That would have left me with a nice cushion of money to live off until I found some way of making money in Italy. But it turned out that the cabin kits wouldn't meet Italian building regs..the bedroom sizes were too small (not sure why the government cares what size bedroom I am sleeping in?!)..the roof height too low etc.
It all looked a bit doomed to failure, as I couldn't afford a 'proper' house but then I was put in touch with a builder who would build me a cabin that would conform to all the regs, and *just about* be in budget. Not the budget I originally hoped for but something that I at least had the actual cash for. Don't have an actual picture but this is the drawing of the 55 sqm cabin.
This cabin also came with a bathroom fitted, all the electricity, gas central heating, damp proofing etc. I really want to get back to as basic a lifestyle as possible, but I am realistic enough to understand that I don't know how to live this way yet. My dream would be to live without electricity and all the other 'mod cons'. Although man has lived this way for 99% of his existence, I don't know how to live this way. So I am going to have to start slowly and then gradually try and work out how best to live on and with my land.
So once the building issue had been worked out it all seemed plain sailing until we hit a snag called the 'non existent road' !
This darkened area is my bit of land, and on the map this shows what looks like a road running through the middle of it.
But as you can see in reality.... there isn't. (view from half way up the land..looking down to the narrow part)
What seems to have happened is over the years the family which owned the land (and all the neighbouring land) decided to 'move' the road to a more convenient route. The old road had just grown over and so no longer existed. (This is exactly the kind of mad thing you are warned about when buying abroad! haha)
This presented a couple of problems. One of which is that building laws say that you must build at least 10 metres from a land boundary and 20 metres from a road. My original plan was to put the cabin on the flat part at the bottom of the slope, but the plot was too narrow to accomodate building it 10 metres in and 20 metres away from an imaginary road. (!)
The land gets wider as you go up but then we would be trying to build on a slope and that would mean flattening out the land which a) I didn't want to do and b) would make the cost go up.
It was decided in the end that the only place to put the cabin was the flat expanse at the top of the hill. I originally discounted the idea because it felt more sheltered at the bottom but now I am pleased with the position as it is further from the road ( even though it's a private dirt track so not exactly the M25..but still) and the views are even better at the top of the hill.
I am still left with the minimal threat that is someone decided that they wanted to go across the non existent road then I would have to let them..but seeing as though there is an access road to the side and finding the old road would prove difficult, I am hoping that this never becomes an issue!
No comments:
Post a Comment