As mentioned earlier, our house is officially for sale. The coming weekend already two possible buyers will come to visit us. We are now rushing to get everything in order because the first impression sticks. We only get one shot at it. So I've been running overtime to trim all the hedges (without cutting any fingers or other vital body parts! ) while Christine has been cleaning up the flower beds, the herb garden and trimming the buxus. Next on the list is giving the house itself a good scrubbing. We've been neglecting this a bit for obvious reasons. And we're both so very tired. On my doctor's advice, I've just started to take a lower dose of antidepressants because I was getting too many side-effects. Unfortunately this means that over the next couple of days I'll be feeling more drowsy than ever. But we have no choice. We have to get on with it.
On the other hand, I'm slowly beginning to realise that everything we've built up, everything we've worked so hard for, will soon pass into someone else's hands. It frightens me a bit. I know what we're doing it for, but still I'm feeling ill at ease. Have we really thought this over well enough? Well, there's hardly any way back now because we've already paid 5.000 for the bridge loan and deposited another 27.000 as an advance on the house in Italy. And above all, I've told my employer to get lost. I don't think that they'd appreciate it if I were to ask my old job back.
We knew right from the start that Italy is a very different country than ours. And today we got another example of how different it actually is. Everything regarding the house (sollicitor, workmen, architect,...) has to be paid by cheque. We believed that in this era of technology, a electronic transfer would also be acceptable. Alas, no. Our bank over here doesn't want to transfer money of our bridge loan to our account in Italy so we can pay by cheque. Security reasons or something, so we wouldn't run off with the money. Even though they hold a full mortgage on our house in Belgium, by which they forced us to pay something around 5.000 for sollicitor's costs. We have now proposed a compromise which includes that our bank transfers the money to the sollicitor in Italy. He could then pay the owners, Silvia and Danilo by cheque. We hope that this is acceptable, otherwise we're in trouble...
The reasons for our decision to move to Italy have already been elaborated on thoroughly on this Blog. But since there is a lot of truth in the saying "a picture tells more than a thousand words", it is a real pleasure to present to you some pictures that Christine took of our new home last week. I suppose that everyone will understand our decision now...
The first four pictures were taken from left to right (east to west) from our house, overlooking our land. If you print them, you can lay them next to eachother to create a full panoramic picture. Can you already imagine sitting on a terrace with a nice and cool Italian wine, overlooking that panorama? On the third picture you can see the summit of the Monte Cusna, the highest mountain in the Emilian Appenines (roughly 2.200m).
And for those of you who're still not convinced that visiting our future B&B would be worth the while, imagine you're getting out of bed in the morning, you open the shutters and you see... this... (the dead tree in the middle will be removed of course...)
Christine's quest is coming to an end. At this very moment she's already way past the dreaded Gottard tunnel and heading home. But when I spoke to her on the phone just now, it didn't feel this way to her. She rather felt that she was leaving home for a far and ugly country. When we found the plot of land where we've built our present house, in Wallonia, just across the border with Flanders, we felt that it was like "going on a holiday" every time we drove home. Wallonia is a very different country to good old Flanders. And it's a beautiful country too, especially since Christine and I are so passionate about living in the countryside. But feeling like "going on a holiday" doesn't automatically mean that you also feel like "going home". And that's the twitch that always made us feel a bit uncomfortable here. How often have we moaned about if it were only possible to take a big crane and move our house elsewhere. And that's the big difference with Italy. Although we originally went there on a holiday, it never felt that way. It always felt like "going home".
I knew it. It was all going too smoothly. The bank that originally promised us the mortgage, has now reverted its decision. It has now become their policy to only grant loans to people who:
1. Have residence in Italy 2. Have a fixed income in Italy
We are left to wonder how we could ever meet those terms because we need the mortgage to finish the house (ref. previous message) and we can never present a fixed income because we plan to work as independents with our B&B, my English classes etc. This policy has apparently spread quite rapidly within the Italian bank sector because this particular bank was in fact the only one who originally agreed on the mortgage without any problems. Probably also because Danilo knew the bank manager very well.
So now we're facing some serious problems. Cosetta is going to try to arrange something via her bank and I've also left a message for help on the Italian Astronomy Forum. But one thing's for sure: we will not be discouraged by this!
When we were in Italy to buy our house, we also decided to take a small mortgage on it. This has two advantages; first it will limit our need for an (expensive) bridge-loan in the period that the house in Italy isn't finished yet and our present house still not sold. And secondly, with the record-low rates because of the crisis, we prefer taking a mortgage and holding on to as much of our own capital as possible. We can invest this capital (in a safe way... ) and hence the mortgage will cost us close to nothing. The capital will remain there for ever and will eventually provide us with a (small) fixed income. Call it some kind of "pension fund"... Today, Christine returned to our Italian bank to sort out the details and to translate our payslips. Flemish is not a widely understood language in Italy...
Another thing we're certainly going to do is to plant a large number of walnut trees on our land. We have more than plenty of land and within twenty years the walnut wood will be a significant pension. According to what one of my Italian friends said (he's got a forest guard degree) it is one of the most expensive kinds of wood and it's one of the best investments you can make. And while we're waiting for the trees to grow big enough, we can always sell the nuts. Then again, I'm sure that Christine will have a lot of fun with those. If it's not for making breads or cakes or whatever, she'll surely use them to make crowns or other kinds of decoration. She can't keep still anyway... Here's a picture of her latest passion: cupcakes and sugarwork. It shows her results of a workshop she followed last week...
Just a message to inform you that Christine has arrived very early yesterday evening (around 19:50) and that today she already met with Danilo at our new house. We will probably lower the roof a bit because the attic is currently in a very bad state and all the small windows that it has need replacement. By lowering the roof, we will not need another ceiling (the woodwork under the roof will become the ceiling) and we will recuperate enough natural stone to build a large porch next to the living room. The roof had to be redone anyway. So in all this means a significant saving. Danilo also shares our passion for making our house as environmentally friendly as possible. Unfortunately solar power has not yet become very popular in the region where we plan to move to (contrary to the south of Italy). But we'll certainly already put all the necessary wiring in place so we can install the panels when prices will lower and perhaps subsidies become more substantial. We're also going to install a 20.000l rainwater container which will be more than enough to supply us with water for e.g. the toilets, the washing machine and the garden hose all year round, apart from the natural well which we are fortunate enough to have on our land. We'll also pay much attention to insulation and high-performance windows to keep the heat in during winter and the sun out during summer. And to round it off, we're going to use a heating system which will mainly use blocks or pellets of wood because we'll have that in abundance. Only if really necessary, we can change to gas. Since there is no connection to the natural gas network, we can only have a gas container installed. This is done for free by the gas company. But propane is not as efficient as methane and also costs a lot more. On the other hand, we won't have to pay a monthly subscription fee to the gas company.
At around 7:30 this morning, Christine has started her 13-hour journey to Italy. As I already mentioned, she will meet with Danilo (our landmeter-architect) to discuss the details about the refurbishments. Every couple of hours she texts me to tell me how far she's already progressed. In fact, the very minute I'm writing this (13:13) she sent me a message that she's just arrived in Switzerland. So she's doing great. Well ahead of schedule. She's such an incredible woman... I love her so very much and miss her already. What will it be when she will stay in Italy for good after the act's been signed and I have to return to Flanders all on my own? We'll hardly see eachother for 5-6 months. Yet another thing I don't want to think about yet... at least not for now...
A particular landmark of the area, is the strange "Pietra di Bismantova", or "Rock of Bismantova". This rock lies right next to the town of Castelnovo ne' Monti and this particular picture was taken facing north, overlooking the steep valley that separates our village of Carù (on the hills on the left) with the villages of Sologno, Minozzo and the main town of Villa Minozzo (via the hills on the right). It gives a nice idea of the sort of country we'll be moving to...
I've forgotten to inform you about the whereabouts of our little Italian piece of paradise. Therefore I've now uploaded a small map of the Italian Region of Emilia Romagna, which is north of Tuscany. Our house is situated in the south of the Province of Reggio Emilia, in the heart of an enormous natural park that is called "the park of the giant". This is because the outline of the mountains would resemble a sleeping giant.
It is a green and mountainous area which is yet totally unspoilt by mass tourism. If you want to experience the true Italian lifestyle, this is where you should go. It's the region of the Parmigiano cheese, the Parma ham and the Balsamic vinegar. Great food, slow life, the most wonderful nature imaginable (you'll find many kinds of rare birds and raptors, deer, wild boar and late in the evening you can hear the owls and wolves howling in the distance)... everything one could ever dream of. In fact, during her first visit to our house in March, Christine found a piece of a deer's antlers. Just at the edge of our wood!
The house is situated in the comune of Villa Minozzo, more precisely in the little village of Carù, about 8km to the west of the main town. It is also only 15min away from Castelnovo ne' Monti, the capital of the Emilian Appenines, which is a cosy little town where you can find all kinds of shops and restaurants. At only a one-hour's drive, you'll find the magnificent cities of Parma and Modena (home to the Ferrari factory and museum... ) And further south there are some unknown but (apparently) wonderful ski slopes in the mountains of the Monte Cusna massif. Here's a satellite picture (taken from Viamichelin.com... ) where you can see the house, just north of Carù (the village centre is not on the picture). The house lies at an altitude of roughly 760m above sea level. This means short but snowy winters, but very pleasant summers. Not as suffocatingly hot as in the Parma-Reggio-Modena valley. I've drawn a blue dotted line around our land. In fact, we were a bit disappointed because when we received the compromise, the plot of land turned out to be smaller than originally described. It's now "only" two hectares. Boy, are we spoiled... hahaha
Ladies and gentlemen, it is now official: our house is for sale. We already told our friends and colleagues that we'd sell it, but now we're also doing it officially through our sollicitor. Anybody interested?
It's strange, because it doesn't affect my emotions at all. The big step was already taken when we put our signature under the compromise for the house in Italy. This doesn't seem to make a lot of difference anymore. But I'm sure that this will change dramatically when the new buyers will sign the act with us. Or when we'll eventually have to move out... forever... It's still 6-7 months away. I don't want to think about that now...
Yes... we did it!!! We clenched our fists and pulled through. And the result, well... you can see for yourself...
Finally our house reaches the stage where we can put it up for sale without having to be afraid that potential buyers would be put off by one or two unfinished details. We need every penny we can get out of it. Our house was already valued by a real-estate agent and by the expert from our sollicitor. And both made an estimation much higher than we originallybelieved. This means that we'll have plenty of reserve when we buy the new house in Italy and have it refurbished to modern standards and our taste. At least enough to cover roughly 2-3 years without a single income. But as already said, the dead and unwanted trees on our land would already generate between 10.000-20.000 for the wood alone. And we also hope that our one-room B&B will become a success of course... Well, if you're feeling overstressed, you know where to find us!
A year ago, I was kept at home for three months by a severe burn-out, annex depression. The negative spiral, mostly due to quarrels at work but also due to my wife's illness just knocked me out. And in the past few months I felt the same symptoms coming back again. Not unusual since the causes of my burn-out had not gone away; on the contrary. When I quit my job, I was really balancing at the edge and I hoped that by taking this radical decision I would escape from the worst. But I was wrong. Every day I have difficulties getting out of bed. And after breakfast I feel so horribly tired; like needles are constantly stinging into my head. No problem, one could say, you're at home now for some time and this would give me enough time to recover. But that's not really true. Our house urgently needs finishing before we can sell it. For example, the tiles for the garage floor are already waiting for 6 years to be laid. Every now and then, Christine and I already worked on it for some time, but it never really seemed to progress. And every time we lost the courage to continue. Feeling so miserable doesn't help either and Christine does everything she can to motivate me, even if she's also at the point of breakdown. We just cling onto that Italian dream... it's the only thing that keeps us going for the moment...
Next week, Christine is returning to Italy. Danilo thought it would be best to have the plans for the refurbishment ready when the sollicitor's act will be signed in September. That way we could start the works already the next morning, so to speak. There are still a few things to clear out regarding the overall outlook of the house and the materials we'll be using. We will try to remain as close as possible to the original character of the house. This means that i.a. we'll try to recuperate as much as possible from the red "terra cotta" pavement. It will not be sufficient for the entire house, but we'd prefer a wooden floor on the first floor anyway.
Unfortunately, I'll be staying at home because someone has to look after our cats etc...
Here are the plans we've drawn for the interior. The thick walls are the main structure of the building and are in the natural stone which is so typical for the region. The thinner walls all have to be torn down and redone because they're currently in a bad state. But this gives us the freedom to rearrange the rooms as we see fit. What is currently the garage will become the living room (Soggiorno), because that part of the house faces the most beautiful view (south). In stead of that ugly door, we'll put a big window with two doors. Next to it we'll put the dining room and the kitchen will be to the far right (southeast corner). Above the kitchen (on the drawing) we'll put a small garage, which will be large enough for two scooters, my telescope, a working table and the amenities such as gas, electricity etc. The northwest corner will have a storage room and the laundry.
On the first floor, you'll see that we've accomodated the guestroom in the southern/southwestern corner, with the most beautiful view. But we've reserved the double opening window/door for ourselves. We're already imagining that we'll put a small breakfast table there so we can enjoy our breakfast with the most breathtaking view imaginable...
So we had found the house of our dreams. And after a few inquiries from Silvia, the price turned out to be on the high side, but still reasonable. Nothing that could not be fixed with some very hard negotiating. We knew from the start that we'd have to pay a bit more than the actual value of the property. The owners were three brothers, all elderly men, who had spent their youth in that house. The emotional bond was therefore very strong. But what was worse, they didn't need the money at all. This wouldn't make things easier. But our maximum budget was not far off from the requested price so a compromise had to be possible.
We only planned a one week's holiday in Italy at the end of May, which would mostly be dedicated to buying the house. The rest would be my first opportunity to visit the annual star party of the Italian astronomy forum. I surely didn't want to miss it again. But shortly before we left for Italy, Silvia came with bad news. The owners had raised their price on the pretext that someone else was also interested in the house who wanted to pay more than us. Well, we didn't believe that story for a second as the Italians are well known for their "comedia dell'arte" during negotiations. The house was worth much less and after all we were in the middle of an economic downturn. But that apparently didn't change the owner's minds to ask for an extra 5.000. We felt devastated and in panic started to look for alternatives, in case we wouldn't be able to convince the owners. Silvia appeased us a bit by saying that she knew another nice place or two which we could visit first. It would make our bargening position stronger if we had a solid plan B at hand. And off we went... to Italy...
With good spirit and a trailer full of my - reasonably sized - telescope, we drove to Luxemburg and then into France. We had only just passed Thionville, when more bad luck hit us. Or make that a large block of rubber that was used as a foot for a roadworks sign. It was scooped by the lorry that drove in front of us and with the trailer it was impossible for us to avoid it. The result was two damaged carwheels and the trailer's axle total loss. There we stood by the side of the motorway. Fortunately we found a good garage nearby and the car was fixed 4 hours later. The trailer we had to abandon though, and we would only recover it weeks later. But we can't thank the lady and guys from the Citroën garage in Guénange enough for everything they did for us. We'll always remember this!
Eventually in Italy, the houses that Silvia had found for us were... nice, but far from as gorgeous as the one we were hoping for. Danilo also showed us a nice plot of land which he owned, and he promised us that he could have our dreamhouse built on it and still remain within the budget. But even this would not come close to that lovely little house that we so desperately wanted.
Then, the day of the negotiations came: Tuesday the 26th of May. With Silvia and Danilo, we drove towards our dreamhouse and met two of the owners who were already there. They showed us around and we were all convinced that this house, although currently in a bad state, could easily become a true piece of heaven. It just took a bit looking beyond the dirt and cobwebs to see that. Silvia and Danilo did everything they could to convince the owners that we would be the perfect buyers for their house and that we would always respect the property. But to no avail. They remained unmoving at a minimum price which was 10.000 above our maximum offer. Christine and I walked away, trying to hide our tears. When we stepped back in Danilo's car, however, Danilo said that according to him the owners would sell. It comforted us and he also promised us that he would give us some news before we left on Thursday.
And Wednesday morning he called us... with good news. They had lowered their final price by another 5.000, demanding that we'd raise our price to thus meet half-way. We only had to think on it for one second because it would just be too stupid to let the property of our dreams go for only 5.000's difference. Danilo also assured us that he would easily be able to save that amount in the refurbishments. So we drove back to Danilo's office to confirm the deal. The home-made ice cream in the local bar in Villa Minozzo tasted divinely...
Christine and I have always loved to travel. Every year we went somewhere different to satisfy our hunger to discover the world. Until three years ago, when we - accidentally - ended up in Cosetta's B&B, in a remote corner of the province of Reggio Emilia, Italy. In no time Cosetta had conquered a place in our hearts as a "second mum" and for the first time we enjoyed the feeling that never again we would want to go anywhere else on holiday. So we returned there every year since. In the mean time, I had subscribed myself - an Astronomy buff - to an Italian Astronomy forum. And also there I received the warmest welcome I could ever imagine. From then onwards, we actually started to realise that we were born in the wrong country (Flanders) and every year we drove home again with tears in our eyes. But we tried to suppress the thought of moving to Italy in our minds because we had gone through so much trouble to build up our lives. We had built a beautiful house with a magnificent garden in which Christine, a garden architect, had given reign to all of her designer talents. It was just too hard to let it all go.
Then, in February 2008, Christine became seriously ill again. She had already had quite a few health problems and eventually, after many months of tests, she was diagnosed with the dreaded Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. That summer also I collapsed under the pressure, mostly due to a troubled relationship with my direct employer. It became clear to us that we had to do something or it would all end up pretty badly. How lovely our garden may have become, we decided that we would try to find a new home in beautiful Italy. We don't have any children, nor do we have close family bonds. And most of my friends (apart from the colleagues at Eurocontrol, ATC and the Airlines) were in Italy anyway. On top of that, thanks to all of the work we had done our house turned out to have much more value than we had originally expected, in spite of the crisis.
As from January 2009, we vigorously browsed all the Italian real-estate websites to find our Italian dream house in the Emilian Appenines at a price that we could afford. Thanks to Cosetta, we got in touch with Silvia (a local real-estate expert) and Danilo (a landmeter-architect) who both went at great lengths to help us with reducing the prices and finding out all the nitty-gritty details about the properties we had highlighted. Being 1200km away from Reggio Emilia, making a choice wasn't really easy.
The same month I started with a web-based TEFL course which would allow me to become an English teacher over there. We had most certainly planned to do without most of the luxury we have in Flanders and to start enjoying the good things of life a bit more. Less work - more life! But we still needed some kind of income of course. Since there is an enormous shortage of English teachers over there, it would not be too hard to work part-time or to give private classes. In fact, Cosetta's closest friend, Jenny, is an English teacher and she always has to refuse new students because she's fully booked. I finished the course 4 weeks later so that was again another hurdle taken.
The only thing that remained was the house. And by March, we found it. A lovely traditional-style Italian country house on 2 hectares of meadows and woodlands, at a magnificent site overlooking the surrounding hills and the snow-covered Monte Cusna. It was just perfect! The same month Christine drove to Italy all by herself to have a look. I had to stay at home because I had to look after our two cats, our guinnee pigs and chickens. And I was taken ill by mononucleosis anyway. Christine visited a few houses in the area, but she immediately fell in love with our number one choice. Also Silvia and Danilo admitted that they were surprised at how charming it really was because they hadn't expected much from the advert. We immediately decided that we would go for it!
Here are Christine and I:
And this is our Italian "mama", Cosetta:
And this is the house of our dreams. Unfortunately the weather in March was awful so the pictures don't really give a nice impression. But they give an idea. Note that the cement plaster which covers the original "honey-coloured" stone will be the first thing to go. Also the balcony will have to be removed since it was not original and we wouldn't recommend anyone to stand on it...
The 9th of July must have a spell on me. It was on this date in 1999 that Christine and I ran off with eachother, in spite of both still being married to someone else. A year later, we held a big wedding party on this day and in 2003 we made this wedding official, again on the 9th of July. But who could have imagined that exacty ten years after Christine and I started our lives again from scratch, we would again go through one of the most painful and emotional days of our lives.
It is half past ten when I drive up the entrance lane to the Eurocontrol building. Eurocontrol is the organisation that coordinates all of the air traffic in the old continent. For more than five years I've worked there as the IACA representative in what is called the "Aircraft Operators Liaison Cell". Yet I'm surprised when my badge still opens the barrier to the staff parking. Hurray! Alas, when I arrive in my office, my colleague and friend Len brings me back with my feet on the ground as he informs me that my computer has already been deactivated. Well, that was to be expected of course. The compromise with IACA was that I would clear up my desk and leave immediately, so I shouldn't moan about it. After all Christine and I were the ones who had taken the decision to completely change our lives. On the other hand, the impact of that decision struck me very hard in the face at this moment. I started wandering around the building, saying "goodbye" and "thank you" to everyone I encountered. But it all feels a bit uncanny. As if I'm a ghost dwelling through a fixed moment in time when everything else continues to go on around me; like if nothing has happened. I'm no longer part of that life now. The many pats on the back and best wishes do make it easier to bare. It's an incredible feeling when you realise that everyone so much appreciated your work and company.
It's a quarter past three when I eventually return to my office to pick up a few souvenirs and leave. Len isn't there but he left a note on my desk saying that he's in a meeting and that I should ring him on his mobile. When I walk one last time towards the reception, he's standing there waiting for me. He doesn't say a lot but his eyes tell me more than a million words. I don't consider him to be a friend anymore. He's become my father. Tears well up in my eyes and the emotions take control over me. I want to give him a big hug but my body just won't respond anymore. I look back one last time and then leave the building. It rains heavily. And it also rains heavily in my heart. I can't contain my tears any longer and cry like a little boy out of anger, hate and frustration. Gradually this changes into regret. I've always loved my job so very much. And it makes my head spin when I think about the incredible friendship that I always received from the people at Eurocontrol, the Airlines and the Air Traffic Control Centres. Oh... why did it have to go this way and oh... how much will I miss them all. But one can't control everything in life. And perhaps all of this just had to happen so that I'd realise that our life wasn't meant to remain here. A new life is calling us in Italy... a better life...
) while Christine has been cleaning up the flower beds, the herb garden and trimming the buxus. Next on the list is giving the house itself a good scrubbing. We've been neglecting this a bit for obvious reasons. And we're both so very tired. On my doctor's advice, I've just started to take a lower dose of antidepressants because I was getting too many side-effects. Unfortunately this means that over the next couple of days I'll be feeling more drowsy than ever. But we have no choice. We have to get on with it. 
(the dead tree in the middle will be removed of course...)
) and hence the mortgage will cost us close to nothing. The capital will remain there for ever and will eventually provide us with a (small) fixed income. Call it some kind of "pension fund"... 
Today, Christine returned to our Italian bank to sort out the details and to translate our payslips. Flemish is not a widely understood language in Italy... 
) And further south there are some unknown but (apparently) wonderful ski slopes in the mountains of the Monte Cusna massif. Here's a satellite picture (taken from Viamichelin.com... 
) where you can see the house, just north of Carù (the village centre is not on the picture). The house lies at an altitude of roughly 760m above sea level. This means short but snowy winters, but very pleasant summers. Not as suffocatingly hot as in the Parma-Reggio-Modena valley. I've drawn a blue dotted line around our land. In fact, we were a bit disappointed because when we received the compromise, the plot of land turned out to be smaller than originally described. It's now "only" two hectares. Boy, are we spoiled... hahaha 
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