Here comes the cavalry!

Happy Birthday, Mikey!

Happy Birthday, Tristan! Happy Birthday, Devon!

Howdy, everyone! I traveled, I saw, I became road weary. I want to say congratulations to the Bastrop Warriors, (my grandson, Christian, is #6), a fine bunch of 7 year-olds who have played an undefeated season of football and now go to the Super Bowl next Saturday. The best football an old grandma could ever want to watch, I'll tell ya! I was very impressed with the parents of those young players. Very spirited and supportive. Y'all rock! 

Well, the fun is over, and it is time to get back to the business at hand. I want to apologize right off, because I am typing this on Sunday morning, instead of last night when I should have. I got home and fell into bed after the day of working that was done. Let me tell you about it.

After feeding and watering everyone I got to work. Pulled the refrigerator out and cleaned behind it, which was not hard to do, as the refrigerator has wheels. Wheels! What will they think of next? It wasn't bad back there, just needed a good all over cleaning. I did kill a scorpion, so will have to remember to spray the bug spray back there. The floor is kind of mildewy looking near the back, and I wonder if there is a leak back there, so will have to keep an eye on it. It could just be leaking from the sink area right next to it. Remember it had leaked and was black. 

I was debating on whether to get the bleach water and start spraying this down when I heard the bugles. The cavalry had arrived. My sweet daughter had a rare day off and had come to help me! What a treat, not only for the help, but for the company, too. I stay at my daughter's while getting this place habitable but she stays so busy that I rarely get to visit with her. I'd like to introduce you to her. This is my daughter, Misty. Misty, this is everyone. 

She is so excited to be dancing with that broom!

When Misty walked in, this is what she saw. 

Would you have stayed?

I explained the mops were on the floor on purpose, soaking the spots off the floor. We discussed changing the doors over on the refrigerator. They open like this.

I think it would be more efficient if they opened from the right. Misty is refrigerator door-changing experienced, and gave me a tutorial on the matter. However, we did not get that chore done. Misty says I need a ree-ee ree-ee tool (another technical term, remember it) and we could not find one anywhere so that will have to go on the to-do list. I do happen to have a ree-ee ree-ee tool and a set of sockets to go with it, so will try to remember to bring them with me on another day. (Oh, the things you learn reading my blog, I swear!) 

My daughter is not shy when it comes to work, and she had a plan. I don't know that I could have even thought about moving some of the things she moved this day. I can clean and scrub all day long, but moving shelving and big benches would have done me in, I fear. With Misty there to help me, some major moving around got done! First she attacked the dark side of the kitchen. 

Packing, sorting, moving furniture. That woman is one of those white tornadoes we used to see on commercials...except she isn't bald and wearing a gold hoop earring! 

Ta-da! I still have the cleaning to do, and the floor will still take lots of time and patience, but I think we made loads of progress, don't you? 

Now, on to the next room. This will eventually be the den, but is the emptiest of the remaining rooms. I will move my things in here to start, then will work on one room at a time with the repairs and painting and doing things up right. Misty danced circles around me as we started emptying this room.The one thing we kept forgetting was to take 'before' shots. I do have the photos I took the first day, so will show you what my first look at this was. Since that day, the company has moved quite a bit of the boxes, jugs etc, out. We just had to deal odds and ends before getting to the furniture and fixtures. 

Notice the door? It leads out to the porch, which is where this bench went.

You can see a corner of that bench outside the window of the door.

These were racks they dried the soaps on. When Misty started clearing them out, most of the trays were already emptied. There are matching racks in another room, and the few trays that still held merchandise were moved into those racks. The shelving unit that had been in the kitchen was set up in that front room parallel to a shelving unit already in there. We folded one of these silver racks flat and laid it across the tops of both of those units to provide more storage space for light weight boxes still here (like packing peanuts). 

 This unit was fairly empty, but we had to get it out of the corner, which ended up being quite an adventure. See that upper corner near the stairway? It was wedged behind the stairs. Misty got under the stairs and lifted them enough for me to pull the shelves out. (Which was way quicker than my plan which involved disassembling the shelving unit.) I don't think I hit her in the head but twice or four times, poor thang!

This will be my closet while I stay in this room. (There are no closets in this house. They didn't invent closets until the 60's, when us hippies thought up all the good ideas. What? You don't believe me?) 

Here is the plan. We are going to take a smaller shelving unit from another room and put it in the corner farthest from the stairs, then put a clothes pole between the shelves and the steps. 

There! Now I just have to measure to see how long a pole I need and we will have a closet! The clothing will be the 'curtain' that hides whatever junk I end up throwing in there. 

And we have this room as done as we can get it today. I will need an electric drill to remove some wall brackets. Of course, there is lots to be cleaned, also. However, I have muscles and will-power with me today, so we are not bogging down in cleaning spots. 

We moved to the back room on the other side of the house. I haven't shown that room yet. It has been the least emptied since I first saw it, so it still looked much the same as in the first pictures.

This is the shelving unit we put in the 'closet'. All the boxes and bins went into the front room with the other factory items.

This is as empty as we are going to get with this room today.

This will be the room I start the restoration on. There is carpet laid on this floor. It has been reported that there are holes in the floor that you can see the ground through, so I am betting this will be my hardest room to do. Get the hardest part done first and the rest will be cake, that's my motto. For right this minute we just needed that one shelving unit that was backed against the roll top desk. Once I have moved in I will finish emptying the room and pull up the carpet to see what I am facing.

I know you must be wondering where all this stuff was put, so let me show you.

We disassembled two of these racks, stacked the trays out of the way and put the racks out on the porch for now. (That big spacious porch is getting pretty full!) The other rack has product on it, so it was moved over to the other wall. This wall, by the table.

That metal shelving unit from the kitchen was put just about where the baskets are hanging with one side to the wall. That is where we put the folded metal rack up above for extra storage. This is what that room looks like now.

The metal shelving unit that had been under the stairs took the space we'd uncovered taking out the red tray racks.

It was at this point that I gave completely out. I am ever so grateful to my daughter for spending time with me at the cabin. She could have stayed home and taken a nap, but came out and performed slave labor just to help her mama. What a wonderful gal! 

As I said, I was tired. We headed back to her house and I crashed. She still dealt with cooking and shepherding a gaggle of teen-aged boys celebrating one's birthday. I never heard them.

I am sitting here on Sunday morning, listening to the sounds of a household starting to wake up, trying to talk myself into getting dressed and heading back to the cabin. I should take my tv and vcr out there, maybe have some noise to work by. What do you think? Oh yes, I must not forget the ree-ree tool, either! I wonder if I could take the heating pad and duct tape it to my back while I work? Too much? Okay, I'll just wish it were there with me.

Y'all have a good Sunday. I am pretty sure I will be back here to see you this evening, if the Good Lord's willing and the creek don't rise.