We Gotta Get Out of This Place: Happy Day!

 Happy 1st day of meteorological autumn! Good-bye summer! 😁🍁🍂

Before we had our experience with Dick2, we had high hopes for a different place—the place we’re in now, in fact. The listing had popped up late one night in June. We both liked it, but we had to do some investigation into the location. We discovered that it would meet our needs with 4 different bus companies going through, access to grocery stores, and places to walk. The next morning, Bill contacted the letting agent, who said that there were still a few things being done to the place, then asked him to send references from other letting agents, not landlords. Bill did this and we waited for a date and time to view. At the end of the week, he called and said that the apartment would now not be available until August as the owner’s daughter was staying in it. He said he would call us back when we could view. We were disappointed. We wanted to come here, but we didn’t feel like we could wait and see whether or not it would actually become available, given the conditions at the place in Dungloe. We kept looking, every once in a while reminding ourselves that this was still there in the background as a possibility.

About a week and a half after we dealt with Dick2, near the end of July, Bill got a call just as we were starting supper. It was Bob (not his real name), the letting agent from here, asking if we could come and view the apartment the next day. We agreed. We could have come here and gone back a couple hours later, but we decided to see if we could find a room for the night so we’d have time to explore. It was a very hot day—30-ish C, which is not at all usual for here. It was a hard day in some ways, but we were buoyed by the fact that we knew we were moving here. I wrote about the day here.

When we came to look at it, Bob told us to wander around before inviting us to take a seat. We chatted for about 20 minutes. It was very comfortable and pleasant—nothing at all like the last guy. We both really like Bob and did from the start. We later learned that one of our letters of reference was from a guy he’d taken his exams with years ago. I asked when we would know whether we could rent it and he said within the hour. He was going to call the owner and tell him we wanted it. It seemed like we were kind of pre-approved in a way. Bob said there was another couple interested, but they didn’t provide references. They wanted a nice, quiet situation where everyone gets along and likes one another (there are 4 apartments here and we never hear anyone unless they go out or come in and we hear their door). I can only imagine what has happened in the past. There are two cracked windows as a result of someone throwing stones at them to get the attention of the previous tenant. he’s been trying to get someone to fix them for 4 months, he said. Anyway, he showed us around outside and that was that. He called within 15 minutes and we set up a time to come back, sign the lease and get the keys. This was a Thursday and we did that on the following Monday. We did not allow ourselves to get too excited, given what happened a couple weeks earlier. We’d need to see the lease.

As it happened, the day was destined to be blighted by Dick2. Later on, we discovered multiple messages from the guy—voicemail, text, email. When we got to the B&B, after I’d recovered a bit from the heat, I reluctantly called him. It was bizarre and by the end, I wondered if I was dealing with an adult. We still laugh about it.

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