Thursday, July 23, 2015

878

I finished cleaning my blinds today.  Wooden slats. 878 of them.  All slats were cleaned first with a dust cloth ...

    Dust cloth after cleaning one set of 34 slats

... then wiped down with a cloth dampened with warm water.  878 slats x 2 = 1756 slats.  

A set of 102 slats in the living room, 76 slats in the kitchen, & 76 slats in my craft room had to be vigorously wiped down a third time because of them being sprayed with what looked like tomato paste & maybe cake batter.  I'm hoping it was cake batter.  Thick, dirty, clearish white crud as shown in the photo below.
If you're good at math, you now know that I basically cleaned a total of 2010 slats.  Sadly I do not have an extension ladder.  Who knows what I would have found on these slats.  Then again, maybe it's best I don't know.
At least the slats I come in contact with every day are cleaned.  Stained in many cases (couldn't get the brown stains out even with SoftScrub with Bleach), but clean.  

On the plumbing side of things, the plumbers came today & installed my new faucet!  They explained to me that it is an odd facet & thus not one carried in stock at places like Lowes.  The boss had to order it directly from Kohler.  It's a lovely silvery thing that doesn't leak or drip.  I was able to reclean the underneath sink cabinet, put in new shelf paper, put all my cleaning supplies down there, & wash off the countertops.  Cooking & dish washing won't be far behind   : )

Wednesday, July 22, 2015

Our Storage Unit Neighbor

As I think I mentioned in my last post, John & I ended up having to rent three storage units prior to our move.  We still have two of them ... one near our old home & one near our new one.  You can imagine my surprise when one of the storage units assigned to us was right next door to satan's storage unit!

Do you notice anything interesting about satan's storage unit?
Look closely.
Yep!  Two locks!  That satan ... he doesn't trust anybody!

We are still settling in.  This will take a while. Things are slowly coming together though.  My most important "wish" right now is for our kitchen sink faucet to be replaced.  I cannot put my cleaning supplies in the cabinet under the sink until it is replaced, nor do dishes.  This means my cleaning supplies are all over the counter & I can't cook. We have been going out to eat every day for the past 3 weeks, which is okay, but it doesn't beat home cooked food.  The plumbers came on Monday but were unable to fix the faucet, so they need to bring me a new one.  I don't know what the hold up is ... you go to the store & buy one, right?  But apparently I know nothing about plumbing.

No crafting yet, but hopefully soon   : )  

Monday, July 13, 2015

Alive and Semi-Well in Lexington, KY

I am finally getting the chance to write a post after our extremely stressful move after the sale of our home.  I once again want to thank everyone who prayed for me & offered suggestions regarding nice places to live.

Apparently God did not want us to leave Kentucky!  We looked for a nice rental in 12+ different states, traveling to 3 of them more than once during our search.  We had been misled in one way or another with every home we viewed, & our closing date kept getting closer & closer.  I knew that God had something in mind for us, but Kentucky???  Really???  I had to laugh, but I am also giving Him much praise & thanks.  He blessed us with a beautiful townhome in Lexington which is about an hour north of The Devil's Playground.  It is a very nice area, & we actually have friendly neighbors!  I mean, it's unreal!  Two couples who live here have already come over to introduce themselves & welcome us to the street, & whenever we are walking in the area & pass by someone ... or we're sitting out in front of the townhome taking a bit of a break & someone passes by ... they actually say hello!  Sometimes they even add a sentence or two about the weather or some such thing!  I feel as if I have stepped through the looking glass & found myself in Home Town America or something!  We are within walking distance of various stores & restaurants, but our townhome is on a quiet, tree-lined street which is only traveled by the people who live here.  There is also a nice walking trail nearby.  I have two doctors here who are very attentive & I was saddened about having to leave their care, but now I can keep them ... at least for another year   : )

Living in the townhome is a bit of a challenge.  The kitchen cabinets & drawers are very small, so I have had to decide what things are absolutely necessary for daily life, unpack them, & keep the other things packed.  John & I are still moving things in, taking stock, & moving things out again into one of three storage units ... all of which are still filled to some capacity.  We will keep one to house the things we can't or won't be using while living here.  We ended up making a total of 6 trips to these storage units in a good sized U-Haul ... 5 of those trips in one weekend!  After closing I was feeling as if I had literally aged about 10 years.  It is only now that I am feeling somewhat back to my old self.

Although the townhome is beautiful, it was not well taken care of by the previous tenants.  They had been the only tenants & had moved in 4 years ago when the townhome was brand new.  I do not understand how two mature adults could be so thoughtless about the property of someone else.  Our landlord did not think it was necessary to repaint despite the fact that there is a multitude of damage & marks on the walls & woodwork.  I have been going around with a Magic Eraser to try to get at least some of the marks off.  She said she had the carpets cleaned, but they do not smell clean, & the nap is still smooshed down where the prior tenants' furniture had been, so I question if she had them cleaned or not.  I'm guessing it's the latter.  She also told us that she hired professional cleaners, but I have had to clean everything.  In some cases this has been pretty yucky work.  There are plumbing problems which she needs to address, broken refrigerator trays, & a few other things ... but all in all, it is a lovely home in a safe, friendly area & we are very, very blessed to be here. Thank you Lord!!!

During our moving experience, I was bitten 4 separate times by 4 separate spiders.  I do not like spiders.  Just typing the word makes me shudder.  I did not see them when they bit me so I have no idea what kind they were, but I know they were nasty because the redness & soreness & itching lasted a long time.  One bite was on the inside of my left thigh, & another on the front of that same thigh.  One was on my left waist, & the last one in the middle of my back.  I still have scars/scabs remaining from 3 of them.  The one on the front off my left thigh was/is really weird. The redness & swelling spread around the bite as big as my hand, & the left side of my thigh became somewhat numb.  I still have some numbness there. Ugh.  John told me numerous times that I should make a doctor appointment, but I didn't have the time to spare.

I have not been able to do any knitting or stitching of any kind for the past week or so.  I had been working on a shawl & had reached the border which was a simple k2,p2 pattern.  I was able to do this with just the ceiling light.  I have now reached the point where I need to do a bind off I have never done before, & without my Daylight magnifying lamp, this is impossible.  I have a lamp, but nowhere to attach it right now.  I ordered a floor stand for it before we moved here, but it arrived poorly packaged & damaged. Later this week we are having some furniture delivered including an end table which is crafted perfectly for my light   : )

And speaking of furniture, I think I may have mentioned in a pre-move post that the buyers of our home wanted to purchase most of our furniture, & we let them.  Sadly, we have been having to sleep on the floor ... the questionably cleaned carpeted floor ... for the past two weeks. I have been so tired by the end of the day that I could probably sleep on a bed of nails, but you should see me trying to get up in the mornings! I'm kind of like the "I've fallen & I can't get up" lady from the TV commercials years ago.  We purchased a mattress set last week but it was damaged when it was delivered.  We are now awaiting a new shipment to come to the store & they will then supply us with a new set.  I'm hoping it's sooner rather than later   : )

I guess that's all I have to say for now.  My thanks to those of you who have emailed me wondering if I am okay.  I am ... barely ... lol!  I know I will be doing better once we are more settled in.  I have to admit that I am sadly having thoughts as I'm unpacking that run along the lines of "In 10 more months I will be packing again!"  Hopefully things will be less stressful then   : )