Goings-On

Phew.

Since we settled on the new house, things have been flying. Most of them have been dirt.

This new house of ours is the filthiest thing I have ever had the misfortune to clean. I can't imagine how these people actually lived here and didn't get sick! I know it was a single guy, and his kids half the time, and it's been empty for the past six months or so, but STILL. We're talking scary, crusted, sticky, cat-haired grime here. From the looks of it, they must have really liked soda, because that's the only thing that can get that sticky and bead all over the place like that, and it's all over the pantry, kitchen, and dining room. What did they do, have shake-n-pop parties with the cans?! I'm not kidding; it's everywhere. The fridge was full of it, and after six months of sitting, was nearly impossible to get off. Even more gross, the cabinet doors are so filthy I had to resort to scraping the edges of the doors with my fingernail after scrubbing with a windex-soaked paper towel (Windex cleans marvelously, but it removes paint, so don't use it unless you're planning to paint, which we are). Great Green Globs of Greasy, Grimy Gopher Guts are all over the bottoms of the cabinet doors, and somewhere along the line they mated with the cat, because I would swear that there are entire kittens stuck to the base cabinet doors. UGH.

Interestingly, I met the ex-wife of the seller, Judy, yesterday afternoon. She wasn't what I expected at all; tall, thin, kind of crunchy, and very sporty looking. She was talking to a neighbor, and when I went out to introduce myself to the people standing outside talking to my kids, it turned out that one of them was her. She was very friendly, and I liked her. Also, she solved the mystery of the gross grey kitchen for me! On the kitchen wall there was a framed piece of what had looked like wallpaper that had grey and pink flowers on it; we had assumed that it was a piece of paper that had been original to the house and that over the years people had kept it as a piece of history. It turns out that it was actually a piece of flooring from her grandfather's house in Czechloslovakia! So, she asked if she could take it, and then laughed when I was so enthusiastic for it to go (that was before I knew why she wanted it). At least it's not their fault they had bad taste - it was apparently inherited.

I also met Judy's new husband, and I heard at our settlement on Friday that she has other little kids, so I'm thinking that she's the one who initiated the divorce, since she's married and he's not. For it to have been that nasty, something had to have happened. I'll keep you posted as I hear the goods.

DH is, unfortunately, sick. It started yesterday with a little wooziness, and progressed on to being a fever and bad headache. He came home and laid down, and has been pretty much in bed ever since. I do feel bad for him, because it's obvious that he's actually sick this time (as opposed to other times he's laid around whining). However, this leaves me to clean and paint the new house, tidy this one so it can be packed, and do everything in between. One small stroke of luck was that I was able to leave Patrick here playing video games and watching TV with DH laying on the couch while I went and did more work on the other house. I've put two coats on the cabinets so far, and it's going to take yet another to completely cover that awful, rotted-meat grey and putrid pink. Blecch.

In other news, some local firefighters came last night and picked up one of our old couches, our huge TV cabinet, and our old TV, so the living room is very big looking! DH set up the new flat-screen in the living room this afternoon in a fit of feeling-better-ness, and it's pretty darn cool! I'm psyched to break out The Matrix and watch it on the big screen!!!!!! That is, when I find the time to sit down. :)