Progress! Slow, but definitely progress.

Following my trip to Sibiu (see previous post) to obtain "Certificate of Registration" confirming my right to residency in Romania, I now have an appointment tomorrow (Friday 3rd) with a Notary Public who will, hopefully, complete the legal process for purchase of the land my house stands on. It is a quirk of current law here that any EU citizen can buy a house but only a Romanian national or Romanian registered company can buy land. This will change from January 2012 when Romania celebrates five years as an EU member and a few other laws will also change to be in line with EU legislation. However, it would be highly inconvenient for me to wait until then, hence the trip to Sibiu last week and tomorrow's visit to a Notary Public.

I had been in a bit of a "Catch 22" situation. Registration of my company, SC Casa Cristina SRL, had progressed as far as it could and to complete the process I had to own the land my house stood on. However, I couldn't own the land until either my company was registered or I had obtained a Residency Certificate. Now, providing all goes well tomorrow, I shall be able to supply the authorities with documentation confirming me as owner of the land which will be entered at the Land Registry in Medias. Once title to the land has been registered, all the documents completed so far for company registration can, at long last, be sent to Sibiu, the county town. In due course I will receive a nice Company Registration Certificate to display and a company number to use on invoices. I now have more official paperwork in my files after four months living in Romania than I acquired in sixteen years of self-employed trading back in the UK!

Progress on my kitchen has been somewhat quicker. On Monday I was able to pick up the final specially ordered 80cm base unit which was already assembled, not a flat-pack like the rest had been. Back at No. 130, it was unloaded, a hole cut in the side panel for gas pipe to go through and by evening it was in position and the worktop, which I already had, was fitted. Next day the wall tiles were done and yesterday and today said tiles were grouted thus completing my new kitchen. Total cost for all the units, stainless steel sink top, wall tiles, tile cement, grout and tools to do the tiling is 1530 lei (£306). The "white goods", fridge/freezer, gas cooker and oversink water heater, bought over a two month period, came to 2820 lei (£564), not much below West European prices. Still for a total of £870 and 3 or 4 days work I have a nice new kitchen. Video has been posted on YouTube - just ignore the related kitchen videos at the end. Hope you like the results of my hard work!