Housework: Day 1

As I mentioned, yesterday I was going over to the house to work on getting it all clean.  My mom and grandma were coming to help.  I brought over my Rubbermaid Reveal mop and my Dyson Ball vacuum.  I had bought various cleaning supplies the other day - I also remembered to bring a toilet bowl brush and a trash can yesterday. 

My mom and I got started on the hardwood floors; I vacuumed everything and she followed behind me with her Shark Steam Mop (she was kind enough to bring it along).  My grandma got started cleaning the kitchen - she cleaned out all the cabinets and appliances, scoured the sink, and wiped down the counter tops.  After my mom and I finished with the floor, we worked on the first floor bathroom.  After that bathroom was clean (except the bathtub which I plan to do later), I went outside to do some yard work and my mom went upstairs to clean the floors up there; she vacuumed everything and used the steam mop in the bathroom.  My mom cleaned the second floor bathroom as well (except the bathtub again because I'm going to do them later).  Outside, I started with the leaves and debris on the front stoop and the sidewalk; I swept everything up and put it into a giant trash bag.  My grandma had finished the kitchen by then and she came out to help; she would sweep and I'd scoop it all into the trash bag. 

Once the front was cleaned up, I took the bag around to the very back to dump it in the parking area - there is essentially a compost pile back there.  I want to get rid of the compost pile at some point, but, for now, I needed a place to put all the leaves!  At that point, my grandma worked on sweeping off the patio outside the kitchen, the walkway around the house, and the back patio.  After I dumped that bag, I got distracted by all the stuff growing on the back fence (I should mention now that the back fence is really just thick, tall chicken wire - I would like to put up a better fence someday). 

Fence "Before"

 It's hard to see all the stuff on the fence (and I apologize because the picture is a bit blurry), but there was stuff growing all through the fence.  There was a lot of little stuff that would weave through and follow the wire - that stuff you can't see from far away because it blends in...  But you can see the massive areas of stuff to the left.  (You can also see the compost bins which are going to be disposed of as well...)  It took me a while but I got almost everything cleared off the fence, which was impressive since I was doing it all with my hands (I did have work gloves on, but no tools)!

Fence "After"

I know it still looks like there is stuff in the fence, but that's the compost pile on the other side of the fence...

Anyway, by the time I cleared off the fence, my mom was done inside; she came outside and started raking.  I worked on getting her piles on leaves into the trash bag and dumping the bag in the compost pile.  We got rid of a bunch of leaves, plenty of sticks, and the few remaining walnuts!  By the time we were done, the inside of the house was almost completely cleaned - the only things that needed cleaned were the two bathtubs and the inside of the fridge and freezer.

Before I left the house, I unpacked our pots and pans and a few other kitchen items.  I also took a bin of shoes up into the closet and unpacked our board games.  The sellers bolted a bookcase to the floor in the attic so that the open area at the top of the stairs, to the right (the left side is the wall) is blocked so no one can fall down the stairs.  It took a little while but I got the bookcase clean (it had been in the attic for a long time) and used that for the boardgames!  At that point, I headed back to the apartment.

I cuddled up on the couch with the puppies for a bit until Aaron got home.  We made ourselves dinner and relaxed for bit...  Around 6:30pm, we headed back to the house with another load of stuff.  We took the dogs this time, but we made sure to take some of their things so they would start to learn that it's their new house (i.e. don't "mark" anything).  Aaron did most of the hauling stuff from the car to the house while I kept an eye on the dogs.  I let them go outside and explore the yard a bit too...  After we got everything in, we started unpacking some stuff.  I added our first bit of decor... :o)

We managed to unpack all of the kitchen things that we brought over.  We had one large bin that we didn't have room for and we didn't have any actual food, but it was still a lot of stuff we got unpacked.  This morning, we took another load of stuff over, including the last bin of kitchen things and all the food (including the stuff in the fridge and freezer). 

Aaron is going to be at the house all day today doing work - he is working on getting the boards for the balcony stained.  The delivery people should be bringing the mattress and boxspring today as well - sometime between 10am and 2pm!  Things are finally coming together and tomorrow will be the rest of the move!  Yay!  :o)