Monday, May 19, 2008

Weekend Nesting

Last week Linden announced, "I think we need to keep the house a little cleaner." I attribute this to the nesting instinct that comes naturally when there is a little crawling beastie on the way.
We had a long list of To Do's this weekend, and I started in on Saturday morning with a vengeance. Unfortunately, my first project of "mop the kitchen" quickly snowballed into something else entirely.

Have you ever noticed that old houses tend to accumulate a fair amount of grime? Once I noticed the kitchen cabinets it was impossible to look away. Our kitchen countertops have got to be close to 50 years old, and they are edged in wood that eventually became coated in a black, sticky film. After 5 years of cooking and eating on our counters, I finally noticed. And then I freaked out.

I began by scraping, then washing, and eventually cleared out the kitchen and resorted to full-blown power sanding any woodwork that wasn't sparkling. Once this was accomplished, I was forced to re-caulk the tile edges, the sinks, and the backsplash. Finally, sometime on Sunday, I swept and mopped the floors.
This is the outfit I wore most of the weekend. One, it was very very warm outside. But two, as I warned the neighbors, I may be dressed in running shorts and flip-flops for the next six months. I call it my fatherhood outfit - my Stay At Home Dad outfit.
I think I could get used to this job. After all, I know I have good instincts. I start by keeping the place VERY VERY CLEAN.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

I always wondered how to get rid of that grim. Nice work, Ben. Of course, once you have a child, you will never have the time or energy to attempt that level of cleaning.