The contract on the new house we are renting specified we got the keys three days before the term began, but we asked and were granted the right to get the keys four days in advance. I asked for this so I could go in and clean the house on Thursday before our funiture was to be set up on Friday (they were to deliver it on Thursday) and before the offcial movers came on Saturday.
Dustin and I arrived at the house early Thursday for what is suppose to be the walk through. We brought the kids with and our ayi all to the house thinking it would be a quick walk through and I could get started cleaning. Oh were we ever wrong. When we first walked in we noticed a few things. The paint colors we picked were great, but the other walls that were suppose to be patched and painted (their were hooks in a lot of places) had not been completed. Nor had anything else we had pointed out the last time we went through with our agent.
Our landlord is quite the interesting character. She is Shanghaiese and owns a couple of properties in the city--which makes her in the upper class of Chinese in regards to wealth. Many Chinese still just own one change of clothes and dream of owning a bicycle of their own. She apparently paid someone to do the walls and they only did the paint chips we had given, non of the other walls. She was visibly upset screaming into her cell phone in the aggitated Chinese that we have become accustome to hear. She then got off the phone and went around and started yanking them off the walls leaving holes in the walls.
The rest of the walk through took until 12:30. Of course during the walk through IKEA's delivery group brought our funiture in. It was quite the household of people and activity.
We decided it was best to leave, eat lunch and then have me come back to clean on my own. We had now a very short time to do this as at 3:30 we had a meeting with the clubhouse of where we were moving from (the SRC) to try and keep some sort of membership with them. It is a huge part the expatriate community here and most families gather here, their kids do sports here and use their pools. I really wanted this membership, and the contract we signed with our new landlord included it. She just was not able to get it herself. We are hoping they will allow us to get one even though she is the one paying for it. Our landlord already tried to talk us out of this agreement this afternoon, but we simply said it is part of the contract and we want it.
I arrived back at the house to clean and the landlord and the representative from our realtor office were still there. I began cleaning while they were talking back and forth. I got some of the drawers done in the kitchen when the agent says the landlord wants me to leave. I of course say "excuse me? Are you kidding me?" We have an agreement. The agent explains the landlord wants to wait until we know about the membership at SRC before she allows me in. I try and argue my way through it based on the agreement we have with the landlord and the fact that she already accepted our money for the coming month. I did not get anywhere. I said I would have to call Dustin to get me, but then decided I would walk as I did not want to wait with the landlord. I was so furious about being kicked out that I did not want to spend another minute with her. I made it to the front door, and the landlord is looking all contrite, but turns out she still wants me to leave, but she is saying she will drive me. As I realize that it is raining out and I do not have an umbrella, I agree to have her drive me. Yet as we begin driving, I tell her to take me to Starbucks instead of home, as I do not want her to know where we live, or somehow try and be a part of the meeting later today with SRC.
So now we are driving in her car with the agent in the back seat. I am praying that she takes me to Starbucks and not somewhere else. The agent is first trying to translate the landlord's conversation with me. As we are heading out of the subdivision to Starbucks, the agent is telling me that the landlord said she has a friend that has a membership at the SRC already and is moving. We could have this membership. I kindly remind them, as kindly as I can that the new rules under the new management is that the memberships are not transferable. The agent visibly shows an "ah shoot" face. The landlord continues to try and talk to me and I completely shut her down with the statement that we will wait to see what management tells Dustin and I at the meeting at 3:30.
So we now turn the corner (remember our new house and old apartment are only 5 minutes by car and Starbucks is located between the two) and the agent gets a phone call. Meanwhile, we are on a fairly busy street and the landlord is trying to talk to me, in Chinese, still about the membership (she clearly is wishing that she did not agree to pay for it--it is not cheap, but we increased the rent and she will get the money back, so we do not feel bad about it).
As she is trying to talk to me, she is slowing down in the lane of traffic. By the end of what she trying to say, we are practically stopped. She is able to convey to me that she wants to wait with me at Starbucks until Dustin arrives. This is crazy I thought, as she just kicked me out of the house I was suppose to have rights to today, and she thinks I am going to sit and have small talk with her for over an hour? CRAZY. So, I tell her that I am just picking up the coffee and heading back to check on the boys. She of course counters with that she will drive me home. As I am at a total loss of how to get out of this offer without completely being rude, I agree. Through this crazy conversation I somehow manage to get her to resume normal speed and enter the parking lot of Starbucks.
While in Starbucks waiting on my coffee, I text Dustin in as a discreet of way as possible, as I know they are staring at me in the store. I tell him of being kicked out and that I was on my way home. He and Tom were out buying our outdoor table set that we will use in the dining room until our furniture that we are having made is finished.
I head back to the car and start praying as we enter the community that she one does not ask to come up and wait at our place, and two that she does not ask to come to the meeting with the SRC. Of course, we are almost to our house when my phone rings and it is Dustin. I kindly tell him that I am on my way home to the apartment, and that I would have to call him back "Lindsay". I of course had to say the Lindsay part twice, but he finally got it that I did not want them to know it was him on the phone, as our crazy landlord would probably take my phone from me to talk to him. She finally pulled into our parking lot and I could not get out of the car fast enough.
After cooling off from that adventure, Dustin and I went to meet the management for SRC. We were very happy to hear that the changes they are making are tied with not wanting to deal with the landlords and not with the expatriate. They said we would have no problem keeping a membership. We then headed back to tell the news to the landlord and our agent. After all the craziness of the day, our new landlord accepted it quite well. She said she would have the cash for us on Sunday morning. We left to head home, with nothing at the house clean, but happy to have the SRC membership.
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