Casa Dolce Casa!

What a difference a nice place to live makes! We have actually moved after 5 months of living at the agriturismo. It was a nice, peaceful, small place and close to the gym but man is it good to be outta there. We will of course miss the chickens and geese but not the cold stone floors or outrageous rent. So briefly, here’s our tale of house-hunting.

The first house-hunting trip we made was in September before moving here. We found a perfect place, brand new, 3 bedrooms, 3 floors, and huge yard for the boys, very close to work, and advertised as furnished. Signed the papers and one week later the landlord backed out. Apparently he was able to rent it to someone else unfurnished (more about furnishings later). But we had the agriturismo to fall back on so ok. We kept looking during the following months but most things were 2 rooms, very small, and as Mama would say ‘you couldn’t cuss a cat without getting hair in your mouth’. Not a good thing when you have 2 cats. Then we found another almost perfect place, went to the real estate agents office to sign the papers and either the landlord or real estate agent changed their mind so that was a no go. We think it may have had something to do with us not being Italian - no lie.

So after 5 months we found it, love at first sight. A house for the same price as an apartment but not an apartment. Close to town – 3 minutes to the office. I don’t know how I’m going to cope when we get back to Houston. My commute in Spain was a whopping 20 minutes, not to mention the beautiful view of the Mediterranean & Gibraltar. One hour each way in Houston is going to drive me bonkers. Anyway, the house has a small yard/garden but enough for Frisco and not too much to take care of. Michael and Troy seem happy and haven’t spent any time cowering under the bed.

But being Italy, nothing is straightforward. The house was described as 2 bedrooms, 2 baths, fully furnished. Reality – 2 bedrooms, 4 bathrooms, 3 floors with something like a game room on the top floor which opens to a rooftop patio, and the only furnishings belonged to the previous tenant. Now when you rent something unfurnished in the civilized world you take for granted that the place comes with an oven, refrigerator and sink. You also assume there are closets, kitchen cabinets, countertops, etc. In Italy, you’re lucky to get light fixtures. And when I say lucky I mean we had wires hanging from the ceiling in the kitchen, dining room area, and 2 of the bathrooms. So we were lucky that the tenant left at least the light fixtures in the rest of the house.

The previous tenant was moving because his father died and he’s moving in with his mother. So he didn’t need the furnishings and said we could negotiate a pretty good price. He was willing to sell his things to us for a mere 10,000 euros or in US money $13,000! He was asking $130 for each bathroom mirror! So off to IKEA we went and luckily have been able to furnish the place for much, much, much less than his asking price. The pictures included are the real thing so you can see what you’re in for when you come to visit.

There’s no air conditioning so we’re hoping the summer isn’t too hot or humid. But there are a lot of windows and hopefully we’ll have a good breeze. Another plus, the windows all have screens which, like kitchen appliances, is not a given in Italy.

So now that we're really settled we look forward to having guests. Start searchin' those airfares!