The works are advancing quite well. The old roof has been taken off and also the ugly cement plaster has been removed completely. Christine has been giving the workers more than a hand with that last bit and is currently helping to clean up the joints between the stones. She reports that the natural stone is just lovely and that having it exposed brings so much more character to the place. The workers are now continuing with lowering the supporting walls. I already told you that we would like to get rid of the attic because it is too low to make anything useful out of it and restoring it would be a huge extra cost. By lowering the roof we will make a considerable saving and recuperate a great deal of the precious stone which we can use i.a. for the porch we've planned next to the house. Talking about the porch, we again had a little stroke of luck. It turned out that a large part of the wood that was supporting the old roof is still in excellent condition. So we can easily recycle that as well for the porch or anywhere else where it can be of use.
We have also decided on the windows. They will be in first-grade PVC and not in wood. Although we love natural materials, we are not looking forward to repainting the window frames again and again every five years. On top of that, and probably more important still, noone could ensure us that the wood they use comes from sustainable and environmentally friendly production. We would feel gutted if it were to come from the so threatened rainforests. And then there is the colour of course. It turned out that the Italian manufacturers of PVC windows are only using a limited set of standard colours. Much to our disappointment because plain white, petrol blue, pine green or scarlet red just don't belong on such an old, traditional house. Fortunately a Flemish company came to the rescue! They're quite renowned in our country and - by a strange coincidence - they just started to cast their eye on the Italian market! Christine met with their new, local representative and got a very good offer. She even negotiated to have the fly screens and upgraded doorhandles included in the price. And returning to the colour, there were two colours on their flyer which we liked a lot:
The representative had taken a few colour samples with him so Christine could evaluate which one looked best on the house. Obviously it can make quite a difference with just seeing the colour on a piece of paper. Eventually Christine decided to take the left one (RAL7023 - "concrete grey"). She said it goes so well with the natural stone and it's definitely not too flashy.
Then there's the central heating. Christine said she met with a plummer who had some very good ideas to use the wood stove in the living room plus an additional stove in the kitchen as the main central heating and hot water providers. He would then add three solar panels and a small (last resort) gas heating element in the garage. So we'll be able to make maximum use of our wood and only have to revert to expensive gas in the middle of the night if we don't feel like ligting up the fireplace. And what would be cosier than sitting before a fire on a cold winter's evening with the knowledge that you're heating up your 600l hot water supply at the same time?
And finally... the mortgage. Christine didn't get a direct no, so that's already a start. Although she's afraid that they are going to wait until December, when we'll receive the money from our Belgian house. It's possible that they want to see how much money we'll actually transfer to our Italian account and whether this is in line with the project we presented. It's also probable that they'll demand that a large part of our savings will be blocked as a sort of guarantee. This would be very inconvenient because we need a large part of our savings to rebuild our lives in Italy. In fact, I'm slowly beginning to wonder what use a mortgage would be in that case. It's something we need to carefully assess. But let's wait for their answer first...
Last week the works have finally started for real. Christine is very happy about the contractor we've chosen. They're all hard workers and very friendly people too. They're advancing quite rapidly, but there have been a couple of the usual drawbacks as well. The main one of which is the first floor's structure. It's not as solid as we had expected and it needed to be strengthened with reinforced concrete. This meant that no further progress could be made because it needs to dry for a couple of days. The contractor had promised that he would make up for the lost time over the weekend, but then it started to rain. This made it impossible to tear down the roof. The weather should clear up by now so normally the works will proceed again as from tomorrow. Tomorrow they will also come to install the water supply which is yet another big step in riviving our new home. And to round up Christine's programme for tomorrow, she will return to our bank to discuss the mortgage again. We've made a big file containing i.a. the estimated cost of our new home and the works, our own financial input in the project and our planned financial situation once we've permanently moved. Christine will not take no for an answer this time!
Christine's internet connection has also been fixed in the mean time. But unfortunately - again - the battery from her laptop is running at its last legs. Since the WIFI and mobile phone coverage at her temporary residence is quite poor, we haven't even been able to establish a simple voice communication via Skype yet. And we're also still waiting for the electricity connection at our new home, where reception should be a lot better. We really hope that the electricity company will keep a move on! We've ordered a new battery, but it hasn't arrived yet. It's really a pity because I'm dying for some new pictures to see how things are progressing... You can rest assured that the minute I receive them, I'll put them on this blog!
This is probably going to be the most difficult piece of literature that I have ever produced in my entire life. It's something that has puzzled me ever since I was 4 years old and to which I have never found an answer. Until recently. I don't care what people may think. I don't care if from now on some will call me a "freak". Well, what's the difference anyway because that's how I've been referred to often in the past. So let's get it over with.
This week I've been diagnosed officially with autism. To be more precise, with Asperger's syndrome which is closely related. The needle of my overall score, after 4 difficult test sessions, went deep into the red zone. So that's it. Now you all know.
I still remember being 4 years old and standing in line with the other children in the long corridor before entering the kindergarten classroom. There were large windows and I was looking outside. And then I suddenly asked myself: "why am I me?". Those were the exact words (translated of course ). For all of these years I've wondered why I felt so different. Why I had problems at school. Why teachers and my parents told me I was lazy and stubborn. Why I was always dreaming in stead of paying attention. Why my essays always had a totally different subject than the one we had been asked to write about. Why I have problems with irony. Why I'm not assertive at all and why I was always at the centre of mockery. Why I'm having trouble remembering what I wanted to say when I'm in the middle of a sentence. Why I'm having difficulties reading working papers of over 2 pages because the words are starting to dance in front of my eyes. Why I was so lucky to have a colleague like Len who always managed to "digest" the different meeting subjects and papers for me. (Thanks a million for that, Len, even if you perhaps didn't always know why I asked you so many questions...) Why my summaries and reports were always "traditionally lengthy" and why I focus too much on detail. Why I sometimes drop silent when I'm in the middle of a group. Why I'm having difficulties following a conversation. Why I have such a high sense of "justice" and "morale" and why I can't bear the thought that a serpent of a big boss gets away with her foul play. And so on and so on...
I know what you're probably going to say. You're going to say that it's not true, or at least that it's not all that bad. Then I'm going to reply that I did a pretty good job at hiding it. Another aspect of Asperger's syndrome is that it includes a high degree of intelligence. Now I don't want to brag about that at all, on the contrary. It's just because of my ability that I manage to create a smokescreen around my person. How ever difficult it is for me to follow even an ordinary conversation, I try to puzzle together the few words and sentences that I capture. That's how I establish an idea of what has been said. I also try to anticipate and I have to say that after 40 years I've become increasingly good at it. I try to guess from someone's face whether what I say makes any sense at all and react accordingly. I constantly prepare "standard sentences" in my head, which I can use at random in a situation and which I know "won't hurt" and confirm that I'm still "part of the game". Or during a meeting, I write down what I want to say in order to make sure that I don't forget anything. As a matter of fact, during a meeting I can be totally different because I sense that "that's how I'm expected to be" and there I'm speaking "on behalf of an organisation". The context is completely different than when I have to be assertive for myself. And then there is e-mail. It's soooo much easier when you can think for half an hour before you write something and when you don't have to face the person you're writing it to. And even then I sometimes lose it because my emotions take control over my actions. Again my apologies to the good people at Austrocontrol who were once confronted with a big backfire because I was having a bad day in combination with an overload of personal problems.
Most people believe that autism is like in the movie Rain Man (with Dustin Hoffman and Tom Cruise). But that is a very extreme case. Most people with autism succeed very well in blending into society. - There you have it again... I wanted to write something but have forgotten it already... Ahhh I remember again fortunately... - In a few words, people with autism are oversensitive for all the information they receive. We hear, see, feel, smell and taste so much at the same time that it totally confuses us. We focus so much on every detail that we lose track. We're stuck in a swamp of sensations and information. And that is - apart from the known problems at work and at home - the main reason why in the end I became so awfully tired. I can try to pretend to be "normal", but this consumes so much energy that it eventually wore me out completely. Up to the point that I can only consider myself fortunate that Christine and I will completely change our lives. I don't know whether I'd still be able to cope with a "normal" life otherwise. Every day is a survival trip. Every day sudden, unplanned "changes" lure around the corner waiting to mess up my careful planning. And still I try to keep my calm towards the outside world. I hope you understand what an ordeal that is for me.
Also I thought that Rain Man was a good reference for people with autism. Until some years ago when I incidentally watched a documentary about a family, all the members of which had autism. And these people seemed to lead "normal" lives, within their restrained framework. This was an eye-opener for me because I felt so related to those people. Since then I've visited a psychologist on a regular basis, who eventually referred me to a specialised centre in the city of Ghent for an official diagnosis. And there you go. I'm part of the club.
I consider you all as very close friends and I know that noone of you will laugh at me or even think badly of me now. I also don't want you to feel sorry for me in any way. I hope that you'll continue to act as friendly and caring as you've always been in the past and that nothing changes in any respect . I just thought you had to know, so you'll understand whenever the "smokescreen" drops for a moment...
The past week Christine has started the work to transform our new house into a true home. All on her own she's begun to break out the floor tiles, hoping that we'd be able to recuperate enough to re-use them for the ground floor. It was a dirty sort of work and not with all good results either. Some of the tiles were thicker than others and here and there chips broke off. So she's unsure whether there will be enough usable tiles left. Perhaps we'll have to buy new ones after all? It's too early to tell yet.
Together with Giulio, the older man who's living in the same house as where Christine is staying, she dispersed all of the rubble and waste over our entrance lane, in order to make it accessible to common vehicles and trucks. Giulio's driven over it a couple of times with his car to make sure that it's solid enough. It'll not be the ideal foundation, but it will do just the same. Later on we can still add some of the natural stone which we're not going to use for the house.
We've also decided on the builders we're going to hire for the main structural works on the walls and the roof. Danilo asked three of the builder companies he usually works with to make an offer and Christine chose the cheapest one. But not before having asked a couple of references of course and they all turned out very positive. So making a choice was a no-brainer. The contract is signed and next Monday they'll start! Today Christine has returned with Giulio to clean up around the house. There are lots of bushes and trees which need to be removed in order to allow the builders to put their scaffolding. Christine will also cut down a couple of trees by the house which were already terminally ill. What's done is done.
And for those of you who are wondering why I let my wife do all the heavy work; I'm sitting here with our little cat Chloé on my lap and she needs a lot of attention. It's a tough job, but someone's got to do it!
Upon reflection I realised that I had totally forgotten to inform you about someting very important: Christine will be on the Italian television!!!
The regional branch of the Italian state television in Bologna were doing a survey on foreigners who were buying properties in the Emilia region. They wanted to know what attracted them so much to that particular area, what they thought about living in Italy etc. They ended up with Cosetta. Since she has a well-established B&B in the heart of the area, they inquired if she knew any foreigners... You can guess that she immediately thought of us! So last Friday a team from the RAI went to visit Christine at our new house and did an interview. I'm not certain when it will be broadcast but Christine would keep me informed. We'll receive a DVD of the interview anyway so I'll put it on our blog asap.
Christine was in fact quite nervous and normally she hates being "in the spotlight". But Cosetta and I pushed her to go for it, even if it's just for a bit of publicity. And I'm sure she did a brilliant job.
We've also already made a local newspaper who was doing an article on the same subject - again through Cosetta. They reported that after four visits we had decided to buy a new house and to move over there. A slight exaggeration. It was actually only after two visits.
It won't take long before we'll be Italian celebrities... hehehe...
The works on our new house haven't started yet. In fact, so far we haven't seen any price offer from any of the workers. Danilo, our architect, says that we should relax and that if necessary he can stipulate in the contract that the works have to be finished in six months time. But that is not the point. In the first place the works need to be done properly. And it just takes time to do things in a decent way. Christine is slowly starting to lose her temper and will call Danilo every day until things are moving. We were prepared for expensive words like "the works can start immediately after the act's been signed". But the Italians should also be prepared for the fact that we're "northeners" to be reckoned with! Who do they think we are? Amateurs?
Next weekend will be the annual Chestnut Festival in the village where is Christine is staying for the moment. It's a major event over there and everyone who means anything in the Emilian Apennines will be going - chestnuts are omnipresent in the region and the festivities celebrate the harvest and the end of summer. Traditionally all the ladies from the village will bake a pie or cake and offer them to the visitors for free. It's something you'd hardly want to miss! Now it so happens that Christine also likes to do a bit of pastry on the side (see some of the previous posts) and hence she couldn't resist participating in the cake frenzy for obvious reasons. She's already been busy all week with making some "trials" and these were met with astonishment by the local community. For the end result she's planning on making an autumn-coloured icing with leaves, chestnuts and other autumn stuff in sugarwork. I'm sure that it will be absolutely drop-dead gorgeous and wish that I could be there too. For Christine, that is. Not so much for the cakes...
Christine is now living amidst the Italians, all on her own. Needless to say that she's the star of the village where she resides for the time being. The house where she's renting a couple of rooms is what one could call a typical Italian countryside home. This means that it is owned by the (grand)parents of the family and that over time the children and their respective spouses receive parts of the house to live in. So in fact Christine is surrounded by an entire family. And since she's "strange" all of the family members want to visit Christine, invite her for an afternoon's knitting (with tea and biscuits) or have her as a guest for dinner. At times she feels a bit suffocated by all this attention, but then again she also gets an enormous amount of warmth and friendship from her neighbours. They try to help her with everything and in return Christine helps them out when they go out to pick plums for making brandy or to harvest the grapes from the vineyard. This has earned her a lot of respect. We want to go and live there as "Italians" amongst the Italians, not as "foreigners" who stick to their own community or who just stay there during the holidays. And this attitude pays off well. In no time Christine has been able to make contact with local masons and other craftsmen who want to give us a hand with our new house. Soon she will go there with a couple of guys to attack the ugly cement plaster that covers the beautiful natural stone the walls are made of. It will certainly already change the view spectacularly. Giulio, the family oldest, is carefully watching that Christine is not being ripped off and assures that she always gets the best price.
Christine has also met with a representative of a second window-making company. We already have a very good offer for having all of our window frames and doors made in solid local wood. This second company will make an offer for the same in PVC. We'd actually prefer the second option because it's so much easier in maintenance. But all depends on the price. And PVC just doesn't bring that all natural feel that real wood does. Well, we'll see.
Finally, Christine met an English family who live in the area already for quite some time. They're very friendly people and the good news for me is that teaching English really is a goldmine over there. They didn't do it themselves because according to their saying they don't have enough patience. But they've already been asked numerous times. So it looks like my future is assured!
It's two weeks now that I'm sitting all alone in our old house. Well, "alone" is a bit exaggerated because our four cats give me plenty of distraction from the fact that I'm missing Christine so much. We haven't been that much in contact with eachother as I would have liked because Christine's internet connection isn't working properly yet. I believe that her laptop is using - by default - the internal wireless modem in stead of the special wireless key that we received from her Italian internet provider. The Italian countryside is in fact so dispersed that most of the internet connections have to pass via a wireless system. Unfortunately her version of Windows is in Flemish and not a lot of people in Italy master this language. Therefore it makes finding a helping hand a bit more complicated, even though Christine goes at great lengths to try to translate everything into Italian. I know a bit about computers, but not that much that I manage to tell Christine what to do over the phone. These phonecalls are very expensive and I'm terrified about the bill that is due to come any time soon. Fortunately I can use Skype to ring Christine on her Italian mobile. It's certainly not for free either, but at least it will keep the bill at a reasonable level.
In the mean time I decided that it was also time for me to upgrade my home PC. The poor thing was over six years old and in computering that means it dated from the age of the dinosaurs. It took me about five days to sort everything out (apparently a one-year old 1GB RAM card was no longer up to today's standards...) but now everything's working properly. Yeehaaa!
Finally I can bring you the good news that last Friday Christine signed the sollicitor's act with all of the former owners. She told me over the phone that it was quite a story, but due to reasons explained above I don't know all of the details yet. But I'm sure they'll be juicy and please check my blog regularly in case you'd like to find out what they are. I'm also curious enough as it is...
Ladies and Gentlemen... THE HOUSE IN ITALY IS OFFICIALLY OURS!!! (this announcement should be accompanied by the sound of popping champagne corks...)
They're quite renowned in our country and - by a strange coincidence - they just started to cast their eye on the Italian market! Christine met with their new, local representative and got a very good offer. She even negotiated to have the fly screens and upgraded doorhandles included in the price. 
And returning to the colour, there were two colours on their flyer which we liked a lot:
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