The last three days, we spent cleaning our apartment. I am talking about “serious cleaning”. The apartment has been “ours” again since Sunday, our temporary roommate moved out and we felt the need to rearrange some furniture [we have a living room now!] and really clean this place up and make it “livable”.
It took us two days.
You know, I come from an area in Germany where a lot of “open mining” is done, so I am used to some “dirt” in the air and windows get dirty quickly – but let me tell you, Los Angeles can easily compete. Our window sills are always! dirty… and don’t get me started on the windows themselves. After I cleaned the windows from the inside on Monday, I took a step back and asked J ‘does that look remotely clean to you?’. He asked back if I had cleaned the windows already or if this was a joke.
Well, it wasn’t a joke. I thoroughly cleaned the windows from the inside, but since you can’t open American windows [just slide] and there is this screen in front of them, it was impossible for me to clean the windows from the outside and this is where most of the dirt is. My Mom will probably throw her hands up in horror when she sees that next week, but hey, it really isn’t my fault. I already called our landlord to ask if there was a window cleaning service for our apartment complex [I have yet to hear back] or if we have to hire someone ourselves. Seriously, I am really not fussy about dirty windows, but ours really need cleaning bad! And it took me at least 1,5 hours to clean each one of three venetian blinds, because I had to wash off each individual blind separately. This is a tedious job for the proverbial someone who killed mother and father!
We rearranged the furniture in the living room and now even have an expandable dining table with up to 6 chairs [right in front of the bay window :)]. This is something that I really wanted to set up before my family comes, so we can have dinners at our house and don’t have to try and fit 5 people around a much too small kitchen table.
our living room [click for more photos]
We cleaned the whole kitchen as well. I don’t know how thoroughly the apartment was cleaned before we moved in and/or how much time J spent cleaning up when he moved in, but there was a lot of dirt in the cabinets, on the shelfs. Just gross! Now it almost feels like I don’t want to use the kitchen anymore, because everything is clean and it will only become dirty again in no time!
Bathroom and bedroom were finished yesterday and today I did the laundry. Now it feels like we have a completely “new” place :)
Viviane
June 13, 2007 at 6:00 pmOh I really like the way your apartment looks (from the two pictures I have seen). :) Sounds like you had a lot of work cleaning the entire place, but I bet it was worth it!
Maren
June 13, 2007 at 8:20 pmYour place looks awesome, San. When can I come visit?
I’ll talk to you soon, still want to figure out this whole wordpress thing!
san
June 13, 2007 at 8:25 pmViviane… thank you. It was definitely worth it :)
Maren… Thanks! You can come visit anytime :) Oh yeah, I would love to help you with WordPress! Let me know.
Antje
June 13, 2007 at 11:05 pmHaving a big dining table is just great. Your “new” place looks very nice, now you’re all set for your family to visit. One more week!
We have problems with the windows, too. First of all it’s 13 of them, they are all doubles so it’s 26 of them actually and they have those bars that are cute to look at but make them so hard to clean. You can spend hours and they still don’t look good, I’ll try with spiritus next time.
Tanja
June 14, 2007 at 12:01 amTief einatmen und ein bisschen gute LA Luft inhallieren, was?! :-) Sean told me, that it should be very smoggy in the summer.
Only one week until your parents are going to come – huhuuu… :-) I am happy for you.
Greetz
kim
June 14, 2007 at 12:10 ami am SO glad you finally got your place back. it was about time – not just with your family coming and all… the room looks awesome and i can already imagine the looooong dinners there with your family, great food and maybe some wine… can’t wait to (maybe, hopefully!) see it in november! *smoochie*
Maribeth
June 14, 2007 at 4:43 amIt looks great! WHen does your family arrive again? I know it is soon.
ute
June 14, 2007 at 5:44 amyeah next time we will have a wonderful view while we are eating thai. hehe. awesome! glad you got some cleaning done and you have your place back. must feel good! :) i think you are the only person in the us who cleans windows. no one ever cleans windows in my house. i always think its foggy out, but its just the dirt on my window. hehe. love ya
ilka
June 14, 2007 at 8:55 amhi sweetie,
your place looks awesome and so light. i am sure you feel completely new having it for yourself again finally. and giving it a major clean up feels so good, right? i am sure you and your folks will have a great time there. not being able to clean the windows from the outside in the middle of a big city with geeze a lot of smog just sucks. people don’t seem to care much.
Sanna
June 14, 2007 at 10:32 amYay Sweetie! Everything looks great! Sometimes a throrough cleaning can really change the whole place. I should do that, too. ;-)
Well, time for my birthday dinner otherwise I’d check out the other pictures, too ;-). Later though….
Smoochie!
infineon
June 14, 2007 at 11:33 amyou do have the same futon as matt and i!! i like your living room area a lot, but i cant see any more pictures when i click on the photo, it tells me the pictures are private?! whats up with that?
san
June 14, 2007 at 11:41 amantje… thank you. and i know what you’re talking about regarding the windows ;)
tanja… ja, ich bin mal gespannt wie das hier im sommer wird. normalerweise ist die luft hier auf der westseite aber eigentlich ganz gut.
kim… can’t wait to have you :)
maribeth… there’s a counter in the sidebar. 7 days to go!
ute… i felt exactly the same way when i was cleaning the windows. nobody does it here!
ilka… thank you sweetie.
sanna… it does make a big difference, let me tell you.
steffi… try again. i added you as a friend.