Came home early to a mess...

[ImcLoud]

Had some real estate issues to deal with. I flew back early, kids and wife are in italy until next sunday morning, without me...

In hindsight I could have dealt with the issues from italy, 2 tenants had water issues and needed to be relocated but I wanted to make sure everything was dealt with. My office manager had everything under control but she sounded over whelmed on the phone. My wife was not happy but we are going back to italy in a month {for 2 weeks} and it will give her some time with the kids since I spent most of last week with them while she did her thing around the house, she has been rearranging, decorating, planning, loving it the entire time we were there.

As for the damage control, I kind of wish I was here because I would have dealt with the "raining inside my apartment " issues differently than my office manager did, I would have had a crew clean the roofs off, turned up the heat, moved in space heaters and dehumidifiers, removed the wet insulation and ceiling plaster, and replaced/repaired it the next day, instead she moved the tenants into hotels {costing me $300 a night} and let the damage get worse without repairing it, she called the insurance company who is swamped and won't come for a week, and figured she would deal with it when the weather broke, lol!!! That would have cost me $30K!!!

No real harm done, I was back for 4 hours and had the roofs cleared, apartments drying out and plaster guys are coming in the morning, the tenants will be home tomorrow night. In her defense she thought the apartments needed roof work that would take a long time to perform.. Obviously not the case but thats OK.

As far as Italy the week was awesome, me and the kids went investigating and exploring, they were already making friends, while my oldest is making plans to take his girlfriend next time {just what I wanted to hear, lol} my youngest was trying to talk me to buy another xstar to keep in italy, lol So one mastercraft for home on the lake and one for the 2 months a year that will will spend out there, lol NOT GOING TO HAPPEN!!!

But anyway, I have everything here under control, now I will have the house to myself for the week and pick them up in the airport next week, I am going to order pizza right now {roast beef and buffalo chicken, everyone else hates it so I never order it but I love it} pour my self some cream soda and watch a few movies for the rest of the night....

 

[ParadigmDawg]

"Code for"...I ran back to see my GF while wife was away.....

 

[ImcLoud]

LOL, no girlfriends for me I am one of that rare breed that is happy with his wife, lol...

I went out today and got the plaster started up at each house {they are about 4 miles apart} and spoke with each tenant there was no property damaged so all is well, they are coming home tomorrow morning after they paint the effected walls, the ceilings are done and don't get painted, the apartments are all dried out, roofs cleared, disaster contained, lol.

I spoke to my wife and oldest son today, they are going to a show tonight with the neighbors {2 women partners from Seattle that relocated out there 4 years ago, they have a very profitable internet business}. It sounds like they are just hanging around the house, the weather there right now is not great by any means, it is in the 50's and they are supposed to have some type of showers tomorrow, my wife has to rely on the neighbors and pictures on the news to translate the weather, lol... She has been practicing and taking italian classes but she knows just a bit more than me which I learned from watching rocky movies...

 

[Adam]

Glad it all worked out, man. How was the pizza?

LOL, no girlfriends for me I am one of that rare breed that is happy with his wife, lol...

I'm sure that all the local Italians feel the same way...

 

[Chu Gai]

How do you say, "Yo, Adrian." in Italian?

 

[ImcLoud]

Glad it all worked out, man. How was the pizza?


I'm sure that all the local Italians feel the same way...

The pizza was amazing, although all kidding aside I did have mild chest pains after I ate it, lol... I checked my bp and heart rate all seemed normal, it was like a hollow feeling in the left side of my chest, I went to the dr's today and all seemed well he said it was probably indigestion...


and my wife hates short guys so I am pretty confident I am safe with the population over there, lol My youngest son {14} was taller than just about everybody in the air port, lol.... When did Italian people get so short...

 

[ImcLoud]

How do you say, "Yo, Adrian." in Italian?

Sorry, its "Aye Yo Adrian-a"
The most complex sentence I have had to put together so far with out using my translator was "
si prega di smettere di buttare i bastoni dei tuoi alberi sul mio vialetto" which is stop throwing your sticks in my driveway , lol . When we got in last week we had a bunch of sticks, twigs and vines in our driveway, well the neighbor told us one of the neighbors from across the road {not very close, further away from the beach than us} was throwing their yard waste in our yard, it took me and my kids over an hour to clean it all up and then we had to pay to get rid of it and I had to buy the bags to put them in to get rid of it, cost me about $45 euro which is over $50 to get rid of sticks that weren't from my yard {actually I imagine some were from my yard but no where near 10%}. SO I walked over and they are "real" italians {I have to stop calling native locals that} and asked in Italian for them to not throw their sticks in my yard. The wife replied in english {I was relieved} that they were sorry and would never do it again... She was out there fixing the screen around their garden so I helped her fix it and actually had a pair of leathermans in my pocket, the husband came out and introduced himself and we are now best friends, and I am hoping not to come back to more sticks in my yard next month...

They seemed like they wanted to come inside the building and look around {italians aren't very, I am not sure the word I am looking for, put it this way, if they want to look around your house they will say something like "are you no gonna show us your villa?"} so I invited them in and they told me they were never invited in with the old owners and the old owners didn't talk to many people in the area {which the old owners were maybe the nicest people I ever me in my life so there must have been a reason for it}, but after I showed them around they went back to their house and left me alone the rest of the time I was there...

Anyway no more boring italy talk... I can already tell and I think my wife is noticing this too, its just an expensive home away from home, we could have bought a place in California for half the price and felt just about the same when we went there, the flights would be cheaper, and it would have made more sense... BUT she will never admit that, and I will admit I love the place, its amazing, way nicer than my home here in the US, just more exotic...

 

[ParadigmDawg]

When did Italian people get so short...

They have always been short and skinny. Why do you think they make great cyclist?

 

[ImcLoud]

They have always been short and skinny. Why do you think they make great cyclist?

I am used to seeing "big" american people and being one myself I feel like a giant over there. My wife is over 5'10" and she loves to wear heals that make her 6ft tall, I am 6ft 5" and my kids are both almost 6ft. Almost everywhere we go someone makes a comment about my size and the italians aren't bashful about their comments, not in the least...

I am having trouble finding furniture out there, the villa was 95% furnished when we bought it but I would like a comfortable chair or recliner, I actually would like a couple of them, and we can NOT find anything I fit in out there. Their furniture is gorgeous and nice quality but for some reason they dont know what a lazy boy is, lol...

The closest I have come is a chaise lounge that has an arm rest on both sides, but there was a few things wrong with it, 1 it was easy to get into BUT HARD to get out of, 2 it was too "lazy", it was like laying down, I would fall right to sleep, and 3 it was $9200!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! LOL....

So my wife has sent me about 3000 pictures of chairs, I told her that I can NOT pick a chair from a picture and she bought 2 little wooden stools for by a door somewhere that she wanted to put them, so I got a picture of them in the store, a picture of them in one spot then another spot then another spot, she is driving me crazy, she asked where i liked them best and I told her I don't even know where them spots are in the house!!!! I like them best back at the store, lol... That am ex is going to kill me...