shawna

My sister and I got offered a side job by her boss cleaning a rental house and preparing it for new occupants.

This house has been vacant since December because no one has wanted to clean it, and upon first inspection, I can see why now no one would want to clean it, but I don't think it would have been that bad, back in December.

So yesterday Shanna and I started in the 'primary bedroom'. All the walls were wood paneled, one wall was completely covered in shelving (you know, the kind with the little metal adjustable brackets), and it has a huge closet with above storage space.

There were cats in this room, and birds. The stench of urine was unimaginable (well, I guess it is imaginable, if you can think of what cat urine and bird shit mixed together would smell like after seven months).

The shelves all had to be taken out, washed, and put back up, the walls had to be scrubbed, the windows were growing mold (one had even been left open), but at least shanna and I didn't have to take out the flooring (that's someone else's job).

Three hours later, we had finished the room, and moved on. We decided (since we were losing light and had no electricity) to do what we could, so we ran around and picked up garbage laying around the house (including a lot of pet medicine, left over food stuffs, and a dead mouse). That took about an hour.

Today we go back to start scrubbing walls. Hopefully we'll have running water too, so we can wash the bathroom and start the kitchen *shudder*. The kitchen is going to be the worst part of the main floor.

Anyway, gotta go. My first job awaits.