Cleaning day...

Every other Thursday, the "House Coach" pulls into our driveway.  That's what C calls herself, as she makes everything under our roof clean and sparkling.  This house used to be a Bed and Breakfast, so there is a private bathroom for each of the bedrooms.  I hate, hate, hate cleaning bathrooms, with the kitchen being next on that 'hate to do' list.

So C and I have an arrangement..... she cleans all the bathrooms, and the kitchen... and while she does that, I dust "all this stuff" (as she calls it) and I vacuum the carpets.  I don't mind the dusting.... it's totally mindless and I can think of other things or even talk to one of my cousins on the phone as I'm doing it....... and I don't even mind the vacuuming (again, it's totally mindless but you can't talk on the phone while the vacuum is running).

My city-girl treat to myself last month was arranging for C to be here every other week.... and I've told her that if she ever gets a free day on that inbetween week, then she's welcome to come and do her thing here.  And do it she does..... her favorite cleaning products are vinegar and baking soda and Windex.  And everything sparkles...so clean that it makes me wonder what on earth I was doing before she started cleaning here... this house looked clean to me before but it just didn't have that same sparkle.  Truth be told, I'm really not willing to sacrifice a nail to thoroughly scrub the stove-top or a bathroom floor.

If my mother-in-law had been alive when we found this house, she would have told me to "Run the other way and keep on running," because of all the bathrooms.  Two of the bathrooms are vintage, and the others are new but they look vintage, in keeping with the 1907 history of this home.  The decision to buy this house was heart-based, not brain-based.... and as with all things that you fall in love with at first sight, sometimes you can't see what the down-side could be. 

The down-side here... just too many bathrooms... but they're all so pretty, and now they're sparkling, thanks to the House Coach.  C is originally from up north, as I am... her sense of humor is as sparkling as she is, and she "gets it" when it comes to being direct and telling it like it is. Definitely a bright spot in the week, when C is here.

Another down-side...... the scorpions. I brought the vacuum up to the third floor this morning so I could do the carpeting in the library... and I was greeted by an extra-long scorpion, right at the top of the staircase.  I swear he was just sitting there watching me climb those stairs.  I stepped over the blessed thing, plugged in the vacuum, and swooped him right up before he had a chance to move.  Not one scream, not even a cringe. (Me, not the scorpion.)