(32) 🛠️ Painting & Wall Tiles on the Terrace - Retirement @ at 55 Moving to Sicily Italy

IN THIS VIDEO:
Getting close to finishing the Terrace. Painting the walls with a 50/50 Water and Paint mix first as its just a cement based finished with no primer. Then a measure up to calculate how many tiles we are going to need (hint its over 300). Barbara has graced us with her time - busy lady. Garry, my friend from the UK is also over to give us some of his retirement time :-). We have decided on white Paint as it is the best reflector for the Sun during the Summer. Starting on the Terrace we are applying the 5050 water paint mix as the primer before we add the first coat of paint. Several years later we finish the painting and start work on the Wall Tiles. We had a choice of Grey, Ivory or Gold (ish). To add some contrast to the white walls we went for the Orange / Goldish colour. I hope you agree that it works. 300 tiles to be cut and added to the top of the walls on the Terrace. Each stone tile was about 20kgs and we had to carry three pallets worth up to the Terrace two at a time. I can't tell you how destroyed Garry and I were at the end of that horrific process!

📌 Video Chapters:
00:00 ABOUT THIS MOVING TO SICILY ITALY VIDEO
00:32 CLIPS FROM THE CHANNEL
01:00 PAINTING
11:23 WALL TOPPING STONE TILES

OUR CHANNEL:
MOVING TO SICILY - Moving from the UK, emigrating to Sicily Italy, renovating an abandoned house that hasn’t been occupied for 35 plus years. Rotten Windows, grime, leaking Roof, no electrics or water ….. is where we are starting from.

We are Barbara & Milton, have two young girls aged 8 and 10. Please join our family as we embark on an exciting new journey. Moving from UK's bills and cold climate to sunny warm Sicily! I’m 56 and hopefully “Retiring” early. We plan to sell up and emigrate to the wonders of the warm Mediterranean Islands that make up Sicily, Italy. Becoming an Expat - join us as our adventures begin!

📸   / wearemovingtosicily  
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In our Moving to Sicily Channel, we share our experiences of relocating to a new country, the challenges we face, and the beautiful life on this Mediterranean island. Whether you're curious about expat life or dreaming of a move to Italy yourself, come along for the ride as we explore new landscapes, culture, and a fresh start!

Not new to DIY 🛠️ but we need help and suggestions from you. Thank you for all the comments and advice to date! We would very much like to have more advice with regards the Moving to Sicily Channel's evolution, what you would like to see more of and less of - e.g. the area, way of life or more detail about how and why. Please fire more comments, advice and questions over!

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HOW IT STARTED:
Im 56 years old. Waking up one day, exhausted as normal from shift work, and on that drive to work figured out that thanks to the Government extending retirement pension yet again, I had another 22 years of this. Working 60 hours a week just to scrape by each month after covering living costs. The Mortgage, Council Tax, heating costs going up 5%-10% a year. The radio spoke about increasing crime, inflation, tax….. I love my Country but it was now time for me to be selfish. Did I really want to do this for the next 22 years? I then realised that by giving up a £40k a year job wouldn’t be that bad. All I had to do was eliminate my biggest costs and reduce the other costs. Refinance our home to buy a cheap house in a cheaper country, somewhere that had low crime, easy living. Somewhere stuck in time that appreciate a work to live rather than live to work attitude. So, rent out our home to cover the biggest expense, the Mortgage and Council Tax payments, buy a “holiday” home somewhere in the World that was sleepy and cheap. YouTube research gave me places like The East / Orient, Mauritius - all very good options. We settled on Sicily Trapani Italy. And no I don’t speak Italian, not a word. Then plan to just live our lives as best we could for a year and make a decision about a permanent move. Sicily has an amazing landscape, Temples, history, heritage, Beaches, Vineyards. The small town we chose in Sicliy - Mazara del Vallo is on the sea, with a population of 65,000 but the way of life is slow and easy. The Italian lifestyle. Everyone closes for lunch and eats at home with their family - simple pasta, bread and fresh vegetables all grown locally. A Cappuccino and Croissant costs just 3 Euros, and our supermarket bill for a family of four comes to under 70 a week…. Car insurance is per vehicle not per person; no council tax, no hidden stelf taxes on fuel etc. Once you buy a house there are no ongoing taxes, just 300 Euro a year for waste collection. And comparatively very low heating / Aircon bills as its so warm (you need to heat for 3 months a year but that’s it).