Time's running out and there are still so many things to do. But all the people who're currently working on our house would deserve a medal. They're doing a terrific job at trying to meet our deadline. The firm which is doing the internal plasterworks is from the city of Modena, 45min away by car. But the lads have actually rented a small house nearby so they wouldn't lose as much time driving up and down every day. Can you believe that? On top of that, according to Christine their work is absolutely stunning. And if Christine says such a thing, these guys really must be artists rather than workers. She's also very positive about the contractor, the plumber and the electrician. So all in all, we've finally found the perfect team to make our dream come true.
Christine also received a rather angry phonecall from our first sollicitor. She had forgotten to inform him that we'll no longer require his services so she apologised tenfold. According to Mr. Caselli, our geometer, our new sollicitor (Mr. Saporito) is in fact the sollicitor of all geometers and really THE authority as far as building law is concerned. He was actually surprised to receive a phonecall from him on our behalf and was very impressed that we now have him on our side. We haven't heard anything yet from Danilo or his sollicitor, but according to Mr. Caselli chances are high that they'll not pursue the case any longer. They've got too many things to lose. We'll see... In any case, we're no longer worried so we just carry on with our house and if Danilo still wants to bark, we'll let him bark.
In Belgium, tension is also rising. I'm sorting, packing and throwing as much rubbish away as possible. I already managed to give some old stuff along with a couple of Romanians who happened to be passing by, looking for old iron, machines and other things people don't need anymore. I've also sold our big wardrobe for a fair price - they'll come and collect it tomorrow. The result of my activity is that our Belgian house actually is a shambles for the moment. Boxes are stacked in most rooms and everywhere there's stuff laying about, waiting to be sorted. Not to mention all the dirt (and the odd mouse, rat or mole) that our cats bring inside. Last week they'd still caught a poor bird and the whole groundfloor was covered in feathers... The little rascals...
Yes!!! At last some really good news!!! The bank called Christine this morning that they had well received the report from their expert and that everything is in order. They're willing to grant us the mortgage and will contact a sollicitor as soon as possible to prepare the act. Even though it will only be for half of the money we requested, it will enable us to at least make our house habitable. This is an enormous relief to us because "plan B" - having to rent another house until we'd have the money to finish our own house - was looming over our heads. As a matter of fact, there's still a possibility that we'll have to revert to "plan B". But this is merely due to the incessant delays we have suffered because of the terrible winter and predominantly the Danilo affair. So all in all, even if we have to rent a temporary home, this will only be for a short while. Just a few weeks until our own house is properly finished.
Yet, Christine is doing everything she can to make "plan A" work. The plasterers have started and said that they'd need about 3 to 4 weeks to finish the job. Christine explained that we're due to move in on the 29th of May and made it clear that it should rather be 3 than 4 weeks. The men were quite shocked by our time constraints and promised that they'd do their utmost. After the plasterwork, an insulating foam has to be sprayed on all floors. This has to dry for a day or two. Then the floor heating system has to be installed. Then a concrete layer will be laid. And if there's still time, we hope that they can still do the pavement on the ground floor and in our bathroom. Otherwise we'll have one or two difficulties because we'd constantly have to move all of our furniture around while they're laying the floor tiles. So you see, it's getting very tight...
Unfortunately, this mortgage will probably not enable us to already start our B&B. For instance, we can't receive guests in an appartment without even a proper floor, let alone a decent bed or a well-finished bathroom. The bank said that they will consider the rest of the mortgage we requested when also I'll be officially residing in Italy. Although they added that we should not take this as a given and that it can still be possible that the rest of the requested money will still be denied. But this will be the least of our worries. Our main priority is to make the house habitable so our dream can finally take a start. We both still have our disablement pensions so for the time being we're financially safe. Given my condition, it is even very likely that I will receive my pension indefinitely and this was already confirmed by our social security company. For as long as a doctor considers me to be "ill", I will continue to receive my pension. Since there is not really a cure for autism, I believe I can take this as read. At last, the sun is breaking through the clouds...
Cosetta advised Christine to contact another sollicitor, a certain Mr. Saporito. Apparently he's quite famous in Italy. He's even been on national television several times and he's specialised in building law. Much to Christine's surprise, yesterday evening he already had some time available for our case so Christine went to visit him.
To Christine's surprise, this famous man took more than two hours to talk to her. He totally reassured us that we shouldn't worry about Danilo or about more delay and cost for our building project. He explained that it is customary in the Italian mountains that the laws are not always adhered to as strictly as in the cities. If our new geometer hasn't already registered himself at the commune today, he can always do it tomorrow. Or within three months. Whatever. And he confirmed that we have every right at our side in the case against Danilo. He suddenly took a pen and wrote a very nice letter, made a copy for Christine and said that he'd post it tomorrow to Danilo's sollicitor. We're thinking (or make that hoping) that Danilo will be so impressed, just by seeing Mr. Saporito's name on the envelope, that he'll let the case drop. Mr. Saporito agreed that Danilo knows all too well that he's totally in the wrong. He's just trying how far he can go. Then he picked up the phone and called Mr. Caselli, our new geometer. He said that "Christine's very dear to him" and urged Mr. Caselli to do everything in his power to speed up the building and to protect Christine. Mr. Caselli immediately replied "that he'd do his utmost for 300%".
And you know what? Mr. Saporito told Christine that she didn't have to pay a penny! He said it was a real pleasure to help her. Well, I'm pretty sure that if this case does continue and we truly have to hire Mr. Saporito to go to court, he will not come cheap. But we'd rather spend x.000 on Mr. Saporito and make Danilo bleed, than to give in and pay x.000 to Danilo, just to keep him quiet.
I'm terribly sorry that I can't bring any more positive news. I wish so hard that I could write messages about how well everything's going and how we're looking forward to our new life in Italy. But at the moment, all Christine and I can feel is despair and anger. Our beautiful dream is slowly turning into a nightmare. A whirling hurricane that will sweep us away and throw us into eternal darkness.
Today, the man from the bank has come to value the house. He asked for two documents: the building permit and the official plans with the commune's stamp. And it turned out that neither of them were present at the commune. Yes, there was the forged building permit. Christine gave that to the man, hoping that he would not find out about our quarrels with Danilo. But nevertheless he also needed the plans. So he will go to Danilo tomorrow in order to request them. Christine urged him not to mention to Danilo that it is for our mortgage. But this will be very difficult. And obviously Danilo will tell the man "a thing or two" about us which may result in us not receiving the mortgage after all. This would be a disaster because we have now planned the works exactly because we had the agreement on the mortgage. We didn't have any time to lose because by the end of May we have to move out of our Belgian house.
As it stands now, Danilo's probably right when he claims in his letter that the works on our house are illegal. Our new geometer hasn't taken the time to request a new building permit and he also has "forgotten" to register himself as the new "director of works". We can only guess why. Christine's going to ask him tomorrow but we'll probably get yet another excuse.
And if that is not even all, also our sollicitor turns out to have less of a backbone than we were hoping for. He said that we could best settle for a "compromise". Christine couldn't believe her ears when he told her this. We've paid Danilo already 4.000 for a "work" that was nowhere near of being in order. No building permit, no plans, no seismic study and all the rest. And now we should pay him another x.000 so he'd just keep his big mouth shut? So he can indeed take full profit from these "ignorant foreigners"?
Christine was in tears just now. She can't take it anymore. And also I'm at the edge of breakdown. We can truly do with a bit of good news. But I don't think that we'll be in for a bit of good news any time soon.
The soap series about our quarrels with Danilo has taken an incredible turn. Really, you just wouldn't believe that it is true. Not even in the movies they'd be able to come up with a plot like this!
Today, Christine received an "official building permit", dating from the 27th of October and... with a forged signature of Christine. Can you truly believe that? It's so obvious that she didn't write that signature. Or it must have been on Paris-Roubaix' worst cobblestones. Well, even if there were any doubt whether she made that signature or not, this document would have been issued months before the mandatory seismic study. Which is legally impossible. But what's even worse, the document also bears the official stamp of the commune including the forged date. This makes us believe that Danilo's being lend a hand by someone within the council administration.
On the other hand, we're reassured by it. It is now obvious that Danilo knows that he was totally in the wrong and that he's trying to wriggle his way out of it.
Christine will fax this document as soon as possible to our sollicitor. Now Danilo's gone too far. Up till present we just wanted him to leave us in peace. But now we're going to have him prosecuted and we'll make sure that he can never be a geometer again ever.
This morning, Christine received two registered letters. One from Danilo's sollicitor, demanding us to pay Danilo's ludicrous 16.500,- bill asap. The second one from Danilo himself. A letter which he claims he also sent to the mayor of our commune and in which he moans that he is still our "director of works" and that there are works going on at our house which are totally illegal. It was to be expected that Danilo wouldn't be impressed by Christine's letter and that he would continue with his insanity.
Well, if Danilo believes he can have us lose some sleep over it, then he's definitely mistaking. We can hardly believe that he actually copied his own letter to the mayor. One small visit or telephone call to his technical department would immediately convince the mayor that Danilo was never officially registered as "director of works" and that the works that are currently going on are totally legitimate, that we have a valid building permit and seismic study and that our "director of works" is called Mr. Caselli. We're pretty sure it's all bluff.
Even Danilo's sollicitor probably hasn't taken the time to properly inform himself at the commune prior to sending his threatening letter. It's so typical. Danilo calls his sollicitor (who probably also is a personal friend) and asks him to send us a very angry letter. Hoping that this will make us change our minds about paying him.
Then again... We are getting terribly aggravated and also exhausted. We haven't even moved to Italy yet and we're already facing the strong possibility of a lawsuit. It's not the sort of move that we had in mind when we decided to go ahead with our dream. Even if we're absolutely sure that Danilo can do us nothing and that it should rather be him who has to worry. Unfortunately, Danilo seems to be one of these people who only answer to their own oversized egoes.
By the way, some of our workers have already been threatened. The carpenter who was going to do the internal window sills told Christine (with total embarassment clearly on his face) that his work will suffer "some unexpected delay"; meaning that he wanted out. Probably because he too depends for a lot of his work from Danilo. And Nezio apparently already threatened our new contractor, demanding that he'd stop the works immediately "or otherwise..." The guy promised Christine that he'd still be there on Monday. But he's obviously ill at ease.
In the mean time, Christine is still all by herself and it's getting a bit too much for her. She was again almost in tears when I spoke to her on the phone just now. She's a tough lady on the outside, but on the inside she desperately needs some peace. The fact that's she's currently still living in a house surrounded by Danilo's relatives isn't doing her any good either.
I've just asked the movers about their availability for the last weekend of May. We'll need the maximum period agreed with the buyers of our old house before we can move into our new Italian home. And even then it's going to be close. Not just because of all the time we lost for reasons you are all very much aware of, but also because some of the works will take considerably more time than we had anticipated.
Anyway, the movers will come to collect our stuff on the 28th of May and deliver it in Italy on the 2nd of June. We from our side are planning to move on the Sunday in between. We'd like to avoid as much traffic as possible with all of our animals. And with the trailer we'll not be able to drive as fast as we'd like. I've also already booked a ticket to Bologna the Wednesday before. It was only 9,90,- with Ryanair and that way Christine will not have to drive to Belgium all by herself.
From my side, I've already started packing. The movers company delivered a whole package of cardboard boxes, bubblewrap, special wrapping paper and tape. And it's going ahead quite well. I've already stuffed 13 boxes full of things I won't be needing anymore until after the move. Among which the most vulnerable items such as our crystal glasses, vases and porcelain plates. I've wrapped them all nicely in paper and bubbles so they'd arrive safely at their destination. The rest of our affairs will go a lot quicker because e.g. as far as clothing is concerned, you can just put that in the box and done. I'm also very happy now that we actually don't have too much stuff to be moved. We've always put priority on finishing the Belgian house first before buying new furniture, decoration and other things. In fact, we're now lucky we didn't because imagine that this so-called new sofa wouldn't actually fit in our Italian house? It's perhaps a stupid example, but one should always buy furniture that goes well with the style of the house. And the style of our Italian house will be quite a bit different from our Belgian one. Well... New furniture or not, I'll already be more than happy that we'll have ordinary chairs to sit on. No matter if a sofa is purple or orange, the most important thing is that we can start enjoying our new life over there. That's what this move is all about. A simple life, but a better one.
At last!!! After six months of incertitude, the first of two banks which were still considering our request agreed to give us a mortgage. For the time being it will only be for half of the amount that we requested. Since Christine is currently the only one already living in Italy, they only considered her income to determine the maximum amount they were willing to agree on. Afterwards, when I'll also have settled in Italy, we may receive the full amount. Although the bank manager warned Christine that we should not take this as a given.
It doesn't really matter to us. Even half of the amount we asked should enable us to make the house more than habitable, even with all the extra expenses we'll have. Another one of which is for example the internal plastering which will cost us more than twice as much as originally budgeted. The reason for this is that walls in natural stone need to be treated in a specific way before you can put plaster on them. Otherwise you'll have the risk of cracks and patches. We therefore preferred to spend the extra money but with the assurance that it's done the right way and by people who know what they're doing.
Unfortunately, we'll not have enough money to properly finish the B&B. We're also in doubt whether we can afford the wooden floors on the first floor, the porch, the tiles for the terrace, solar panels for electricity, an entrance gate and other "finishing" items. But even Christine is now starting to wonder whether we would still go for the full mortgage anyway. This partial mortgage would cost us only little money each month, and we are insured against sudden interest fluctuations. It would mean that we can - so to speak - live like kings with the pensions we currently have and the possible alternative incomes we're going to pursue (piano/english courses, cakes, wood, truffles,...). In the end, would it really matter so much if we'll have to walk on flattened cardboard boxes on the first floor for a while? Was it not our intention to try to have more life with less money? To just enjoy a good glass of wine while enjoying a mountain sunset? Would the wine really taste any better if I were to drink it on a pavement of natural stone in stead of on a concrete terrace? I don't think so!
Well... we'll see. Christine is also still waiting for a reply from the other bank, you know, the one who was going to consider our new geometer as guarantor. Suddenly we find ourselves in a situation where we may even have the choice which mortgage to take!
It's really annoying how stubborn certain people can be. I know... sometimes also I can be a real pain in the butt. But compared to some other people even I am as soft as butter. As you perhaps remember, Nezio, our contractor, already informed us that he could impossibly continue with the works since he gets most of his contracts through Danilo. He was caught in the middle, so to speak. Which we understood of course. The only thing we still wanted him to do was to finish the few chores he was busy with and clean up his stuff from the site. Which he never did. Christine called him several times but he always had one or the other "urgent problem" on other building sites of his. One lousy excuse followed another. Christine asked him one last time to remove all of his stuff by the Easter weekend at the latest because otherwise the plumber and the electrician wouldn't be able to continue. Needless to say that again he didn't show up. Eventually Christine spent quite some time that Saturday removing everything from our house herself. Some of the stuff was quite heavy and at the end of the day she was knackered, but she managed. Tuesday, the works restarted. The plumber, the electrician and the new contractor are doing a fantastic job trying to catch up some of the precious time we have lost because of the Danilo affair. But then... surprise, surprise... Nezio showed up after all. He was furious and yelled that his stuff had been "thrown out". Which wasn't true of course. Christine had put everything gently outside without the sligthest scratch or dent. Nezio really became unreasonable. He screamed that we had broken our contract because we had hired another contractor. He had never really "intended" to stop working for us and we should have sussed that. Well, Christine replied, if you really want to continue working for us, what are you waiting for? Indeed, the new contractor had only started doing a couple of jobs which weren't included in the original contract with Nezio, such as the wall behind our house to stop the hill from sliding down. Then Nezio said that he too had made an offer for that wall. To which Christine replied that he had made an offer indeed, but that this didn't imply that we'd automatically let him do it. There was just no arguing with him.
A part of Nezio's frustration is obviously the fact that we won't be hiring him anymore for the additional jobs such as our porch, the wall I mentioned, the internal plastering, the concrete floors etc. He made a very sharp price for the major restauration works and that was the main reason why we hired him. But we're pretty convinced that he was hoping, once he had gained our trust, that he could earn a lot of money from the additional jobs. His so-called "best price" for putting our water tank and water purification station in the ground was a whopping 5.000,-. Eventually, we've had the work done for about one fifth of that amount. Also the wall behind our house was going to cost us at least 5.000,-. Much more than what we'll be paying now (don't know the exact amount - have to ask Christine).
It really is a pity that people's egoes tend to get in the way of reason so often. Christine told me that when she was discussing with Nezio, she read in his eyes that he knew how unfair he truly was towards her. He just wouldn't admit it. Such a shame because we got along so well. We even invited him and his assistant to a very nice restaurant when I was there last November. It's so frustrating...
We still haven't got an Italian mortgage. Christine's already visited at least a dozen banks and all of them said "no". Our main problem is that we don't have any Italian income. We do have our social security pensions but they come from Belgium and can not be confiscated by the Italian banks should we not pay in time. And as far as the Italian banks are concerned, our house has little to no value. They don't want to go through the process of confiscating and selling the house because in Italy it takes a very long legal procedure before a bank can actually do that. And they also claim that it is always difficult to find buyers for the house.
This was a kind of a shock to us. In Belgium, the banks are more than happy to take the house as a guarantee. Since Christine and I only needed a mortgage for, let's say, not even a third of the true value of our Italian house, we never thought that getting a mortgage would be a problem. Especially since Danilo told us a hundred times that he would fix this for us in five minutes. Well, we all know what the value of Danilo's words is.
Last week, we were down to the last two banks, hoping that they would accept. The first one Christine visited following the advice of our new geometer, who happens to be a personal friend of the bank manager. The manager of the second is a personal friend of a friend of Cosetta's. So you see, it takes a bit of knowing the right people. Unfortunately, the first bank also said "no" because of insufficient guarantee. The second gave us a "maybe", but only for half of the money we requested. It would be better than nothing, but not sufficient to completely finish the house. By the way, talking about finishing the house, we've again run into some significant extra cost but I'll tell you about that some other time.
This morning, Christine again met our geometer at the building site. By coincidence, he asked her if we already heard some news about the mortgage. And Christine replied that also his friend had refused for the reasons stated. "So", he asked, "What are you going to do if you can't have the mortgage then?" Christine replied that in that case she would immediately stop all the works and that we would move to a temporary house. Then we could perhaps finish our house bit by bit, start our new lives and perhaps later try again about the mortgage. It's the most realistic "plan B" and as a matter of fact, Christine has already found a large house for a reasonable rent. Our geometer was a bit shocked by this and asked if there was no other way. Christine said that the bank would also be happy if she could find someone (in Italy) who would act as a guarantor. "But where will I ever find such a person?", she added. It was a very clever move of her because she already knew how fond our geometer was of our house. "I don't think you'll have to look very far", he said. "Oh really? Who then?", Christine played dumb. "I'll talk to my friend at the bank right away", our geometer replied, "You will be moving here and not to a rental house!".
Unfortunately the bank manager was out for the time being. But hopefully... hopefully... we'll get a positive reply soon. It would immediately take all of our worries away.
And to any of you who're also planning a move to Italy, please take my advice. Make sure you don't need a mortgage in order to fulfil your dream. It'll save you years of your life!
Yesterday I went to the head offices of the publishing company which had shown an interest in my book about autism. It was a long journey with public transport, but eventually, around two in the afternoon, I arrived at their brand new offices. I was welcomed by one of the directors, a very friendly lady. She immediately made it clear that we're still in the "reconnaisance phase". She likes the ideas in my book but added that there's still a lot of work to be done before it can be considered ready for publishing. This I obviously understood very well. This book is only my very first attempt at serious literature so there's still a lot of things to be learnt. I therefore expressed my utmost gratitude that the lady spent about two hours browsing through my manuscript with me and pointing out the good and not so good aspects about it. At times I can be a bit too lengthy and I have to learn to discard as much as possible. "Stick to the story you'd like to tell." Although she admitted with a smile that focusing on details was typical for an autistic person. On the other hand, she highlighted a few parts where I need to elaborate a bit more and perhaps add some appropriate examples.
In the end I returned home with a whole bag of homework. I have to totally rework my book and depending on version 2.0 she will decide whether to offer me a contract or not. Needless to say that I went straight to my pc and started working on the new version. And it's coming along well for the moment. I'm working on it day and night. Let's just hope that I can turn all these amendments into a consistent and easy to read story.
On top of that, according to Christine their work is absolutely stunning. And if Christine says such a thing, these guys really must be artists rather than workers. She's also very positive about the contractor, the plumber and the electrician. So all in all, we've finally found the perfect team to make our dream come true. 
of that amount. Also the wall behind our house was going to cost us at least 5.000,-. Much more than what we'll be paying now (don't know the exact amount - have to ask Christine). 
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