Welcome to our lovely colonial house in Mirano, another great find on AirBNB. It took some convincing, but I talked Jim into a country house in Italy. We are in a small town called Mirano, which is about 45-mins outside of Venice. We actually arrived about 15-days ago, so I’m more than a little behind on posting, but it’s been a whirlwind thus far. I knew going into October it was going to be one of the hardest months from a travel perspective. We have several other cities we wanted to explore in Italy beyond Venice, so settling into our house took some time.
Our first weekend in Mirano, we took a long weekend trip to Naples, Sorrento, Pompeii, and Rome. We were gone for 5-days, which threw me for a loop when it came to settling into the house. We were really only here for 5-days before we packed up for our 5-day trip. We’ve been back for about 5-days and I’m now feeling much more settled and at home.
It’s strange really. Even though we are traveling for a full year, there’s something really important to me about having a home-base each month. I am very much a person driven by routine and the comforts of “home.” I like my quiet mornings, drinking coffee, & snuggled up with Nolan. I like doing laundry and cooking for the family. I like going to the grocery store on Sunday’s and making my meal plan for the week. All of these things allow me to make it through a year of non-stop travel.
Anywho, back to Mirano. We are settled and I’m very happy. Jim might go crazy in such a small town by the end of the month, but Nolan and I are loving our house. It’s a lovely 2-story house with a nice size yard and a lovely patio. On the first floor, there’s a half bathroom, kitchen, and living area. On the second floor, there are three bedrooms and two full bathrooms. One of the things I love most about the house are the ceilings — there are beautiful wood, plank ceilings throughout the house.
The kitchen is well stocked, with a full-size coffee pot, and it has a dishwasher, which is much welcomed after Kyiv. I did struggle the first time I attempted to actually cook in the kitchen. I kept blowing the power in the entire house. I was attempting to make breakfast, so I had the broiler on in the oven for toast, and I was using the stove top — apparently, that is not doable. After blowing the power three times, I decided to forego the toast and we just had eggs and bacon. We did call the homeowner and he had a repairman come look at the oven. Apparently, something was replaced, but I was directed not to use both the oven and stove top at the same time. Should make cooking interesting for the month — more to come on that!
Besides the Kitchen, the main floor has one large open space for both a dining room table and the living area. The couch is very small, two-person couch, which isn’t ideal for movie nights, but we will make it work.
The house only has a washer so we will be drying our clothes this month using a drying rack. Crunchy clothes are one of my least favorite things in the entire world, but we will make it work. And .. unlike Kyiv, there’s no cleaning service, so I’m back to cleaning the house myself. Tough life, I know.
Our office spaces took some planning this month. Jim set up his office in the dining room, but I knew we would struggle sitting next to each other because we are both loud talked and we are both often on meetings a large portion of our workday. Upon investing, I decided to re-configure one of our three closets in our bedroom and turn it into a desk. Thankfully, we travel with a multi-use screwdriver, so I was pretty sure I could make it work. It took me about an hour, but I did eventually get a desk configured.
I’m really looking forward to our month and the quiet country house.
Front and Back of the House:
^The back of the house has an automatic retractable awning. Poor Jim has hit his head about 50-times.
Main Level – Entry Way & Shoe, Sunscreen, Keys, Sunglass Station:
^There’s a secret little drawer under the staircase, which we made our shoe basket.
Main Level – Kitchen:
Coffee Pot:
^Literally the SLOWEST coffee pot in the ENTIRE world, but it works! Nolan has been “making coffee” every morning and it takes a full hour to brew a full 10-cup pot.
Main Level – Living Area / Jim’s Office:
Main Level – Laundry:
Second Floor – Bathroom 1:
Second Floor – Bathroom 2:
Second Floor – Nolan’s Room:
^Nolan’s room actually has a small balcony area, which he thinks is pretty cool. He set it up as a Lego area.
Second Floor – Jim and Kathy’s Bedroom:
^This is the view from the bedroom window.
Second Floor – Kathy’s Closet Office:
