I am a basket case today.

To understand why, let's go back to yesterday. Our landlords were planning to show the house Sunday "late afternoon -- around 3 or 4". Tim stayed home, but I kept my lunch date with Susan, returning around 4pm.

I drove up and was slightly mortified to find the house plastered with big "Open House" signs. All the front doors were ajar.

I found Tim sitting in the living room. About ten groups of people had already tromped through our house. Another three or four went through while I was home.

The horrifying thing was when Tim told me "and they plan to do it again tomorrow from 11 to 1".

Tomorrow as in Monday, while we were all at work.

I found my landlord and talked to him, and he assured me that the showing on Monday would be guided tours only and that it was all real estate people, but the problem is I don't trust him. They didn't tell us it was going to be an open house on Sunday. They denied that people could just walk in off the street and into our house (which they most definitely could). The last time they showed the house while we weren't home my sister was there and she told me that they continually left the doors open, despite having promised me beforehand that they wouldn't (and, when we confronted them about this yesterday, they blamed the people looking at the house, when my sister told me otherwise). This is an issue because of our indoor-only cats.

I'm also worried because 1pm is when all the high school students get out for lunch and if there are big open house signs on our house I can't help but think that that's just too tempting...

Gah. I can't find anyone to come by and house sit, either. At this point it's too late to get anyone a key at any rate. I'm also not comforted by the fact that my landlord was upset that I wanted to have someone there. I just don't trust them.

Anyway. Our cats and our stuff better be there when I get home. I also think it's time to start calling the Housing Rights people and see what my rights are in this situation. Surely your landlords can't force open houses on you, can they?

Gah. I'm beginning to think they can't sell this place fast enough for me. The bright side is that there were definitely prospective buyers looking at the house who would not want to live there. At least, I can't imagine that well-dressed older couples driving jaguars would need to live in a fourplex, you know? I like the idea of *not* living above or beside our new landlords.