Day 13: House of Cleanliness

There comes a time when you've got to just fork over the money and pay someone else to do your work for you. That day was today - we hired a professional cleaning crew to go over the kitchen, bathrooms, and the basement carpet. Unfortunately, the carpet cleaner broke (!) while in the basement, but the rest of the grease and grime is gone.

Painters cost a little too much, though, so back to work. It's Wednesday, so that means Lea had the house to herself all afternoon and evening while I worked the late shift. She did the master bedroom closet (yay)...



... and most of the master bath.



One of the most horrendous ordeals we're going to experience began today. Today we began work on the

Baseboards of Despair

All through the house, the baseboards are the same "renter's beige" the walls were, and in every single room and every doorframe the old paint is peeling up. Is it bad? Yes:



Step 1: Sand off all the loose spots where the paint is peeling up.

Step 2: Paint them.

Step 3: Paint them again.

Before work, I spent a while this morning on my hands and knees sanding down a couple of the rooms. This evening Lea went ahead and painted the first coat on the baseboards in the hobby room. It took her about two hours. Here it is:



It takes so long because its fine, detailed up-close work done with care, precision, and very small brushes. Also, its hard to keep the extra-springy (yet strangely abrasive) carpet from bouncing back up and hitting the baseboards after you paint them. We don't give a damn about the carpet, but we don't want the paint messed up.

There's other painting to be done, and other chores to accomplish before we move in, but the baseboards are the last big mountain to climb. The baseboards are our Everest.

The baseboards suck ass.