If you’ve stumbled upon this corner of the internet, welcome! We’re so glad you’re here.
This blog is the beginning of what is sure to be a long, unpredictable, and slightly wild journey: restoring a 19th-century property in the Puglian countryside just outside Ostuni.
We wanted to kick things off with a simple opener—setting the scene, sharing how we ended up here, and giving you a quick look at what we’re taking on before we get into the real dirt, dust, and decision-making.
A Dream 25 Years in the Making
Our connection to this part of Italy isn’t new. My wife, who works as a solicitor in Australia, grew up in London and has been spending her summers in Puglia with her family for the last 25 years. I’m a destination wedding photographer based in Puglia throughout the European summer (and Melbourne for the rest of the year), so this region has been a huge part of our lives for a long time.
Around twenty-five years ago, my wife’s mum bought an incredible old 19th-century stone house surrounded by ancient olive groves. The original idea was always to restore it, but as the years went on, life got busy and taking on a project of this size just wasn’t doable. Eventually, the family decided it was time to put the property up for sale.
When it came down to it, we just couldn’t watch the house leave the family. So after a lot of long chats and weighing it up, we decided to step in, buy out the property, and take on the restoration ourselves.
The Reality: A Very Beautiful, Very Off-Grid Blank Canvas
To say we have our work cut out for us is a bit of an understatement!
The main house is a tall, imposing stone structure built in the 1800s, complete with an original family crest carved right into the front facade. By modern standards, it’s completely off-grid: there’s zero modern wiring, no updated plumbing, and the entire property relies solely on three historic underground water cisterns. Downstairs—in what will eventually be our main living room—you can still see the original stone watering troughs where cattle were kept back in the day.
Our vision for the house is pretty simple: we want to bring back the original beauty of the building without making any big, dramatic external changes. We want to work with what’s already here—peeling back old wall plaster to hopefully reveal the natural peach-yellow stone underneath, keeping the structural arches intact, and slowly turning this historic space into a warm, comfortable home.
Outside the stone walls, we have two hectares of land filled with olive trees. Like anyone with land in Southern Italy right now, one of our biggest tasks is working out what on earth to do about the deadly olive tree disease (Xylella) that has been sweeping across Puglia. Whether that means trying to heal and save the current trees or making the tough call to replace them, figuring out the land is just as big a piece of the puzzle as fixing up the house itself.
Managing the Madness from Afar
Right now, we are in the very early, exciting stages of drawing up layout ideas for the house and starting to sketch out concepts for the surrounding gardens.
Because we split our year between Melbourne and Italy, running a renovation from the other side of the planet adds a whole extra layer of complexity. Between navigating local planning permissions, working out how to drill a well, and figuring out how to bring actual power to the site, we’ve already run into a few… interesting challenges.
We aren’t going to spill all the secrets just yet—we’ll be sharing the hiccups, the breakthroughs, and the step-by-step progress as things actually get moving on site.
Thanks for joining us right at the start of the adventure. There’s a mountain of work ahead, but we can’t wait to share the ride with you!
