Retiring to Ofena

[maisie21]

Originally Posted by maisie21

Hi Lynda
Good to hear from you again.
We are not going out to Ofena until March next year, we are not allowed to stay at the house and although there is plenty of work to do in the garden as soon as we leave it just returns to its Jungle state again.
We have had some good news today from our Architect. The Comune have now agreed to let us go ahead, independantly of our neighbours ,with the repairs to the property. The architect has up until December 31st to re submit the new plans and then we have to wait for the Comune to give us permission to start the work.
We will now be moving in October next year, rather than April, although we are still prepared to take a caravan across if we have to. We are also now considering taking my car across because we will not be allowed to buy a car in Italy until we have been granted residency, so it would prove very expensive if we had to rent a car for several months.
Hope tha wedding went well and that you have a good time in Italy.
Judy.

Hi again Lynda

Has Barry set up another thread or is it an expats group in Carrufo?
Judy.

[juliet1]

Originally Posted by maisie21

Hi Pleased to hear that you have no regrets.
We have heard from one of our Architects and she is hoping to have some more information for us this week.
It would be great if we could meet up some time,where do you live?
Judy

Hi Judy

Great to see everyone still on the forum. we have now bitten the bullet and got a lawyer to act on our behalf. Sick if being fobbed off by the Comune. There was a meeting last Thursday to discuss the plans for our area of the town and as a) we couldn't go and b) we wouldn't understand most of what was going on - it just seemed the most sensible thing to do. We have at least found out that the repair work for all the properties in our street will be carried out in one go at no cost to us and an architect has been appointed by the Comune. The only thing we don't know is when! And as we all know, this is the million euro question.

Julie x

[pugwashington]

Originally Posted by flawed

Hi Barry, I finally booked our tickets. we will be in Ofena 24th Oct to 3rd Nov
Happy to meet new people. Rod's sister and her husband are coming to stay with us should be fun.

Rod can't wait to get back to Ofena.... He is trying to get a job back in Dubai... that much closer ! I won't be back until it warms up . Trying to get to the Chelsea flower show 2011. So May/June

Lucky you.......We have decided to stay away from the house now - maybe go and stay with Gianni for B&B - just heard from the architect that they are about ready to put a project in and that theoretically I am classed as an Ofena resident. Practically I just have my fingers crossed!!!

Gianni has the builders in and his place should be ready by Christmas with a bit of luck.

Would you be interested in renting your place out for a week? We Would take good care of it. No offence, no problem if not. Tony might be out for a week on his own.
Pam

[maisie21]

Originally Posted by juliet1

Hi Judy

Great to see everyone still on the forum. we have now bitten the bullet and got a lawyer to act on our behalf. Sick if being fobbed off by the Comune. There was a meeting last Thursday to discuss the plans for our area of the town and as a) we couldn't go and b) we wouldn't understand most of what was going on - it just seemed the most sensible thing to do. We have at least found out that the repair work for all the properties in our street will be carried out in one go at no cost to us and an architect has been appointed by the Comune. The only thing we don't know is when! And as we all know, this is the million euro question.

Julie x

Hi Julie
Good to hear from you again.
I understand your frustration with the Comune. We have now got two architects working on our project and our new Architect, Christina, has said that it is like dealing with nursery children when she tries to get our original architect, Alessandro and the Comune to communicate with each other properly.
We have now been told that our work can go ahead independently of our neighbours so we have got to wait for the plans to be submitted and passed so that the work can start. We have been told that we will get 80% towards the cost of the repairs.
John and I are going out again in March as we need to go to the Comune to see about applying for residency and the plan is then to move there permanently next October(even if we have to take a caravan across to sleep in).We will be putting our house in England up for sale in the new Year and will mov einto rented accomodation over here if we sell before October.
Judy.

[josephdemeyer]

Originally Posted by maisie21

Hi
My husband and I are planning to re-locate to Abruzzo next year, hopefully towards the end of April.
We bought our house, as a renovation project, in Ofena in 2007 and had originally planned to move this year. However, our house was damaged in the earthquake and we are still waiting to receive authorisation from the authorities to start the repairs.
Regardless of whether the work has started by April next year we still plan to make the move then even if it means taking a caravan across with us to sleep in.
We have a garden of over 600sq.m which is full of olive trees, vines and fig trees to we will have plenty of work to keep us occupied until we can start on the house again.
If anyone has any constructive advice to offer it would be gratefully welcomed.
Judy

Hello Judy: My wife Vee and I just acquired a house in Ofena too! We are staying there -again- the next four weeks. Very sorry to read that your house got damaged. We met some very good Ofena people; and am sure they would want to extend their help too. So let's stay in touch! Joseph and Vee DeMeyer

[Barry]

Originally Posted by josephdemeyer

Hello Judy: My wife Vee and I just acquired a house in Ofena too! We are staying there -again- the next four weeks. Very sorry to read that your house got damaged. We met some very good Ofena people; and am sure they would want to extend their help too. So let's stay in touch! Joseph and Vee DeMeyer

You must have central heat! Are you using natural gas? Wondering on the cost. We've been told it is 800 euro to put a meter in and that it is very expensive to use but no one has given us any figures. The gas line is stubbed off just below our electric meter so hooking it up shouldn't be a problem.
Speaking of electricity we still haven't had a bill since the earthquake.

Barry

[maisie21]

Originally Posted by Barry

You must have central heat! Are you using natural gas? Wondering on the cost. We've been told it is 800 euro to put a meter in and that it is very expensive to use but no one has given us any figures. The gas line is stubbed off just below our electric meter so hooking it up shouldn't be a problem.
Speaking of electricity we still haven't had a bill since the earthquake.

Barry

Hi Barry
We had our gas meter installed two years ago and it cost 550 Euros(the pipework was already in place like yours)
As the mains gas lines have only been installed over the past few years to the village they are trying to re coup some of the cost by charging a higher than normal rate for the meter.
We still have still not received a utility bill but I believe that the gas and electric companies are going to start billing people shortly.
Judy.

[maisie21]

Originally Posted by josephdemeyer

Hello Judy: My wife Vee and I just acquired a house in Ofena too! We are staying there -again- the next four weeks. Very sorry to read that your house got damaged. We met some very good Ofena people; and am sure they would want to extend their help too. So let's stay in touch! Joseph and Vee DeMeyer

Hi Joseph and Vee
Lovely to hear from you.
We are planning to go out to Ofena in March as we need to get some details sorted out with the Comune prior to our final move next October.
Our Architects are meeting with the Comune again tomorrow to discuss our plans and once they have been sent to us to sign and returned they will be finally submitted.
We have also got some lovely neighbours who are really helpful as my Italian is still pretty poor, but improving.
I would certainly like to keep in touch.
Judy.

[josephdemeyer]

Originally Posted by Barry

You must have central heat! Are you using natural gas? Wondering on the cost. We've been told it is 800 euro to put a meter in and that it is very expensive to use but no one has given us any figures. The gas line is stubbed off just below our electric meter so hooking it up shouldn't be a problem.
Speaking of electricity we still haven't had a bill since the earthquake.

Barry

Hello Barry!...no we do not have gas..and this is our first stay in the -colder-season (maybe we are a little naif in believing Ofena will live up to its name...). We have the same gas line situation as you; and have looked into the options. It all depends on how LONG and WHEN you are staying in the house...Vee and are not not full timers ..so therefor no gas line yet (installation of central heating is quite expensive; but ultimately the best option when you stay all year round; forget those wood stoves: still too cumbersome and messy).
This time we will first try a couple of individual mobile gas heaters; one for each room; if necessary rolling them around a little... If you see us in the bar uptown, you know its not working....

[Barry]

Originally Posted by josephdemeyer

Hello Barry!...no we do not have gas..and this is our first stay in the -colder-season (maybe we are a little naif in believing Ofena will live up to its name...). We have the same gas line situation as you; and have looked into the options. It all depends on how LONG and WHEN you are staying in the house...Vee and are not not full timers ..so therefor no gas line yet (installation of central heating is quite expensive; but ultimately the best option when you stay all year round; forget those wood stoves: still too cumbersome and messy).
This time we will first try a couple of individual mobile gas heaters; one for each room; if necessary rolling them around a little... If you see us in the bar uptown, you know its not working....

We have 3 kerosene heaters plus an electric one and staying in late October we were using them all. Mind you our fireplace is useless, it only works if the window is open which kind of defeats the purpose! Everyone seems to get by with one of those high efficiency wood stoves which I think will be the way we go. My wife wants to come for christmas one year so we will need to do something.