8/18/2015 8:36 PM
Because there are so many rooms in the Lake house that need repaired/restored, I have given them each a name ie. bedroom #1 etc. These numbers for the bedrooms do not particularly reflect the order in which we are working on them. Obviously the dining room, kitchen, bathroom etc.
are just that.
Cleaning the house was the absolutely first thing I had to do. This was not a small task. The house mice had all but taken over the kitchen and there were droppings all over/under/around to prove it. Yuck, yuck, yucK! The smell is bad too.
I really thought that the kitchen was the first place to start as we were bringing food with us each weekend. I washed the drawers out, thoroughly, one by one. I scoured the counter tops, cleaned the sink, and cleaned under the sink. There is a slight drip when I run the water that gets down below under the sink. I have not yet tamed the mice smell from under there! When we switch the sinks out, when the counter tops are done, it will no longer drip. Thank the Good Lord for that!
Along with mice muck, there were cobwebs hanging from all of the ceilings and doorways. The webs were under the bathroom and kitchen sink, in the bathroom drawers, and even stuck to the walls. Cami and I looked up online to see if cobwebs were actually made by spiders. Icky, yuck! In deed they were. The spider is called a cobweb spider, how profound. lol Here is a link to more info on them : Cobweb-Spiders. Messy, sticky, gooey, buggy webs.
The best way to clean up the cobwebs that these spiders make is to vacuum them up. I used the wand attachment to get to them and found quickly that I was too short to reach the ceilings and especially the corners. I went to Goodwill and found a spare wand and gladly paid the quarter they asked for it, even though it was a different color. Who Cares??? Now I was equipped with the right tool to do the job.
Brief history: I tried to sweep the ceilings, no luck, I tried to mop the ceilings, big mess, then I tried to vacuum them up and found it to be much easier and more effective. It is very time consuming but really the only way to do it. I am still running into a web here and there, but for the most part, I am now done with that... until I get to scary bedroom #3. That will be at a later date.
The bathroom had it's own set of cleaning tasks that needed done. I started with the toilet as it was caked with dark brown muck in the bowl and in the tank. I tried to get the stains off but I eventually will have to replace it if I want it to be sparkling clean. For the meantime, I bought a new toilet seat that made it look light years newer. (we will keep the stains a secret for now.) The tub was almost as bad, but it really gave off great water pressure and made a nice shower. Cleanliness is next to Godliness, as I have heard and I took about 2 hours of my life and was Godly in the shower. lol
Initially we were all sleeping in the Living room. It was great family bonding time now that I look back on it. The real reason we camped out in there was the heating issue in the house and the living room has a fireplace insert that puts off some nice heat. We blocked off the living room from the rest of the house with shower curtains and rods. Sounds funny but it worked. January through April were our camping months. We slept on air mattresses and toted bedding from home back and forth. Ha ha, we watched movies together on our laptops. Good times that can never be replaced. I am glad we had that time too.
I will interject here with a quick note about how nice our neighbors, John and Vanessa were to let us borrow their electric air mattress for all of that time. More than once I made a panicked call from home to our other neighbors, John and Ashley to check on something for me. She ALWAYS said yes. Thank you sooooo much, again!
All good things must come to an end and Vanessa was having girlfriends over at their beach house and needed the mattress back just for that weekend. We felt we had sponged off of them long enough and got a real bed for John and I. At the same time we got a big screen TV too, both FREE! I Love Craigslist! Chris and I rented a Home Depot truck and got a living room set, a bunk bed set, and an area rug off of Craigslist too. The house is finally feeling more like a home.
Now I had to clean and paint bedroom #2, install blinds and sheers, and get the bedroom set up for John and I to sleep in. The nice lady that sold us the living room set, threw in a couple of cute oak end tables and a mirror and I put them in the bedroom too. Sears had a bed set on clearance
for $29 and we were set. I painted bedroom #1 for Chris and put one of the mattresses in there but he still hasn't left the living room to sleep there. For a while he had his air mattress in there and set up his little media room in there but I guess when I kicked him out to paint and stuff he just got comfy on the couch and hasn't gone back yet. Here is the wall paint color. It is called Behr's Palatial White.
There has been so much cleaning to do and will be so much more but I am not complaining. I love the Lake house! Now enough of this talking dirty!
Ta ta for now, Beth
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