18 February 2012

Moving In

We wound up with the unfurnished apartment a few floors above the one we were almost in contract with last week.   The landlord’s agent got weird on the day of signing so we had to bail on that one.  I was done (as in:  Done) with the search and the wait and checked out the adverts on the Beijinger and saw ex pats leaving for home posting to sell and decided to make it work with the empty place.

It’s the same layout but is nicer, cleaner, higher, has a third bathroom, a wet one (meaning the shower is just in the tiled room w drain in the floor but w no curtain) off the Ayi (nanny/maid/household helper) room which is off the kitchen, and seemed fine.  I negotiated a slightly lower rent but the LL wouldn’t come down as far as I’d hoped.  Still, we went for it because, like I said, I was Done.  I signed the lease on Sunday. 

Our realtor took us to the inexpensive Chinese furniture mall (as opposed to the nearby gold gilt one we’d wound up in before) and we bought two very inexpensive beds and not-quite-hard-as-rock mattresses to be delivered three days hence.  

We answered some ads from the on line paper and wound up buying a sofa bed, small desk and chair, vacuum and other odds and ends from a dear couple (Brit/Chinese) who’re leaving for few months, and nearly a houseful from another couple (Brazilian/Danish) who’re moving to South America.  From the latter couple we got a fabulous hardwood with Danish dark finish dining table that seats 8, a matching bench, and five custom made hardwood chairs large enough for the tall Dane.   We also got a sofa that’s in three parts so it can also be a loveseat and chair and ottoman instead of the sofa with lounger, two tall bookcases, a gorgeous Chinese low cabinet they used as a TV table, a small café table with three stools for the kitchen, and two end tables.  Whew.   We did exactly what I didn’t want to do.  We bought a houseful of furniture. 

First you decide to do it, then you have to actually get it done.  I organized the delivery of the bulk of the new furniture on the same day the LL was planning to have a new TV and washer installed.  Those are considered standard fare here, like a refrigerator.  An oven is not, and unfortunately our new place does not have an oven.  Likewise for a clothes dryer.  In any case, coordinating it all was trying as it turned out that the TV would be delivered but then a separate set of workers would come to install it.  Same for the washer.  For the furniture, I had paid half of what we’d agreed upon so I had to go down there (near Guomao) to pay for the rest but I also had to be up at the new apartment for the other deliveries and workers.  I jumped in a taxi to get down there quickly and pay the Brazilian woman but the movers were late, delayed, late, and I wound up feeling like leaving and trusting that she’d put on their truck what we’d agreed (she did).  

Good thing I left when I did since as I arrived back there were two guys unloading a TV.  And so the rest of that day went.  No fewer than 9 sets of deliverers, installers, workers came and went.  The new beds arrived--san’s LiLi’s headboard that had been damaged in transit—and the four men who delivered them set about putting them together with lightening speed.  The beds were like Ikea furniture that takes hours and hours to put in those annoying little bolts and pegs unless you’re experienced and these guys were.  They were so efficient, so hard working and so strong they had those beds together, wiped down, and mattresses on them in no time.  Impressive.  LiLi’s headboard was to be remade and brought in two more days.  I held back RMB500 or my realtor cautioned that they might not come back with it. 

Like the headboard, there was some glitch in each task for the day.  The washer installer communicated that the water faucet was the wrong kind so I had to buy--for RMB 57--the correct one, the water wasn’t hot (re shui 热 水)  and apartment maintenance had to do something back in the utility closet, and finally, the washer needed an extension cord so we took it from the TV.  But then the TV installer didn’t have the  extension cord and additionally, was missing some other sort of cable that I also could have bought but declined.  Then the maintenance guy who was fixing a couple of the recessed lights didn’t have the correct sort of bulb, the internet installer didn’t have a router, and finally, the movers were hours and hours late to the Brazilian’s apartment and complained and shouted about the agreed upon price claiming that I was unavailable by cell all day.  It wasn’t true, of course, since first of all they weren’t dealing with me because I can’t speak Chinese so they were dealing with my realtor, and secondly, she was in touch with me all day nearly every half hour about the movers’ whereabouts.  I’d’a been inclined to give them the US$10-20 difference but got that doing so might have been a face-loss thing for my realtor who was on the phone with each of us and furious too.  But, in the US you’d never, never, let movers who had been in your house, know who lives there and how to access the building, go away angry.  I asked the property management woman, who showed up to help the TV guy with the missing cable, if I shouldn’t do something (pay $$?) so those guys didn’t walk out so steamed.  She said no.  Also, the TV guy had already left in disgust and without hooking up the TV. 

By the end of that day, we had a house full of furniture, beds to sleep on and a washing machine that could work.  Of course, with just one extension cord we had to choose between internet access, TV or laundry. 

I had had to decide the night before the day of deliveries whether we’d stay in the new apartment with only the fold out bed from the Brit/Chinese couple or wait for the other furniture.  The service apartment had moved us to a 2 bedroom when they accidently double booked our 1 bedroom so to pay the extra night would have been exorbitant and moving again would have caused my head to explode.  I decided to go ahead and check out of the service apartment and did so while LiLi was in school.  That night,  understandably, LiLi slept fitfully spinning a full 360 degrees on the lie-flat sofa bed.  I slept next to none. 

It was worth it though, because the school’s bus that picks up at the new place does so a full 35 minutes later than the Guomao bus.  Drops off earlier too.  So by this move, LiLi’s commute shrunk by over an hour each day!  That alone is worth the move.

I suppose the move sounds like pure irritation but it really wasn't/isn't.  I seem to have fallen into some sort of equanimity even though I'm not 100% thrilled with the glitches I am not being blown about by aggravation over them.  (Notwithstanding the head exploding comments)  And there are some moments so precious they're worth whatever brings them about.  For example, the Brit/Chinese couple we met.

After several days of follow up fix-its we are pretty much good to go.  Tomorrow the washer and TV should come on line after the LL’s visit.  We picked up some more household items today.  We’ll get a rice cooker tomorrow, hopefully.   A rice cooker.  Beds.  Sofa.  Internet.  Done.  

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