What was he thinking?

Friday evening we got an urgent call from Gorgio -- he spoke with Richard. Apparently, Richard (as the future owner of the house) is responsible for contacting the electric company to initiate a contract to get some electricity to the house. It has to be done immediately, because it is estimated that it will take 10 days to be done, and another 10 days are needed to run the heat. End of June? (Up until this point, Ghiotto has been getting his power via an extension cord and Ferruccio.)

Dealing with the utility company is no easy task in Italy, but Gorgio assured Richard that he had all of the necessary documents and that Fillipo (new neighbor) would be doing the same thing. According to Giorgio, it had to be done asap bc of the wait time involved. Remember -- the heat has to run through the floor upstairs for a bit before installing the wood, ah, laminate.

Okay -- I thought it just a bit suspect -- but -- again, this is not our culture. Why should we be involved in electricity to the construction site? We don't even have access. Giorgio, however, seems to be trustworthy and competent.

Richard got the paperwork from Giorgio (which he filled out for us) early Saturday morning, and headed to the utility company. Of course, not much can ever be handled over the phone, so this required getting to the office early enough to beat the crowd as the office has limited hours and Richard already had Saturday plans with a friend.

As we suspected, this was not right. Giorgio had it all wrong -- even the wrong documents. The utility company rep gave Richard the correct documents, which he delivered back to the construction site. We should not be involved in this transaction at all, as suspected.

What this means for the timeline and the laminate -- I am not sure. The complete lack of knowledge of handling these things on the part of the Ghiottos makes me a little uneasy. I have to have faith that all will be okay in the end. So far. . . the subcontractors that he has hired are insuring that things are being done correctly. However, all it takes is one.