Yet Another Housing Update

View from Rooftop Terrace...and why we can't wait to move!

What a difference 24 hours makes. After the depressing (three) conversations that Nathan had with the housing office yesterday, we were very discouraged. Today, however, I talked to our realtor, and she told me some information that is direct opposition to what housing told Nathan. She said she was at the house with the inspector on Tuesday, and she (the inspector) did perform the inspection.  And...that the inspector found nothing wrong with the house save the missing gas meter. The realtor said the gas line is in fact installed, and the landlord is only waiting on the meter, due to be installed on Mon/Tue. This isn't even a situation in which there is a misunderstanding. In this case, we are being told two completely different stories that absolutely contradict each other. The housing rep told Nathan that the inspector reported there is no gas line to the house, and the gas line was scheduled to go in Monday/Tuesday  but there would not be a meter available until a week after that. Also, housing said that b/c the gas line was not installed, the inspection was not done. The realtor assures me that none of this is true and has advised that we sit and wait until Tuesday, at which point we'll know whether the meter was installed or not and can then get a better idea of a timeline. It's so difficult to know who to trust as our realtor has really done right by us, yet the housing office is supposed to be an advocate and support office.

One of the issues in the forefront is not just that we're ready to move out of the hotel (and Crazy Dog even more so!), but that we're only allowed 60 days here. We're now at five weeks, with only three to go. If Housing is the one with the correct story, then it's unlikely we'll get into our house within the next three weeks. At the 60 day mark, we have to leave this hotel. I've already gone to the hotel front desk to request an extension past the 60 days, but they're booked, and we're pretty far down the waitlist. For obvious reasons, we'd really like to avoid moving to yet another hotel!

Since this is one of those times when we have absolutely no control, we're trying to stay busy on the weekends. In fact, this past Sunday was the first day we didn't do something sort of touristy. We did, however, head to the local Auchan, Decathalon, and Leroy Merlin, similar to SuperWalMart, Sports Authority and Lowe's, respectively. That was a great trip as we found great wine at Auchan, cheap swimsuits at Decathalon, and patio furniture (albeit, ugly plastic stuff, but still...it's October, so we're beggars at this point) at Leroy Merlin. On Saturday, we had a great day, which I'll post about tomorrow. For this weekend, I'm on the waitlist for a USO trip to Puglia for EuroChocolate. A chocolate festival in a beautiful, Italian town - what could be better! I really hope someone drops out as I've already arranged Scully care with the young woman who kept him his first two days here in Italia. Should I not get onto the trip, I think I'm just going to take the ferry to the island of Ischia and spend the night out there. Nathan is on travel, so it will be a solo trip for me. We have lots of jokes about his destination, which he said I could post once he was there. Here's my favorite: What did K.C. and the Sunshine Band say when they visited Africa? Shake, shake, shake...Shake, shake, shake...Shake [you guess what goes here]. Hee, hee, hee.

It's our kitchen! Just kidding...it's actually the outdoor kitchen. That fireplace thingy is a traditional pizza oven, one of Nathan's favorite features of the house.