My Aching Back

My back hurts so bad today. I fell on the ice that was coating the steps on Wednesday and then I was dumb enough to exercise the day after. Today I was dumb enough to lift boxes and pry of dry wall. Ouchies.

I got about half of the room emptied of boxes. I'm really running out of room in the basement. Its back to being cluttered, but at least it isn't uninhabitable like it was when we started. And sorting out boxes and organizing the basement is something we can do after we're moved in. It just sucks that all that hard work we did is being used to store more clutter.

Tony started working on the attic. There was a bunch of broken stuff being stored up there from his grandparents. It was funny seeing random stuff falling out of holes in the ceiling, like there was some kind of attic goblin cleaning up there. He says that the insulation in the ceiling now is white fluff, like the stuff you fill stuffed animals with. Cleaning it up is going to be an adventure.

I also did a bunch of work on the hall. I found out today that taking down dry wall is more involved than just busting up the wall with something heavy (AKA fun). You have to pry off the doorways and molding to really get the stuff off. And that takes a bit of muscle. I had to haul a door off at one point.The majority of the hall dry wall is done today. I'm hoping tomorrow will be easier.

Getting It Done

My goal for this week is to get the small bedroom cleared of boxes, tear down the walls in the hall and possibly start the walls in the small bedroom. So tonight I started project 'worker ant' as I affectionately thought about it and project 'clean the dirty ass floors in the basement'. Project 'worker ant' involves me taking large boxes down the tiny staircase that goes into the basement to be stacked neatly. And project 'clean the dirty ass basement floors' is pretty self explanatory. I started to run out of room in the corner that I cleared out for the boxes. Pretty soon I'm going to have to start project 're-organize the basement'.

We went over the layout of the house and decided quickly which walls were going to need electric sockets and where we want to put in and take out lights. However I wasn't in a thinking mood so we didn't get very far with that.

Tony worked more on taking down the walls in the main bedroom. There is a wall in there we think used to be part of the outside of the house. It has horizontal wood siding mounted in the cavity. That wall has taken more effort than the rest.

I don't think that Tony's mom is going to pay for the cabinets. When I told her the price the guy gave us she wanted to know if there was a way to make it any cheaper. Ah, well. I went into this expecting us to have to pay for the whole thing anyway. New cabinets aren't needed to make the place liveable. I don't know if we'll get back there before this weekend so hopefully I can figure out an estimate in the meanwhile.

Cabinets

The highlight of today was shopping for cabinets. We went to Just Cabinets (who sell more than cabinets, liars) in Dundalk. There's more to think about than I expected. At first we were just looking at the in store stock, which were pretty nice and cheap. But then we sat down with one of the sale associates to price special order cabinets. The guy was friendly. It wasn't a high pressure sale kind of place. He did this computer rendered thingie that helped us design the cabinet space we wanted. Its a good thing we talked to him because the space we have the depth is about 3 inches shorter than industry standard. So we can't just get the in stock cabinets and plop them in. The total to totally replace the cabinet bank we have now is about $2000 and that's for really nice all wood cabinets. And we can make payments with no interest over a year. Not bad. Of course after the planning we did later that price will probably double. But I expected the cabinets to the most expensive part of this project.

When we got to the house we planned out the layout of the kitchen. We're planning on turning the stove and put it against the wall with the chimney. The wall it was against is going to be knocked out along with the wall between the pantry and the cabinets. We're going to extend the cabinets to the new pantry door and put more cabinets along the wall the stove will be facing (the log wall with the door to the basement). It'll probably make more sense when I post the drawing of the layout.

We did some more work today. Tony took down some more walls I started cleaning the basement floor to make room to store boxes. Mopping cement is hard work! Tomorrow, once the floor dries, I want to empty that small bedroom.

I still need to get an estimate for the kitchen, pantry and living room. I want to do a room by room breakdown instead of a general one.

View the January 25th Album here.

Hot Water and Heat? What Am I, a Princess?

After a long day the furnace is no longer lethal. Ha, ha, yeah, lethal is an exaggeration.... not. Mike came over and spent several hours fixing it. I, who was upstairs at the time, heard him laughing downstairs saying 'its a wonder we aren't dead.' I found out later that the flu (flew?) was so full of soot that it probably should have coughed back a lethal dose of Co2 on us already. All id well and good now. The heat and the hot water work. Joy.

Mike also shared some pearls of wisdom with us (and I'll take all the ones we can get (especially from the guy who's fixed up 8 houses)). He told us to do the demo all at once. If we only demo one room at a time we could end up undoing the work we already did. For example if we need to run wires in a room we may have to go through other rooms, and if we've finished those rooms then we'd have to knock out walls again. Knocking down dry wall would make a huge mess in the entire house. I really hoped that we could avoid doing the kitchen at first for the sake of finances. However Tony's mom wants to foot the bill for this whole project. I'm not sure how comfortable I am with that. Its going to be a lot of money and we should pay for something. I'm not really used to getting financial help from parent types.

I spent the day cleaning odd things. The fridge is one step closer to clean. The washer and dryer have been wiped down. and I started chipping away the ice in the downstairs freezer. I also took measurements of the rest of the house and am going to do an estimate of the remainder as well as look up prices for the oddities I didn't get to on the bathroom/hall/bedrooms estimate. Tomorrow we will hopefully get to look at cabinet costs. Mike recommended a good place to try. Hopefully by next week I'll have a more complete estimate.

Measurements

Tony and Mike fixed the hot water heater today. I wasn't there so I don't know what kind of excitement happened while I was gone (naked pillow fights?). I spent some of my evening drawing up part of an estimate for the bathroom, hall and bedrooms.

Boring Stuff

Area

bathroom: 5376 sq in (37.33 sq ft)

hall: 2240 sq in (15.56 sq ft)

main bedroom: 16468 sq in (114.37 sq ft)

small bedroom: 9406.75 sq in (65.32 sq ft)

small bedroom closet: 1207.5 sq in (8.39 sq ft)

total: 25291 sq in (240.97 sq ft)

Perimeter

bathroom: 24 ft 8 in
hall: 13 ft 3 in
main bedroom: (without closet) 42 ft 11.5 in (with closet) 48 ft 8 in
small bedroom: 32 ft 4 in
small bedroom closet: 11 ft 7 in

(all walls are 8 ft tall)

Wall Area

Outside walls: 51816 sq in (359.83 sq ft)

Inside walls (that would maybe require insulation) 42336 sq in (294 sq ft)

Estimate

Ceiling Tile $55/96 sq ft (need 3 to 4 cases depending on waste) $165-$220

Ceiling Insulation $100/88 sq ft (need 4 rolls) $400

Sheet Rock $12/4ft x 8ft section (with waste 40-42 sections) $480-$504

Wall insulation $40/88 sq ft (outisde walls, 5 rolls) $200 (inside walls, 4 rolls $160)

Total (so far) $1245-$1516

Still need prices for: doors, light fixtures, wiring, paint, floor stain, floor sander, tiles, faceplates and any tools, screws, pastes or putties to get all of this done

The Not So Bad News

Happy Martin Luther King Jr. Day. I got to celebrate it by... working.

Tony, being a state employee, had off. So he, his mom and his friend Mike went over to inspect the wiring. It turns out that the wiring isn't so bad that we need to replace it in any hurry. We'll do it when we redo the walls. The furnace and the water heater, however, make that place a scary, scary place to live.

So, as Mike explained, the furnace is inadequately connected at one of the joints. At any time it could start leaking CO2, which would kill us silently. The water heater is also leaking, a slow leak behind the concrete, but since it is hooked up to the chimney (and it hasn't been turned on since we've started working on the house) it hasn't gotten the chance to kill us. Luckily its an easy fix. He and Tony are going back this weekend to fix the furnace and replace the water heater (there's a newer better one sitting in the corner of the basement not hooked up (go figure)) this weekend.

He also said that the electric panel could stand replacing, but since its a bit expensive and won't show any noticeable difference in performance, it will wait. And, he added, he's fixed up old houses before and he estimated it would cost us between $20,000 - $25,000 to make the place really nice. Not bad in my opinion. I'm glad we don't have to totally replace the furnace or replace the wiring in a hurry, because that would eat up a bunch of money right there.

We celebrated by going out to dinner, but got not further work done. I'm dying to get back in there since we didn't get any time in yesterday.

And Then We Made the Basement Our Bitch

Today was victory.

While the basement is far from spotless I can officially declare it 'normal looking'. What I mean is it probably looks like your basement now (if it happens to be unfinished and you happen to have a basement) not the "dear God I think there may be missing children lost in this pit somewhere" basement. All the debris has been cleaned out. We still need to go through and organize the stuff neatly packed away on the shelves. The floors have been quadruple swept and we are mostly getting dust now (not large stuff like at first). They looked 150% better once swept. We still need to mop (many, many times), but, come on, how clean can a concrete floor basement get? Its still a massive achievement in my book.

I was happy that this little treasure is still in good condition: a treasure chest. The leather is dry rotted, but the wood and metal are fine. I was afraid it reached the floor, since everything on the floor was ruined by mold. There was also a freezer in the back which I am excited about. we can buy food in bulk and store it. Sure, the shelves are solid blocks of ice now, but its actually cleaner than the fridge upstairs.

Unfortunately there is another slight problem. The furnace has had a number done on it. Meaning there are parts hanging off it that we don't know what they do or if they are supposed to be plugged in. This is apparently the former residences full-assed job of replacing it. There is a black metal box that when turned on its side turned on and a hum came out of the furnace. What it did, I don't know. Should it be on or not? No idea. It started off and until we get someone in who knows what's happening with this Frankenstein of a furnace it'll stay off.

View the January 17th Album here.

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.

Freaked

Tonight we honestly didn't get much done. I cleaned some cabinets and Tony cleaned under the stove and fridge (there was a flip-flop under the stove (along with a pile of other stuff), WTF, how do you not know you have a flip-flop under your stove, 'hey honey, where's my flip-flop?' 'I don't know. Did you check under the stove?'). Tonight seemed kind of depressing because I got some bad news this weekend that I think I just absorbed today.

While in the basement Tony checked out the wiring. He said it looked like all the wiring is done from receptacles by extension chords. Up until now I've blamed the previous residents for shoddy craftsmanship on the house, but this one wasn't their fault. From what I understand this is common in old houses. But if that is the case then all of the wiring needs to be re-done. All of it. And I just realized what that means.

All of the walls need to be busted out. Every wall in the house. That wasn't so bad, because we were planning to do this anyway to add insulation, but this needs to be done immediately. So after the walls are busted out we need to re-wire the lights and outlets (which takes time and money), put up insulation, because why knock down walls twice, (which takes time and money), put walls back up (which takes time and money), re-install all the outlet faces, light switch faces and put up new light fixtures (which takes time and money), put the molding and door frames back up (which will just take time), install or re-install new cabinets in the kitchen and bathroom sink (which takes time and money), re-tile the bathroom (which takes time and lots of money), paint (which takes time and money) and then clean up (which takes time and wastes time because that's what we are doing right now!). Anyway this laundry list of things we potentially have to do before moving in freaked me out, a lot.

Now I know you can argue that we don't need cabinets or even walls in most rooms to live there (we will need walls in the bathroom), but mutherfuck, what else can go wrong in this house? And whats the point of even cleaning if might just have to demo it anyway?

Tony's going to get one of his friends who does electric work to take a look at things. In the meanwhile I think we should stick to cleaning the basement (btw I also found out earlier that Tony's mom paid $1200 to get the trash from the basement and the upstairs hauled away) and maybe demo'ing the walls in the bedroom, which we were planning on re-doing before moving in anyway. Its just a lot to take in all at once. I'm freaked out more than Tony is. I think not knowing is whats making me worry more than just doing it.

The Epic Battle with the Basement

Yesterday the epic battle with the basement began. We started by making a quick stop to Harbor Freight and Tools for the essential gear to complete this epic quest, full body coverage from top to bottom: jumpsuits, gloves, goggles, shower caps and breathing masks. For those of you who are questioning just how squeamish we are for wanting this kind of protection just wait until you get to the pictures and you shall see. Oh yes, you shall see.

Yesterday wasn't as nasty as today, but it was physiologically unnerving. let me paint a picture for you: You and another person are in a basement with very, very tight walking space. Why? Because the trash is closing in around you. But not only are you bumping into each other and the trash attempting to clean this shit up, but you also have all this gear all over your face impeding all of your senses and making it much more difficult to breath. Even after you remove the trash there is still a layer of years old dust and mildew on the ground. And why? Because some muthafuckers let shit pile up and pile up and pile up until its buried the basement. And you wonder 'dear God, will the trash ever fucking end?'

Yes, folks, I was flipping out the first day. The today I was a little better, knowing what I was about to get into and with a little more space to move. These people have so much stuff in their basement, especially to say they are 'poor'. There were boxes and boxes of toys that any child in their right mind would treasure. T pulled out a whole bin of blocks buried in dust. And the clothes... the goddamn clothes. There are enough clothes in that basement to fill a salvation army. But they are all destroyed. This is especially harsh to me because one of the things I try to take especially good care of are my clothes. And Tony, he's really mad because mixed in with the trash are some of his mother's and grandparent's things. Old pictures and heirlooms, all treated like trash. Oh, and he might be a little mad that they left all of their highly flammable clothes dangerously close to the heating unit.

We cleared out the boxes in the smaller area to the right side yesterday. Today we started on the right. I went for the clothes on the floor (which I lovingly call 'the carpet') and Tony started on the boxes in the back. I knew the carpet would be disgusting, but I really didn't know exactly to expect. I pulled up part of the carpet and found the picture on the right. Now some of you may be asking, what is that I'm looking at? Well that my friends is science in action. That is actually the underside of one of the chunks of carpet. Now, if you will notice, the bottom if forming a layer of sediment. So, yes science fans, these clothes are actually bio-degrading in the basement. Some of the clothes came up in big chunks and others fell apart as I tried to rip them out. Below is a cross section of the different layers of the carpet. The top layer is in tact and slowly goes from actual clothing down to moldy-clothing-dirt.

Now do you think we were squeamish for suiting up?

Oh and we also found droppings and a skull on the floor too. We think it was from a rat. So not only am I on the lookout for snakes, but rats too.

The basement still has plenty of garbage in it, but we've made a big dent. The front yard is almost covered in trash and we still have a long way to go.

Before

After

View the January 11th Album here.

Design Notes: Part 2

I've been looking into ideas for the kitchen. Here's a couple of images I really liked:

I want the floors like that and the cabinets like this:
I think that will look really nice. The pattern on the floor is just a windmill pattern, but the colors have no pattern to it. I really like the earthy green too. Here's a site I found that has some helpful tips on tiling floors: http://www.thetiledoctor.com/index.cfm

View the Deisgn Album here.

Beating the Dirt with a Stone

Tonight I had to do two of the more disgusting jobs I think I've ever had to do: clean caked on grease off the stove and scrape old poop off the side of a toilet.

I started with the stove, thinking it would be the easier of the two. The grease came off like black, greasy pudding. Lets just say a box of Brillo pads and a can of oven cleaner and its not clean, by far. The stove top is mostly done. The oven cleaner melted the paint off the front (the part that tells you which knob turns on which burner) and did a number on my lungs (not for future, do not breath oven cleaner), but didn't clean the grease on the top after several applications. It got most of it, but there are still spots of super baked on black grease. The sides are partially done, as is the hood. The inside hasn't even been touched.

In between bouts with the stove I started the toilet. I tried the pumice stone method since acid sounded a little extreme to start with. It worked, but slowly. Tony tried after I quit after 45 minutes of scrubbing. He got fed up and took a hammer and screw driver to it. He scratched the bowl a little bit but it came off. I'd rather have the scratches than the cakes on poop. The pumice, which started the size of a bar of soap, has diminished about 3/4 in size. That should be enough to get the underside of the rim.

Tony also got the dining room table cleaned and set up in the living room. He also started a second scrubbing of the kitchen floor. We are contemplating what it will take to get the smell of cat urine out of hardwood floors. I'll look into it. The next assignment, after the oven and the basement, is the fridge. I think that actually may be equally as gross.

Design Notes

Today I won't be going to the house, so I thought I'd take some time to write some notes down and do some design planning.

My idea for the bathroom is to have cobalt-ish blue tile on the floor and walls with pale yellow paint above the tile on the walls. I found some really nice tiles at: http://www.tileshop.com/ Here's a photoshop collage of how I think it would look:

The cabinet and mirror would be a medium wood, like this.
Though I really like the style of this one I found:

I think the hardware would look good in a dark brushed nickel, kind of like the handles on the top cabinet. And then I could decorate with fishie ornaments and such.

Tony and I agreed the bedroom would look nice in green or blue. I thought we could mix it, half blue wall and half green, not alternating or anything. The wood floor could be polished a medium honey color. Anyway, here's a collage of what I had in mind:

I think it would be really neat to do a mural on the wall in the bedroom too, a Tolkien-esque tree. The rugs, curtains, bedspread and moldings could all have floral or ivy like elements in them too. I found a nice site for moldings: http://www.invitinghome.com/. Here are a few pictures I'm using as inspiration for the mural:

I was giving some thought to the landscaping too. I'd like to put roses back into the beds on the side of the house. I think a nice juniper would look good in the front. I also think wisteria, beauty bush and hydrangea look gorgious, but I don't know where to put them. I'd like to put a Japanese red maple in the front yard too, but we need to make sure that planting a tree won't harm the pipes. I'd also like to plat grapes too, maybe around back. We'd need to see the sun requirements for grapes.



I was wondering how I was going to go about cleaning to poop out of the toilet. I read online that we can use a pumice stone or we can buy this stuff called muratic acid. The acid will be harder to get, more abrasive on the senses, but involve less scrubbing. This was a nice article I found on cleaning walls. I wasn't quite sure how to tackle that:

Generally, walls and ceilings are painted with either latex or alkyd paint. Latex, a water-base paint, is easy to wash after it has "cured" or set for a period of time. Alkyd, or oil-base paint, is durable and washable. Both types come in four finishes: flat (for walls and ceilings), satin (for doors and trim), semigloss (for walls), and gloss (for kitchen and bathroom walls and woodwork). You can clean painted walls with all-purpose cleaners.

A Cleaner for Painted Walls and Ceilings

Here's a homemade solution that can get the dirt off painted walls and ceilings:

Mix 1⁄2 cup vinegar, 1 cup clear ammonia, 1⁄4 cup baking soda, and 1 gallon warm water. Caution: Wear rubber gloves, and work in a well-ventilated area when using this powerful solution. Apply to the wall with a sponge, and rinse with clear water. If your walls have a rough texture, use old nylon stockings or socks rather than a sponge because they won't tear and leave difficult-to-remove bits on the surface.

Anyway, these are all ideas for now. We still haven't decided on anything.

View the Deisgn Album here.

Sweeping the Dirt

When we pulled up to the house today we were pleasantly surprised that the sea of trash was gone. later we found out that T's mom called the Got Junk people to have it hauled away. She did talk to the county and apparently the trash men thought the trash was from an eviction, so they weren't supposed to take it. I can see how they would think that. So maybe they aren't so lazy.

Since we didn't have the proper... shielding... to brave the mold of the basement we started the long and unglamourous task of doing the fine clean. Again, I was overwhelmed with the scope of it and didn't know where to start. Tony started with sweeping the living floor. He said he swept the same spot several times and swill got trash, not dust but trash. It was amazing. I decided to start on the kitchen.

The kitchen, by far, will be the hardest room to clean, both because it is the dirtiest and you want the room you make your food in to be the cleanest. I think I'm going to work on a piece of the kitchen each time and then work on another room. And I'm going over each place I clean at least twice (on separate days), if not three times. Today I started the hood and the cabinet above it. The grease on the hood was incredible. I had to use Comet cleaner in conjunction with a cleaning solution and some elbow grease, but it finally came up. I couldn't get the underside because the Comet can't stick. I think I'm going to need some heavy duty oven cleaner. The cabinet was much easier, a little Comet and cleaner and it was clean.

Meanwhile, Tony worked on one of the grates that wasn't blowing air. He found that the kids dumped some sort of sugary drink down there and shoved gum in it. He cleaned it as best he could, but it will need to be replaced. Then he started on the living room windows. There was an incredible amount of grease on then, especially to say theses people weren't smokers.

I sucked it up and started on the bathroom after the cabinet. I started with the floor, getting up all the poop stains around the toilet. The bottom of the cabinet holding the sink has a lot of water damage too, and, much like the wall, is falling apart. Every time I tried to scrub the floor by it I got more little black bits of rotted particle board. Also, the genius who did the floor last cut the vinyl too short and there were half inch gaps all along the border, which collected dirt in the pockets. The floor is as clean as I could get it, but I kept getting dirt and wood every time I swept.

Then I started the toilet. The outside cleaned easily. The bowl is a-whole-nother story. What I thought was chipped porcelain around the exit hole it actually caked on, petrified poop. I couldn't even budge it. Rather than make myself frantic I'm going to look into some more potent cleaning products, or a butter knife on a stick. After cleaning the sink I was just about spent.

When I found Tony in the living room he told me the computer desk, which we half thought about cleaning, was trashed. The drawer for the keyboard comes off it you pull it out and the top of the desk is pulled off. Not worth saving. In fact, most of the things in that house I want to tear out and put in new stuff instead of cleaning. I feel like no matter how hard we clean, some things will always be dirty. Its just too far gone.

This weekend we are going to start on the basement so we can get a guy in to look at the heating and the air ducts.

Shopping List: Brillo pads, oven cleaner, bleach, drain cleaner or some other heavy duty cleaner to get that funk off the toilet.

The Big Haul is Done

We finished getting all of the big trash out today. All that was left was boxing up the rest of the books in the living room, cleaning the pantry and finishing up the kitchen and bedroom. We found some pretty interesting old Christmas stuff stashed away in the pantry from Tony's grandparents. I also pirated some of the cookware that was left behind: some glass casserole dishes, a big set of cookie cutters and some souffle cups. We also found some porn mixed in with the kids coloring books. Lovely parenting skills guys. After we got all the big trash out we started on dusting some of the living room pieces. It didn't seem like a lot but it took forever. But I think I'm just in a negative mood today.

The county workers won't take any of the trash bags. It turns out they will only take bags up to 32 gallons and ours were 42. Lazy fucks. Tony's mom is going to try to contact the city, but chances are we are going to have to pay someone to haul it off.

I wanted to note a few tips we got from people. We heard that we should wait to sand and varnish the floors until spring because the varnish won't dry right in the cold. That stinks because we wanted to do the floors before we moved big stuff in. Tony's going to check up on this and find out if we can find away around that. Also a friend of ours, Ray, suggested we knock out the wall the stove is on and put the stove on the further wall to open up the kitchen. It sounds good to me, but we'll think about that in time.

Tony's mom also told us that she rescued some of the stuff we put out for trash. This really ticked me off because that means she's 'checking up' on what we are doing. It angers me for all kinds of reasons I've been venting about for hours now and would be too long winded to explain. Lets just say I hate being treated like a child. We are mature, intelligent adults. We can handle this. We don't need to be babied.

No pictures today. I forgot the camera and the results, to me, weren't that impressive. Next we need to figure out whether to start cleaning the first floor or moving trash out of the basement. I think we need to at least move trash away from the heater because we are calling someone to look at it and clean the ducts. I don't know when we are going to get time to go back over. Hopefully tomorrow, but if not next weekend.

Another Day of Cleaning

Today we concentrated on the junk in the living room. We spent 2 or 3 hours there and hauled out the majority of it. I won't discriminate and call the living room the dirtiest of the rooms but it has so far been the dustiest. Everything was covered in this filthy film of aged dust. And I mean everything, dust on the floor, dust coating the piles of garbage, thick, cakey layers of dust on the shelves. I wish I had taken a picture of just how thick this stuff was. My lungs are still heavy, filled with it. New lesson, wear a mask.

Garbage update: we've gone through the first box of trash bags. Each box contained 32 bags, so we've estimated that we've gotten about 35 bags of trash out. And these are the 42 gallon monster trash bags too. If I was a calculating man (which I'm not, because I'm actually a woman) that would be 1470 gallons of trash. Holy crap! And we aren't even done the first floor yet.

Sadly in the rubble we found a violin. It was in disrepair like everything else in the house. I couldn't stand throwing it away though. That violin should have been creating great things. Someone should have loved it. But it is gathering dust like so many broken toys.

We did however find a pleasant surprise in the living room. There was a faux wood burning stove under a bunch of piled up boxes. I looked at it a saw treasure. Tony, however, saw a time bomb. He spent a half an hour at least trying to figure out if it was hooked up, and if it was, was it done properly. Which I don't blame him for. After he brought it up I wondered too if the thing would explode on us. After a proper cleaning and inspection he discovered it was not hooked up at all. Which is good. We'll have to have someone professional install it. For right now we're leaving it in the corner. Its probably the only clean thing in the living room right now. The big junk is gone, but the dust remains. We still have to box up some books (we ran out of boxes) and pick up some small stuff, but the majority of it is done.

Before

After

View the January 1st Album here.