January PCCX

I'm using the room-by-room track.  This month I'm doing the kitchen and dining room.

Challenges:

• The giant hole in the ceiling.  It's something I'd like to see repaired by the end of the month but I don't know if that's likely.
• Really bad linoleum, coming up in pieces in several places.  There's no hope of repairing that this month and probably not this year.  I should be able to trim back the loose places and at least make it look a little better.
• Difficult to work with cabinets.
• A whole lot of extraneous china and crystal that is never used and much of it isn't even mine.  There is no flinging allowed, so it's just a matter of cleaning it all and reorganizing so it hopefully takes up less space.

I'll spend this week catching up on basics and then head into deep-cleaning and organizing.

Is anyone else working PCCX at all this year?

Knock, knock?

No, it's not a joke, I'm just coming back in from a long absence and thought it would be polite. :)

I've started up here and there with a plan or a poa or basics, but I just wasn't getting anywhere.  And I could blame it on illness and things, or I could just suck it up and admit that I'm a lazy wench most of the time and just wasn't hauling my ample butt up out of this chair (or bed, more likely) to get any real work done.  I'm not sure what bit me Saturday night, but suddenly I thought I was really ready to get moving.  I decided to start in one end/corner of the house and move out from there doing anything and everything I could reasonably do along the way.

I woke up Sunday morning, ran over to the dollar store across town (which of course uses "run" in the sense that I drove, because there's no running from me, especially across our admittedly small town), and plunked down a bunch of money on cleaning supplies and came home to get to work.  Incidentally, all that stuff I bought?  2 things I thought I was out of I had several of, 2 things I thought I had I can't find, and in the first 5 minutes the new long-handled duster went missing.  Oh, and I still don't have anything that will cut through grease effectively.  And so it goes.

I really did work yesterday.  Probably a solid 4 hours all together.  What I got done was a generally unused, small corner of my kitchen - but it's DONE, man.  I'll give you the tour:

Oh yes, let's start here.  I was mixing dilutions of a few cleaners into empty spray bottles, when I spilled straight-up bleach onto my navy stretch capris. *headsmack*

I remembered to start taking pics after I moved the popcorn machine out of this corner and picked up the first few things - including the lid to a round, covered trash can which we haven't owned in about 2 years.  This is possibly the "deepest, darkest" corner of my house, kind of an afterthought corner in the back end of the kitchen.  The only thing it's good for is storing the popcorn machine, and as such has been much neglected an abused.

After picking up, sweeping, and scrubbing, this is as good as the floor gets.  The vinyl flooring came with the house all scratched up that badly,  I swear.  The tall piece of wood leaning in the corner is part of the door frame of C's room...a story for another day.  It's staying there, out of the way, until I work my way around to there and figure out how to reattach it decently.  Or maybe it's the one from my room?  One of us is missing part of a door frame.

That's my large freezer on the left, which at one point - when my desk was in this part of the house - was "cleverly" used as a white board.  The last brainstorm session stayed too long and now it won't come off.  At least you can't see it from the rest of the kitchen.  Oh, and one of the kids *coughCcough* added to it later, I found.  The hanging cords were disGUSting.  I barely remembered to unplug them before cleaning, but I did.

There are 2 windows in this corner, which was lovely when I spent the day there at my desk.  Now, they're really just pointless.  Worse, they're awful.  I cleaned the glass and trim inside, but they're no better to look through than when I started.  It doesn't photograph well, but the screens are torn, and there are hundreds of bugs, leaves, and other things stuck between the screens or storm windows and the interior pane.  I don't even know how to clean that all out.  I'll work on that later, when I'm cleaning outside I guess.

Here is the aforementioned popcorn machine.  It, itself, still needs to be cleaned, but it's back in its home now that the surroundings are much better.  It's hiding the cleaned and better contained cords.

Once again I started moving things before taking the opening picture.  Perhaps you can see above that there were random dishes stacked to the left of the microwave and others on top, in addition to Santa there.

The microwave was actually worse than it appears, because half the mess was on the glass plate that I'd already put in the dishwasher with everything else I moved from this area.  This poor microwave, by the way, is from around 1983.  I distinctly remember when we got it; it was such a "new" thing that the appliance store that sold them held cooking classes free with purchase for something like 6 weeks, to teach new owners how to use them.  I used to have the microwave fudge recipe from a class memorized.  The fancy button settings don't work anymore, the meat probe thermometer is long gone, and it isn't even-heating anymore, but by golly it's still kicking.

The left side done...

...the right side, not so much.  Those boxes there have been sitting, unpacked, since my mom moved in, in 2007.  I found Christmas plates, crystal glasses, and an almost full (large) bottle of rum.

The microwave done...

...and there it is.  That's a lot of Pediasure on the left, that used to be stacked on the floor in front of the microwave.  The picture on the windowsill is an old one of the family from when C was a baby; I found it with the boxes and cleaned it up.  Inside the buffet is almost entirely Christmas dishes, so I'll clean those and the interior shelves in November when I get them out.  There's no need to open it until then so I'll leave it alone for now.

So that was my Sunday triumph: one useless corner, one piece of furniture (exterior), and one countertop appliance.  Onward and upward from here.

Name That Kitchen Utensil

I admit that I've been really sucky at the pccx challenge even though I was so excited for it to start.  Now that I'm starting a new job tomorrow, I'll either get back on the horse and start getting stuff done again, or really enjoy my days off and do nothing, we'll see LOL

So since it was kitchen week, I went into my utensil drawer and pulled out 2 ziploc bags of crap that my father purchased from a garage sale.  Why he bought 2 is beyond me since the same items were in both. Needless to say, I tossed one in the trash and kept the other.  Now, I must try to figure out what these utensils are! 

The end of this is flat like a screwdriver. The circles near the handle are not large enough to put your fingers through. I'm at a complete loss.

Clearly a grapefruit utensil, right?

WTH is this?  Plastic; Open circle at one end; Corkscrew like at bottom with a pointed edge AND its hollow through the corkscrew thing. 

I know it shows both, but this image is for the cheese slicer?  Question mark because that's what I think it is, but I'm not really sure LOL

This looks a lot like 2 pics above, except its metal and the corkscrew plastic piece isn't hollow.  Still has the round circle at the top. Anyone know what it is, anyone?

Ummm??? Pouring spout at the top. "Teeth" at the bottom. Name this utensil. Please.

Never Look Up!!!

I made a mistake...

I was sitting at the kitchen table, and I looked up.

Like I said. Never look up.

I couldn't very well just sit there and continue to eat my meals knowing what was directly overhead.  So, I filled the dishpan with soapy water, took apart the fixture and began the soakfest.  Then I grabbed some Fantastik and papertowels and went to work.

This is definitely one of those hated jobs that nobody wants to do.  In reality, it took me less than 30 minutes, with the majority of the work going into removal and put back of the bulbs (Not really the bulbs, but the light fixture but I didn't want to say light fixture because that refers to the entire thing which isn't what I did but but light covers....THAT's the word I was looking for....Light Covers!!!)  Whatever. 

Pretty!!!!  Now I look up and smile :D

Under the Sink

I hate the area under my kitchen sink. It's one of those most dreaded areas to clean. I organized it once since we moved here 2 years ago. A combination of my household cleaners and my father's Depression era thinking of "If it's on sale really cheap than I should buy it now because I might need more in 10 years and not be able to afford it then" has left me with cleaners in 6 different places in the house, stocked to the gills.  Not having household cleaners is not my reason for not doing PCCX. That's for sure.

Last year, we had a leak and my dear husband just threw things back in after he fixed it. Um, thanks? I've just not had the inclination to go digging in there, overrun by cleaners, sponges and the like. But I about lost it the other day. You see, if we're getting low on dish detergent on the counter, and my father doesn't have more sitting right there in the front of the cabinet under the sink, he must go buy more.

Clearly that bottle was not "in his face" because he bought 2 more. 

 

 

 

 

 So, with my Ipod fully charged and my playlist ready, I went in....

Yep, that big black spot is mold. Why? Remember I mentioned the water leak? Apparently my husband didn't bother to wipe it down. *Sigh*  Gee....I wonder if I have any cleaners to handle that...

Now, you may think I'm exaggerating, but I'm not.  Under the sink included:

• A furniture cleaning set that we got when we purchased our couch 7 years ago. It's never been used. I tried throwing it out 2 years ago but my husband insisted we might need it someday.  
• 3 boxes of Mr Clean Magic Erasers
• Vacuum bags (slightly water damaged)
• 2 different LCD cleaners & a bottle of a distilled water mixture for cleaning LCD's
• Can of air
• Furniture Polish and polish wipes
• Resolve, Oxy Clean floor cleaner and a Steam Vac Cleaner
• 4 plastics bags of various sponges (3 were opened).  After removing the plastic bags, I ended up with 37 sponges.
• Bug Spray
• 2 cans of Lysol disinfectant (which smell really bad, so we don't use it but keep it???)
• 4 brushes
• 3 pairs of latex gloves
• 3 bottles of window cleaners
• 2 organizing racks
• Strainer
• 6 bottles of dish detergent
• 5 various household cleaners
• 3 different lime/rust cleaners
• 3 boxes of steel wool cleaners (My father said we were out and to add to my shopping list, so I did and bought some, but he didn't see I did, so he bought some and we already had some *sigh*)
•  Murphy's Oil Soap
• A "garbage can" with more sponges in it....WTF??
• My coffee can of grease
• and lastly, 82 of those dish cloths/wipes (we don't use these)

Back to the problem of cleaning out under the sink and that nasty ass mold stain.  I grabbed the Lysol Kitchen cleaner (with bleach), grabbed a pair of latex gloves and one of the disposable dish cloths.  First of all, I hate latex gloves. With a passion. They're a pain in the ass to put on and your hand/arm sweat while using them. But I was NOT touching that mold with my bare hands!!!

Afterwards, I condensed as much as I could and put it all back all neat and organized and stuff. 

After 3 hours, I was DONE!

I....survived!!!

then...

my father entered the room and sat down.

He asked me about the black spot he saw under the sink while it was empty.

I explained it was mold from the water leak...

He then asked...

Did you use bleach?

*insert sigh of disgust here*

Yes Dad.

"Oh" he says..."I wasn't sure if you knew"

My brain went into overload...

Seriously?!?  Are you friggin kidding me?!?!?  I'm 40 years old!!!  *Insert swear words here* Old man...*insert more swear words*  Raised a family of three boys *insert more swear words* Only living here to help you out *insert more swear words* I need alcohol *insert more swear words*

My reply...

Yes Dad, I knew.

Cramming lots in early

The insurance adjuster is due between 11 and 12 today. I don't know where he's coming from or from how far out he will call to let me know he's on his way, but he did say he'd make that call so I'm hoping I have half an hour or so.

While the kids got a ton of work done yesterday, there is still much more that needs doing before he gets here. I've rallied the troops and gotten all the "public" areas swept and picked up and dishes going. I would still like to clear and clean the kitchen counters and mop as much of the floor as possible.

None of this can be done without breaks however, so here I am to introduce zones 2-8, also known as the rest of my kitchen.

Ok, there's a lot of pictures and I don't know how to put a slide show in a Blogger post, so if you want to see pictures try this gallery.

The freezer and area in front of it is zone 2. The kitchen breakfront (as opposed to the dining room breakfront, coming later) and the area in front of it are zone 3. The refrigerator and in front of it is zone 4, ditto the stove in zone 5. Zone 6 is the pantry and can shelf and, yes, the floor in front of and immediately beside them. Zone 7 is the right side counter, cabinets, and floor to the dining room, and zone 8 is the left side counter, cabinets, and floor to the dining room.

There's the lousy linoleum throughout, including a large area of deep gouges in zones 2 and 3 where previous owners had apparently had a table and chairs, pieces of it coming up at the edge of the dining room, back door, and in front of the dishwasher, and bumps in zone 8 where there is a lot of water damage to the wood floor beneath - not related to our current ceiling issues.

Behind the pantry is the cheap paneling continuing from zone 1. Above all the counters is a backsplash of the same cheap laminate as the counters, complete with peeling daisy border. Two more windows: one above the sink and one at the far left of the counter.

The biggest problem in the kitchen, aside from general mayhem and horrible decorating, is bugs. All the rain has driven bugs inside and I haven't yet gotten a handle on it. So far it's (mostly) confined to the kitchen and I'm determined to keep it there. Well, get it gone really, but before that keep it from spreading.

So that's the rest of the kitchen and the before pictures, and some significant work is getting done today. Signing off until the afters...

Zone 1 - before

Area 1 is the north edge of my kitchen, where this lovely teak buffet once belonging to my grandmother resides. It is/was supposed to be the home to all my Christmas dishes, but it was full of large silver pieces and empty boxes some of the Christmas plates had come out of this past year. Reasoning that the boxes would just take more room and I wouldn't want to bother putting them in and taking them out every time, I chucked the boxes.

Oh wait, this is the before post. Ok, so there's the buffet with all the Christmas stuff scattered and stacked; the microwave which looks like a before picture but is really an after since A cleaned it a week or so ago; the horribly small and virtually unusable corner where large trays and things are stacked, including the hanging pot rack I so desperately need, still in the box, 3 years later; the opposite, larger corner where the humongous popcorn maker is supposed to go, and hey, that's where that extra trash can went; and the popcorn maker itself. The area surrounding is cheap paneling, lousy linoleum, and old windows. One of which, you can sort of see, is home to a HUGE wasps' nest, which really needs to be taken care of, like, yesterday. Any ideas that don't involve getting close to the darn thing?

So today I'm beginning to tackle this zone, one piece at a time. News at 11. Actually that's probably a pretty accurate estimate.

Days 5, 6, and 7 - what happened?

Somehow I lost 3 days. I know where today went; I was shopping. But Friday and Saturday are a useless blur. Week one down and not a darn thing done. So tomorrow is Monday, Chris is back to his regular schedule (messed up last week due to the holiday), and I refuse to be sucked into tv shows or video games or sitting and doing nothing all day.

I know that I want to start in the kitchen. Based on my zone diagram there are 8 sections of the kitchen to be dealt with. My first choice would be to simply start with #1 and move through the house in order. However, over the weekend the ceiling at the other end of the kitchen finally caved in. The insulation and drywall were picked up right away of course, but I kinda need to get the area cleaned up if an insurance adjuster is coming over. Of course, I have no idea when that might happen so maybe I will start with #1 and if I need to switch gears I can.

I do really wish I'd had the sense Friday and/or Saturday to clean out the fridge and pantry *before* shopping today.