Day 87: Cleaning Day!

I'm so excited that I'm through painting...at least for the time being. There are still some small touch-ups that I missed but I do have absolutely no strength to put one more drop of paint on a brush. It will have to wait until we are in and settled. Then I will go back and look around to see where there are spots that were missed. (Of course, I'm anal so I see every little spot - where no other person would!)

I finally found the key to clean the windows so that they are absolutely streakless, spotless and look as if there are no panes at all in the windows! I started working on them yesterday afternoon but did not complete all of them so now I am finishing up with all of the windows. The hardest ones to do are the ones in the kitchen because there is a stationery table that I have to lean over on the ladder to get to the windows. I like the table but it would be so helpful if it was mobile. So, I've told Ted we have to find legs that are exactly like the front two and remove the table from the wall, install the legs and we'll have another mobile table to use.

I'm SO thrilled that the windows are clean. I feel like the entire apartment is clean even though I still have to do the floors which are going to take some time given that there are paint spots everywhere.

The goal today is to wash the floors in the kitchen, living / dining room, hallway and master bedroom. If I can get all of those done, it would be a tremendous blessing.

While I'm cleaning the windows, the doorbell rings. I answer the door and the person on the other end says "packet" which I assume is "package" and then says something else in German (I have NO idea who it is or what they want). I open the door from inside my apartment and get my mop and bucket out of the way. No one shows up. I couldn't figure it out. So I start to go downstairs to see if they perhaps have the wrong apartment. Ted didn't say we were going to receive anything, but you never know. As I go down to the "basement" level, I see there are two packages in front of the door. Now I understand! The delivery person just wanted the front door open so he could leave it at the neighbors apartment. OK!

I go back upstairs and continue to wash the floors. I have a scrubby sponge that I'm using to scrub away the paint marks from the laminate floors in the hallway. They come off fairly easily. The ones that do not come off, I have a putty knife that I'm using to clean it up. Once the scrubby has been used, I have a genuine German mop and I LOVE IT! It is so easy to use and does a great job. I'm using my mother's old favorite Murphy's Oil Soap. But for some reason, the floor looks dull. I even have a rinse mop but it still looks dull. I add some white vinegar to the rinse water and that does the trick. It removes all of the leftover grime the Oil Soap and the rinse didn't pick up.

I was just finishing up the hallway when the doorbell rang again. I figured it would be another delivery person for someone else in the building. I casually went back to what I was doing when there was a knock on the door. It was in fact a delivery person. He said something in German and of course, I asked if he spoke English and he did not. He motioned to me that there was a package and he showed me it was for my neighbor. I figured out that he wanted me to sign for it. So I did. I also realized he was saying that I needed to take it downstairs to my neighbor. I REALLY need to go back to studying my German. Although people have been wonderfully kind to speak my language, I am in THEIR country and should know a little more than I do.

We are having dinner at Mamma Maria's because Herr Drascher, my real estate guy, is meeting us here to handle the VAT tax form and help us call the electric company.

We have dinner and just as we were finishing, Herr Drascher shows up. We took a table in the dining room so that we could see when he arrived.

We get the VAT tax form squared away and he kindly calls the electric company. It's no different in Germany. There are the "phone trees" just like in the states and like me, he hates them. They put him on hold for over 10 minutes. I guess phone issues are the same worldwide.

It's late and we need to get back to our tiny apartment and call Ailene, our daughter, because it's her birthday. Unfortunately, we missed her but I'm certain I will talk to her soon and wish her a belated Happy Birthday!


Wednesday 06/17/09