Just trying to catch up on almost a full week in review. Again, I am typing this on my cell phone & it won’t allow me to see the full text. Please excuse the typos and errors. It only takes about 30 min to upload a photo. I must stand in our bedroom, by the window and put my right leg in… put my right leg out… I do the hokey pokey. The internet struggle is real.
Wednesday 2/24/2021
We met with our realtor at the town Commune to receive our official deed/notary. To clarify, we didn’t hire her. She was the selling agent. I can’t say I’m impressed with her. And the fact she received $4000 euros from us makes it sting even more. That actually burns my arse. So, we expected just a little in return. She rambled off in Italian, we understood nothing she said. Every time I handed her my phone to translate, she wouldn’t wait for it to record, so it was comical, not really. It was painful. It was overwhelming because we literally had zero clue what she was talking about. Where’s the wine? Or vodka.
We signed a paper to begin trash collection while inside the Commune. Or, for all I know I gave away my oldest child.. sorry Michael. Then, we were handed the schedule for the weekly pick up of all the different bins. Now we need to google translate the days of the week & different trash collection items! Italian 101 for the Smarties. From there our agent walked with us to the local cafe, ordered us a coffee & introduced us to a few friendly neighbors! Not a bad start to the day. It’s early.
Thursday 2/25/2012.
We woke up feeling pretty well rested. I think the nerves, adrenaline, stress + jetlag finally caught up. It was the first am we could just sleep in, so we did. I think we got out of bed around 11:30 am. We were both feeling like old farts. Everything hurts LOL. Feeling like the day was already past us, we decided to head to the internet store! What could possibly go wrong here?! It’s just internet we need. Our oldest daughter Kailee (who lived in Rome 9/2019-12/2019) ensured we had google translate downloaded & handy. Apparently all you do is hit conversation…. and bam you & your Italian friend can communicate. NOPE. Not for us. Needless to say, we left the internet store without WiFi. If you need a good laugh, read our google translate out loud:) I dare you to drink a glass of wine first, and try not to laugh. Now, imagine the internet guy hands you back your phone, you look down to read that out loud to your hubby…. without laughing in the internet man‘s face. How rude would we have been. I swear there are no pleasure emails LOL. I literally have no idea what that was all about. Neither of us were laughing at this point. We kind of felt like we were on candid camera. But, we did find out it would be at least 30 days for a technician to come to the house, so perhaps next trip. How bad can it be without WiFi? We have WhatsApp that works! The neighbors are probably wondering why the crazy American is crouched up in her window holding her phone up in the air… don’t move 3 bars!!! The day seemed to be moving right along, uneventful until bedtime The home has no central heating system (which we were aware of). Both of us are from Boston, Massachusetts so how bad could it really be? Mike is totally fine, unfortunately I suffer from both raynauds & erythromelalgia (2 nerve diseases that are battling back & forth keeping me freezing & burning at the same time). Yes, I look like Rudolph with a sunburn.The mask isn’t helping. There are a few space heaters, and we purchased a new one to help with the fuse issues, however due to the electric situation if we have 2 going and anything else… we still blow a fuse. It just takes a little thought, patience & it’s doable. Patience is a virtue. Ok Nana, I remember.
Mike gets up to investigate and has to go outside to find out we have a major water leak. Like a real water leak. It’s 10:30 pm Thursday night. There’s actually water flowing from our stone house down the street. For the love of God now what do we do. Mike shuts off the main valve outside, we of course document it to send immediately to our Attorney, but it won’t send LOL. We have no WiFi. We did pay for an inspection/ Survey which noted “All systems in good working order”…. here we go. Remember the old 80’s movie with Tom Hanks, “The Money Pit“ I think he actually falls through the floor in the rug… and he’s laughing….🤣 well can you hear me ugly crying, I mean laughing now? We shut the water off, go to sleep…we can deal with it tomorrow. At least we have electric LOL. We are in Italy right!🇮🇹. How bad can it be. Count my blessings tonight instead of sheep.
Friday
We wake up of course no water. No WiFi so trying to email our attorney wasn’t happening so easily. We decide to head out to try and find WiFi to forward the videos of the water gushing from our stone exterior. By the time we were able to do so the day had already come to an end. It’s the weekend. Who cares it’s only water. Presently, we are waiting Monday morning to arrive and praying the Attorney is able to step in and contact the surveyor who did our inspection. Mike is convinced that when we arrived and had no water, it’s because it was shut off outside. So during our inspection if the water was not running there simply is no way the inspector could have checked the major plumbing situation. So pray with us that this:
#1 isn’t a major situation.
#2 that the inspector/surveyor or previous owner is responsible.
Knowing Murphy & his flipping law followed us all the 5000 miles to Italy, something tells me we are up shits creek without a paddle 🏊🏻♂️ But, like the Italians, we will “relax” and wait till Monday. Maybe the plumber will be like the village electrician Natolini, he told us to just try the electric again in 10 hours lol.
Insert picture of us drinking wine heavily. Be mindful that I do not drink. I literally don’t drink. I have 1/2 a wine cooler and I’m tipsy. I may become an alcoholic on this trip.
So I decorate. If it looks pretty who cares. Count my blessings! After all we are in Italy 🇮🇹.