2 building plots in Balestrino
Posted in real estate for sale on Jul 12th, 2007 No Comments »
If you have been looking for a holiday home on the Italian Riviera for some time now , without finding anything suitable , you might consider buying a nice plot with sea view , away from crowds of tourists , yet only a short drive away from Liguria´s buzzing coast .
Undoubtedly there is an advantage in building a new home vs an already existing house which in most cases will need a total renovation anyways .
Together with the architect you can bring in your own ideas and make the house suit 100 % your family situation . You will have a nice garden with shady places to sit outside and your kids will enjoy playing in their own pool .
Inside your dream villa will have the type of bathroom or kitchen you like , as you yourself can choose out of hundred of different types and shapes . Same for the materials used , colors and finishings .
Building a new house after all is not as expensive as the restoration of an old listed building , where you must stick to dozens of complicated ligurian building regulations .
If you like large rooms with lots of light - for example , you can mostly forget about that when you restore an old rustico . Rustico are typical ligurian stone houses which have been built in the middle ages , in times , when there was no central heating and no air conditioning . Consequently people tried to build houses with tiny openings , as this was the only way to protect themselves from hot heat or cold temperatures in winter .
So far - so good , but local authorities in Liguria , will not let you make the windows any bigger then they were originally . According to the rules of ” Belle Arte ” ( society for the preservation of listed buildings) all openings must remain the original size , no new windows may be added .
It is different with new houses - there are no such regulations and you may have large windows , skylights and sliding window - doors to let in as much light as possible .
It is also more difficult to have a central heating built into an old rustic house with 1 m thick walls and vaulted ceiling , then in a newly built home , and not only that - it is also much more expensive .
Many people tend to believe that buying and restoring a rural property will save them a lot of money , but this is simply just a fairy tale … usually the opposite is the case , you will end up paying much more than you have been told before , because of the ” imprevisti” which means those ” surprises” nobody thought about before starting work .
When buying a plot you have the advantage that you are the one to choose the location . After finding the right spot for you , building your Italian holiday home is the easiest part and normally it takes no more than 6 months after approval to build an earth quake resistant quality home with 3 -4 bedrooms and en suite bathrooms , eat-in kitchen , living-room and terraces as well as a pool .
the famous Song Festival, the Corso Fiorito with 100s of carts and coaches , beautifully decorated with fresh flowers and fruits , and not to forget the exciting Milano-San Remo cycling race.