pilchard's activity

Yes, ok it is a yellow pepper 

I live in Abruzzo & although I do not live in The Penne area I'm close enough to have recieved some insights into the goings on there. The Penne area is awash with brit builders trying to get work from fellow brits to restore their houses. Some are bound to be genuine, reasonably priced & competent. Some are bound to be complete chancers that will leave you with a screwed up house, little money & a bad taste. Unfortunately, as is the way of the world, I have only heard tell of the latter, so proceed down this avenue with extreem caution & only contract a brit if he can take you to several completed of his jobs to inspect his work & talk to the satisfied customers. His close family members & freinds don't count. Electrical & gas work, as in the UK, has to be signed off if you want the work to have any legal status. I'd actually recommend using Italians, working through an Italian Geometra. There are so many very good Italian tradesmen but the big problem is finding a Geometra that knows his arse from his elbow & has not climbed aboard the Brit gravy train. Go to your local comune, try to strike up a rapport with the Tecnico by introducing yourself, telling him about yourself, where your house is & what you hope to do to it. Take an Italian speaking freind. Ask for recommends for Geometras. He might be reluctant. Persist with good humour & patience. If he only recommends one be aware it might be his cousin. Do a similar thing at the local bars & with your neighbours. Eventually a name will keep cropping up &, so long as everyone is not taking the rise, he will be your man. He will not be cheap but will have a team of good tradesmen at his disposal who, & this is the important bit, rely on this Geometras good will for the never ending supply of work he puts their way, & are therefore good, reasonably priced & will turn up when they are supposed to. You need to have some power over the guys doing the work. A smile & a promise means nothing. The geometra that controls their work-flow is the man to kick arse. The Geometra will charge you 10% + IVA for his work but that will include drawing up plans, liasing with tradesmen, suppliers & the authorities. Get him to confirm, in writing, not just the all-in price but every tiny detail of the work (your house may still be painted red when you asked for yellow) & the completion date. Get him to sign it. If you don't live on the job, or nearby, expect considerable delays. Make sure you or an Italian speaking friend pesters him as often as possible. Sub-frames are standard procedure. They are put in prior to external & internal rendering. The windows & doors come after.  NB. "Plastering" is the british technique of applying a thick plaster backing or roughing coat & then a thinner finnishing coat over that. The universal use of sand & cement renders as an internal wall covering is, coupled with there being no recognition of the need for ventilation, the main reason why Italian houses feel so uncomfortably damp in winter. You can specify plaster base & finish coats but it is not the norm & you'll have to fight. Ask any local Italian what heating he'd put in & he'd say Termocamino. Heats all the rads, hot water, nice glass enclosed jolly flickering fire you can roast half an ox on & will take massive logs. If it's a top floor tiny apartment then maybe a pellet stove is for you. Pilch

Yes. I thought that Ronnie & the Mods hade turned the lights off, pulled the blinds down & locked the door. Christ. End of an era or what? Glad I was wrong. Pilch

I agree with the veggie shortage problem. We eat out & never see a single veg. We ask if they have any contorni & they say "yes we have chips, green salad or tomato salad". I've been coming here since before I was born & can't remember being deprived of veg as a kid. It was the meat course that was sparse cos meat was expensive. Has Italian food preferences really changed away from veg or is it that menus without contorni are cheaper labourwise to produce? I agree with what Mustard says. You need to have passion to gripe about something you love. People with perfect lives are not to be believed or emulated. Pilch

Think I got a bashing elsewhere for putting stuff like this up....someone else have a go eh, or not. As you guessed it Evert it should be you. Nothing too clever though; after all, we are only a bunch of numpties on this site. (winky smiley)

Yes, it's an organ grinder's monkey's collection tin. The bit at the end was to make sure the money didn't fall out. Hmmmmm. Yes, very boring. 

  Tell them Evert.

Don't take much to distract you does it Annec.....chortle

Too easy. It was Rome. Your turn now.

For those who read this thread with disdain, I get so sick of us all all trying to out do each other to see who is the cleverest. We all try to convince ourselves we are intellectual heavyweights. That's fine, so long as the sword play does not get out of hand, but a life without frivolity, light-heartedness & buffoonery isn't really a life worth having. We all need to seek the child within...some more than others. Now where did I put my dolly & colouring book. Sometimes the barrel needs scraping clean.