My First "Encounter" with Our Neighbours (very long)

It doesn't matter if you are nice or not. Chances are you will have a run in with a"not so nice" neighbour (to put it mildly).

It all started with my me wanting to keep the apartment from looking like a row of shanties. Our apartment is really small and doesn't have any room or space allotted for hanging out clothes. We hang our clothes in the balcony just like the rest of the tenants here. It looks ugly. To say that I don't like it is an understatement because I have a deep aversion to it. Let's say that if I was the owner of this place I'd blast the management for not providing a place for people to hang their clothes. I know that the value of my building is linked to the way it looks and having clothes strewn all over people's balconies doesn't raise it's value one bit. But I don't own the building and since they don't really do anything about it I still hang our laundry in the only place where it can dry out fast. Of course I give instructions to Gemalyn, who does our laundry, to do it just once a week and to remove the clothes as soon as they dry up to make sure the place stays as nice as often as possible.

picture taken from this blog

That was just the intro. Now, in the yet to be finished roof deck I saw some clothesline hanging in disarray. I of course assumed that it belonged to the only family living in that floor. So this noon I politely knocked on their door and asked if I can take advantage of their clothesline so that I won't need to hang too many clothes in the balcony and get all our laundry to dry up faster. The man who answered the door was very accommodating and said yes. So I promptly instructed Gemalyn to hang as much clothes as she can upstairs but to take them off before it gets dark. When she came back this afternoon after going up to fetch our clothes she was a bit upset because some of our clothes were on the floor (she used clothespins so it couldn't have been the wind), the others were bunched up together, and the tenant on that floor told her that the "owner of the makeshift clothesline" got mad. Of course I was a bit pissed since I asked for permission and they didn't even tell me it wasn't theirs. I was also pretty pissed at what the snotty owner did to our clothes.

So I marched upstairs to clarify the situation and apologize to the owner of the clothesline for not asking permission and point out at the same time that she could have told me off instead of just messing with our clothes. When I arrived I talked to the tenant and she told me that the owner of the clothesline was actually the sister-in-law of our landlord (who is in USA). Now I know they are relatives but bully them if they think they can scare me off just because they almost own the place. In the first place I know that the owner is a really nice guy, his sister is nice too, and it's just the brother and his wife who is as their neighbours have told me not nice at all. In tagalog people have told me na "panget ang ugali". So I asked the tenant in the top floor to show me where they lived (And they are living here in their brothers apartment! Hah. Snotty people living off their relatives hand.). I presented myself at their door and diplomatic or plastic as I am I promptly apologized for not asking permission from her directly. I clarified the situation and she complained that the only reason she got mad was that whoever put the clothes there shoved her (already dry) curtains together and piled them up in one part of the clothesline. Gemalyn later told me that she found it that way already but I didn't know then so I apologized and told her that I'll be giving clearer instructions next time. I then said that I went to her to make sure that she doesn't get mad at the tenant upstairs because it appears that it was the driver who gave me permission and not to get mad at Gemalyn because she only put the clothes there on my behalf. I then told her our unit number so that she can talk to me directly next time she has an issue. She told me that it was actually against the rules to put a clothesline there but I can use theirs next time. I think she expects me not to use it again though I will. And next time I told her I will knock at her door first, make sure that she isn't doing the laundry that day, and be prompt in removing our clothes. The things that piss me off about this are...

1. Just because they are relatives of the owner they act like they can do something that isn't allowed. So I will be using their clothesline WITH their permission and if I get reprimanded they will also need to be reprimanded because it is theirs.
2. What the hell was she thinking putting our clothes on the floor? Even if I found someone bunching up our clothes together I don't get juvenile and dirty up someone else's clothes. I act like an adult and confront the people to clarify things. Doing otherwise is an act of stupidity.

3. They say that they don't like people to hang clothes upstairs to prevent a messy looking place but allow people to hang clothes in balconies. Now that is plain stupid because the upstairs portion isn't visible to passersby but the balconies are.

4. She acted a bit haughty trying to drop names. She wanted to impress me with the fact that the owner was her brother-in-law and that her husband is supposed to run the place. Well the fact is if they really ran the place they should be running it better instead of twisting their brother's words to fit their needs. And I'd rather talk to the sister who I know for a fact now runs this place because the brother didn't run it that well before. The brother who lives here is just in charge of the construction, not the management. If they were as high and mighty as she'd like to appear they would be having a large place of their own instead of renting a place at their brothers apartment. They didn't even get a unit with a balcony looks like they couldn't even afford a few extra pesos on a better floor and unit. Hmph (that's my inner devil sour graping)!

So now I know who to tiptoe around. But the thing is they won't get rid of me because when the real owner comes I have real suggestions about the place. Don't think I'm not serious. If you know me though you won't be afraid that I'll be really bad. I am almost always diplomatic. I can sugar coat the truth to get my way. In the meantime they can expect me to keep on hanging our clothes on their clothesline. As the photo says "It's time to hang together." Whether that means we share the same clothesline or clothesline in the roof deck be totally banned, I don't know. But whatever benefits they enjoy we will enjoy too unless they can come up with a really good reason for me not to do so.