The move continues

The time is flying past.  The guys are filling more boxes than we have, another 14 pallets have left the building, George continues to work on new puzzles, and I … well I do whatever is left to be done.

Almost all of the big house is packed up and shipped out.  We only have our bedroom and the remains of the garage workshop to finish up.  Of course, we have a few bits of furniture left, but those will be the last things to leave.  The mirror room looks so sad with nothing in it.  This is a drastic change from what it was before. But it is a beautiful room. 

We continue to have puzzles come into Puzzle Palace here in Florida, but I have begun to send all to our new address in Italy.  This is a daunting task in itself as I have a large number of people I have made a deal with to purchase one of everything they make.  This really is a time when I need a better system.  I know that I have forgotten at least a few.  

Thanksgiving was nice.  We had our daughter, some friends from the club and Bill and Scarlet here for dinner and a very small bit of puzzling.  I hope everyone out there had a good holiday.

The work continues and now the garage is full of crates awaiting the next pick-up.  Bill fixed the cracks in our coffee table and is in the process of crating it for shipment.  Our bed is gone; all the remains is the platform we had built.  Sadly, the castle will not take a round bed.  The Murphy beds will all remain as they too are too large for the castle and the hotel rooms.  I’m sure we will be able to do something even more wonderful there.  

I was pleased that they could take the wine shelves and two of the custom desks. Mine was made to fit a specific octagonal room so it stays.  Perhaps this will show the new owners how wonderful this house is and will prevent it from being torn down as is the recent want of everyone purchasing in Boca Grove.  

My kitchen now holds only 2 pans, service for 4, a kettle and a few utensils.  We have moved out of our bedroom and back into the game room.  This is a fitting end to our time in Puzzle Palace Boca Raton.  We have returned to where we started when we first came to visit in 2018. 

I hope we never do this again.  Moving is a big deal for most people, moving country, even bigger.  But this move takes the prize for being a stressful situation.  I supervise the move out of Italy while George is supposed to do the same for the Italian end.  Unfortunately I am caught in the Italian side of things as well and I’m starting to lose my calm.  :) I am shouting because the bank won’t let me in, I’, shouting because our man there is sending me messages and George emails and I don’t want to deal with it.  

Add to all of this a lack of knowing what is happening with our visas and I am wound up tighter than a clock.  Katherine has moved into her own flat, but has failed to put anything away.  This past Friday I spent the day organizing her kitchen and getting rid of a lot of unneeded stuff.  We managed to empty around 1/2 of the boxes she still had not gotten to.  A job well done I’d say.  

We have cleaning ladies in here today and some guys fixing the screens that came down during the last storm.  

The house is so empty.  It echoes.  I forget how big it is.  It sure looks different empty.  

Over due update

It has been a while since I posted. I’ve had good reason.  We returned to Florida, spent the next day opening boxes and putting things away from our trip to Italy.

On Friday that week, we headed to Italy to Miami to apply for our permanent visas.  Typical of Italian bureaucracy, we needed 2 copies of each item because we are after all, 2 people.  This should take 3 months to complete.  Sadly, even though we had all of the forms they request on line, we were still missing documents so home we went to send them back down again.  Even though we were told to send it all via email, two days later we received another email telling us they needed hard copies.  And on it goes…But we still want to move there. 

This past week has seen us do nothing but packing of the house.  The guys we have working for us are truly amazing.  It took me 4 days to open and repack the 250 odd packages that came in for us while we were gone.

During that time, they wrapped and boxed up my entire office, the garage, and George’s attic workshop.  I feel incompetent.  

Our garage now has 14 pallets in it.  They told me so far they have shipped out 58 and we figure there are another 12 or so here to pack.  793 boxes in total have been shipped and all of the crates they assembled already.  Each box has to have a pallet # and a box # on it. This system will help on the other end to make sure we received all that we sent over.  If only I remember to look at the numbers.  

The Lovers, the custom furniture, and the teak root sofas are on their way to Italy. Then the furniture and the extra crates go.  They have a running joke to the effect of "if it isn’t packed yet, throw it in with the sofas".  We have 5 of those heading over.  There are 8 folding tables of over 6’ in length and 2 smaller card table sized tables.  The dining table seats 12 and the guys were kind enough to refinish it before sending it over.  Thankfully they have left it and the chairs for me so I can host Thanksgiving dinner.  

George has designed a new soma cube with letters on it.  I’ll not explain more as he is thinking of giving it as an exchange gift coming soon.  He’s also worked on something he calls the clueless crossword. I have supervised and returned to cooking for the lads.  I try to feed them vegetables and some healthy food, but as George says, they only want calories.  He’s right.  Eggplant Parma with garlic bread is on the menu as is some heavily sauced ribs that they like. 

The guys have managed to take down most of the Kallax boxes and we donated them to a school.  They were so glad to have them, that the lot was gone in 2 days time. There were over 150 of them given away.  Now it’s plastering and painting time.  The only thing that remains in the museum are the big furniture pieces that need to be crated and 2 sofa beds for the guys to sleep on during the week.  

Both houses are all but empty and it is surreal to be here now.  It saddens me to see the emptiness of our home.  The halls echo and the void has never been so empty. there is something unnatural about walking across it and not catching the lovers out of the corner of my eye.  It is but a shell of a home now.  But on to bigger and better(?) things right?!?

I continue to study Italian and have begun to work on the driving book. What a bother that is: the written test is only in Italian, I need to do 8 hours at a driving school, and then I have to pass the driving test.  But if I want to drive….Ah well. I also spend hours pouring over the blueprints and measurements of the castle and the palace (the old hotel-it will truly be a 14th century palace when I’m done with it) designing a new kitchen, bathroom, some closets, oh, and shelves for puzzles. Just over 3 miles of wooden shelves have been ordered.  We will be installing floor to ceiling mirrors in one of the rooms and adding around 1km of glass shelves to house the kaleidoscope of crystal puzzles I have put together.  We have decided to have a rainbow room for Oskar’s puzzles and the Internal walls of a cube for the twisty’s.  The IPP room will have a unique cataloguing system, and I’m working on the placement of a bookshelf door.  

There is just so much going on and so much more that needs to be done.  All in good time.  

Fino all prossima settimana, arrivaderci e continua a rompicapo. 

Closing the museum

 Another long over due post.  We’ve just returned from our around the world trip 3 weeks ago and have already had 2 puzzle "parties" and Jenny and Brian return to do more filming of us.  To top things off, we both came down with COVID despite having been vaccinated and twice boosted.  George has recovered fully, but I still have a barking cough that I just can’t seem to shake. 

The first weekend we returned home Tanner and his lovely family came down for a visit.  I had planned to have many more people over but darned if I didn’t get COVID on the way home.  Bill and Scarlet came over for a while, and we all had meals outside.  I stayed in the big house while everyone went to the museum as I didn’t want to get anyone sick.  As luck would have it, Both Tanner and his wife returned to Texas with COVID.  Tanner puzzled quite a bit and we gave Jessie the car to go to the beach and to Butterfly World with Miss Geneva.  It was a lovely weekend and I sincerely hope that we can make it to their place in Texas on one of our return trips. 

During their trip here, I managed to get all of the packages that arrived during our six month cruise unpacked.  That was a monster task!

The following Tuesday Jenny and Brian returned to Puzzle Palace to take some more video footage of us and the puzzles.  We had a full 5 days of "work" and no play.  Bill and Scarlet came down to be bit actors in the production and we ended up having a very fun evening.

At some point the weekend before Richelieu was taken apart and finally cleaned.  They wanted us to reassemble him.  What a disaster. He’s still in pieces, and just as stuck as he was before.

The weekend after that, I was still coughing and sputtering, but we had a small final puzzle party.  George and I handed out Boca Bash t-shirts to any who hadn’t come before.  Why not? We have around 30 of them left that will never be used again.  Tye, Brent, Bill, Scarlet, Matt, Mat, Brian, Tevin and Morgan all came down for at least one or two days.  The folks from further afield stayed through Tuesday morning.  

The highlight of the weekend for them was of course to puzzle, but for us it was to empty out the workshop.  Now this is how things worked out.  Mat got the CNC machine in trade for a couple of tables, and a lifetime worth of new puzzles.  Bill and Scarlet got the laser cutter and a bunch of acrylic that was above the clothes in George’s closet. Then Tye swooped in and took all of the rest.  Eventually Tanner will return to take the saw stop, or hire a company to bring it out to him.  Our workshop is naked. It is sad to see the place so empty but we will rebuild again in Italy.  

While all of this was going on, we put the museum up for sale and have only had one looker.  The realtor we hired is terrible but thankfully we only gave him a short contract.  When we return from Italy we will get someone much better.  

After everyone left, we set to work.  The first thing we had done was to remove the lovers and have them crated.  It was such a sad day to see them come down.  Our plan when we arrive in Italy is to have them permanently placed on a marble base once we find a place for them to live.

After about a week, the guys had all of the root room furniture, George’s nylon printer, the Sisyphus tables all of our bathrobes, the stuffed monkeys, most of our bedding and a heck of a lot of puzzles packed into crates.  Our void is now a massive storage facility, as is the front bedroom and the root room.  

While all of this was going on, George emptied out the bridge and the dormitory.  I got 22 years of IPP puzzles packed before I ran out of storage boxes (which of course finally arrived yesterday) before starting on the mirror room.  We are in full swing on the packing, but sadly have to leave it all behind as we are leaving on Tuesday to go to the closing of the castle!  

This is an overwhelming time for us and a monumental task.  Thankfully we have good friends and have hired good help over the past year or so.  The gents who installed all of the shelving for us are now packing up all of the puzzles in the museum.  They will do a much better job of it than the moving companies around here.  Their work is amazing because they of course are amazing men.  

And finally, this past weekend we moved our youngest into her own condo.  She’s now an official mortgage holder and a real adult with real adult bills and all to prove it. 

Saturday we took her and her stuff there and Sunday afternoon mom went down and helped with her organizing of the house.  The poor kid hasn’t got my skills, but she’ll learn.  

It's been a very busy time for us this month since we returned home.  I hope to get back to regular blogging in the near future.  

George and I are planning to have a mosaic similar to the one we have at Puzzle Palace installed in the castle entry. We don't know what to call it though.  Any and all suggestions will be appreciated.  Puzzle Palace Castle? Puzzle Castle Museum?  Something similar in Italian?  The floor is open. Send in your ideas.  

This COVID is nothing to sneeze at.  I wouldn’t wish it on anyone.  The cough keeps me up at night which in turn makes me feel tired during the day.  And now I’m off to pack clothes for our trip.  See you all in Panicale!

BREAKING (Puzzle) NEWS!!!

 (Drumroll please)  We at Puzzle Palace have Breaking News.

On 28 April, George and I took a tour of the Etruscan necropolis in Tarquinia.  After going through the tombs, we were taken to the museum. This museum sparked a thought and is usual for us, we ran with it.  

I made a few jokes in my blog post on May 2nd about wanting to buy a castle.  Well, we did it! Now here is the real story of how this happened:  

After we finished our museum tour on the 28th, we went across the road and had a coffee. While George played a bridge game on his phone I googled "Castles for sale in Italy".  I showed him a few and he grunted at me.  A clear indication he with wasn’t interested, or he wasn’t listening.  I stewed over this for the rest of the day, but it was only a dream.  

We went in the afternoon for a pedicure and manicure when we returned to the ship. I sat and teased George while he reluctantly got his done, and then it was my turn.  All thoughts of castles were gone from my head.  

When I returned to the room George said he had something he wanted me to see.  And then he showed me Castillo di Panicale. It looked too good to be true and we wanted to know what was wrong with it.  But by now it was 6 pm and we couldn’t contact anyone.  We went to dinner and the wheels were turning in both of our heads.  When we returned, we talked it over and decided to get a cab to Panicale in the morning and go see the castle. 

Should I add here that we had just finished watching Under the Tuscan Sun a few days before?  For the record, Panicale is in Umbria.  If we spit in the wind though, it might end up in Tuscany. 

On the 29th we woke up knowing that we were going to drive to Panicale to look at a castle that George found online.  Neither of us slept very well that night for obvious reasons.  After all, this is a big step.  We left the ship as soon as we docked in Livorno and went out to find a cab driver.

The first guy that came up spoke pretty good English and we engaged his services for the day. There was a bit of confusion at first when he thought we just wanted a driver for the local area.  Eventually we got it through to him that we wanted to take a 3 hour drive to see a castle that we wanted to look at.   After negotiating a price, we took off for Panicale, Italy.  

The drive was pleasant. I love the Italian countryside and the driver was very talkative.  He told us the route he was taking and I approved of it.  I had planned the same one last night when we were deciding if it was too far to go. 

While in the car, I texted 2 relators in the hopes that we would be able to get into the castle.  You see, we left without knowing.  We took a leap of faith and off we went.  Around 10:30 I got a reply back from one saying she would try her best to get us in.  A few minutes later the other had a viewing for us!  

At 11:30 we arrived at the castle and took a walk around.  We were inspecting the walls and the foundation as one should do when purchasing a house.  Silly us.  This place has been standing since 1419.  I think it has a good foundation.  

The Realtor and her boss arrived and we were taken into the castle to look around.  About 1/2 way through the first floor I asked if I could take photos and it was approved.  

The first floor houses an old stable which has been converted into a garage and an events hall.  There is a dungeon and a very simple bathroom in the back corner.  There used to be a drawbridge but at the unification of Italy in 1861, all of the moats were filled in.  We now only have remnants of one in the form of a dirt pile and a lot of heavy chains.  There is barely enough room for a car inside.  We will need to buy a tiny 2-seater.  We've spent much of the trip after purchasing the castle looking at small cars and trying to decide what to buy.  I'm leaning towards a classic roadster or a Smart Fortwo.  Sadly, until Tesla comes out with a longer range, smaller model we are stuck with an ICE machine.  

The next floor holds an apartment and a separated sitting room/entry room. 

On this floor we saw the light for the first time and you know that feeling you get in your gut when something good is about to happen?  Well, I had that when I saw the stellated dodecahedron lighting throughout the staircase.  

We toured the third floor living quarters which has 2 bedrooms with ensuite baths, a rather large living/dining room, a beautiful fireplace, and a typical Italian kitchen. 

The fourth floor has a number of completed rooms, a full bathroom, a rather large library space, and a fireplace. 

The 5th floor holds a very long attic and a loggia that has amazing views of the area surrounding the city. 

There was also one final factor that helped us decide to purchase this castle: a puzzle mounted on the wall.

There are two turrets, a square one which has the loggia at the top, and a round one that has had the staircase removed.  The rooms on each floor have been extended to hold the area of the round turret.  This allows for greater floor space. There is also an elevator which will come in handy when moving in all of the puzzles and display cases.

We went back down to the 3rd floor to meet the owner of the castle. He is a Count and the castle has been in his family since it was built. (At least that was the translation our taxi driver gave us.) His wife passed around 5 years ago and he has no offspring. Besides, he has another castle in the Piedmont so he doesn’t need 2.  The castle has been completely remodeled in 2006, and that includes plumbing, electric, and heating.  It comes with a housekeeper and handyman.  We told him the lights and the puzzle had to stay and we would have a deal.  We shook hands on the sale just a little after one hour from our arrival time in Panicale.  

As we walked around, the cab driver was with us all the way.  He looked for problems in the structure, cracks in the walls, mold, you name it.  He also helped us by acting as a translator and he further was a photographer for us and finally, a negotiator.  He helped get a drop in the price!

We went to lunch at one of the local places in the square and had a glass of wine to toast to the new residents of the commune. The drive back to the ship was filled with shocked disbelief at what we had done.  We knew at dinner that night we would have a lot to talk about.  For the record, on a small ship like this word gets around fast.  I think with in a week everyone knew what we did.  There were people I still hadn’t met coming up to me asking if we were the ones who bought a castle.  

Now for THE REAL NEWS.  Puzzle Palace Museum will be moving to Panicale, Italy beginning in the spring of 2023.  

We have had the Hordern-Dalgety puzzle collection for about 10 months and have had it on display for about 8 months.  We have learned much in the way of building and running a museum.  We have also learned much in the way of purchasing puzzles and puzzle collections, museum size, museum location, and museum foundations.  We have determined that we have made several mistakes concerning these matters:

1. Having the collection sponsored by a foundation in the US means that the puzzles would “belong” to the government.
2. Having the museum in a gated community makes visits by large groups awkward at best.
3. The current collection is too large for two houses.
4. The rate of puzzle accumulation is too high for current accommodation.
5. The current location is devoid of compelling cultural or historical interest.

Ergo, we have decided to move the collection to a new location.  We are purchasing a castle in Italy.  We intend to sell our museum in Florida, move to Italy with all of our puzzles, obtain permanent residency, form a museum foundation, and learn to speak Italian.

Although this decision was immaturely spontaneous and marks a momentous change in our lives, it befits the seriousness we attach to the preservation of the collection.  We believe that this decision will benefit you in particular and the world puzzle collectors in general. 

Before you think we are totally crazy, please consider the particular castle we are purchasing.  It is called Castello di Panicale, located on the border of Tuscany and Umbria in Italy an hour and a half from Florence.  It is on top of a hill overlooking the beautiful countryside with a view of Lake Trasimeno.   It is across the street from an embroidery museum and down the block from a religious museum.  Our castle was built in 1419 and is part of the city wall fortification at the entrance of one of the two gates to the town of 50 people.  The castle itself is currently a music museum with accommodation for residency.  Naturally the music museum will close and be replaced by puzzles.  We shall live in the castle/museum.  The castle is VERY LARGE.  It can easily contain all the puzzles from both of our current houses plus plenty of room for other puzzle collections which choose to join this repository of puzzles.  The castle has one meter thick walls and has stood for 6 centuries.  We shall form a foundation for the museum portion.  By living in the museum as our sole residency we shall avoid any property taxes according to Italian law.

Although this means a tremendous nexus in our lives, we are enthusiastic about bringing life and global access to this important collection of puzzles.  It is unclear if we are molding the life of the puzzle collection or the reverse. We hope you will all bless this decision and wish us the luck needed to pull it off.  

It is our hope to have this museum up and running within 3 years.  You see, we will summer in Italy and winter in Florida until I have finally decided that I’m ready to quit the States again.  I’ve only been back for 4 years and Puzzle Palace has only just been finished.  We have worked hard to get it up to where it is today and I want to enjoy it for a while before completely leaving.  We also don’t want to rush the museum build. We know what mistakes we made on the last two prototypes and do not want to repeat them.  By being there only 1/2 of the year, it will give us plenty of time to move forward in the best way possible to develop a truly world class puzzle museum.  

If you missed Boca Bash last year and were looking forward to an invitation to the Puzzle Palace Museum, just wait.  We will be planning a Panicale Puzzle Palace Party in a few years time.  

So, until next time Arrivederci, Happy Puzzling, and we hope to see you in Panicale!