Italian Bureaucracy
Since last August when we bought La Casa (a process which took just two weeks from start to finish: viewing, agreeing on a price, legal paperwork complete, proverbial keys handed over, oh- and all our money too!) The Plan has been for myself and the boys to spend the entire school summer holidays here and for Vandy to be here for the duration of July making the house water tight ready for the winter…
June: ‘Zo, work is delayed on the Stoke Bishop build, I’m not going to be in Italy for July’. ‘Ok babe, August then, right…’
July: ‘Zo, work is delayed on the Stoke Bishop build, I’m not going to be in Italy for the start of August’. ‘Ok babe, we’ll go on and you join us in a week or so then, right…’
August 2nd: ‘Zo, more delays…’ ‘Ok babe, just get here when you can even for a few days to see us, we miss you’ (Read: ‘FFS just fucking BE HERE ALREADY! The boys are driving me fucking crazy, single parenting is not easier because we are in a different country, we are not on holiday, we cannot afford to do anything because I spunked a load of cash on a hire car so we don’t have to rely on the damn bus that Ranulph always pukes on and blah blah blah’)
***
In the meantime, I’ve been discussing the project with il tecnico- the guy who essentially presents the plans to the commune (town hall) for them to put forward to the next level of council. Myself and the boys measured up so Vandy could go ahead and order the windows and doors ready for his work period in August. We all felt pretty professional using the laser level and Vandy seemed satisfied with our report.
Then it transpired there were two details on the original paperwork that didn’t match up aaaaaaaaand, long story very short:
We cannot start work on the house until the details are rectified and approved by the commune then the province, a process which takes 90 days from the presentation of the drawings. So we’re looking at November/December (remembering here that Italy shuts down for August thus adding a month):
!!!FFS!!!!
But, in the funny-not-funny way the Universe works, I guess it turned out well (hmm, ok) that Vandy is not here for the duration, taking time off that he will only have to take again once work can commence. That’s my husband for you- always lands on his damn feet! (Yes I include myself in that statement: babe- you’re lucky to have ME, mwah.)
For the record: I have been doing ‘all this’ in Italian- no one speaks a word of English here, my brain is EXPLODING. Never did I imagine I’d need to know how to say ‘and at what gradient do we need to lay the sewage pipes?’