TheBanyanTree: the day the landlord came to call .....

[Roger Pye]

  It all began with a short and sweet email two weeks ago from our 
landlord who is an economics lecturer at the University of NSW in 
Sydney. Robin and I have lived in this oasis of quietness in Scullin 
ACTcalled Kauper St, pronounce it cowper, for three and a half years, 
our lease ran out 18 months ago and since then we have lived month to 
month, never knowing whether Vince would 'take advantage' of the ever 
rising real estate prices and we would find ourselves out on the street 
as a result.

Vince said he was going to a wedding nearby the following weekend: could 
he call in and have a look at the house, please? What could we say but 
'Of course you can' and arranged a time of 2pm on the Sunday. The 
thoughts went through our head - was he going to tell us he'd decided to 
sell - did he want to live here himself - etc etc. Instantly his request 
for a quick look translated into a thorough inspection!

We are not the world's most tidiest people so we decided to bring the 
professionals in to help us clean up. You may have heard of an outfit 
called Bartercard, which is a business-2-business trade exchange which 
uses its own currency (trade dollars), of which we are members. (They're 
in the US too.) Looking in their directory we found that of the three 
cleaning businesses listed in the ACT only one did domestic stuff. The 
day after Robin received the email, I phoned this business, it was 
Monday 7pm.

"Well Done Cleaning Services, this is Wally."

"Hi, Wally, this is Roger Pye. Our landlord's coming to inspect the 
house next Sunday and we'd like a hand to clean it up if that's 
possible. Oh, and this would be a Bartercard job."

"Ah, let's see - what would you be wanting, floors, walls, benchtops, 
light switches, that sort of thing?"

The question must have been rhetorical because he kept talking over my 
answer. "We call that housekeeping. Let's see, today's out, tomorrow's 
out, Wednesday, Thursday - how about Friday morning?"

"I'm away until Friday lunchtime."

"Oh. Well Saturday then, I'll ask the boys, they may not like it because 
they worked last weekend. Two men, two hours each, that should do it, 35 
bucks an hour, that will cost you $T140."

Saturday morning came by which time the house looked as if it had only 
been struck by a small bomb not a nuclear device! Robin being an 
academic and me delving into dowsing and energy healing means we have 
lots of books, so many I often think we should have shares in Doubleday, 
Angus & Robertson, Random House and so on. The books are everywhere - at 
a rough count we have 9 bookcases, all full, 3 of them six foot high by 
four to five foot wide and the remainder half the height, similar width. 
Plus two walls of one of the smaller rooms are fitted with floor to 
ceiling shelves for most of their length - they are also well on the way 
to being full. So it's not surprising - to us- to have books, magazines 
and newspapers on tables chairs and floors. Not all over, you understand 
. . .   Visitors do tend to be careful where they walk and sit, however, 
particularly considering there are three cats and two dogs as well as us 
- not to mention 73 stuffed teddy bears, wombats, rabbits - OK maybe I'm 
exaggerating a little - 53!

What to do with the animals was another problem - our landlord knows we 
have two dogs and one cat, we have never mentioned the others. Somehow 
we would have to temporarily 'lose' two cats and it would be better if 
the silky terrier were not around, he tends to be over-friendly with 
strangers.

So, Saturday morning came as I said. By then we had seen the TrashPack 
Men and got rid of a heap of stuff, done a lot of tidying up and I had 
finished and filled the shelving in the back room. Wally's team, due at 
9-9.30 arrived at 8.40, one man (Brian) who laconically informed us he 
would be on his own, nobody else wanted to work overtime. It turned out 
to not be a problem - Brian went through the house like a small 
whirlwind with his basket of cleaners, cloths, mop, squeegee and 
industrial vacuum cleaner. Wally (aged 62) fronted up at 10.45 by which 
time I had learned he had had a triple by-pass operation a year before 
from which he hadn't fully recovered and was not allowed to do heavy or 
prolonged work. He insisted on sweeping the deck and cleaning light 
switches. They were both finished by 1pm and the house gleamed as we 
waved them goodbye.

Sunday, 2pm, we were ready. Two of the cats were in their carry boxes 
next door and Dinny the Terrier was fast asleep in our 
not-so-long-ago-acquired 20 yr old Alfa Romeo parked across the road. 
Two books, a newspaper and magazine looked lonely on the coffee table in 
the living room where a fire burned brightly in the wood heater. Even 
the dining table in its alcove was bereft of all its usual clutter, 
having a single vase of flowers smack in the middle.

Home sweet home!

Vince arrived, wandered through the house, looked enquiringly at the 
Mogatorium (a steel cage 12 feet long, 8 feet high and 8 feet wide which 
the cats enter through the window in the booklined room), glanced at the 
back garden, commented on one or two things and complimented us on our 
obvious care for the place. I asked him what his intentions were 
regarding the house and he was very blunt in his reply.

"I am not going to sell it and I won't put the rent up either, I think 
you're paying me a fair price and you always pay on time," he said. We 
breathed a heartfelt sigh of relief. Perhaps he heard us or felt a 
lessening of tension because he added "I loved this place when I saw it. 
It reminds me of a cottage in the country, that's why I bought it. If I 
decide to buy a house somewhere else I shall use this one as equity. So 
if you want, you may stay here as tenants as long as you wish." With 
which he apologised for disturbing us, thanked us for allowing him to 
see the house and went on his way, back to the wedding party.

(Well, we love it too but he said he wouldn't sell it to us either. So I 
guess we'll stay here another two years or so until we can afford to buy 
(or borrow the money to buy) a house like it in one of the older suburbs 
near the university. Now that Robin has her doctorate (she graduates end 
of July) that proposition may not be as hard as it seems at the moment.)


 Roger