Gak!

We picked up the keys at 10:30 and hung around the house for a bit checking things out. (Will Christian's loft bed fit in his room? - no. Do the bedrooms have overhead lighting? - yes.) The lawn guys were there, so we decided to wait a bit before we took stuff over to give them time to finish.

We waited three hours. It turns out that the landlord owns three houses in a row and ours is the middle one so they parked in our driveway. We parked in the driveway of the empty house next door... and then Christian noticed things in the back yard. Turns out? He rented the place sometime in those three hours and the people were already moving in. Ok, I know he didn't rent it in those three hours because believe me, this guy went over our credit report and references with a fine tooth comb, and as everyone knows, fine tooth combing takes three days, minimum.

So Marty and I run to the store for more cleaning supplies and while we were gone the new neighbors came home. I am sure they wouldn't want us parking in their driveway, so we circled the neighborhood. Lawn guys still there. Circled again. Still there. Four circles later, they were gone.

Marty and Ethan headed back to the apartment to pick up boxes while Alex, Christian and I stayed to clean. We got everything done except for the hardwood floors, basement floors and the basement bathroom. I am not sure who is going to clean that bathroom, but it isn't going to be me. The upstairs bathroom took me 2 1/2 hours. No, I am not kidding.

The upstairs bathroom has these lovely (gak!) pink tiles half way up the wall. I am willing to be that they haven't been cleaned in a year - or more. One bottle of cleaner later, and they were done. I still need to do the grout, though. Want a quick tip for dirty grout? Paint it. Yup. Just mix your paint with water (2/3 paint, 1/3 water), use a foam brush and run a quick line of paint over the grout. If the grout was sealed (which I doubt or you wouldn't need to repaint it) just sand it lightly. I can not even begin to tell you what a difference painting the grout makes.

Marty is going to head back over there tonight after work with a mop bucket and giant mop. Once the hardwood floors are clean we can start really moving things in. Let's just hope that he doesn't run into the carpet cleaners that are there sometime today.

Turns out? The previous renters? Chimneys. Yuk.