Hidden away in a heavily wooded mountains valley between Lake Maggiore and Monta Rosa above the town of Ornavasso, up a winding lane, past three ancient churches you will find our delightful Swiss style log chalet built in the 1930’s by Walser’s, renowned for their carpentry skills. The Chalet was originally built to escape the summer heat and used only as a weekend cottage. During the war Chalet Boden became the headquarters of the resistance for a while and we actually found some unspent bullets hidden in the wall as we renovated.
Maurice found Chalet Boden in 2018 on the internet and was very surprised when he showed it to me and I said buy it!
Love at first sight. Oblivious to all the work that would be required as she had stood empty for many years.
We bought her (without survey!) for the purpose of having a lovely holiday home of our own in the beautiful country of fabulous food and wine, in a climate we enjoy, loads of varied walking, the lakes in the summer and skiing in the winter, and a project for which we thought we could do much of the work ourselves!
Arriving the first time in November 2018 with a fully loaded van, in a snowstorm, with a single width hairpin path (still is) to carry everything up. Thankfully four locals turned up to help and by the time it got dark we had everything in. The house was freezing. We lit the only fire and it made absolutely no difference, there wasn’t even enough electricity to do anything other than boil a kettle and even this made the light bulbs (one in each room) flutter. We quickly realised that the restaurant at the bottom of the garden was a huge asset where we took refuge and gratefully found they also let bedrooms. So we could wrap up, work all day and know there was a hot shower at the end, a good dinner and a comfortable night’s sleep.
Work commenced, plans unfolded and Franco, a local builder and his team were found. A Geometra was employed to draw up plans and seek permission to add a front terrace. Over time the electricity supply was enlarged and internet connected. Maurice started to learn Italian building vocabulary and I was amazed how much heavier each sheet of plasterboard became as we carried them up the hairpin garden path! Everything had to come up that way until Franco put up the ‘Eiffel Tower’. A huge four pier giant Meccano structure with a motorised pully at the top and ramps weaving over to the chalet along which you could precariously push a wheelbarrow load of sand or bags of rubble plus all the rest of the materials required.
The Chalet had been built on granite with the majority of the structure being local wood; the original builder restored the woodwork of churches and he had used unwanted or spare materials to facilitate the building of the chalet but none of the walls, as we discovered on day one, were insulated, nor the roof or the floors, wiring was probably added later in the original build and plumbing ‘sparse’. Not to be disheartened we thought the best way forward was to tackle it room by room; that way we could at least see some improvement as we went along . Whilst we worked upstairs Franco and his team rearranged the layout downstairs, put in a couple of RSJ’s and insulated the ground floor. Having built (not finished) our first bathroom we felt able to stay in the house but all was pretty basic, a two ring gas cooker, an enamel table and a fridge; we could boil a kettle and there was always a cold beer to wash away the dust from our throats. This maximized our work time and the house was starting to take shape. Upstairs was insulated and Franco had completed the structural work downstairs. There was a lot more wood panelling on the ground floor, some was absolutely lovely and other parts were not at all to our taste. We had to be ruthless as there was little storage space, anything dismantled got in the way and we were worried that over time if we took too much down we would not be able to fit it back. As we were insulating every exterior wall the interior dimensions were diminishing all the time, it was fast becoming a jigsaw puzzle where you needed a pair of scissors to fit it all back in the box. Carefully numbered parts got in a muddle and tempers frayed, time for a mountain walk with our patient dogs and remember why we were here, calm down and carry on. Panelling refitted, electricity chased in as we went, plumbing flushing (new drainage system outside – thankyou Franco), kitchen floor laid thanks to u-tube tutorials and kitchen fitted, we were seeing the benefit of our work. One more trip out for me to remove all the windows, clean off all the paint, (and there were a lot of layers) but the pitch pine frames were as new underneath. A glazier was found and thicker glass panes fitted to all, I re-stained them and hung them (in the correct order-eventually!) The house was nearly there but for roof insulation, Covid hit and all ran to a stop apart from us deciding that rather than just insulate the roof we would renew it which our builders were happy to do through Covid; a job that they could do with little people contact suited them well and that was the icing on the cake.
Now four years on, we have enjoyed every part of the project. From the first the local people have been outstanding in their welcome, patience and generosity, helping and advising us through the whole build. Yes we overspent our original budget and yes we took longer than intended but we have learnt a lot on the way and yes we would do it again!
The chalet is now complete with new roof, all walls insulated, new heating system, new waste water system, two new en-suite bathrooms, two very comfortable bedrooms complete with vi-spring super king double beds and both with en-suite bathrooms. A panelled stair case leads down to generous dining table and newly fitted kitchen, open plan lounge with French doors to new terrace with view of wooded mountains and rugged peaks and the lovely church.
Chalet Boden is now extremely comfortable and ready to receive guests for a delightful holiday in a gorgeous area of Italy for up to four persons.
