house cleaning, part 1

Spent ~9 hours today working on the new house. It was hard but fantastic. I haven't felt so productive in such a long time.

I started out cleaning the baseboards in the master bedroom. It was really, really disgusting. Really disgusting. I don't think anything in there had been cleaned in... yeah, I'm not even going to estimate because thinking of estimates is making me feel sick. Ew.

I swept the floor in there, and then vacuumed, but every time I vacuumed, MORE crap showed up. I think because the air was dislodging the stuff stuck in the crevices of the wood floor. So disgusting. So I gave up on that early on, with a plan to come back. While I waited for my Nana to show up to help, I went down and got started on the wallpaper in the kitchen. I spent more or less the rest of the day dealing with wallpaper, and I'm not that close to being done.

Why, might you ask? Why, because the former inhabitants had wallpapered over wallpaper, probably over even more wallpaper, although at this point I couldn't really say. Yipes. I think we're just going to paint over one layer of wallpaper, in the end. Oh well.

Yes, all the wallpaper is as ugly as you could imagine. And it all smells like cigarette smoke. But slowly and surely, we are eradicating it.

I'm pretty excited for this house. I love that it came through the very day after the giant miracle I'd been praying for. It's like everything in my life that I'd given up on, miraculously happened all at once. Hooray!

HOUSE!

Forgot to mention that on Friday--which was an awesome day--we finally CLOSED ON THE HOUSE! AH!

FOR REAL!! AT LAST! After months and months of drama!

Spent Saturday picking paint and working out the strategic plan for cleaning/painting each room. The last people there were truly, truly slobs. Actually, on Saturday morning when we went to go check the place out, the old tenant was still in there, with his car parked in the garage and moving stuff out. UPDATE: we DID change the locks on Saturday, after that fun time.

He and his minions left us:

- a pretty decent kitchen table w/chairs
- a gigantic TV
- the freakin nastiest loveseat ever
- possibly a pool table? He said he gave it to his friend but his friend hasn't picked it up yet (cross your fingers that he won't)
- a really old desk
- a really old hutch
- two semi-broken bookshelf things that we plan to paint bright colors and stick in Baby D's room
- lots of dead bugs on the floor
- the most disgusting piece of bar soap I have seen in a very long time
- lots of fun presents in the fridge

That might be it?

Yeah, nothing in that house is clean. It is all pretty sick. So I'm spending this week working with my grandmother to clean up and paint. I can't actually paint, being pregnant and all, so I'm just cleaning everything and preparing it to be painted. SO grateful to have the time to do it all.

If you are free this week at any time and want to come hang out and help me sweep up bug carcasses and wipe dust off the baseboards while listening to sweet tunes, let me know.

We are so thrilled. All at once, things have miraculously worked out for us. I don't remember the last time I was so happy.

We're BLOGGING! and other new things

Carl and I decided that the time has come to start a family blog--since we're finally starting a family and all.

Baby Doozit is due on June 29 (although wouldn't it be cool if he came on July 4? It's possible!). We found out a few weeks ago that Baby D is a BOY and he is essentially the cutest little pre-born baby ever. I'll post some cute feet pics in a while.

Our lives have been pretty rad. Recently my parents bought a house down the street from them, and Carl and I are moving in sometime in April or May. We'll be renting it for as long as we're in Maryland, I guess. At least for the foreseeable future. We're so excited to have some space to ourselves--but still be close enough to the fam to help care for my handicapped brother.

Let's see. New home, new baby. Carl got a new job a few weeks ago. This is a new blog. Carl just got a new calling at church. So many new things! We have a lot to be grateful for.

:o)