Sunday. We got up at eight and got right into cleaning the house. So much still left to do. Paul was supposed to have left Cuba, Missouri around five this morning which would put him in Carrollton around two this afternoon. A lot to do between now and then.
Dominica was up first and doing some cleaning. My first task, once I was awake, was to run to Walmart and buy a replacement vacuum cleaner. I was taking our old one apart last night to see if I would be able to fix it and the short answer was, “no way”. The spinning brush unit was seized up, and the belt was broken. It’s a cheap Black and Decker and there is no way for us to get parts for it. And for as cheap as it was, getting parts for it would not make any sense, anyway.
Walmart was quick and easy. The Bissel that we wanted to get was on sale for $48. Picked that up and grabbed a dozen doughnuts (sorry, Do-Nuts, oh Texas) from Shipley’s around the corner on Josey and got back to the house.
Liesl was a very good helper today and swept much of the house. She loves to sweep.
Last night we had taken the fagots that we had gotten from Francesca that she had been using to decorate their old home for sale and we put them into the old built in plant pots that separate the living room from the dining room (the girls’ homeschool room) and they seem to work decently well, for now. You can see them in the picture of Liesl sweeping.
I assembled the vacuum and got the entire house vacuumed. The new vacuum is great and had to be emptied no less than a dozen times while making my way around the house. A bit excessive, but the house is so much nicer now. I vacuumed so much that in just what I did this morning I had to disassemble the vacuum, remove the brushes and spend a good twenty minutes cutting them free of hair and stuff. It was crazy.
In doing the cleaning around the house, Dominica managed to come up with three additional bags of clothes for donation that we took out to the Quest to store there. I met the owners of the house next door this morning as well. It’s apparently empty again, but it is being shown to potential renters actively, already. They had no idea that we owned this house and were actively living here again.
Today was a gorgeous day. Bright sun and nice weather outside. We had the windows open for most of the morning, but by around one it was so warm that I was just sweating like crazy and we had to switch over to air conditioning.
We finally got to a point that we felt that the house was “good enough” around three, which is good then that Paul went the wrong way and drove through Oklahoma City, and then hit traffic there. So he was hours late and got to us around four this afternoon.
We hung out for only about an hour before we all went to Los Lupes, our awesome local Mexican restaurant for some dinner. Dominica and I both got some really awesome fish tacos, they do them grilled with avocados, so they are pretty healthy, too. Liesl got popcorn shrimp and ate nearly everyone’s rice in addition to her shrimp. Luciana got a shrimp and calamari appetizer plate and liked it us, but could not finish all of it; we got to bring some home for her for tomorrow. Paul did steak fajitas and said that they were great.
We were all quite full when we finished our dinner. The girls both asked if we could come back and eat here. They have been here before, but it has been long enough ago that they do not remember it.
Tomorrow work begins on the girls’ bathroom. First the walls need to come down and we need to find out what is hiding behind the walls. We fear that there is going to be mold and really have no idea how there couldn’t be, given the amount of water that we know that was leaking in the shower over the past several years. Our hope is just that it is not black mold and not “that bad.” The walls, tile, floor, sink, everything is coming out except for the toilet, which is “good enough” and the tub. I really want to remove the tub and go to an all tile standing shower area that is more modern, but Dominica and the girls say that they want to keep the tub and, at least, that is cheaper and easier, so it will stay. But the tub in our master bath is definitely coming out when we redo that bathroom, I hate having a tub in there. This is our first serious work on the house here in Texas, other than putting in the office, but that was “new” construction (back around 2011) and not modifying what is already there.
After dinner we just visited and caught up in the living room. Paul’s sciatica is really bad after his long drive so spent much of the evening trying to control that. The girls were playing in our bedroom, watching shows, and would occasionally come running through the living room.
Got everyone to bed around eleven. Paul has the girls’ room. The girls officially have my back office, but just sleep with us anyway. So that is easy. They barely notice that Paul is even here.
Paul is staying this week and leaving sometime around Friday. He is heading back to Missouri to get his house onto the market and get another load of his stuff. Then he will be back in a few days.
So our spring cleaning is done. And Paul is moved in. And tomorrow begins the complete overhaul of our secondary bathroom. Exciting stuff.