Such a busy busy time!

Wow! That's all I can say about the last month. It was a very busy month. It started off with the landlord wanting to do the following things, and my loving Husband telling him that I can get all the quotes and schedule  all the repairs since this is what I do. Yeah.

So, evidently the insurance company said that they would cancel the insurance if certain repairs weren't made. There is some stucco damage along the bottom and the roof is at least 25 years old and needs to be replaced. Add to that, the paint is just bad and needs a thorough redo.

So, the owner's son came to take a look and agreed, these things need to be done. And he wanted to have a termite report. Yep, I had the pleasure of scheduling, meeting and interviewing each vendor, sending estimates to the owner and requesting approval and scheduling again for call backs.

The termite company said, surprisingly, that the house was pretty clear of termites, some places were active but mostly in the doors and along the west side. He recommended tenting rather than spot treatment, to get what can't be seen. I would agree, this is SoCal. So the owner agreed. It was a very busy schedule to get it all ready for the tent.

You have to double bagged all food, including the fridge/freezer except unopened cans and sealed bottles. You can't do this without cleaning the cabinets, it's just too embarrassing! So I spent a good week bagging and cleaning kitchen cabinets and bathroom cabinets. It was a chore, but everything looked good!

 Bags of food were everywhere, and I had reduced our food before this started. I had bagged all the fridge and freezer stuff and cleaned them both out. Dang, it all looked good when we left, other than stuff sitting around all over the place. I would be glad to puts stuff back into clean cabinets.

We had to find a place to stay, and some of the animals wouldn't be able to stay with us. The cat had to be boarded at a kennel, since I was certain we would loose him. He is really old and I wasn't really positive he would survive either the kennel or a couple of nights stay in a kennel at the cottage.

In order to have him boarded, we had to have his shots updated and that has a bad effect on him. It can take up to a week for him to feel better and he only weights 6 lbs. so that could be a death sentence for him. He survived and went to the kennel, as planned. He has never been away from home since we got him, so I was feeling really bad about this.

We found a place to stay that would allow us to bring the birds and the dog. Oh boy. This was a cottage in Ocean Beach. It was a one bedroom one bath with a fold out couch. I am not a fan of OB, but there was no other place to go with animals, and to board the dog and birds was going to be $300. So OB it was. It was a really nice place, to my surprise, with a totally fenced in yard. No bums sleeping in our flower beds. Full kitchen with cookware and table ware. I really liked the place. Amazing.

Girl and I went to the farmer's market on Wednesday evening. We bought fresh strawberries and other stuff, listened so some strange music, petted lots of dogs, viewed all the hippie crafts (its OB after all) and walked a bit around. We clocked 5 miles that night.

The next day, we went to the beach, but it was  COLD and spent some time with the dog who will not touch water. I think he has a defective gene somewhere.

The Husband went to work, and later that day so did the Girl. I worked from the cottage that day. It was quite and lots was accomplished.

Then came Friday, move back day. The husband went to work and the Girl dropped me off at the house to pick up the truck to haul ourselves back home. Then she went to work and I went to OB and began the loading process...birds, suitcases, a bit of food and other stuff. Tidied the cottage and left the key. Home I went sorta excited about putting stuff into clean cabinets!

I got home and let me say, nothing was clean. Fans blowing around air in a dirty tent make a DIRTY house. I didn't put anything away. As a matter of fact, I worked that day and waited until Saturday to begin the work. I was not in a good mood.

It took me all week to thoroughly clean the house. I started with the cabinets so I could put up the food. The fan in the dining room broke two paddles off and it took out two light bulbs. It took all week to find all the glass. I had to clean floors, baseboards, cabinets and walls. In every room. The bathrooms followed the kitchen, and during all this cleaning the washer was running. I know were are in a drought, but I need clean linens and things.

I have never had such a clean house. Everything is back where it should be, and I am glad, BUT I WILL NEVER DO THIS AGAIN.