House Hunters International

We saw 10 places yesterday (4 houses and 6 apartments)…talk about overwhelming!!!  Today we saw one more located near the city center (the most developed area).

We started the day meeting Joanna and the realtor (Joanna introduced him as re-alta…and for the first half of the day I thought that was his name…after lunch I realized she was just calling him realtor).  Joanna was adamant about the houses because they were “very big” and “really nice” although they were far from anywhere to eat or shop or hang out.  Three out of the four homes were three stories and had four bedrooms.  We loved one of the four (I didn’t take pictures because the owner was there and I didn’t want to be rude) but they were all basically the same, the only thing changing was the furniture.  I took pictures of the empty one.  I think she pushed us toward the house because she knows that Americans like to live in houses and she was trying to make us feel at home. 

On a side note…the people in China are very hospitable; there was an older lady in one of the houses who was awesome!  She saw me slip a little (in China they must clean their ceramic floors by dumping buckets of water on them…I wore slippery shoes and that is not a good combo when searching for a home) so this old lady who was half my size took it upon herself to support me as we walked through the entire house.  Although we couldn’t understand each other I feel like we formed a bond.  She caught me looking at a family portrait and was so excited, she pointed out each person and I just new she understood me when I told her it was a beautiful family.  When we left her home she handed us each a handful of Chinese New Year Fruit (oranges?). 

Then we saw an apartment in the same community, which was considered “western style” it had an open floor plan and large furniture.  We liked it but it was on the third floor and it was all I could do to not slip down them all and bust my head open…either wear only shoes with traction or find another place.

After eating a very interesting lunch (there was a chicken with a head involved, and I do believe I swallowed part of the duck I should have…don’t worry everything else was great…I’m sure the chicken tasted fine but I couldn’t tell you), we went to the first apartment.  We like this location because it was near a shopping area where we could get groceries and go to eat, however it was still pretty far from the city center.

Next we saw two apartments in the same community; they both included western style décor and were in an up and coming part of town.  The plus is the community was beautiful…it’s almost like living in a park and the minus is there isn’t much in the area YET.  

Last we saw two apartments from yesterday were near the Jusco which is another shopping area (the one we went to in our first day in Huizhou)…they weren’t worth taking pictures of.  The furniture was cheap, the elevator was scary, the owner was creepy and there were holes in the wall (which we later found out were to hook up the air conditioner).  This place was 1/3 of our budget but they showed it to us anyway because we wanted to be near a shopping area.

Today Joanna and the realtor (re-alta) sat us down and told us that we wouldn’t be seeing any more apartments and there weren’t any good ones in the city center anyway.  We were pretty frustrated at this point because it was like pulling teeth to get them to agree to show is things near the city center in the first place.  We kept saying that we understand that the buildings were older and that the apartments weren’t as nice but we still wanted to see them before making a decision. 

Adam called one of his co-workers (who has lived in Huizhou for 20 years and has been telling Adam that we need to live near the city center) and we got the name of an apartment complex in the city center and we had Joanna force Re-alta to set something up for us.  In the meantime another one of Adam’s coworkers (who just moved his family from Raleigh to Hong Kong) called and told Adam that they felt forced to make a decision and that no matter what we shouldn’t make a decision today or until they show us everything…he said that Cree would have no problems paying for another day of orientations if we really wanted it.

Re-alta set something up at the suggested building…which like Joanna said was old and dingy.  As soon as the driver dropped us off in the area I knew I wouldn’t be comfortable alone there for a while.  I have never been a city girl and right across the streets were, what I would consider, slums.  I pictured living somewhere glamorous over the shops or something like that.  Both Joanna and Re-alta insisted that there was nothing else in the city center (closer to somewhere nicer).

These are the final 3 Choices:

Apartment #1 –

Pros: full sized refrigerator, treadmill, 2 really nice flat screen TV’s, near a shopping center that is already open, nice community with great security, closets in every room, modern bathrooms and kitchen appliances

Cons: need to drive to city center, not too close to Jusco, the furniture was ugly and lacked color

Apartment #2 –

Pros: nice furniture, wood floors, western style, wood cabanets in the kitchen, 2 master bedrooms, double sink in bathroom, office and 3 other bedrooms, walk in closet, 5 min drive to Jusco, nice garden feel in community, great security, closest to city center and walk street

Cons: nothing to walk to (yet)

House #4 –

Pros: huge, backyard opens to a stream, French guy lives next door and may speak English, nice gardens and ponds, very nice TV

Cons: far from everything, squatty potty on first floor, older furniture and appliances

We chose Apartment 1 without any hesitation!  We knew we had the option to change any furniture or take out anything we wanted (Joanna insisted at each place we visited “If you don’t like anything you tell me and they change…no problem”).  I hated the living room furniture; but everything else was perfect!