Thursday, December 10, 2015

Housing Trip to Torino...Day 3

In the last post you read how our first 2 days in Torino involved lots of food and lots of getting lost, courtesy of me. The next 2 days will involve lots of houses! (Sorry...Joe deleted every picture of these houses...he only kept the pictures of the house we chose)

The first day started with the breakfast buffet (as every morning did) and waiting for our relocation specialist to arrive. She is Mariangela, and she is amazing. I wish we had gotten pictures with her and our driver, Aureliano. They were both so great, I can't even express how grateful we are to them. Mariangela warned us of Aureliano's need for speed and tactical driving skills. He did not disappoint. I kept my nose in the binder she gave us with all of the properties listed. It was safer this way.

The first house we viewed was pretty amazing. It had gardens that were huge! It was 3 bedrooms, 1 of which was the attic floor. It had 2 sitting areas, dining room, kitchen, party room in the basement, a deep freeze, and those beautiful gardens. Unfortunately, it was in a remote area and we would struggle to communicate upon arrival. It was still on our list of properties to consider.

The second house was very nice, very close to Joe's work and well within our budget. It also had a teeny, tiny yard, a small city center, and just didn't feel right for our family. I think I liked it more than Joe, but you have to go with your gut. It had marble throughout and was extremely cold...I just saw busted heads and 15 layers of clothes to counteract the marble.

The third house was quite far from Joe's work (in Moncalieri), up windy, narrow roads, needed a good cleaning, had no yard and was extremely close to the neighbor. There were huge, dead bees everywhere! Can you tell I didn't like this property? There were a few features we did like, but they did not counterbalance the negatives. It was immediately off the list.

The fourth house was in an area that is close to Joe's work and I really liked it. When we first walked in, I would have crossed it off the list. Musty smelling and you could tell it hadn't been opened for quite some time. It had a bathroom and some bedrooms in the basement and I internally groaned. But then we ascended the stairs and the house got so much better for me. Open spaces, a cool balcony overlooking the dining/living area, a spot for a veggie garden, bookshelves galore...I was pretty smitten. Unfortunately, Joe didn't get bit by the love bug for this house. He mainly saw the missing light fixtures, unpainted walls, grumpy landlord. What a killjoy! LOL. That is why we make a good team. We keep each other realistic.

The final house of the day was back in Moncalieri...so narrow, windy roads. This house was much nicer than the first Moncalieri house. It had some positives (outdoor BBQ, open living room, updated and Americanized kitchen), but it had some definite negatives as well (smaller rooms, funky tile in all the bathrooms, did I mention the road?!?!). Other huge negatives for me were the landlord living directly behind the property, an attached apartment to our unit and there was a platform above the driveway where I saw many broken arms.

Just some logistics information...Aureliano is a great, Italian driver. If we had an appointment and his GPS said we'd arrive 7 minutes late, well, that didn't happen. We were on time to every single appointment. He also took us to some amazing restaurants for lunch and to real caffe bars. He didn't speak a lick of English, but we communicated through Mariangela. He became part of our Italian family. If you come visit us, we might have Aureliano pick you up from the airport. Nothing like a big dose of Italian driving off the bat. If he likes you, you will also visit a caffe bar. It is what he does. OK, you might visit a caffe bar even if he doesn't like you.

So our first day looking for a house near Torino wasn't overly successful. We still had the first property on our list...and it is still the third property on our list currently. But we hadn't found "it" yet...the place we felt we could call home.

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