So I got up today at a leisurely 6:30 and began to face my list of tasks. My work was going to be hampered somewhat because I couldn't completely re-arrange the kitchen until after R had gotten up, had breakfast, and left for work, and I couldn't get started in the basement because "Someone" is coming to give me an estimate on the kitchen floor, and I wouldn't hear the doorbell ring down there.I changed the handles on all the kitchen cabinets (I only had six more to do, and there are only 10 altogether) and finally got my stovetop to look decent.
Ad placement #1: I had seen some oven cleaner on TV, so I got it - Ezy Off Fume Free - and I used it on the burner trays. That and my new favorite friend, the Mr Cleen Magic Sponge, did the job. Score. I didn't worry about using it outide (which is good, because the porch is buried in snow), and since I didn't have to care about my kitchen sink anymore, I just put down papers and sprayed it in there. I'm not going to scrub the sink, either, because by this time tomorrow I will have a shiny new sink to abuse.
Here's a predicament. You know how we all are about not wanting our houses to look all yucky when people come over, even if it's only our kids' teenage friends and such. Well. The guy who's coming to replace my sink and countertop tomorrow is a young teacher in my school, very nice guy, did construction for years to work his way through college. Very capable, nice young man, recently married last summer. Now it so happens that his mother-in-law is also a teacher in my school, and lives here in town. And she is the busiest busy body ever. So am I here like a fool, cleaning my house so that the guy installing my new sink doesn't think it's a pit? Oh yes, I am indeed. Not that it would matter to him -- he's still a guy, after all -- but the last thing I need is an idle comment passed on to his MIL and then she's telling the world, soto voce, "You know, D was in Chai's house, and he said it was just filthy." Even if he didn't say that, she's all about the embellishment. And I know she would, too, because she's told me things like that about others before I could get away from her. The funny thing is, there is no mean spirit in her, she just believes that this is appropriate social behavior. She needs the world to think that she's the ONE who knows everything.
Ad placement #2: I read in Woman's Day or somewhere that you should use dryer sheets to clean your shower doors. Now, I have never found anything that really cleaned shower doors, not without hours and hours of work, no matter what it says on the product label. But I plucked a used Bownce sheet off a load of clean laundry and sprayed some Kabooom on it -- yes, I' a terrible sucker for cleaning products; I just can't ever get over the fact that they require effort on my part to work -- and voila, man! I got me some clean shower doors.
(Did I not promise yesterday that I would review cleaning products? And so I have.)
Ad placement #3: And now, my promised response to media advertising.
This week I am re-doing my kitchen without re-doing it. Door handles, sink, countertop. So I figured, why not? Maybe I can replace the horrid floor. How can I do this fast, and hopefully, cheap? How will I ever find someone who does kitchen floors fast?
Oh wait. I live east of Chicago and I've watched television once or twice in the last 30 years. So there's that 1-800 etc. jingle that's on so continuously that the cats can sing it. You know, the obnoxious commercials, the guy with the little neat moustache who dresses up for the holidays and says call Empyre... Today! So I called. Yes, I'm a sucker for a commerical that's so repetitive I could use it for a mantra. The guy on the phone, when I was setting up the appointment for the estimate, actually said "And how did you hear about us?" I did in fact say, "Are you kidding?" and he laughed.
So the estimator was just here and left and they are replacing the floor on Friday. The current vinyl tile floor was installed by me personally, more years ago than I would like to count. I think I got it because it was a "no wax" floor. Now that was silly, because I was never going to wax a floor in this life, regardless of whether or not it needed it, and who even waxes floors these days? What I should have asked back then was if it was scratch resistant, because it's not, and every time I sit down at the table, the chair scratches the floor and dirt gets in there and it never comes out. And in less than a week I will never have to see it again.
Of course, my kitchen walls are still covered in big laminated sheets (must have been a fifties look) and it's staying there until that time comes when we are ready to gut the kitchen and start over. Which may never happen.
Okay, I'm off to the supermarket and then to tackle the basement. Gotta clear paths for the worker folk to get to stuff, like the water shut off and electric meter. A woman's work is never done.
