Wednesday, September 2, 2009

Trust Your Instincts

My perception that Pedro was not quite himself was right on. Today, late in the afternoon, after enjoying our visit to Megamaxi planning our new kitchen purchases, we heard from the owners of the apartment via email that they had decided to rent to someone else for a three year lease. That certainly explains Pedro's hesitation and uncertain behaviour. I keep reminding myself to trust my instincts. Eric is horribly disappointed, having wanted that particular apartment from the moment he saw it, and unhappy with me because of my hesitation for all sorts of reasons. With time and comparison to other places we saw, my enthusiasm had increased and when I agreed to 'go for it' (one week ago today), it was the owners' lack of interest that made me hesitate again. In retrospect, the duenos of this apartment have been squirrelly from the outset. They have appeared to be resistant to renting to us anyway, and have not returned our calls or acceded to any of our requests....and Pedro's odd reaction to us yesterday makes sense today.

It is strange that he said nothing, but perhaps it was not his place to say anything. He went along with our efforts to move all the pieces of furniture we did not want to the middle of the living room. He did appear to be out of sorts, so different from our prior visits with him, when he seemed so eager to have us rent the place.

We are all disappointed. Maya and Eric knew from the start that they wanted that apartment, I have been 'slow to warm up', but when I did I had my heart set on it, and now am trying to adjust to our new reality. I realize that it is two weeks since we first saw it, a week since we called and expressed our desire to rent it but were told they wanted a year's lease, and Monday when we called and agreed to rent for the year. Strange that the dueno did in fact agree to rent to us and implied that we would sign the contract today, precipitating our visit yesterday and Pedro's uncertain behaviour. I am trying not to feel guilty about taking too long to decide. I told Eric I would be happy with the smaller place in Republica del Salvador, so we are hoping that is still available. But I still wish we had the big place with the big view. I try to tell myself that things happen for a reason, to be ok with whatever, and we will be here for only ten months anyway, and the view is all around us, so we need not have it from our home....doing the 'sour grapes' thing now....I am surprisingly sad and defeated.

2 comments:

  1. Renting for less than a 1 year lease is very hard in Ecuador, as I found out the hard way.

    I'm currently on a 6 month lease very near where you were trying to move to, behind the MegaMaxi.

    There are (were?) apartments for sale/rent at the end of the street on German Aleman, which is the street right next to MegaMaxi.

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  2. Thanks so much, we did finally find a ten month practical but small place on Republica del Salvador!!!!

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