ceiling, our attention turned to the stone floor which held a constant cold temperature. Some sort of insulation was necessary if we were to sleep in comfort. The solution: an old roll of linoleum carpet that the neighbours put out for garbage collection. After receiving their permission to use the roll, we visited the local saw-mill to consult them about using the linoleum as insulation and to get a price for some nice wooden boards to put on top of the linoleum. Rather thin wooden boards were chosen to be used (to avoid too much distortion to the sound quality of the room) and we were told that the linoleum carpet could indeed be used under the boards to create a more insulated flooring.

After the paint job, we were left with 10cm high unpainted tiles going around the bottom of the walls. To give the room some character, we decided to decorate the tiles in some colorful way. The style of Wassily Kandinsky was initially used as inspiration for the decorations, however this style of painting quickly evolved into something very different. Eventually, we all started adding decorations to the wall and had begun to ask our friends and family members of the Garozo family to do the same. Before we knew it, we had turned a simple room into a beautiful artwork with immense personality and unique meaning for each person involved in its creation.

La mamma e la cugina di Aureliano - Aureliano's cousin and mother....

.....Aurelio....
Miriam la figlia di Giovanni e Grazia....Giovanni and Grazia's daughter, Miriam....
Dario Il nipote di Aureliano - .Aureliano's nephew...Dario

La zia di Aureliano, tutti hanno aiutato ad aggiugere le decorazoni
and Aureliano's aunt all helping to make additions
to the decorative strip.










Una volta che la maggior parte delle decorazioni sono state finite, si è iniziato aa installare il parquet in legno mettendo sotto del materiale d'isolamento fatto con del linolium riciclato dagli scarti di un negozio di materiale edile. Questo è stato lavato e steso nel modo piu regolare possibile per ricoprire la fredda pavimetazione in marmo, ovviamente non originale! ma una economica sostituzione degli anni settanta. Successivamnete il legno, del parquet perlinato, è stato aggiunto sopra ed è stato necesario un ritaglio in orizzontale in modo tale da rispettare le irregolarita delle misure del muro. Quindi ogni tavola e stata tagliata a misura ed in questo modo inoltre si è riusciti a non avere alcuno scarto.Circa ogni dieci tavole si e deciso di fare dei buchi per inserire 3viti con 3tasselli per rendere il parquet piu stabile.

 floor panels with linoleum carpet insulation underneath. The carpet was washed, cut to shape and placed as regularly as possible onto the stone floor. Placement of the wooden floor-boards length-wise onto the linoleum begun but soon proved difficult due to the irregularity of the walls. Thus it was found necessary to use a electric saw to cut the boards into pieces so that they could be placed together width-wise instead. Making adjustments to the length of the board pieces according to how much the wall budged out or caved in at certain places also proved to be necessary. To keep the boards more stable on the floor it was decided that each 10th board across would be drilled and attached to the floor by means of 3 screws.

Aureliano e Giuseppe che tagliano le tavole in legno
Aureliano and Giuseppe cutting the wood.

Sergie e Aureliano provano prima ad installare i pannelli verticalmemte
Sergie and Aureliano first trying to arrange the panels length-wise...

e poi orizzonatlmente......and then width-wise.....

aggiungendo tasselli per stabilizzare - with some added stabilization.

Tutto ciò ci ha portati alla fine del nostro lavoro cercando di attutire al massimo le irregolarità delle vecchie mura e del pavimento.


This brings us to the end of our overview and up to date on the work completed so far in the house during the last two weeks. Currently, the indigo room is undergoing development and floor board adjustment to compensate for the curving walls and the (recently discovered) curving floor. We will keep you updated on the progress of the developments as much as possible.
There are still some blank tiles reserved for those who want to come and paint them. If you are in the area within the next week and want to do some decorating, give us a shout. --|||||Sergie|||||