Cleaning House

Basically the minute we had keys to the house, we started working on it.

We did a ton of cleaning. Sweeping the floors, dusting, and scrubbing the kitchen and bathroom. The fridge was pretty gross, there was mold in the freezer and spills in the fridge. But we sprayed it all down with some pretty heavy duty cleaner, and it looks like a brand new fridge. It is in perfect condition, and is a nice model. We also scrubbed down the stove. It's a gas stove and I am so happy to have it. It also looks about a million times better after a good scrubbing. I used oven cleaner for the first time, and I was really amazed at how well it worked. I never felt the motivation to scrub out an oven in a rental house/apartment, but it's amazing how much more motivated I am now that it's all OURS. The dishwasher looks almost brand new, and didn't really need much done to it except for a quick cycle run through it and the outside wiped down. The vented microwave is 14 years old however. It does work. But it's very small and sort of ugly. If we find a fabulously good deal on one, we may replace it, but in the meantime it works well and we got it cleaned up nicely.

The garbage disposal wasn't working, but Anthony took it apart and it works fabulously now. We hadn't planned on replacing the kitchen sink faucet yet, but it was dripping and leaking, so we went to Menards (where Anthony used to work) and talked someone into selling us an almost 300 dollar Delta faucet that is no longer in stock for 50 dollars. It's really really nice. He also had to replace the pipe to the dishwasher since the people who installed it before did a terrible job and did it all wrong. Something made him curious about how it was installed so he took it out, and discovered what could have led to a serious serious leak if we had bumped into it hard. But it's all fixed now and installed properly, so we shouldn't have to worry about it in the future. We also got and installed a dining room fixture (there is no lighting at ALL in the living room and dining room, so we decided to get one earlier than originally planned). We also got and installed a digital thermometer. Oh, and we got a remote for the garage door opener. Which came in handy this weekend since it was so cold.

One of the first things we did was to rip down the shower doors, which were disgusting and ugly.
We also got a price for a new shower surround (around 50 dollars for a nice quality but basic model), and decided that we will replace it instead of attempting to scrape out all of the nasty old caulk. The tub is in MUCH better condition than I thought it would be. We poured a bottle and a half of CLR in it, and it worked wonders. The bathtub had a nasty black film on it, and it looked like it had been scraped and the enamel was worn away. But we were wrong. No major scratches, and it's gleaming white. The toilet was also very very stained with mineral buildup, but we used more CLR and it's perfect looking too. We also replaced the toilet seat because it was disgusting. And for 5 dollars, a brand new toilet seat is COMPLETLEY worth it. We're going to get a curved shower curtain rod to give us more space, and we already have an extra long shower curtain, so I think we'll hang it higher than normal, since Anthony is rather tall.