Zen

Okay freak out time is over. If worst comes to worst and the move out date hits I can live in a house without walls. We'll just have to work hard until then. Don't panic. I am cool. I am Zen. A am the goddamn Hitchhikers Guide. Don't panic.

I've been thinking about what I can do that I feel as though won't be a waste of time knowing the walls might have to come down. And so far I've thought of these things: clean the fridge, finish the stove, finish the basement, move boxes into the basement once the basement is clean, clean the yard, clean the windows, clean any furniture we plan on keeping. So that's where I'll start.

I thought I could get the fridge done in one night, but I grossly underestimated it. There are a lot of little crevices in fridges between the shelves and drawers that are hard to get to. The fridge was actually pretty cool in that all of the shelves came out and can easily be rearranged. It was a very nice fridge... once. So was the stove. So was everything in the house. Now they are broken and there is dirt where dirt ought not be. So, much like everything else, even though it should be able to be saved it will probably be replaced eventually.

I switched up between the fridge and the oven. At the advice of my cousin I tried some vinegar and lemon juice (thanks for the tip!) on the stubborn grease stains on top. It worked, somewhat, with Brillo pads and elbow grease. Going onto a tangent, I think 'elbow grease' is a misnomer. It should be called shoulder grease. I started the inside of the oven too. This time I got Easy Off fume free. Let me tell you that stuff was a breath of fresh air compared to its lung scorching 'heavy duty' twin. After two applications the oven now looks like a normal person's uncleaned oven. A couple more coats and it should be clean, or as clean as its getting.

BTW for those of you who were taking bets that tasty treat left for us in the fridge was a turkey. And it was scary.

Towards the end of the night I heard Tony in the bedroom breaking up the sheet rock. I instantly began curious and crept over to see what he was up to. And after seeing the walls come crumbling down I wanted a go. There's nothing like destroying something to take the edge off of built stress, and I have had 'one of those weeks.' We took down a pretty good amount to say we were horsing around.

Tony's niece also stopped by and saw what we had been up to. She was very impressed, which was inspiring. Tony's friend is going to stop by Monday to check out the wiring and tell us how bad it really is. We're going to knock out as much of the basement as possible this weekend. If there's time we're going to go to a renovation show in the harbor. Its bound to be helpful.

View the January 14th Album here.