Cleaning Crew

I have never been happier to sit down, and I'm fairly certain my mom is going to sue me if she doesn't disown me first.

My parents came down today to "check out the house." I warned them there might be some light housework involved with their visit, which they happily obliged to. Bless their hearts; they showed up with a basket of Halloween goodies and a kick-ass regulation bocce ball set for us. Awesome, right? But little did they know that 10 minutes after their arrival I would have them arm deep in buckets of soapy water forcing them to clean out the kitchen cabinets.

Long story short, the previous owners left the house a little...messy. The whole place needs a good wipe down and a coat of paint. Nothing we can't handle, but we takes free labor where we can gets it. The kitchen was the project of the day, and Mom quickly got to work. Mike started swapping out our locks and Dad made himself look busy. Still not sure what he did all day.

That's pretty much how the day went. Lots of laughs, and a few groans of disgusts (have you ever actually looked at your refrigerator shelves? Disgusting.) We're a little concerned about the upraising of the previous owner's children because we found food smeared on the wall of a small closet, a doorknob that locks from the outside and a random tooth in a kitchen cabinet. Suspicious?

A few highlights:

--We finally ripped the "For Sale" sign off the lawn. As Mike observed, "It's trespassing now." A few hours later, the realtor showed up looking for her sign. Woops.

--The doorbell rang later in the day and it was a man who introduced himself as "the previous owner." He congratulated us, and then asked us to hold onto his mail in a bag until it stopped being delivered to the house---he would be by to pick it up once a week. Yeah, see if we do that.

--Another neighbor waved at us!

--I hung my Halloween flag up. Better let the neighborhood know now how festive this girl can get. I can't be any worse than the gypsy around the corner.

As we were finishing up, my mom was closing the windows. She wasn't aware that they open up AND out...and one crashed down on her head. She asked if we have good homeowner's insurance; is that a bad sign?

My parents left broken and beaten, but they were a massive help to us. Now that the kitchen is cleaned up, we can move onto the other rooms and start painting.

And sorry, no pictures this post. I didn't think any of you would want to be scarred by the images we saw today. I'm telling you, go check out your refrigerator shelves...