How We Bought The Nook

From Dreaming to Doing

Once our offer on The Nook was accepted, the reality of what we had done started to sink in. Up until that point most of our time had been spent imagining possibilities. We had measured rooms, discussed layouts, wondered where showers could go and spent far too much time talking about platform beds and waste waterpipes. Suddenly we were actually buying a house!

Buying property in Italy is quite different from buying property in the UK and one of the things we quickly learnt is that patience is not optional, things happen when they happen.

The Paperwork Begins

We had been working with the property agent Martina Immobiliare throughout our search and they had become quite taken by us. Most people they showed properties to wanted more space. We seemed to be moving steadily in the opposite direction. Every house we viewed appeared to get smaller than the last. By the time we told them we wanted to buy The Nook, a three-storey house so narrow that most people would immediately dismiss it, nobody seemed remotely surprised.

Part of the process involved reviewing the property documents and meeting with a geometra. One of our favourite discoveries was an old drawing showing the property boundaries. There was something strangely lovely about seeing this tiny house represented in a hand drawn sketch that had existed for decades. We also discovered that the beautiful stone staircase leading up to the house formed part of the title, together with the little space beneath it that opens onto the street. 

The Blue Door

By this point we had spent so much time thinking about The Nook that it already felt familiar. We knew where the damp was coming from. We knew which roof tile had slipped. We knew exactly how narrow the top floor was. We knew where we hoped the shower might fit. We knew how much light came into each room at different times of day. There was another thing we couldn't stop thinking about. Next door to The Nook was a cantina behind a blue door. Every time we visited, one or other of us would mention it. Who owned it? Was it used? Had it been abandoned? Could it ever become part of the project? We never expected to find out the answer. In Italy properties can disappear into family ownership structures that seem almost impossible to unravel.

Then, entirely by chance, Martina's father dropped into the office while we were there. He happened to be a geometra and when he heard we were buying The Nook he casually mentioned that he knew the owners of the cantina next door and they were looking to sell. The blue door suddenly wasn't a mystery anymore. A viewing was arranged for the next day and before long Rocco found himself standing inside the cantina. It was much larger than ours. Damp, dark and full of potential. It would effectively double the storage space available to us and, perhaps more importantly, came with the possibility of parking nearby which, in a medieval hill town, is something not to be underestimated. 

One Property Became Two

Of course, buying the cantina turned out to be almost as complicated as buying The Nook, which had three sellers. The Cantina had a further four sellers involved, a widow and her three children. We negotiated, waited, negotiated again and then waited some more. At one point there was a discussion about some historic title issue dating back many years. We spoke to various people, asked questions and did our research. Eventually we concluded the risk was very small and not unusual for old Italian properties.

Somewhere along the way we realised we had gone from buying one property to buying two.

The Notary's Office

A few weeks later we all found ourselves sitting in a notary's office. Between the house and the cantina there were seven sellers. Seven sellers, two buyers and one notary patiently working through every document, every payment and every declaration. The process felt wonderfully old-fashioned. Paper deeds. Signatures. Names being read out. Endless checking and rechecking. Nobody appeared to be in a hurry and somehow that felt entirely appropriate. Two hours later the paperwork was finally complete. The keys were handed over. Then, quite suddenly, it was done. After months of conversations, viewings, sketches, measurements, negotiations and daydreaming, we walked into The Nook as owners. It felt exactly as exciting as we had imagined. Possibly more.

Project Details

Location: San Donato Val di Comino, Lazio, Italy

Property: Historic stone village house

Project: The Nook

Key architectural feature: Traditional stone groin vault (cantina)

Focus: Slow restoration, thoughtful design and preserving traditional craftsmanship

The Nook Journal

The Nook Journal follows our restoration of a tiny historic stone house in San Donato Val di Comino, Italy. Through these journal entries we share the design decisions, craftsmanship, village life and small discoveries that come with bringing an old building back to life, one step at a time.