Playing House

So. We've found it. For real this time.
Though, being as we sign the contract tomorrow I feel it may be unsafe to begin talking about it.

But who cares!

I'm just too damn excited.

After coming to a conclusion that our price range was not going to get us what we wanted --- we raised the 'stakes' and went to go see an apartment with the base rent already 50 euro outside of our already raised budget.

But it was worth it.

It's on a private street (translation: less of a chance we'll be robbed, lots of parking spots, silence) in one of the nicest residential areas in Rome (without exagerating) not isolated -- with a piazza (Piazza Vescovio) within 2 minutes walking and lots of shops, restaurants, supermarkets, pharmacies, cinema etc.

There is also one of the biggest, most beautiful, greenest parks in the city of Rome right next to us: Villa Ada.

As is the park wasn't enough, it has a garden with two trees in it that is somewhat small... but it is a garden nonetheless and an outdoor space is important. There is enough space for a table and chairs and there are old vines growing thick on the fence that are a gorgeous lush green...

The insides are beautiful: BIG living room with shiny deep brown marble flooring and lots of windows that lead directly out into the garden, an entrance with arches, a completely brand-spanking-new kitchen -- IKEA -- very modern with reds and whites and silver with a small prop up table -- all never used...

Brand new bathroom, also never used --- spacious --- shower big enough for two --- tiling in white and off white with a clean, bright look.

Bedroom with a hardwood floor, armoire built directly into the wall that is HUGE -- so there is tons of storage space.... to put all of our "stuff" away... window looking onto the garden.

We plan on furnishing it will all modern pieces... a pretty apartment warrants pretty furniture.

We move in August 1 but we may have the keys before then.

This is going to cost us a ton of money, and i'm worried about the cat getting out of the garden. But we'll find a way.

What a relief.

T.K.O.

And we lost this apartment, too.

This time the landlord decided he wanted to sell, and not rent.

Che palle.

Jac & I were probably right in that starting the 'search' so early with the ultimate last-minute move out date being 1 November 2008 -- to give us plenty of time to find the 'right' place.

Man I didn't think it would be so difficult.

Grmph.

Ups, there's another one.

So we found yet another apartment.

It's ideal except

a) no terrace, just two nicely sized balconies.

b)the price is a bit weighty. 950 a month plus 110 condiminium fees (which includes heat) + all the 'bolette' gas etc etc

We made known we are interested without specifying the price which we hope in all good will to get down to 900.

The floors are marble, not the prettiest of all marbles but heck marble is considered a huge luxury in america and so we should be so lucky (although here it is pretty standard, while hard wood flooring is considered a luxury). The kitchen is already furnished except there is no oven, though there is space to install one should be wish. Jac thinks no, I thinks yes.

The living room is divided into two "ambiente" one side for the "sala da pranzo" or "dining room" and the other to create a living room, complete with couches, large flatscreen TV etc.

The bedroom is 3.9 m x 3.9 m which aint small and most importantly the kitchen and bathroom both have pleasant tiling.

The guy we spoke to says he will call us tomorrow.

There's a "cantina" too. I wonder what we'd do with that...

Talk, talk, talk.

I've been waiting several days to have 'a talk' with Jac about a few things that have been bothering me. I managed to get most of them out in an hour long cell-phone conversation on Monday night that ended up costing me 10.00 euro and instead of trying to resolve anything then and there we decided it would be better to talk in person about it.

But that seems to be lost on us, as i've seen him twice since that conversation and it seems my worries have righted themselves just by virtue of me mentioning them.

To a mixture of math and circumstance I ended up at his place last night -- and we ended up having a really nice, connected, peaceful and pleasant evening together -- even though the pasta con pesto we made was disgusting and I had one of those "my head is about to explode into a million tiny pieces" headaches.

Sometimes just talking is a way of resolving.

Even if you've never reached a spoken resolution.

Today Jac is going to tell "Le labbra" (this is what we call the evil landlady because she has very obviously been taking collegen injections to her lips) that we cannot pay more than 900,00 and if she wants to give it to us for that we will take it.

We'll see. We're pretty "deciso".

Woe is Apartment Hunting

The evil land-lady witch of the Montesacro apartment called us today to say if we wanted it for 950,00 euro a month instead of 900,00 its ours.

We said no.

Meno male, quelle piastrelle erano veramente brutte brutte...

Portaportese & I have a hot date Friday morning at 9AM, with a nice cup of cappucino and a hi-liter.

She'll be a-comin' down the mountain when she comes.

I've been trying to scoop out a post on Lisbon but somehow until how I haven't managed to. Maybe it's the combined stress of EVERYTHING coming down on my head in these last two weeks (apartment, surgery, general feelings of unease) that I don't really want to bother.

So i'm going to "adjourn" for a bit more and hope it comes to me before the memories move on too much. I prefer writing freshly, though.

What it comes down to is that tomorrow we find out if we got our Montesacro apartment and i'm nervous for a lot of things, if it's really the right place for us, if financially it will work out, the comittment of buying all of this furniture together etc. etc.

I still can't get over how ugly the tiles are.

But i'm just really anxious to move out of my current room and start to share a space with Jacopo -- from the start even, while living apart has been appropriate for this first year of our relationship -- it's really becoming a big pain in the culo. Things got better when I moved closer to him and to my work here at Piazza Bologna -- and it will be eliminated entirely starting the first night of our dinner together in the new place. As sparsely furnished as it's gonna be for a few months... I can't really say where (floor? bed?) we shall be eating that first dinner.

That's in 20 days. My how time flies.

That's IF we get the place.

Tomorrow will tell all. And i'll write it first here.

I'm just looking forward to tonight and cuddling up and venting out in Jac's arms and just trying to let go of all of the awful stress of these past few weeks and relax and talk with him... I really just need to 'come down' off it, you know? And being with him is always the best thing for that.

Sigh.

Oh, wonderful.

I've been sick with a cold all weekend so despite my best efforts, and tons of optimism -- I didn't get to do much of anything.

There was a rather lively lunch on Sunday at Jac's parents place with his french relatives. Halfway through I joked to him "So is this was our family dinners going to be like?" -- imagining my american relatives and italian kids.

But my kids will be tri-lingual.

But let's not talk 5 years down the line.

So the appartment situation is that after a failed attempt to rent the little apartment for a more reasonable price (the one the con artist showed us -- we got in touch with the real owner) -- we called back "The Lips" i.e. the owner-ess of the original apartment we saw and liked -- the empty one with ugly tiles.

But it's our best bet. And I kind of like the idea of having an entire apartment, completely filled with all hand-picked IKEA furniture -- according to our specific tastes.

I've never had that before.

So we talked to her but she says she has someone interested and she is waiting for them to bring in a pay slip -- and so she can't tell us anything until Wednesday.

So Wednesday, if she says so--- the place is ours and we can start fixing it up to hopefully move in by July 1.

If not, we'll just say it wasn't meant to be and Friday its back to the torn n' tattered pages of Portaportese.

Apartment hunting in Rome is so stressful.

I just want it to be over so I can start the fun part :-) -- interior design of my first "real" home!

Exciting.

La seconda chiamata / The Second Phone Call

We've found our apartment ... and we are moving in the first of July.

And it isn't the first one we saw that I wrote about.

It's all because of a second phone call. But let's go back to December 2006 for a second (pun intended).

Basically, I was looking for work -- and I snagged a total of 2 interviews (work is hard to come by here, no matter how well qualified you are). One of the interviews was for the company I am working for now: Dark Rome Limited.

I had a bad feeling from that first interview interview. The position was as a tour guide and the man who interviewed me, now my boss, Simone, -- told me that I shouldn't expect to make more than 600 euro a month. I didn't expect that I got the job. However, he called me a few days later to ask me if I wanted it.

I said "I don't know" and told him I was waiting on a second interview with another tour company "Through Eternity". He said ok and told me he'd need to know within a few days if my mind was made up. I understood at that point that in reality, I had lost that job opportunity.

When I bombed the interview with Through Eternity -- which has promised much, much more money -- I didn't know what to do. My sister was getting frustrated with me and started to demand I call Simone back and ask him if the job is still available. I postponed, procrastinated and just about every other p-word in the book until finally I cracked, embarassed and called Simone back.

But the tour guide position had been filled.

However, he said, come meet up with me tonight at San Andrea della Valle -- you can take one of our tours and we can talk about another job opportunity.

I didn't understand but I said ok, and went.

We sat in McDonalds for this second interview. He needed an Admin. Also 600 a month, 4 hours a day. I said screw it, I need the money and took the job.

When I arrived at the office it was just me, Simone, and a dream for a formidable tour operator in Rome.

Today I am a full time manager for a sister company of Dark Rome -- doing creative work in a fun and growing field, with a highly competitive salary for my age and for Rome, with a blackberry (I know its stupid, but it makes me happy) and a powerful laptop I can bring wherever I like. I have tons of autonomy and we have now grown to an office with over 10 full time staff, almost 20 guides and even more coordinators and other staff working on the field. And I had a hand in hiring most of the people I work with today.

All because of a second phone call that my sister made me make.

So, this lesson learned -- when a landlord stood us up for an appointment to see what was a seemingly impossible apartment -- and we were pissed off and didn't even want to bother with a second appointment -- I made Jacopo make a second phone call.

And that second phone call led to a second appointment today.

And that led to us falling in love with house #2.

It's perfect in many ways, with minor defects -- but its got a gorgeous panoramic terrace with views of the mountains off in the distance --it's quite cosy-- bathroom done in new tiling -- clean with a new shower -- all already furnished -- new washing machine -- condiminium fees (which include heat and hot water) included in the rent. The bedroom is bright and airy -- the place is filled with light.

The downsides? The living room is small and is a combination living room and "kitchen corner". The apartment is also inside a larger apartment which gives it a strange comunal feel. Our terrace is attached to the one next to it by a flimsy wall ... but that can be fixed.

And.. really .. who the heck cares? The rent is 650 euro. In Rome -- thats IMPOSSIBLE for a place like this.

Did I mention it's about two blocks away from my current apartment? And that I can still walk to work? And that i'll have quick access by Piazza Bologna metro to the city center?

This place cannot be more perfect.

The walls are flawless. There is a small flatscreen TV included. The landlord is a nice guy who doesn't want to overcharge. He knows perfectly well how much he can snatch for this apartment. But he isn't in the business of ripping people off. He appreciates finding the right person(s), quickly, who will stay a long time.

That would be us.

Tomorrow we call him to confirm our interest, and then, calmly we set up an appointment to make a 4 year contract.

Just to think, tonight we had an appointment to discuss the terms of the contract for that first apartment we fell in love with in Montesacro -- to close the deal -- which we were fully prepared to and expected to do -- all if it hadn't been for the appointment this afternoon!

I feel like i'm dreaming.

Imagine if that second call was never made...

That Elusive, Perfect Apartment

Jac & I started seriously looking for apartments on Saturday (meaning, calling, making appointments, going to see them). And, strangely enough, we fell in love with the very first one we saw. Or well, at least HE did.

Basically consists of an entrance, large bedroom, bathroom kind of fugly (it doesn't get much worse than large black and white tiling) but large none-the-less, large living room and a decent size kitchen -- also done in ugly tiling. Then, to top it off -- a HUGE terrace. Huge. (Hence the "he fell in love part"). I'm in love with everything BUT the tiling.

We made an offer right away to take it from 1 August but that is going to be difficult for us (Jac technically has to pay rent until November at his current apt.) -- but Jac thinks it is worth it.

The only problem is that it is "VUOTO" which means: it's got 'nuttin. Not a piece of furniture. Nuttin'. Not even a damn kitchen. And "elettrodomestici" or electro-domestics (i.e. Fridge, dishwasher, washingmachine, oven, stove etc.) + delivery and installation would cost far too much -- far, far, too much. And we don't really want to invest in something that we might have to leave behind (I mean, who takes a kitchen with them when they leave!)... And this is a rental.

So we are going to make another offer to pay a slightly higher rent if the landlady agrees to pay most of the kitchen (we'd offer to pay delivery and installation).

Fingers crossed.

I never imagined this all happening so fast.

We spent all of Sunday afternoon in Ikea after Roma lost the scudetto.

It makes us happy :-)