My Sweet Little Joys in Life: 08/15/12

I'm sitting here in the bedroom with all the windows open enjoying the cool breeze coming through, listening to crickets chirp, frogs croak and Italians party. Yes, we have found our new home and are moved in. Our first shipment has arrived so we have our instruments, sheets, school books, a few dishes and a radio. The rest of our belongings will come in a few months.
It's so exciting finding that special house to make new memories in. We enjoyed the looking, but are glad it's over and can now enjoy what we've found. The way housing works around here is a little intimidating at first. All the people in the plane ride over here are looking at all the same houses, and all the same websites, and at all the same time. So, basically you are fighting for the position over the best houses. If you take it first you get it or, from what we've heard, you lose it right from under your feet.

We spent two days looking at houses. We debated between two houses. The first house we saw was nestled in a town called Maniago. It was directly at the bottom of the Alps. It had a small fenced in yard and was surrounded by mountains and hiking trails. A fresh water spring was just behind the home that was easily accessible and ready for four little mouths to drink from:) The only problem with this house was the actual house itself. It didn't have much room, and the set up wasn't to our liking. The trail was free to roam for all people, used by many from what we saw, and the safety of the children was a concern. But, the hiking trails and scenery behind the house was exactly what I was looking for and was very enticing which made it difficult to turn it down.

The ambience of Italy surrounds you the minute you enter the doors from the house we decided to rent. It is located in the center of a little town called Polcenigo, a town of great charm. The spring of Gorgazzo is directly behind the house. As you follow the spring down, it empties into a river, which leads to hiking trails. The road passing our house, one we will be parking on to enter our house, leads up to a church and an old castle from the 1600's. We haven't explored the castle yet, but look forward to that little adventure. The only problem we saw with the house was the fact that the yard was across the street, very small, and with stone stairs. You can see in the pictures below.Coming from a 2.3 acre home, means we have quite an adjustment to make. Otherwise, this house was perfect. It was built in 1680, but modernized to some degree. It has Cedar Wood beams in the basement from 1680, lights from Rogerro's family from the 1700's, and even has a few American luxuries, like a large fridge and small dishwasher. This four level home was the home for the Williams clan to make new memories in.
The top floor has three bedrooms with wood beams at the ceiling of each room, dark colored wood floors and one large remodeled bathroom with a Jacuzzi tub. The middle section has been beautifully done with texture looking walls in rich colors, a fire place, and beautiful wood floor in our "music" room. The library, which is a room lined with book shelves and deep red and brown stone floor has the bathroom attached to it. This is where you will stay when you visit us:) (wink, wink) The ground floor (Italians don't call the bottom floor 1st floor, it's called the ground floor, then 1st floor, then 2nd floor ect...) so...our ground floor is the floor you would walk into as you enter the house. It has two rooms. The first room you walk into is the larger sitting area or welcome area and as you walk further into the home to the left is the kitchen. The kitchen has been remodeled with tile around the new stove top and two deep sinks for those dirty dishes. The kitchen also has a fireplace that was used daily, by the owners. We haven't tried cooking over an open fire,but are thrilled to have the option. There is a little corner kitchenette sitting area that will work perfectly for simple eating times. The last part of the house is the basement with a full fledge wine cellar and laundry facility. It has dirt and stone floor which will rarely need to be swept:)
We have a lot of little things to get accustomed to, but are willing and ready to learn new ways of living. For instance, the Italians recycle everything and it's been quite a challenge to learn how to recycle appropriately. We have four different trash cans. One for plastic and cans, one for cardboard and paper, one for non-recycable items, and one for only food. We walk down the street to recycle anything with glass. I think I have it figured out now, but it's not second nature yet, so it takes time to think about where everything is going when we clean up from eating. It also has taken me much longer to cook because half of our appliances don't work here in Europe due to the different outlets. We need different wall attachments to make our American appliances work. So we're in the middle of trying to figure out what can go where and how to work it all.
Our home is next to an 80 year old Italian woman. The language barrier is such a huge gap with us that I'm not sure how or if we will ever be able to communicate effectively with her. We had an incident where she was trying to tell us not to keep our car running because the exhaust goes directly into her home.(Something I wish we would have thought of before she had to mention it to us.) She has no air conditioning and keeps her windows open all day. We have to park under her windows to get into our house so if our car is running, the fumes go into her home which can make her sick. Well, as she was speaking to us in her Italian language, we had no clue what she was saying. We just smiled and nodded trying to express to her we didn't understand Italian. She just kept repeating herself smiling at us and waving her arms around. I thought she was about ready to give up or get frustrated with us, but by the grace of God a young man came walking by ready to translate for us. Once we understood, we apologized for our past offenses and let her know we wouldn't do it again. I hope we will be able to communicate to her at some point, but for now we will try our best and pray we have somebody that walks by knowing both English and Italian when we need them.
Our landlords are also great people. One is an American and the other pure Italian so they can translate for us when we get into a bind. They only live 3 minutes away and want to have all of us over for dinner, that's not common to have your tenants over for a meal. They are such gracious and giving people. Roggero already brought us 6 bottles of wine...just to start our collection off. They have asked us what we would like in their home and been very willing to change if we needed them to. I pray our communication will stay strong and the relationship will remain.
The military has provided beds, closets, a fridge, a table with chairs, highchair, washer and dryer. Once our large load comes we will have our own beds and tables. They will take theirs back. All of our basic needs are met and it feels so good to have some of our own belongings. Our hearts are filled with excitement and nerves, being out of the military base and fully immersed into the Italian culture. I'm thrilled to be able to experience Italy and feel so blessed to be here. I pray we will keep our eyes on Him who has poured out His many blessings on us.