In 2020, Kristina Knighten, 38, and her husband, Paul Cordier, 46, closed on their dream home in Lago d’Iseo, Italy.

They bought the two-bedroom house for 23,000 euros, or $24,973, at the time.

“It looked like a house you drew when you were a kid with the pitched roof, the door in the center, and the two windows upstairs,” Knighten tells CNBC Make It. “It was really cute and just steps away from the train, steps away from the lake. It felt too good to be true.”

The couple started renovations on the home in March of this year — it needed a new roof, for example — and estimated the renovations would cost about 100,000 euros or $108,578.

“It was going well, and we were making good progress but unfortunately, the costs increased by 25%,” Knighten says.

The couple decided to go the DIY route: “When we looked at the invoices, labor is the biggest cost, so if my husband can provide the labor, then maybe we’ll get this over the line.”

At the start of renovations, the couple was living in a nearby rental apartment and had hoped they’d be ready to move into their new home by the time the lease had come to an end. Unfortunately, that was not a possibility and the couple had to work fast to secure new housing.

At the same time, Cordier’s sister was getting ready to close on a home in Italy of her own.

“She wants to eventually relocate here as well, so we had been keeping an eye on properties for her,” Knighten says.

“Luckily, she liked this apartment, which happens to be across the street from our house.”

Cordier’s sister lives in Bangkok and never saw the apartment in person. Cordier acted as her power of attorney in Italy to help her close on the property. She bought it in an all-cash deal for 39,000 euros, or $42,604 and the couple moved in.

The apartment hadn’t been lived in full-time since 2002. The previous owners, who inherited the property, occasionally used it as a vacation house.

Some of the things the couple found inside were a calendar from 2006, a chest of drawers from the 1920s, old photographs of a competition the town used to host, and old bowls with recipes hand-painted on them.

“It was absolutely covered in dust and smelled very musty. It needed a lot of paint and the plaster was crumbling off the walls,” Knighten says. “Even after we had the electricity turned on, we had to make sure it was safe because it’s a very old building.”

The apartment’s layout is quirky, Knighten says. For example, the bathroom is an outhouse, with a toilet, shower, and tile.”We jokingly refer to it as glamping.”

The ground floor has an open living room and kitchen, but to access the two bedrooms, you have to go up an external staircase to the second floor. The bedrooms are railroad-style, so the couple has to pass through one room to get to the other and back out to the common areas.

One thing this apartment has that the couple’s house doesn’t is a backyard overlooking the lake.

“If this had been on the market when we bought our place, we would have bought this instead,” Knighten says. “We don’t have any outside space at our house and since we’ve been here, we go out and have a glass of wine. It’s just really nice.”

Cordier’s sister is saving up to renovate the old apartment and doesn’t plan on moving to Italy for another two years. She isn’t charging the couple any rent, and in return, they are fixing up the property as much as they can.

“We cleaned up the backyard, we cleaned all the furniture, we painted the walls and just trying to make it nicer while we are here,” Knighten says.

Knighten and Cordier hope to be moved into their house by Christmas but are thankful to have this current space just in case that doesn’t happen.

“We’re in a very fortunate situation where we can stay here kind of as long as we need for free,” Knighten says. “It’s not ideal. I don’t want to be having to go outside to pee in the middle of winter but we will do it.”

Conversions to USD were done on August 13, 2024, using OANDA conversion rates of 1 euro to 1.09 USD. All amounts are rounded to the nearest dollar.

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