Monthly Archives: October 2012

Budgeting a Dream

24 Wednesday Oct 2012

Posted by in General, Money issues

≈ 5 Comments

Tags

, ,

Budget and dreaming are words that feel out of place together in the same sentence, but indeed if you’re going to make a big project come true, you’d better be able to pay for it. More to the point, you’d better want to pay for it. And keep wanting to pay for it until it’s done.

One of the things that happened within months of buying the villa is that we suddenly found ourselves having to move back to Canada. We’d bought the place assuming we were going to continue living in Milan, but alas the working world didn’t cooperate. As a result, all kinds of new priorities entered our lives – buying a house in Toronto (we’d been renting as expats in Milan), a car (that had come from the company before), living fully in this country, and traveling back and forth to the old one. We’re not crazy spenders or lavish livers, but we can rack up a bill or two doing the things we love.

And our focus shifted. Every time I was back at the villa I thought wow this place is magical and so worth the effort and money. Months later and back in Canada, the memory of that feeling would become dim and I’d think things like it would make much more sense to spend the money on fixing up the back deck in Toronto than on electrical channels in the villa. Being so far away made a huge difference to the perceived reward of doing something, when the gratification of money spent in Canada was so immediately satisfying. That was a killer.

Hmm…shall we fix this gross thing that’s 5,000 miles away, or get laptops for the kids?

Advice: set up a budget that allows money to be put aside specifically for the project. Make sure it always goes there, and only gets spent there. We have an account in Italy and this actually did help – once the money had gone over, there was no means to spend it here.

Budgeting is very personal and relates to your own priorities. I’m not going to tell you where you should spend your money, only that you have to decide for yourself and stick to it with a firm resolve. For more ideas on budgeting, there’s a good book available that, although a bit extreme in its application, gives tons of good pointers: Dream Save Do: Stop Dreaming and Start Living: Betsy Talbot,Warren Talbot: Amazon.com: Kindle Store

Questions of Money

16 Tuesday Oct 2012

Posted by in General, Money issues

≈ 9 Comments

I’ve always found money to be a relative kind of thing. So when one of the questions is ‘did you run out of money’, the answer is more like we ran out of money we were willing to put into this project, against the benefit we thought it would create. But it did cost more than we bargained for, and we did run out, in the sense that there was rarely enough left for the villa after other priorities had been met. So why did that happen?

This might take more than one blog post.

Let’s start with our initial budget. We ludicrously underestimated the cost, getting caught up in the dream and not doing enough thorough research. We were really ignorant at the beginning. We got a ballpark estimate from a geometra who resided in a different city – one that was arranged by the realtor. It was actually not too far off the truth, but we didn’t believe it would actually be so high, as nothing was itemized and he said he made it big so we could get a mortgage that would pay for the construction.

Yes, we thought it might be made habitable relatively easily. We’d seen worse.

Advice: Use a local geometra, one who knows the contractors in the area. Ask the butcher, the bar owner, various locals who they would recommend.  Don’t use the one your realtor gives you; it’s not that they’re unscrupulous, but they are in the business of selling you the house, so you can’t expect objectivity.

Pay the neighbourhood-endorsed geometra to assess the house and get a real contractor’s itemized budget. At this point you still won’t have plans, so the estimate will not be precise in the details, but the buckets will be established. You’ll know whether the entire roof has to actually be replaced right down to every beam (yes), whether there is asbestos in there that requires an expensive hazmat team to remove (yes), whether every window is likely to crumble to dust when you try to remove them for replastering the holes in which they reside (yes).

Then add 30% and see how excited you still are to buy the house.

Nothing puts a damper on dreams faster than seeing the bill. But if it’s really important to you, you’ll figure out a way to pay for it. James W. Frick said Don’t tell me where your priorities are. Show me where you spend your money and I’ll tell you what they are.

That’ll be lesson number two: prioritizing and budgeting.

Life Upon Waking

11 Thursday Oct 2012

Posted by in General

≈ 8 Comments

An unexpected thing happened when I wrote my last blog about selling the villa. One of my readers took the time – quite a lot of time – to ask me a whole bunch of questions about the flip side of big dreams: the pitfalls. She thought it would be useful for readers to understand, if they wanted to try something like this themselves, the lessons I’d learned about what NOT to do.

One thing in particular about Ms. C’s note struck me: Failure is not a positive word in our western society, however I think the best way to think of it is as another word for a learning experience! 

I couldn’t agree more.

And then: Most of us have read “Under the Tuscan Sun” and “A Year in Provence” and we have a highly romantic, impractical view of undertaking the task of a remodel. In fact there are any number of books about how wonderful it all is and it sounds so fun and so easily do-able when you read those books and magazine articles.

Hmmm. Yes, I did read those books. And the villa project was hugely positive for me, despite my current period of mourning. To feel otherwise would be akin to wishing dead friends hadn’t been born, so that we wouldn’t miss them now that they’re gone. However, sometimes the price of dreaming is mourning, and I’d hate to think my story would stop anyone – least of all me – from continuing to pursue the big ones. From experience comes knowledge and growth.

So let’s share it! I’m going to simply work through Ms. C’s questions, on the assumption she’s not the only one who has them. If any of you have more, fire away: either here, or by sending me a message on Godzillavilla’s facebook page.

The first has to do with money. Stay tuned, my answer will be coming soon.

And thank you, Ms. C., for writing your long note asking me to do this.

Dream for Sale

08 Monday Oct 2012

Posted by in General

≈ 16 Comments

Those of you who have been following the saga of Godzillavilla will have noticed a lengthy silence on my part, ever since I went to Nova Scotia instead of Italy for my July holidays this year. It’s taken me all this time to figure out what to do, and say, next.

I went to Nova Scotia because that’s as far as my money would take me. Like many others in the world at the moment, our family is feeling extremely pinched and we’ve been thinking hard about what merits our spending and what doesn’t, since we can’t (alas) have it all. While I was down East, I realized two big things:

1. We can’t afford to complete the villa in Italy without making all kinds of sacrifices that are actually not worth it to us.

2. Thankfully for my emotional self, I dscovered that many of the things I cherish most about our bit of paradise in Italy can be found in places more accessible and less costly for us. Like Nova Scotia. Who would have thought.

I have spent so many years investing in the dream of completing Godzillavilla that the question of whether or not I should be doing so was one I kept pushing off to the side, like the irritation of a gnat while engrossed in a great book. It was a big, wonderful, romantic dream and I loved being in it.

However.

Not every dream can be realized. I’ve managed to make a lot of mine come true, but this isn’t going to be one of them. Like the song says, you have to know when to fold. Still, I had a great time while I was in the dream. It was worth every bit of the effort, time, energy, love and, yes, money that went into it.

I still love Italy, but I don’t need a house there to interact with it. I still love Godzillvilla, but I don’t need to own it any longer. Thanks for the memories, my lovely monster. May someone else get as much joy from you as I have.

Rivolgersi a http://bit.ly/SEaz8L for more information, or send me a note. If anyone is interested but a little wobbly about taking on the project management, I can help.