Memories in the Making: The highlight reel

Sweet, sweet mercy. No worries, I simply washed her off and put her in her bed for a nice nap while I spent the next few hours cleaning. I didn't have anything else to be doing...

Got IT!

As I woke up this morning with the bottoms of my feet feeling raw and dry.. I felt inspired for a blog post. You just never know when the mood will strike I guess. Who knew that a gallon of vinegar, a large box of baking soda, and a bottle of hydrogen peroxide could be such fun? Yesterday my old neighbor, Tina, came out to visit our new home. She brought along her Hoover DEEP carpet cleaner, a 10 foot ladder, and her cleaning supplies. She asked if her hours of labor were better than a pan of "welcome to your new home brownies"? YES, anyday... yes. Which is saying a lot because I LOVE brownies. Tina offered her help at just the right time. Over the past few days I had dealt with a 'helpful' toddler who decided to paint the kitchen, a neighbor dog who joyously discovered our pool, pee filled carpet, and hours upon hours upon hours of work. Cleaning, painting, and cleaning. Tina was dying to tackle what we lovely refer to as 'the murder scene' in our bedroom. The previous homeowner told us the washer had overflowed there, and she spilled a bottle of laundry detergent on the floor. They are a sweet couple and I am positive she would not lie… but saying that there was a murder scene seemed a much more exciting way to explain the gargantous stain that sat on our bedroom floor. Low and behold the carpet cleaner seemed to actually REMOVE it! With renewed invigor I decided to tackle the PEE room. We are pretty sure that Jack is sleeping in a room with about 55 pee stains. We did put down a lovely rug to hide them.. but you could still smell them. After running over the whole room with vinegar.. we now had a toxic smell of urine doused in vinegar. If you have never smelled this… it is NOT good. Tina then informed me that if I dump a box of baking soda and a bottle of hydrogen peroxide on the floor that the chemical reaction would kill the bacteria and smell of the urine. (This was either her being very helpful, or playing a cruel practical joke. The verdict is still out.) As of last night, his room had become a dangerous place. A place where crime scene tape and some respirators may have been deemed necessary.

Jack's room BEFORE the carpet cleaner

Clearly, new carpet is still high on the priority list, but attempting to clean the carpet to get a few months or longer out of it seemed like a valid effort. Meanwhile, next time I will not do all this while barefoot. My intelligent mind thought "it's just vinegar and baking soda.. no weird chemicals." My feet beg to differ.
Meanwhile, while I was slow- motion sweeping the carpet cleaner back and forth… magic was happening in the living room. Tina, being her intelligent self, decided to take a more aggressive and chemical approach to the living room wallpaper. She stopped at the wonderful Home Depot, and bought a scourer and some blue gel wallpaper removal spray. She hopped up on her ladder, scoured away and sprayed with the blue gel (which did NOT run down the wall Sue, Mom, Ron, and Nicole!!? It was thick and just stuck to the wallpaper seeping in the through the thousands of tiny holes created by the scourer). Tina then patiently sat back for 15 minutes and let the gel do the hard work (I know Nicole, is this infuriating you??) She then peeled the border in long strips (with most of the backing included). Tina pulled down the rest of the room in less time than it took 3 of us to peel the other half. Seriously AMAZED. How do you thank someone for that??? Tina again managed to give me just the boost I needed, enough of a lift to make me think that this house will soon become that dream home...