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

Wall Challenge

Soooooo...Amanda gave out the wall washing challenge last week and I DID do it last week.  I even took the pics last week.  I just didn't get around to posting til now LOL

Of course, that was just one side of the stairway.  So, the next day I HAD to wash the other side. 

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.

Pantry

Yeah, I suck.

Daily PCCX posts.  Right. As if.

I'm in a funk that I just can't seem to get out of.  No matter how many times I say "I'll start tomorrow," tomorrow never happens.  I need to get back into a daily routine. I'll start tomorrow.

But I did do something today.  I organized my pantry. Exciting stuff, huh?  Yeah, it wasn't really that difficult to be honest.  In fact, it probably took longer to take the pictures and edit them.  Still, its one job down.  So, without further adieu, he are my before and afters:

Top 2 Shelves Before

Top 2 Shelves After

Bottom 2 Shelves Before

 

 

Bottom 2 Shelves After

Days 10-13 - um, not so much

I'll admit it. I've been playing pretty much all week. Well, not *always* playing. I have fixed meals (except for tonight), I've done dishes, a couple loads of laundry, I hauled trash yesterday, but real cleaning? Yeah, not so much. And ack, this coming week? More errands than I can shake a stick at. It's really going to suck, honestly, and I'm not looking forward to it. Such is life with one car - and one that is barely running at that.

I am shopping Sunday but may be able to do some work in the afternoon if I'm not totally wiped. There will be next to no cleaning done Monday. Tuesday has potential. Wednesday is unlikely to see any work done. Thursday, hahahahaha. Ye-ah, no. Friday's looking pretty good, unless I'm recovering from Thursday still. It will take a very concerted effort on my part to get anything done toward PCCX before the end of the third (!) week. Think I'll make it?

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...

Day 9 - cleaning without lifting a finger

Something got into my kids today; I don't know what it was. In exchange for erasing some allowance debt and some extra quarters, all three of my kids lit into cleaning today. Without my ever getting up:

• "The pit" was completely picked up and swept - needs a serious mopping but that's another story.
• The popcorn machine was more or less cleaned out.
• The pantry was organized.
• The sink and toilet were scrubbed.
• The dishwasher was unloaded twice and loaded once.
• A load of laundry was done.
• The fronts of the dishwasher, oven, refrigerator, and freezer were scrubbed.
• The German shepherd got a bath.
• One of Mom's boxes was emptied.

This was all on top of their usual daily chores, which between them include picking up and sweeping all kids' bedrooms, the bathroom, and the living room.

Who are these kids, and where have mine gone?