Y’all Listen…did I ever tell you about the time that I lived at the Navy Lodge for three months?? I landed in Naples, Italy and was staying there until I found a place for my Family to be. I didn’t think that it would take that long. I went on some tours of houses, I met some realtors, and thought, ok this is going to be easy. Find a house to live in a beautiful Country, what could go wrong really? Go all wrong it did.
I first went on a tour of several houses with a super nice realtor that picked us up at the gate of the base, and to me, it seemed like she was all we needed. I then saw the houses that were being offered. There was nothing outwardly wrong with them, let me say that. I liked them all. I was trying to see myself actually living somewhere. I wanted to see in my mind..Waylon running around, myself cooking dinner ect..and I just wasn’t able to at the time. I passed on I think five or six houses right off the bat. Nothing said to me..I can see us making a Life here.
The next thing I did was make an appointment with the Housing office. They had access to all of the newest listings, all of the best ones available. The exciting day of the house tours with them came, we had a wonderful but doubtful time with the agent that was in charge of finding us a dream home. We looked at eight houses that day. One we later referred to as “the dead body house”. There was a whole floor that was blocked off, and even when they told me it was due to construction and work, I knew there was something not quite right. There was one we had to walk about ten minutes on a dirt road to the pool-the horror! The worst was the house with the tiny spiral staircase up to the only outdoor area. I met a lot of Men that owned homes here in Italy that didn’t like the fact that it was me, the Wife who was the one making the decision.
One of the last houses we looked at..had amazing views. I think looking back that is the reason that I thought this was the house for us. That day, we put what was called a “temporary hold” on the house. It was in a nice Parco (that’s what gated neighborhoods are called here) it had many bedrooms and bathrooms; there was a pool and a garden for my best boy to run in. From every patio, and what I thought would be a writing nook, there were views of the sea. I was blinded by that view. We went to see the house two more times, and I was certain. This was the house for me. I even said…hello, I live here. If you know that quote..I love you! This time we put a “permanent hold” on the house. This meant that the house could not be rented to anyone else and we were in the paperwork process. There are many inspections that would have to take place, but we were on the way to having a place to lay our heads at night. We went to lunch to celebrate!
And then…shit went sideways. The Landlord of that home called me and said he wanted more money. He wanted to renegotiate the terms that we had shook on standing in his living room. He wanted more in rent and wanted to change the fact that he was paying for pool cleaning, yard maintenance, and our drinking water. He reasoned with me that he had a son that needed a special school and asked if I was able to be understanding of his circumstances. He said that he was going to be living next door to us for a small bit of time, and then would be moving, due to his son’s needs. You have to understand, he said to me. I did not understand. I felt like I had been conned, and I was not going to let this person just run over me. I called the housing office, and we had yet ANOTHER appointment with them. They were equally appalled by the way things happened. All we could do was keep the hold on the house while we went back to the Navy Lodge and thought about it all. More time in a cramped room, more time listening to fire alarm testing while I tried to sleep for night shifts, more time of not really being able to just…live normally. We were staying in a hotel for what felt like too long; and we were running out of time…
If you follow along, I will tell you all about the next things that happened in the journey to finding our wonderful home here in Italy!!
XO, Suzy Doozer
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