After all the windows had been replaced and all the holes in the façade had been plastered, it was clear that the house couldn’t stay like this. Apart from the fact that we never really liked the cool yellow, which by then had a slight gray tint.

So we apply (yes, everything has to be applied for, even the façade paint!!) to the municipality for permission to redesign the façade of our house. The offers from the painting company Santacroce and the scaffolding company are available and after the okay from the municipality, we can get started. Unfortunately, the work is delayed by persistent rainfall, but eventually it finally gets underway. The scaffolding company is deathly afraid to transport the scaffolding parts through the narrow, steep streets. In no time at all, the scaffolding is erected despite the complicated height conditions on the house, all the windows are intact and nobody has fallen. Then Lazzaro and Salvatore, the two plasterers/painters, arrive with their boss Massimo to plan everything in detail. Which material will be stored where so that it doesn’t get damp, where the red plaster will be mixed (with a huge cloud of red dust) so that nothing gets dusty, who will dismantle the shutters and where they will be stored safely and which adhesive tape will be used to cover which materials so that they hold but don’t get damaged. And then Lazzaro stands in the doorway and asks (in Italian): “And what are we going to do with the red-tail?” Huh? Well, yes, I know that last year a redstart was nesting on our balcony, up on the ceiling beam, but what does that have to do with the plastering? Lazzaro explains that they looked inside the nest and found several eggs. You can’t clean around the nest. That’s already clear. His question is where he should put the nest to try and get it to continue incubating. I am impressed by so much consideration and assign the nest to another – in my opinion very suitable – place. The ornithologists among you will now think I’m completely stupid. No, obviously you can’t “replant” a nest. When I’m back in Italy two weeks later, it’s clear that the parents are no longer incubating the nest and I’m sad. However, I am somewhat comforted by the fact that there is another redstart nest right next to the nest, which is already inhabited by six little chicks who are being fed by their parents every second. I simply assume that they are the same parents who have now simply built a new nest.

Back to the work on our house: I think it took Salvatore and Lazzaro a whole day just to mask off and cover all the surfaces that needed to be protected. Another strip here, another layer of fleece there…. I am thrilled.

And then the actual work begins: Cleaning the old plaster, applying a thin layer of plaster, allowing it to dry, sanding it down and then some kind of fabric mats are applied, onto which another layer of something is applied. The whole thing is then painted in the final color, although there is still a layer of plaster on top. This is done so that the light-colored substrate doesn’t show through later if something chips in one place. At some point, the rough plaster is applied, which already has the final color. And that’s when I’m incredibly grateful to Salvatore and Lazzaro for their precision: The bright red plaster crumbles and crumbles its way everywhere that hasn’t been one hundred percent masked off. The little screaming red stones, which nevertheless hide in the cracks on the uneven tiles, settle between the soles of your shoes, preferably in the living room, where they crumble away comfortably. Fortunately, this can be removed with a little scrubbing.

Now three of the four walls are already looking really great and I’m confident that everything will be finished by the end of this week and the last pieces of scaffolding will finally disappear from the courtyard so that we can walk through the front door again without bumping our heads.