Last June, I wrote an Open Letter to my Landlord, despite the fact that he doesn’t read English and most likely has never even heard of Beijing Kids Magazine. Still, it felt good. Rereading it, it still feels good. My thoughts about our landlord have not improved, but I did take some pride in slowing down the sale of the apartment.
For starters, we put some severe time restrictions on when agents could show the place. Friends suggested that we could have refused to allow people to look at it, but we didn’t want to make things so difficult that the landlord decided to kick us out. And so we tolerated perspective buyers. But only just. Whenever they were around, I made sure all the toddler gates were closed and didn’t open them unless someone asked. I also tended to stand in the kitchen sharpening knives. Oddly enough, people rarely entered the kitchen. I know, this was all rather juvenile, so if someone really looked interested, I’d point out where we suspected mold in the walls, the old water damage (seems the bathrooms had previous leaks), and the traffic noise.
After months of no one buying, the price was dropped from the sublime to the ridiculous and eventually someone made an offer for the place. We know this because for over a month now, no one has come to see the apartment except a bank employee who took some photos. To his credit, he was in and out in less than five minutes.
Where does this leave us? At present we have no idea. The manager of the real estate company, a very proficient and extremely helpful woman, told us that she would do her best to try and persuade the new owners to honor our rental agreement so that we would not need to move until this summer. I’m not holding my breath, but it would be nice if we didn’t have to deal with a move until July. If that is the case, I most likely will leave my crowbar and utility knife in my toolbox. It would be a pain to rip out the marble backsplash in the kitchen that we installed (The Hidden Cost of Home Improvement). Besides, the new owners will probably gut the apartment and remodel anyway. I know I would if I owned it.
Photo: Oldtasty (Flickr).
