Saturday 10 August 2013

What do you do in Monopoli when it rains? Write a ranty blogpost!

It's been thundering since dawn and the streets, which don't have drains just strategic gradients, are now streams as the heavy rain falls.  It's apt as yesterday evening brought more bad news and as I left the architect's the weather had already started to turn, in keeping with this ragazza's stormy mood!

I should start by explaining that August is holiday season.  Next week there are 2 days of official holidays, kind of like UK bank holidays, but in reality from the end of Friday 9th until Monday 26th August if you don't work in a business linked to tourism, you close and everyone goes to the beach.

This is frustrating because, for example, we are supposedly down to the last days of work and our builders have said they will keep working, but the reality is they can't buy materials; it was left until yesterday to confirm with the joiner the doors I wanted despite me making the decision weeks ago, and now he can't source any wood until after the holidays; the shower enclosures approved weeks ago, can't be ordered until after the holidays - you get the picture!

And for some reason that I haven't quite got my head round yet, but mentioned in my previous post Musings on Monopoli, shops here don't usually hold stock, so the glass for the shower enclosures will have to be ordered in and will take 3 weeks to arrive, starting after the holidays of course as factories aren't open, delivery drivers aren't driving - Italy has stopped working!  The tiles that will have to be ordered to put right a serious mistake in one of the bathrooms will take 4 weeks to arrive, from after the holidays.  (They put a control panel in the wall and altered the plans by moving the basin, WC and bidet down by 30cm each and no-one noticed until I pointed it out on site yesterday that the bidet would be right up against the shower glass and therefore totally useless - a big and expensive mistake for them to fix seeing as it's all been plastered and tiled!)  Some others we need to re-order aren't even in Italy but will have to be shipped from Spain, so I can't begin to think when we might see those!  They just can't imagine how incredulous I am when I think back to the good old days of checking the B&Q website, driving to buy the tiles and starting the tiling the same day!  Even small things like shower heads and taps have to be ordered in, so it becomes a big deal that having said I would buy the small pencil shower heads in UK, but then been discouraged by a bathroom supplier as he wasn't sure the fittings are the same in UK and Italy, because they can't just be picked up!

I had to leave the office yesterday when the joiner said the doors would be ready for the end of October as I was so overwhelmed and upset at the idea of another 12 weeks of waiting especially as we have family who have booked flights to come stay with us in our new home, but actually it worked in my favour, as when I returned he said he would do what he could to source the wood asap and that the doors will take 3 weeks to make so in theory, starting after the holidays, we could have doors for the middle of Spetember - still 5 weeks away but a hell of a lot more reasonable.

Talking of reasonable, the doors are costing £700 each!  Now I know solid wood doors are expensive and they will be handmade so they will be beautiful sturdy pieces that, seemingly like everything in Italy, are designed to last a lifetime, but even the MDF ones are £400!  £400!  I have just ordered 4 panel doors for another project with a beautiful grained effect for £10 each!  That is with developer's discount and admittedly a crazy cheap price, and to compare like with like you'd have to add in the handles, hinges, architrave and fitting which are included in the joiner's £400 price, but still!

The architect thought I was frustrated about the holiday period, telling me twice I have to accept if I live in Italy that August is le ferie ("holidays"), but I don't want to change the practice of having an entire country on holiday at once, I'm just asking for a little bit of planning ahead to be ready for it!  

And so, the adventure continues!  We won't be in by the end of the month and our guests will likely book a hotel as I suspect they prefer a door on their bathroom!  I love what I do, I trust that the end result will be beautiful, I know efficiency isn't an Italian priority, but sometimes I still want to scream!

 

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