We're finally moved into our new home, but it was even more stressful than I anticipated. And well, let's just say I was already anticipating a lot of stress. Mostly because I was sure my landlord was going to make things difficult, which he (and his wife) did.
I was fairly sure there would be issues because the landlord kept forgetting that I was moving out on March 2. This was not very comforting in terms of getting my key money (very large security deposit, like about $5,000) back. I honestly don't know how he kept forgetting. I told him two months before, and apparently he forgot until I reminded him about two weeks before. Then, again, the day before I moved out, he was incredibly shocked that I was moving. Bizarre and slightly disconcerting for my 5 million won ($4,100) in key money. My friends were all convinced he was going to attempt to pull a fast one on me and refuse to give it back until a new tenant moved in or... something. Even if that would have been technically illegal.
Turns out, it wasn't the key money I should have been worried about. It was a damn broken fridge that I thought came with the apartment, but apparently had been purchased by the previous tenant.
Oh, boy...
So, Wednesday started early. I got up at 5:30 a.m. The cleaner came over at 6:30 am and we had the place looking very good. The movers were supposed to come at 8 a.m. In Korea, they typically get there early and move super fast. I've had them come in, pack up an entire two-bedroom apartment, load it up, unload it and then unpack everything, all within two hours. They seriously move that fast. However, by 8:10 a.m., they hadn't arrived, so I called up the moving company. Turns out the scheduler had put the wrong time on my confirmation email and they were booked for 3 p.m. instead of 8 a.m. He apologized profusely and said they would be there by 1 p.m.
Movers arrive and get to work. My Korean friend stayed as long as she could to make sure they didn't try to rip me off and then took off for work. Everything was progressing as it should, though it was taking a bit longer as they had to get a ladder truck. By around 1:30 p.m., the ladder truck had arrived and I was convinced that by 2:30 p.m. at the latest, we'd be in the truck and on our way to the new place.
Enter landlord and his wife.
The wife walks in and tells the movers that I'm taking the ginormous and very broken fridge with me, to the shock of pretty much everyone in the room.
Dear God, this fridge. First of all, it was there when I moved in. The previous tenant had said nothing to me about it and the landlord had said nothing about it. It broke down about two months and couldn't be repaired, so I got a mini fridge to use until I moved out as it was impossible to move the broken fridge out with all my furniture in there. (I'm serious, this fridge was MASSIVE. It couldn't fit through the front door so would have to be taken out through my front window, then needed a ladder truck - which costs about $100 to rent - to get it down street level.)
Anyway, I tell the movers that no, I am not taking it with me. It's broken and was in the apartment when I moved in. She then says that I BOUGHT IT, so therefore, I'm responsible for getting rid of it. Which had me reeling back, because it was an outright lie. The landlord then enters the equation and tells the movers that I made an agreement with the previous tenant, agreeing to take it over when I moved in, therefore it's my responsibility to remove it when I moved out. This was also an outright lie because, as stated before, NO ONE SAID ANYTHING TO ME ABOUT THE FRIDGE.
All in all, there was shouting, crying (me), and so much insanity going on as the landlord, movers, and my friend translating over the phone spent 45 minutes trying to hash out what was going down. At least the movers were on my side and thought the landlord and his wife were being unreasonable and tried to help me out as much as they could.
It was finally decided that the movers would take the fridge down and load it into the truck with the rest of the furniture I was getting rid of. Then they would move all my stuff down to the street and leave it there while we all drive off to get a big trash sticker for the fridge and drop it and the other furniture somewhere.
That ordeal took about two hours or so, but finally we got back. It took them about 20 minutes to load up the truck and head off to the new place, but by this time, it's nearing 5 p.m. and one of the movers has to leave to make it to his other part-time job. It then takes the one mover about an hour to get everything into the new place (as I was frantically trying to unpack stuff to return the boxes). My printer that I use often for work was broken in the mix, which was the cherry on top of the cake.
The mover finally finished up around 6:30 p.m. My bill ended up being nearly 300,000 won more than what I was initially quoted due to all the unexpected extras. I did get all my key money back, however had to turn around and give my landlord 250,000 won for the remaining gas, electric and water bills, including a 100,000 won cleaning fee over the mess made when they pulled out the fridge. By that point I was tired and stressed to the max so just wanted to get the hell out.
And now, I'm here. In the new place and feeling so much better. It was a horrible, stressful day, but at least it's over.
I still have a lot of stuff to go through and get rid of since I came with a bit more than would fit. I mean, I got rid of a TON of stuff before moving, but I kind of overestimated the space I would have available to me. Thankfully, my friend is very understanding, and I've made a lot of progress since arriving in terms of storing things, purging things and rearranging boxes. Still need to send some stuff off for storage and purge more clothing as I do laundry, but it's a very good start. By the end of the weekend, a majority of the extra stuff should be gone and by the end of next week, we should have a usable living room/kitchen area.
Moving back to the U.S. has definitely turned out into a trial. But at least I've got another three months to purge down even more until eventually I can fit whatever I'm not shipping (keeping that at three large boxes at the most) into three suitcases. And now that I'm here and mostly settled, this means starting next week I'll be able to focus on my remote jobs, writing more, and promoting my writing. God, I'm so happy to finally be at this point...
Thanks dear readers for waiting! I promise in the next week I'll have some goodies for you!
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