The House is Ours!

Jim & Gregor are still at Flaminia's family's house, but in Castelvecchio the papers got signed to sell the house to us. Unfortunately one of the seller's fainted and had to go to the hospital. That took two hours. I wish we could have met the family, but maybe we will be able to write them. It takes serious perseverance to be a realtor in Italy. Thank you Anja & Casper. (on the left)

In Sansepolcro

Jim & Gregor have arrived at Flaminia's house. Lanfranco prepared a large meal and now they are considering their options. Certainly coffee on the square in Arezzo: our favorite place. I got to speak to Moose and her dad. They are having a great time and the only way i can open my deodorant is to put it between my knees.

The Estate Choidi

This is where Flaminia's family live. The yellow building will be holiday apartments with kitchens to rent. Plan your vacation in Tuscano now!
These are pics from the winter, now imagine sunflowers, verdant fruit trees and blue-gray olive trees heavy with olives.

At Flaminia's

Gregor reports that he saw a dozen wild boar in the gully not 75 meters from our front door! Bacon! He & Jim are headed to Flaminia's home for the weekend. Gregor will be in Italy till Aug. 5th.

There is now gas in the house and the oven works. No more cold pizza! Last remaining question is does the hot water heater work? It has been much cooler lately. Gregor did try swimming under a waterfall and said it was, "Cold."

Broken arm

OK not such a good day. Everything was fine here, did the usual morning breakfast and then to the supermarket to get meat and stuff for tonight. got a beautiful bunch of basil for 1 euro and bought salad greens so that I can start having salad again, a must have for every meal. Did some painting and had lunch and then went over to Anja's to get on the Internet early because I knew that Jeneane was going off somewhere early in the morning. when I got there Anja asked if I had hear the bad news about Jeneane. she had broken her arm last night. Oh crap!!! Called on Skype and sure enough she broke her right arm. Can't drive or paint and can barely run a computer. Crap!!! No way that I can leave for home right now in the middle of things, still haven't signed the papers and arranged everything. crap!!! anyway other people are stepping up to help her out with stuff. called here back this evening and she was drugged up on pain killers and said she didn't need an operation on it, l'll wait a few days to see how it's going. Oh yeah Gregor's coming on Sunday too. Life's complicated. In the morning I have to pay 25 euros to the gas company at the postoffice and fax off so forms that I filled out and hopefully I'll get my gas turned on next week. I still have to arrange to have bills paid while I'm gone. Property tax turns out to be about $125. A year. Everything is complicated but seems very cheap. Good night and let's hope that it goes well for Jeneane.

The Grill

What a day. Up at dawn again, doing a little work and then into town to have espresso and this time a chocolate croissant, very good, that's what I'll get from now on. then to the bank to take out 200 euros to go and try to buy the gas BBQ. Today was market day but I wasn't buying any thing. Went to the hardware store and looked at the gas grill. It was perfect and was small enough to fit on the little balcony off of the kitchen.Next I went up to see Anja and see if I could recharge my Ipad and talk to her about plans for the future. She made me coffee and we went through the contract that I'll be signing on Friday. She called the guy about the electricity and gas and he said that he would be over later in the morning to get them turned on. Oh boy. then I asked her about where to by a mattress and she said she could call some one that sells them and she thought that they would deliver it to my house. Sure they said we'll be there in 15 or 20 minutes. Oh crap I didn't have that much money left after buying the grill so I needed to go back to the Bank. Parked at home and walked up the hill to the bank and when I inserted my card in the ATM it told me that I could only take out 50 euros more that was the limit for one day. OK that was just enough to cover the cost of the mattresses. Did it and hurried down the hill and got there just as the guy drove up. Fabulous. A little while later the power guy showed up and looked at stuff and said that he would be back at 2 o'clock to turn on the electricity and that he wasn't sure if he could turn on the gas, but he would check on it. He came back on time and turned the power on. You can't believe what a joy it is to have lights and a fridge. Still no gas but I didn't have any money left to buy anything to cook so I had a dinner of great grapes and apricots and several glasses of good wine that cost me about $1 a liter. I like it here. Took a bath and shaved and am sitting on the terrace writing this. It's dark now but I'll go inside and turn on the lights and get on my new mattress and read until I want to go to sleep. Tomorrow I plan to buy food that I can grill. Man is it beautiful here.

I spoke to Jim today. He now has electricity, the result of finally buying a lantern, and the fridge works as well as every light in the place. He got two mattresses, one for him and one for Gregor and he bought a little gas grill that fits on the little balcony off the kitchen. He was going to cook his own dinner tonight.

He was in Salmona Italy today. It is a town not far from our town. The funny thing is I was painting at Morse Farm on Sunday and I met a man from Salmona. He lives in Boston now, but I got to practice my Italian. He pleasantly corrected every thing I said. Gregor will be arriving on Sunday and then Jim hopes to do some vacation sort of stuff. He hasn't been much in the mood to do a lot of exploring and since even a trip to the gas station is new and exciting why go looking for more adventures? He is keeping a diary and taking pictures so once he is back there will be new pictures of our house. We will be booking reservations for next summer so don't wait too long!!

Here is Jim's address if you want to send a letter, but do it today!

Via Nazionale n.179
67024 Castelvecchio Subequo (AQ)
Italia

I read through the contract today and he will sign it on Friday. Anja says that he now has electricity, but still no gas.
This a painting of somewhere I was in Italy. Jessie took the picture.

Jim called!

Jim called today, Monday. He is doing well. He says that he feels better than he has in a long time. Asama is not a problem and all his joints feel better. The guy who is supposed to come and turn on the gas and the electricity has not arrived. So Jim is sitting in the dark. He said that he has had to change his life style to fit the weather. He gets up early, eats fruit on the terrace, goes to a cafe for pastry and coffee, comes home does some work on the house, takes a siesta in the afternoon and then the shops open again at 4:30. He is eating a lunch/dinner combo everyday so at some point he goes out to find that. Sometime everyday he has lemon gelatto and coffee. He finally bought a battery powered light so now he can read at night.

Luckily the woman at the hardware store speaks perfect English. They have been so nice to him, lowering prices on things and telling him where to go to buy things like a mattress. He had to blow up his air mattress himself. The woman at his favorite restaurant is from Canada and speaks English as well. Already people are recognizing him around the village. He went to the market on Friday. It also happens on Tuesdays. There is a truck with fruits and vegetables that drives around playing music to gather customers like ice cream trucks here. It was parked right outside our house.

Friday night seems to be serious party night. Jim said that everyone who owns a motorcycle seemed to be racing around the village. He filled up the car for the first time since he arrived. But, he didn't know how to do it and there is no one at the gas stations. Luckily a man helped him. He asked Jim if it was diesel or not, but Jim had no idea. I guess they figured it out.

There has been no rain and temperatures around 104, but it is dry. Jim says he can't figure out how it is so lush. There is local corn and sunflowers are blooming. Unfortunately he can't find a place to swim except a water park 30 minutes away that blares disco music. Luckily the beach is not much further than that. He did find an Internet cafe, but you have to have some document to become a member so he is hoping Anja or Casper will help him with that.

He went to a party this week at Anja and Casper's and spent the evening with 30 Danes. Pretty funny.

He is painting the kitchen and has taken down some ugly stuff. He is so pleased with how it looks. I think he has been surprised. He said that the bathroom is also very nice. Now this may be more than you want to know, but I thought it was funny. One faucet is still leaking a little bit, so he fills up the bathtub with water everyday and then when he is too hot he gets in the tub. He also ladles that water to flush the toilet. He did not know when he would be able to call again, but he was concerned about how I was doing making coffee. He gave me some more tips.

A tidbit

After the longest stretch of not talking to each other in 25 years, I managed to miss a call from Jim today. I just can not get it together with my cell phone. Anyway, Jim says that a guy either came to turn on the gas or is coming. He and Anja have gotten a lot done, but I don't think the final papers have been signed yet. He sounded upbeat. The only Internet connection he has access to is a long way off at Anja's house so it is very disappointing to miss a call.

By the way if you are intrigued by the idea of buying a house in Italy let me suggest you looks at Anja's website: Casa-Italia.dk

This is Jim's latest email. As you can see, his Italian has really improved.

Bone jurno, (buongiorno)

Or how ever you spell that. Had a hard time falling to sleep last night, but once I did I slept very well. There's a bell tower just outside my window and they ring the bells every 15 minutes. So it works like this....if it's 10:30, one bell rings 10 times and then a slightly different pitched bell rings 2 times. Then just 15 minutes later it rings 10 more time plus 3. Very nice during the day, but not in the middle of the night. Well,

I'm all packed and ready to take off to move into our new
house. I'll be just camping there until the electricity and gas get turned on. No Internet for me there so I don't know when I can write again. I'm pretty sure we made the right choice, It's so beautiful here.

I am happy to know the bells are near his apt and not our house. It seems like people don't need to know the time so often, but it has probably been going on for centuries.

Heard from Jim today and all is going well. He got checks at the bank so he is all set for the closing. It was supposed to be Friday, but will not be till sometime next week. However, he is moving in to our house on Friday after breakfast at his nice apt. The toilet will flush, there is a new fuse box installed, but I don't know if he is going to run an extension cord for that or not. It turns out their are plates, pots and pans, an Italian coffee maker, mop and broom and other cleaning supplies. He thinks that the last time someone used the place was 1994. There are lots of family pictures, but the owners don't even want those. He is going to try to find a pump to blow up his mattress, but he assures me he can put a few blankets and a piece of cardboard on the springs (remember summer camp?) and sleep on that if he has to. He is also perfectly capable of eating out of a ice chest if he has to. He met the neighbor and he said I would like her. He said that everyone has been very nice. He also met the woman at the bank that I had talked to on the phone.

Ok here's the food news. Last night he had a pitcher of Rose, which he really could not finish, a bottle of water, although that is not really an Italian thing to do and linguine with truffles for 10E. There is a good grocery store near by that includes a meat market and there is a fish market down the street.

The downside is that there really isn't free internet in the town and no one has ever heard of something like an internet cafe. That could be bad news for this blog. I could tell you all how I had Ramen noodles for dinner last night, did the laundry without soap and can't make a strong cup of coffee, but would you care? I did do a pastel at Morse Farm today. First in almost four years and I had a creamie.

Jim arrives in Italy

Jim arrived in Italy today, Wednesday July 14, in the morning. Although he had called our credit card company to say he would be in Italy, his credit card would not clear so he could rent his car. He had to wait until 3pm Italian time for the credit union here to open. He had expected to be in Castelvecchio Subequo by around noon, but instead had to wait in the airport. When he finally talked to the credit union they said it was entirely their fault. (hummmm will they pay for the car?)
He got a smart car with all the bells and whistles including mag wheels. It only had 4km on it when he started driving it. Jim called over skype to say that he was in the little apartment he is renting for three days. He is loving his ipad and used it to call me on the phone. Instead of getting in early he didn't arrive till around 8pm Italian time.

In the beginning

It all started in 2006 when we had a foreign exchange student from Italy. Winter vacation the next year, 2008, we visited our student and her family. We had such a great time. When we returned Jim started looking at houses in Italy. He must have looked at 10,000 places. Our idea of what we wanted changed weekly. 

First it was a house in the country with lots of olive trees, then an episode of House Hunters International made us think we might be too lonely in the country so we looked at houses in towns. Some were built in the 1400s. Jim looked in regions south of Tuscany. Finally he found a great web site that was well organized and easy to understand. The people running the website were from Denmark. We emailed them back and forth and figured out which houses we would like to see. We planned a second trip to Italy for winter vacation in 2010. We looked at most of the houses we had seen on the internet and decided on one that had been a big contender from the website.