I live in a house now! That means I have far less time to blog than when I first arrived. I also have a new boss- that has the same effect. Maybe once I am all the way settled in and things get normalized I will do a better job keeping up with the blog.
I want to talk about the move! This has been a very exciting experience. I got the keys to the place and for the first few minutes I was a little overwhelmed. I have always lived in virtually new homes with the most modern of amenities. This is a VERY old house. It was not as clean as I had hoped for a house I was about to move into. I started looking around and realizing that I have never cared for a home like this before. Nate came to meet me at the house after working on the car with a co-worker and it all felt better after that. We can figure it out!
We did the walk through and annotated the items that needed to be documented. We wandered around and then headed home to get good sleep for the movers the next day.
The telecom guy showed up right on time and before we knew it we had phone and internet. I don’t know how much I pay for this service; they only bill you when they feel like it here- so I guess I will find out eventually. The movers also showed up right on time. They brought a team of 8 and one of them was American. It made communication very easy.
I tried to speak some Italian and one of the movers thought that was great and he was teaching me furniture words and other things. One of the movers had a pony tail and he was very grumpy- but he was also working hard and doing a good job, so he can be grumpy if that makes him happy.
By 1:00 all our things were in the house. It was overall a very smooth process. We started unpacking. I think unpacking the boxes is like Christmas- especially since it had been three months since we had seen our things. We could not remember what we brought versus what we stored so every box was a surprise.
I was very glad to see that we did not bring too much stuff. We did a good job leaving many items in storage. If anything, we did not bring enough. That leaves me room to collect up a few good Italian antiques while I am here I guess. We are buying a few more wardrobe items and a set of twin beds to get to the minimal amount of furniture needed. We are also going to rent a piano. But now I am getting ahead of myself.
As we unpacked everything went well. We held off on unpacking the kitchen until the next day. Being overseas the military understands that Americans require different items than we do back home. The European refrigerators are quite small by our standards and their freezers are downright tiny (if they even have them). They also do not have the plumbing for our washers and dryers. So the Army post nearby provides us with European spec large scale refrigerator and freezers as well as a washing machine and dryer. These items are on loan to us for the time we are stationed here.
Additionally many European kitchens do not have cabinets and most older homes have no closets. The base also provides some very ugly kitchen cabinets and some extraordinarily ugly wardrobes. Those were delivered the day after our furniture.
As we unpacked and carefully planned our home’s storage situation it all seemed to fall into place. Linens and towels are the one thing that I still do not have a storage plan for, but I am getting creative and I will come up with something.
As we unpacked it really started to feel like home. Nathan got out the grill and made us dinner. We sat on our couch. These things are grand if you have not done them in a while.
We figured out everything we needed at IKEA to survive the lack of storage and those items are ordered and should arrive next week sometime.
We cleaned the first of our antique chandeliers. I ordered a mosquito fogger online so our courtyard will be useable. There are so many little things that we are in progress on but I feel like we will be all the way put together by the end of August and ready for our first guest by the end of September.
Some interesting stories of European living: We could not turn on the stove (turns out there is a hidden yellow knob somewhere in the kitchen you have to turn on). The shower wouldn’t drain (we weren’t sure if 100+ year old plumbing could handle drano- but it worked like a champ). Our washer and dryer can’t work at the same time (power output limits on Italian homes). Our dishwasher doesn’t work- I still don’t know what that is about. I had to look up what 350 degrees is in Celcius to make my first batch of very American chocolate chip cookies. The adventures go on and on.
After more items get put away and the house becomes presentable there will be pictures on the blog- I promise. I need a little more time. There won’t be much traveling this month. I set it aside for moving in and the Busker’s Festival.
Ciao!
Sally