Guys. I couldn't do it. No amount of cleaning could make that kitchen acceptable to me. It needed a proper remodel, but for the long list of other things that had to be done, we decided to settle for a cosmetic upgrade.
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| The "before". |
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If you looked at the kitchen from far enough away, say, the moon--it wouldn't look SO bad. But upon close inspection of the cupboards and inside the drawers, it was caked in gunk. The hair stood up on my arms. "Bad things have happened here," whispered the spirits of the house.
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| Gross. |
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| Do I have to touch it to take it out? |
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I began taking a change of clothes to work with me each day so that I could go directly to the house in the late afternoon to spend three or four hours on the kitchen. I could see my breath while working in the cold house. I wore layers of clothes and an over-sized hoodie. The heat would be turned on soon, but not until the furnace had been serviced and the ducts cleaned. Little thought went into order of operations. I tore off cupboard doors and dumped chemical stripper on whatever I could find. I traveled back in time and removed the recent white, the prior yellow, the bold red, and the original green.
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| Goin' wild. |
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| So much surface area! |
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I know that was really hard for you, especially in light of the fact that you're a "clean counter" person. Again, though, when it's someone else's gunk it's hard to deal with it. You probably wore gloves -- and kept your goals in mind.
ReplyDeleteYes, I am sure I wore gloves--and probably a mask, too.
DeleteAha! I received email notice of your post. It works!
ReplyDeleteI cannot handle a messy kitchen! And someone else's gunk? Yikes. Ugh. You were very brave!! (I know you had no choice, well except for a bomb, but you *were* very brave!)
ReplyDelete