Crazy Cleaning Part 1

Believe it or not there is a kitchen table under all that. I know, I live here and I have a hard time believing it too. Our problem is that we have people over or do things so late in the day, or let ourselves get distracted that we don't put things away. As an example, my boyfriend worked the closing shift last night. Of course his head was still going and he wasn't tired when he got home. So he had himself a snack while surfing the web. No I was not awake when he got home, no I did not ask him about it, so how do I know what he did? The empty sour cream and mostly empty potato chip bag by the computer that I found this morning told me. So at least one of us is making a commitment to trying harder to keep the home clean, or as clean as possible. With two Golden Retrievers it's hard to keep things spotless because they get their dog hair over everything and track in dirt from outside. And they are always going out and in. So today, aside from some shopping, I worked to clean some of our mess. I started in one room, because I know from past experience if I jump between rooms I don't feel very accomplished because nothing ends up looking clean, and I get so discouraged that I never complete anything except maybe the dishes for that night. So I tried hard to keep my focus on the kitchen table, and as you can see below, I found it.

On a side note, the dehumidifyer in the picture has found it's way to the basement as well as the papers around it finding their way to the office to be filed. But I wanted to get a picture before something got put on the table and I could have my proof that there is a kitchen table in the kitchen.

Dog fur everywhere

Keeping our home clean is quite next to impossible. I'm experimenting with trying to find the secret to keeping the loose dog hair under control. The difficult part is changing habits, or making new ones.

My boyfriend and I are not exactly organized people. The funny thing is I can tell you where many of my documents are, where the large philips screw driver is, or where the office scissors walked off to. While everything may be covering tables, chairs, and all over the floor, we know where pretty much everything in the house is. There are those items that don't get used often and we look at each other going, where did this go?

In trying to keep the dog hair under control, I've tried brushing the dogs at least once daily. But as the house wasn't exactly cleaned before I started this, and didn't vacuum every room, I couldn't tell if this was making any difference. So to try to see if things were making a difference I've started a hunt to see how to get the dog hair off certain furniture items and such without just moving it around the house and or on to other items. For example, getting it off the chair and in the trash instead of off the chair onto my clothes, then onto the floor where it will eventually be vacuumed or tracked into another room.

I've tried a few of those fur grabbing cloths and things from the stores, but they don't get all of it. I don't know if they need to be used more often or if they just stink that bad. I'm thinking they just stink that bad because even when I get the amount of hair on the chair down, I can run these cloths over the same stubborn hairs and they will refuse to let go of the chair. The other fun is then removing the dog fur from the cloths. It's about as frustrating to get it off these cloths as it is trying to get it off the chairs; I might even say it's more frustrating.

So the great fur battle continues....

Even when not redoing a room, you're redoing a room

Well, we've been saving up for air conditioning in our home for what feels like forever. And the thing we forgot is that even when not actively working a project because you're saving up, you should be planning another project if you want to keep things smooth.

So yesterday I started really looking at Pella doors to replace our back doorwall. We had already decided on Pella when we got our windows from Weather Guard, but found out they don't do doors. The guy recommended Pella to replace the door, and we are so happy with our windows that we decided to follow the guy's advise and go with Pella.

We also have some small projects that we can work on, like the base molding in the Family Room and replacing the base molding in the kitchen that we had to take out for an addition of a divider between the kitchen and Family Room. These are small, inexpensive projects but are time consuming enough that we would probably need a full weekend to do them.

Since we are planning to redo each room and are still working to finish rooms we've started on, it's important for us to remember that we should still be working on those other projects in whatever way we can to keep things moving. Then before you know it we will have the house redone and we'll be ready to fix or redo something else.

Drain unclogged

Well, go figure that after dehairing the bathtub drain it wouldn't want to drain. Sunday my boyfriend cleaned out the tub drain, but Monday when I took my shower I also took a bath because the drain did not want to drain. So, after pouring no end of drain gels and such to try and get rid of the clog, and using a quick made snake, my dad suggested water or the drain solutions down the drain vent because other drains were slow at draining too. When that didn't work I went out and purchased a 50 foot snake to snake the drain. When I couldn't get the snake any further than a foot and a half down the drain I tried the vent from the tub. That's the access point above the drain of the tub but below the faucet of the tub. Went down about three and a half feet when I hit what I thought was another turn in the pipe. Turned out to be the clog. After I jiggled the snake around to try to get by what I thought was a turn for a while, I noticed a small whirlpool at my feet as the water remaining in the tub drained. At which point I let out a whoop of triumph.