I'm both excited and terrified about starting on the house. I both need the support of the people who want to help and dread their real or imagined expectations, pressure or interference. I can't wait to spend the money to make it what I want it to be and I'm also pissed that I have to give anyone my money.

There will be a geometra waiting to sit down with me on Monday, 19 April. At least, I think so. If I am very lucky, I will soon be slogging through piles of broken plaster in little demolition areas, heaps of musty stuff tumbling down from the attic to the bidone (not to mention some moldy old mattresses from the second and third floors), and great drifts of grit and dust that will make me cough, all the while avoiding scary dangling wires and hoses and a myriad of construction site dangers. Soon is the operative word. It means anytime between May of 2004 and April of 2005.

It is considerably more likely that in the coming weeks I will be bent over plans, haggling about major design details, grousing about the amounts outlined in the preventivo, and dozing in the antechambers of bureaucrats from whom I must get permits. Got to spend time in the garden. Got to become acquainted with the officials at the comune (especially to see if I can get into their historical archives about the village and the house.) The palazzo comunale, by the way, is directly across the piazza from my back windows. They'll see everything that's going on, so I really hope they find me simpatica and my presence in their village molto piacevole.

On Thursday evening, 29 April, my sister, nephew, brother-in-law, and a wonderful friend are all arriving from Australia, prepared to pitch in, get dirty, put up with Spartan conditions, and have some fun. They'll be in and out, doing whatever jobs they can and also giving me space by going off on some independent jaunts of their own. I hope to introduce them to some of my friends and favorite places during the two weeks they're with me.

On Sunday, 9 May, there's a big Slow Travelers' get together in Umbria where I'll get to meet a few people with whom I've been corresponding intensely and renew some ties with some people I met last fall.

I have messages from my friends at the organic farm commune, other friends in LeMarche, and a couple from Vigevano. The latter will come by during their long planned spring trip to Toscana. The former will visit or get me to visit them. I am too rich in friends for the little time I will have. Maybe I should, as Tom Robbins would have me do, "call in well."

"Hi, it's Joanna. Listen, I've been sick since I started working there, but I'm well today, so I won't be in."

posted by Joanna @ 3/11/2004 04:29:00 AM