Our secret room and other adventures

As we reach the end of week 4, Ferragosto (Italy's summer holiday, in theory not starting until 15th August, i.e. next Wednesday) affects the project more and more. First of all it was the sink, which we couldn't have delivered until September/October (and I eventually ordered off Ebay). Now, all the builders merchants are closing for the holidays, and the electrician and the plumber don't want to know. Our own trusty builders are only taking next Wednesday to Friday off, but even they can't keep working if they need more materials.

With this in mind, the boys spent most of today shovelling an impressively large consignment of sand. At the same time, they wanted to dig up the cantina (basement) floor (yet another place that has had too much cement poured onto it). And where do we put sand if we can't use the cantina? Well, the next door house is a derelict ruin...

In any case, I got a bill from the Comune this week for taking up the pavement with our hoist. If we're already paying for pavement space, we may as well put our sand on it. We had asked the Comune a few weeks ago for permission to put up the hoist (we took our friend who's a friend of the mayor to smooth things along). When they said yes, I didn't realise there was a tax involved. The letter was of the “legalese” type. It took me a good 45 minutes to realise I hadn't done anything wrong. Then, the sums were interesting. Translated, it went something like this:

1 EUR per square metre per day

(We had requested 10m2 for 55 days.)

10m2 x 55 days = EUR 550

EUR 550 x 50% = EUR 275

EUR 275 x 50% = EUR 137.50

No explanation as to why the 50% discount, never mind why they had applied it twice. Not that I'm complaining. I've paid it already so the local vigili don't come and shout at us.

Yesterday the boys finally started (what I hope is) our last piece of demolition: the cantina floor. Before starting, they had to finish off the leftover sand that was sitting on it. They did this by cementing everything in sight. I decided not to question.

To my great disappointment, I wasn't there when they discovered our secret room! It's under the floor of our cantina, and could have been part of a stable or perhaps a wine storage room (as we're on a steep hill, it would still have been at road level rather than underground). They filled it in again before I had a chance to take a picture. But I guess that keeps it secret, eh!

Cost of works to date:

Previous total EUR 6,003

10 worker days EUR 1,300

Petrol for truck EUR 20

Sand EUR 35

Tubes etc. to make waste pipe EUR 154

Refund for lavamani sink which arrived broken - EUR 27

TOTAL EUR 7,485