I'm in.....
Well, here I am, for better or worse, in my new home.
I was told that the maintenance schedule included repairs, cleaning and painting.
Repairs? Well the broken taps over the laundry tub were replaced. The rusty hotplate is still there.
Paint? The replacement door has been painted and all other doors and window frames too.
We opened the windows immediately to let the paint smell out.
Cleaning? Well!! If this is what they call cleaning, I could teach them a thing or two. I signed the paperwork to say I was accepting an acceptably clean flat, while quietly resolving to scrub everything as soon as I was fully unpacked and settled.
There are cobwebs.
There is dust.
The top-of-wardrobe cupboard had a few seeds of the bird food variety and also dried bird droppings. UGH!
Apparently that's where the previous tenant kept his bird cages.
He also had a pet turtle. With that and the birds, that explains why the back porch is fully encosed with shade cloth, so they could fly and roam.
Now, I need that top-of-wardrobe space to store things like sheets and towels, because there is no linen cupboard. There is an under basin cupboard in the bathroom, but no room there for towels etc once I put my soaps etc there. Plus it smells of mould, so I'm leaving one of the doors oen to air it out.
I worked almost non-stop yesterday arranging things and unpacking boxes, trying to fit things in. There's a lot that won't fit and I'm going to have to declutter even more than I thought. All of the boxes stacked in the lounge, kitchen and bedroom have been emptied and flattened. Things have been stuffed in just anywhere, to be sorted at some later date.
I expected to be disoriented when I woke this morning, but no, I knew immediately where I was.
I got the electric hotplates working and fried my last egg for breakfast, made toast too, with the in-oven grill.
I won't be doing that again, it took forever to heat up. I'll have to resurrect the old toaster and hope it still works. The hotplates also take a long time to heat up and then take forever to cool down again. I'm going to really, really, miss having a gas stove.
Tomorrow, I'm going to make a start on unpacking the boxes stacked in the back porch. Quite a few of them have books, which I will put on the built in shallow shelves behind the bedroom door.
Somewhere in one of those boxes I'm hoping to find my I-pod dock, my iron and the middle sized saucepan.
And my street directory, the phone book, my stash of toothpaste and brushes, (enough to last me two years).
For now, though, I'm taking a break. Sitting here with my feet up, a hot water bottle against my back, tapping away at my keyboard.
I was told that the maintenance schedule included repairs, cleaning and painting.
Repairs? Well the broken taps over the laundry tub were replaced. The rusty hotplate is still there.
Paint? The replacement door has been painted and all other doors and window frames too.
We opened the windows immediately to let the paint smell out.
Cleaning? Well!! If this is what they call cleaning, I could teach them a thing or two. I signed the paperwork to say I was accepting an acceptably clean flat, while quietly resolving to scrub everything as soon as I was fully unpacked and settled.
There are cobwebs.
There is dust.
The top-of-wardrobe cupboard had a few seeds of the bird food variety and also dried bird droppings. UGH!
Apparently that's where the previous tenant kept his bird cages.
He also had a pet turtle. With that and the birds, that explains why the back porch is fully encosed with shade cloth, so they could fly and roam.
Now, I need that top-of-wardrobe space to store things like sheets and towels, because there is no linen cupboard. There is an under basin cupboard in the bathroom, but no room there for towels etc once I put my soaps etc there. Plus it smells of mould, so I'm leaving one of the doors oen to air it out.
I worked almost non-stop yesterday arranging things and unpacking boxes, trying to fit things in. There's a lot that won't fit and I'm going to have to declutter even more than I thought. All of the boxes stacked in the lounge, kitchen and bedroom have been emptied and flattened. Things have been stuffed in just anywhere, to be sorted at some later date.
I expected to be disoriented when I woke this morning, but no, I knew immediately where I was.
I got the electric hotplates working and fried my last egg for breakfast, made toast too, with the in-oven grill.
I won't be doing that again, it took forever to heat up. I'll have to resurrect the old toaster and hope it still works. The hotplates also take a long time to heat up and then take forever to cool down again. I'm going to really, really, miss having a gas stove.
Tomorrow, I'm going to make a start on unpacking the boxes stacked in the back porch. Quite a few of them have books, which I will put on the built in shallow shelves behind the bedroom door.
Somewhere in one of those boxes I'm hoping to find my I-pod dock, my iron and the middle sized saucepan.
And my street directory, the phone book, my stash of toothpaste and brushes, (enough to last me two years).
For now, though, I'm taking a break. Sitting here with my feet up, a hot water bottle against my back, tapping away at my keyboard.
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I am glad you made it.
ReplyDeleteTake care.
I hope you find homes for all your things! Will you be able to rip that cloth down on the porch so you can get the sunshine!?!? I hope so.
ReplyDeleteWe never once moved into a rental that was clean ... never .. It is SO aggravating. I hope you took pictures of everything that wasn't the way it was supposed to be.
ReplyDeleteOnce your books are in place you'll feel a little more like home. Onwards and upwards eh? Take care of that back.
Ah yes, the unpacking and the flattening of the boxes and the re-scrubbing of everything - the worst is behind you; now's the nicer stuff that helps you feel like it's home.
ReplyDeleteGlad you got there safely and before you know it, it will feel like home once you've finished the cleaning and unpacking :-).
ReplyDeleteGlad that you have made it. Sad that more cleaning is needed. Mybabyjohn/Delores is right - they never are. And usually there is a set of mismatched and chipped crockery in one of the kitchen cupboards.
ReplyDeleteRest as much as you can, and enjoy your new home.
glad you are in and almost settled.
ReplyDeleteoh you must be exhausted, and Kath has just been through it too.
ReplyDelete'I expected to be disoriented when I woke this morning, but no, I knew immediately where I was.'
oh yes indeed, I wake and wonder where I am every day. This is about bed number 12 for the year, with 5 more house-sits to go.
If its a rental, please do keep an exercise book record of Every Darn Thing, right from the start. every detail. this will be your insurance against needing to access any of it.
yrs truly, Experienced At Tenancy Tribunal.
A Farmer's Wife; I'm glad the move is over. I'm also glad I took a week off work to get settled.
ReplyDeleteJennifer Kay; I've got two big boxes of stuff for Goodwill now. The shadecloth isn't on the sunny side of the flat and the back porch faces the flats immediately behind me, so I'll be leaving the shadecloth in place for a bit of privacy.
Delores; when we moved repeatedly courtesy of the Australian Army, we ALWAYS moved into clean rentals. Since then, most places I've rented have been grubby, but not so bad they aren't liveable.
Kath Lockett; boxes unpacked and flattened, most things stashed away.
I had to spend a couple of hours scraping and scrubbing bird residue from the wardrobe before I could hang my clothes, so I did that first thing while I was still feeling rested.
Windsmoke; it already feels like home. I'm clever like that, I'm comfortable anywhere as long as my things are around me.
EC; I've scrubbed the worst of the grime away, the rest will be taken care of with my regular weekly schedule. For instance when I was finally able to sweep the floors today, I also swept away cobwebs and birdseed.
peskypixies; there's nothing like having familiar things to look at to make a place feel like home.
Ann O'Dyne; I kept at it all day, because I knew if I stopped to rest I wouldn't want to start up again. Well, I'd want to but my back would say a very firm NO.
I like that exercise book idea. But I don't think I'll need it. There's nothing broken here, it's just a matter of the cleaning not being to my personal standard. Plus the mess in the top-of-wardrobe, I wish I'd thought to check up there. I did take a couple of photos of that. Yes, it's a rental.
end of tenancy cleaning Throw away all commercial chemical-based cleaning detergents that are polluting the air in your home. Apply some amount of the white powder to a damp sponge and you are ready to clean the bathtubs, sinks and other bathroom fixtures. Backing soda is also a wonderful odor neutralizer, it will help you to kill all unpleasant smells, that are bothering you. To get rid of more stubborn stains you can use a paste, prepared form backing soda and vinegar, let the mixture to sit over the stains for at least twenty minutes and clean thoroughly. post tenancy cleaning
ReplyDelete