cleaning That House

Our friend up the street decided to wash the kitchen floor the other evening. Mind you, I have already washed it up SIX times.... started out with a scrub brush and eventually completely used up the mop with the Magic Eraser sponge on it.

So there she was on her hands and knees, and she scrubbed that thing for the seventh time... the water came up opaque brown again and again and again! I wasn't surprised but I WAS shocked, lol... I knew the floor wasn't clean yet but dayum, I thought I had gotten more dirt off it than that!! How the heck much dirt can a white floor HOLD?

After she wore out *lol* I decided that since she had not been able to completely get the dishsoap up when she scrubbed it either, I would take my new $2.50 mop from the Habitat ReStore and just do a good rinse. It started out okay (sheesh, though, there was yet MORE dirt on that floor!!)... but when I was only halfway through the mopping, the mop fell apart!! Brand new Rubbermaid mop, and the black rubberizing came off the squeeze handle--I put it back on, no big deal--but then the sponge fell off the mophead!! Mind you, the sponge ASSEMBLY didn't come out of the mop... just the sponge itself came off, and no way to put it back together. I guess you cannot use a Rubbermaid mop with hot water; it must dissolve the glue... who knew? Who knew? *sigh* So now I have to replace both mops, and I cannot find replacement heads for my scrubby mop (already looked), so I really hope the Rubbermaid mop will take a generic refill! After all, I still have the mudroom, the bathroom, and the entryway to mop.

While our friend was scrubbing the kitchen floor, I tackled more of the bathroom walls. They went from grunge to white... I was SO happy! The part of the tub I wiped down also went from grunge to white, this time not softly off-white like the walls, but sparkly shiny bright white. Now if only I could get the whatever-the-heck off the toilet lid (roofing tar?!), I would be SOOO happy! More comes off each time I scrub it, but I may just give up and use some Goof-Off on it, despite the obnoxious smell.

While the kitchen and bathroom were being scrubbed, Gryph went to work on the dining room floor with a heat gun, and scraped up a couple square feet more glue. OHHH how lovely those old oaken floors are! Before we left, he checked that burned-looking place where we thought Destructo-Tenant had tried to use a sander on the floor, and discovered to our great delight that we had misinterpreted what we were seeing.... Destructo-Tenant had actually spilled a bunch of VERY dark stain there and just wiped it around, then left it to dry!! It came up in small thick sheets (instead of the shavings we are used to getting) and the floor underneath is completely UNgrooved!! Wooohooo!!

I reserved a moving truck for Sunday the 26th. A couple of friends have offered to help us move, and we have GOT to get out of this apartment. The manager has repeatedly refused to repair or replace the smoke alarm, which is against the law; so we invoked the 14/30 day landlord non-compliance clause and gave our 30 days' notice. There's been no response so far and it makes me wonder if they are just glad to see us go, or if they haven't bothered to check the office mail slot and so haven't found it yet.... but we have to go no matter what happens because the pressure of living in this place is making me agoraphobic... it freaks me out so much knowing that they are spying on me, watching for me, trying to control me, that I cannot bring myself to leave the safety of the apartment. I even put off walking the dog, and that is SO not good.... I am once again acting like an abuse victim; I walk with my head down and I do everything I can to shrink into myself--staying under their radar--because I am always expecting a nasty explosion of verbal abuse to come my way.

This is no way to live. This is especially no way to live when we have a perfectly good house that we COULD be living in, instead.

The Inspector has been by again, and has left us a huge list of housing violations. She is coming down on the house like a ton of bricks again--no pun intended despite the falling brick wall, lol--and is holding us to higher standards than the rest of the neighborhood, but we can fight that battle next week.

One of the conditions of getting emergency repair money from the county is that we send in a copy of our deed--and the title company STILL hasn't sent it to us yet. It seems to me more important to get that taken care of first. AND That House has just dropped off the online tax rolls, so now we cannot even get free paint (which we already applied for), plus the taxes are due May 1st and we still have to appeal the valuation--it was $34,800, but of course we only paid $15,000 so it needs to be adjusted--so I think these things which we qualify for and which will get the repair process started need to be addressed before I call the Inspector.

We still have no refrigerator, and I'm not sure why. I'm hoping to run into the neighbor who offered me his old one soon.