Gainfully Unemployed (part II)

One long neglected job was carpet cleaning! This one is a two-fer! Since your carpet actually changes color after it's first shampooing in half a decade it's like getting new carpet! The other part is you don't have to go to the gym, it's a GREAT workout.

As an extra bonus you sleep well afterwards too!

Step one, move all the furniture to "The boy's" former room... A few notes here on furniture moving…

If you all are not familiar with Freecycle it's a great program where basically you list anything that may have *some* value even though you do not want it anymore and before you throw it away you list it and maybe someone else wants it and can use it. Then they come pick it up.

Basically it’s like an internet garage sale where instead of selling the bike for a dollar you just give it away free and you don’t have to put signs up all over then stand in the front yard all weekend. :)

So, I was a Freecycle maniac on my break! I listed over a dozen items that otherwise were going to the dump and people came and picked up all but one item. (Sadly that one item was the one I most wanted to keep out of the dump but say la vie)

So I did not move ALL the furniture! :)

Then this is the point where a little surprise entered the old game plan...

All this massive cleaning and remodeling was based on the concept that this was my house now. No one else to mess it up while I was gone so all of this effort was going to be worth it. This is when I hear those words that will make any father's heart sag, "Dad, would it be OK if I moved back in?"

Ugh! After all this work, NOW he wants to move back in!? Sigh.

Well, I can’t say no so after a LONG hard talk about how this house will REMAIN clean and not revert to the state I found it in we agreed that he would be my maid in exchange for rent. The job started immediately!

Clean those carpets boy-o! lol! Some guys my age have much cuter maids with far less facial hair. I need to work on that.



Oh yeah- those curtains are next are the "gone list". I never liked them and they will not last much longer. (BTW- that was a HUGE fight back in the day- "Maroon valances with off white curtains????? Are they slipping crack into your coffee or what?" he asked ever so lovingly )

I would also point out to all my northern friends that this picture was taken in January and if you will look past the "so-ugly-they-should-be-crimes-against-humanity" curtains you will notice the windows are open and we were in shorts and barefooted! It was in the 80's that day.

After the carpets were done I tackled all the shrubbery. Due to neglect on my part many of the shrubs were so overgrown I actually broke out the chain saw and trimmed them way back so they can grow out properly again. They look really horrible now but when they grow back out it will be worth it.

Even after all my fevered freelisting I ended up taking two truckloads of crap to the dump! I do mean CRAP. The majority of this stuff should have gone into the trash can a little at a time over the last decade but I was dealing with a horder/pack rack rat type personality.

I swear I could feel the foundation of the house quiver a bit as the loading was removed and it reached a new equilibrium!

And yeah, if you can take the excitement there will be a part III! :(