Me venting & a home tour..

Who is ready for a home tour??? Before we get started I want to point out the beautiful flowers at the top of the screen. They were sent as a welcoming gift from a new friend from Scott’s work.  I personally think they are stunning.  I am so grateful for the kind gesture, and I looked at them very often when I felt frustrated, anxious, and annoyed.  You may ask, “Ryan, why did you feel frustrated, anxious and annoyed?”  Let me tell you……

I first want to state that I’m very grateful for the experience and opportunity that I have here in Penang.  Penang is lively, cultured, and beautiful, it’s a great place to live. However, what we were told about our house and the expectations we had was a bit “short” from what we found when we arrived.  “Hahahahahahahahahaha” (sorry, if I don’t laugh I sometimes cry). 

Starting from the beginning.  Back in October we were sent many videos of beautiful places to live.  The reason why we are in the house we are in is because of the huge yard.  We are bringing our dog over in March, and we really wanted a place for her to feel comfortable.  So we gave up the condos with a nice pool and tennis courts for an end unit terraced home aka townhouse with a fenced-in back yard (no regrets there). We were sent many videos of the place and liked it enough, so a two year lease was signed.  At this point things are going great, we are under the assumption that the house is being cleaned, the yard taken care of, walls painted, and appliances fixed.  We are ready to be in our beautiful, semi-furnished, and “ready to go” house.  

We arrived on January 2nd and were taken straight to our house. When we arrived, to our surprise, not a damn thing was done.  We had sheets on a used mattress, a random assortment of furniture, and a small refrigerator.  As soon as we arrived, a very nice gentleman from IT at Scott’s company came to the house and set up a TV and wifi for us.  Most people are thinking, ” Ryan, this doesn’t sound horrible.” It wasn’t horrible but there were some disruptions, i.e., there was food stuck in the sink, one of the toilets was running, our water pump was broken, we didn’t have gas for our stove, the washer was filled with mold, the dryer was completely broken, the shower had so much calcium buildup you literally couldn’t see through the glass, there was a cracked glass patio door, most exterior door and window handles and latches were broken, and, finally, there were lizard droppings in every bathroom.  So, our next stop was a store with cleaning supplies. 

The last few weeks have been picking out furniture, buying cooking supplies, taking care of our yard, buying a washer and dryer,  fixing toilets and also buying a mattress.  At this point I would like to give a big shout out to, Norman. Norman works at Straits and has spent so much time helping us with maintenance around the house. He has saved us so many times.  

We were completely flabbergasted!!! What happened?!?!?!  We don’t know the whole truth but something had happened with the previous tenants and the house sat empty for who knows how many months.  The keys weren’t given to the company until December 28th and there wasn’t time to fix a lot of things nor did the landlord seem to care.  If we need something fixed or looked at, it’s like pulling teeth. The landlord doesn’t get back to you in a timely fashion.  When we had the leaky toilet, we told the landlord about it and he said he would send “his plumber” over. As one might guess, the plumber never showed up.  Thanks again to Norman for coming over and fixing it for us.

“How hard could this be?” you might ask. Well, do you know how to say “I need a vacuum” in Malay? I don’t know, nor do I know where to look for one! So many thanks to Norman and Fikri for being our go-to-guys for questions and concerns. Things have been a bit crazy and after 5 weeks we are finally starting to settle in.  The house is beautiful it just needs some TLC and a lot of elbow grease! The video is below.

Thanks for listening to me vent!

Love from Penang,

Ry