Wed 13 Apr - An Interesting Meeting & A Jar of Mango Chutney

And so we finally had our meeting with Geometra Fabio.  The land dispute was fairly easy, he's going to send his guys out to measure up to establish what's ours and what belongs to the Swiss over the road.  It's all very odd, and not at all British, that this should be being done now and he was completely unbothered by it.  Clearly not expecting to be sued if he'd got it wrong, I'm guessing the little issue of boundaries isn't given quite the same importance over here?  Maybe the onus is on us, not the geometra or notary, to ensure our understanding of the land plan of our purchase does actually correspond to what is actually lying there before us?  Anyway, it is all somewhat academic as the small plot in question is really neither here nor there to us and doesn't effect our plans.

As to our plans, what does affect them is the cost of the barn conversion.  As expected, Fabio's quote for the works was very thorough and did come in at the upper and of our expectations.  And some more.  When you add on his 12% for managing the project, plus a 15% contingency, it does all get a bit ouchy.  But then there is some room for manoeuvre, particularly if we're happy to split the bill between invoice and cash.  I do like this country.  The local builder, has said he'll get his quote to us on Saturday, so it'll be interesting to see what his comes in at.

Clear of tin at last!

That done, ticked off and out the way it was time to return to our separate projects.  KP finally got all the tin off the roof, with some heart stopping moments as I held the ladder whilst he gave some hefty thumps to the more stubborn bits, and I finished all the prep to the bedroom. just the painting to crack on with now.

Our Swiss neighbour from across the lane (not the one of the whose land is whose question, but another one) popped in for coffee and cake and went back, just like Ian did earlier, with a few sheets of the tin from our roof.  The way the locals seem to be swarming on this rotten old tin makes me think it needs to be neatly stored away in our salvage pile, rather than giving to the Romanians.  A rather good bartering commodity I'm thinking. 

Our day was neatly rounded off with a visit from Tina and Richard who popped by to pick up the goodies we'd brought over in Rosemary that they'd been missing from the UK, namely Mango Chutney and barrocca, plus a couple of rather large drill bits.  

Another good day.