Thursday 22 March 2007

The House (Part 2)

So Jerome called the mairie to find out what was going on. I was pretty happy when he told me that the permits were instruit mais pas signé (prepared but not signed). I'm thinking - great, we just need a signature, no problem. He explained to me that no, in fact, they still had to make the decision about our plans. So it could take months which means the roofer can't come until June which delays everything else until September since it's impossible to find contracters in the summer. Ah, the summer months when everything shuts down.

So this stinks for a few reasons : 1) we won't be in our house for a really really long time since, if the stack of papers our request is sitting on is anything like what I've seen in other administrative buildings, it could get lost and 2) I wanted to go back to NJ for a wedding at the end of August and even found really cheap flights! But now, we'll most likely be spending our summer vacation working on the house. 3) the cats are destroying the wall paper and I'm sick of my place smelling like a litter box.

The good news is that we will eventually live in the house. And once we are there, we will enjoy it (the best cheese shop, bakery and beer store are all around the corner). But I'm really hoping that fighting with the zoning department of the mairie is the least of our worries. To be continued.

5 comments:

Papadesdeux said...

Oh my, Jerome, that naughty boy, he didn't forewarn... I understand... if you tell the client what they can expect, they never want to go forward with the project. (You being the client in this case.)

And in all fairness, I once heard a story about a remodeling project that just glided right through the whole process. JUST KIDDING. Oh, my, that was a funny one. Sigh.

THE GOOD NEWS. There will be a day to come when you will be glad you did it. And you will thank him. Well, there will be a day when you are glad it is over... that is for sure. And you will probably forgive him - is he good in...sorry, I didn't say that.

I can say that, even though we are still waiting to know if we are going to be slapped with a process because we went ahead and replaced the windows without an approval. OK, actually we had a sort of half-way "NO" so in typical French fashion, we went ahead and did it before we got a firm NO. I mean, then we would have been in even bigger trouble. The damn windows HAD to be replaced.

GOOD LUCK! Breath deeply... it will be OK. And I am going to enjoy hearing all the stories.

Reb said...

The positive side is that Suzanne will not be learning to toddle in the middle of a work zone...

Amy Plum said...

I feel for you! Our move-in date keeps being pushed back by season. Last year Laurent said we would be in by winter. Then he said "late winter". Now we're hoping to move into PART of the house early June.

The waiting is the worst part. Soon you will have your beautiful well-located house, but I'm sure it doesn't feel like soon enough!

Reb said...

Part of the house is better than none, right?!

Just me said...

I'll keep my fingers crossed for you!

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