2017 Goals

Welcome! You have stumbled across the accumulation of our hopes and dreams for 2017.  If you’ve been following us, you know that we are focusing our energy here in Italy to stimulate the economy in our own small way.  We have outlined a series of goals to help us keep our focus and be result driven.  Truthfully, we have many, therefore we have chosen 2017 as our springboard for future success.  If you want to view our series of lifetime goals, please enjoy!

Remodel, Retire, Relax!  These are the terms we hold to as our family plots its course!

Accountability

Below you will find this years goals and an analysis of our progress that we will be updating over time.  You can also see a quick snapshot on our sites Homepage underneath the heading “Measurable Goals.”  If you find something interesting, you would really help us out if you sent us a comment or a message asking how we are doing on our goals.  It will keep us accountable you know?

Click through the tabs to discover more!

Analysis

At the time of writing this we’ve already accomplished some goals and boy does it feel good to see the points add up!  I’ve split the analysis into multiple graphs in order to help track true completion of different projects.  First up, we have our ‘Remodel’ goals:

Remodel

In 2014 my wife and I bought an Italian ‘Villa a Schiera,’ or in other words townhouse. Technically it means ‘house in a row’ but you understand right? We’ve now lived in it for 2.5 years and have made minor improvements during that period.  I have to say that living in a house while remodeling it in Italy, at least to me, is more difficult than where I’m from.  The difference is the type of construction.  It would seem that concrete homes create a lot more dust during a construction project than a wood-constructed home would.  Live and learn!

Here is a breakdown of our progress based on the goals above!

Castiraga

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Finishing over 30% of the tasks for the year is a good start, but being in May perhaps we’re a little bit behind.  At the beginning of the year our intention was to have the house fixed up April in order to put it on the market.  With one thing leading to the other, we are obviously not on track.  Even better, we have left our home behind for a few months and are staying in South Italy with Elalopa’s parents.  As sad as I am that the plan didn’t go as we wanted, sadness is replaced with sunlight and beautiful beaches less than 30 minutes from our door. The house project will always be there, but the opportunity to live in South Italy  with minimal expenses will be gone at the end of 2017.  Which one would you have chosen?

When we do get the ‘Casa Castiraga’ on the market, it won’t be perfect, but for a family like ours that enjoy a little bit of DIY, the house will be ideal.  I imagine selling it under market value, but even then we stand to gain a large increase on our investment.  To find out the details on our sale you can subscribe to our newsletter where I’ll be sharing the financials of the entire process in the future. Hopefully soon!

Sant’Angelo

Early in 2016 we purchased a condo, yet again on auction for a close family member.  We received the keys to it late in that year, which has placed this project high on our list for 2017.  Honestly, it has absorbed the majority of our time.  Thus, we have yet to do any updates here on the site, but they will be added shortly. We did however make a series of live video’s that you can find on our YouTube channel ‘The DauvO.’  It’s mostly just me making a record of changes at the end of the day. Please check out the videos and comment and subscribe when you get the chance.  I do have to apologize, the quality of the video’s are fairly poor due to technology issues in the zone where the house is located. But I still had a lot of fun doing them.

On to the analysis. 80% completion!  We are on the border of marking these goals as 100% complete.  Seriously, wow does it feel good!  A lot of these things would have been 100% complete and truthfully were.  The problem is that, in early May, we discovered a pretty impressive leak in the roof that has damaged the walls of the living room and bathroom.  At the same moment a fitting on water line sprung a leak and caused damage to the downstairs neighbor.  Don’t you love challenges!  Needless to say, some of our tasks were bumped from completion.  To see photos of the project visit the Sant’Angelo Condo project page!

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This is what I have time for as of today.  As seen above we have many goals that need fulfilled and updates will be coming ASAP!  Thanks again!

In the mean time, visit ‘Our Story’ page if you haven’t already!