{"id":2436,"date":"2020-06-15T07:35:41","date_gmt":"2020-06-15T07:35:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rosiemeleady.com\/?p=2436"},"modified":"2020-06-15T07:47:46","modified_gmt":"2020-06-15T07:47:46","slug":"buying-a-house-in-italy-part-5","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rosiemeleady.com\/index.php\/buying-a-house-in-italy-part-5\/","title":{"rendered":"Buying A House in Italy \u2013 Part 5"},"content":{"rendered":"

I text the estate agent, my upset has turned to anger. To replace those doors will cost thousands as they are all slightly different sizes. I tell them that we need all doors returned or replaced and the furniture as agreed otherwise we will not be proceeding with the purchase. We are sure it must be Uncle Francesca and she may be intending to return for more as there were two other doors taken off their hinges. So she needs to be stopped before doing anymore damage to the house.<\/span><\/p>\n

Within an hour they have spoken to Uncle Francesca\u00a0 <\/span>but she knows absolutely nothing. They have warned all the owners.\u00a0 ‘Tomorrow we\u2019ll find out who did this and get you back all the doors’.<\/span><\/p>\n

The estate agents ask us to meet with them and the geomtera at house the following morning to look at the situation and find a solution. <\/span>We agree, although, I\u2019m not sure why we are meeting to look at the empty spaces where there used to be doors and I can\u2019t think of a solution other than the doors be returned or replaced.<\/span><\/p>\n

We meet the next day and Uncle Francesca is there too. She\u2019s being very dramatic. She\u2019s using the word ‘terrible’ a lot. The estate agents are looking very embarrassed, \u201cThis is not normal. This is not normal in Italy.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

We walk around the house all together slowly to look at the spaces where the missing doors had been, I’m still not sure why, maybe they are hoping they will miraculously reappear? The house looked sad before but now it looks like a slum.<\/span><\/p>\n

Everyone other than us is denying it is a family member. The whole time Uncle Francesca doesn\u2019t stop lamenting and talking.<\/span><\/p>\n

Then she announces a neighbour saw a white van there on Sunday morning.<\/span><\/p>\n

On the sofa in the hall there are piles of old books ready to go in the next collection. Romance novels mostly, Readers Digests from the 70s. A plastic sewing box with scraps of lace, two faded pictures from the wall and an old fake gold drinks trolley. <\/span><\/p>\n

Our son notices a perfect cross shaped clean mark on the wall above the bed, a crucifix has been removed. <\/span><\/p>\n

There\u2019s also an old copy of a ‘Children of Fatima’ book on top of the romance novels. So we are guess the ‘thief’ is religious … the irony is not lost.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

I make the point that it has to be one of the owners \u2013 the house has not been touched for 10 years, who else would turn up with a van during daylight within 24 hours of us signing to buy it? She\u2019s still talking a mile a minute, hands are going everywhere, she is re-enacting and piecing the whole crime scene together in front of our eyes. <\/span><\/p>\n

And just like any good 70s crime series, her re-enactment gives her a sudden revelation, she concludes that it must have been the devil cousin Marco wanting to get his revenge on her about the dispute over the other inheritance. The neighbour’s description of the man with the van fits the\u00a0 <\/span>cousin\u2019s description perfectly.<\/span><\/p>\n

Up to this point I was still convinced it was Uncle Francesca in the kitchen with the crowbar but now I\u2019m leaning towards Colonel Marco in the library with the candlestick.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cBut why the piles of romance novels in the living room?\u201d I ask. Uncle Francesca\u2019s answer is very animated and high pitched. \u201cHe was searching for secret documents about the last inheritance,\u201d Laura translates. <\/span><\/p>\n

Of course! <\/span><\/p>\n

Mario, who is nothing short of twiddling the end of a handlebar moustache he doesn\u2019t have, makes a statement to Uncle Francesca, \u201cI will NOW bring you to make a police report. Perhaps they have cc footage of the van in the village.\u201d Uncle Francesca, is flapping about a bit, looking through the box of lace scraps. She looks at her watch. \u201cSi si. We go now.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

They return shortly. The police station is closed for lunch. <\/span><\/p>\n

Mick Kelly has turned up, he knows an artisan carpenter who can make doors from old wood that will replicate the others. We agree that the cost will be deducted from the amount we pay at the final signing. <\/span><\/p>\n

… However, me thinks the doors will magically reappear. <\/span><\/p>\n

Join us again next Monday for the next instalment of this game of Umbrian Cluedo and the case of the Missing Doors.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I text the estate agent, my upset has turned to anger. To replace those doors will cost thousands as they are all slightly different sizes. I tell them that we need all doors returned or replaced and the furniture as agreed otherwise we will not be proceeding with the purchase. We are sure it must be Uncle Francesca and she may be intending to return for more as there were two other doors taken off their hinges. So she needs to be stopped before doing anymore damage to the house.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2437,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[232],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2436","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-a-house-in-italy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rosiemeleady.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2436","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rosiemeleady.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rosiemeleady.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rosiemeleady.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rosiemeleady.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2436"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/rosiemeleady.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2436\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2438,"href":"https:\/\/rosiemeleady.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2436\/revisions\/2438"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rosiemeleady.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2437"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rosiemeleady.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2436"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rosiemeleady.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2436"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rosiemeleady.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2436"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}