Breaking Things Down

The house has been closed up for so long with no air circulation that everything is moldy. EVERYTHING!
The smell hits you even before you open the front door. We have been surprised that we dont have more reaction to the mold, as both of us are Asthmatic and usually pretty sensitive to anything like this. Waz sneezed more today than previous days, but hasn't had any breathing issues, fortunately. I have a small reaction, which should be gone by tomorrow.

So...we are kind of down to the wire in terms of available days to clean up the house. We are fortunate to have someone taking care of the house in our absence, who is familiar with the property. Everything is slotting into place nicely.

With the new cabinets in place yesterday, we had a slight detour to the cabinet building today, although  Waz still managed to make most of one more box to install tomorrow.

 We have had two fridges in the small room we will use as a pantry. We need to have a fridge in the kitchen, and had figured out how we might work this out.

We took the tall one out, and checked out the little one. Neither is clean! blech!

In order to fit a fridge in the kitchen, Waz had to do some surgery. Little did we know what awaited us when he took the cabinet out of there....

He turned the boiler on, but none of the heaters had heated the cold air up yet.
The cabinet is coming apart with some help...it didnt yield easily!

 Hmmm...That is concrete in there against the wall, and some of it has to come out!

 Cabinet closed off and looking neat and tidy now. The concrete has been chipped away...took him a loooong time, and put concrete everywhere! lol. Waz's hands took a bit of a beating in the process. Swelling today! I guess he will feel sore in the morning.

 It is the only place we could put the fridge in the short term, but it does rather cut down some of the light on that counter.
Tomorrow, new cabinets on the left hand wall. We have to have somewhere to put stuff. There is little space now.

Of course the fridge is dead, isnt it!
We will have to find a new one. We dont know if the small  fridge works, and it would be sufficient for the time being, but it will be necessary to purchase new. Bah! Not sure they get taken away when new ones are delivered.

On the way to the house this morning, we stopped off at SuperU to buy a new vacuum cleaner. The ones at the house leave much to be desired. With no chance of finding new filters for the existing Hoover, we invested in this new Dirt Devil. This is a common American Brand, so we are familiar with this bagless model.
Its a little beauty, and didnt break the bank.

 I seemed to go from one thing to another, without completing anything. So much to do! argggh!

We were very happy to find these books...the Oxford French Dictionary and the Larousse! I also found a book of 1200 Verb conjugations! yay! Beats the 500 conjugation book I have in Florida!:)

 When I said everything is moldy...This includes the bricks and fireplace.

 We needed to heat our lunch in the oven, but first I had to get the shop vac out to vacuum all the debris in the bottom. This photo shows quite a lot of rust...hmm....Dont know what to do with that. it will get a proper clean when we get back.

 Today I needed to open up the whole house. All shutters were opened, and the windows cleaned...well, on some of the windows.
Love the view from the bedrooms.

 Gosh! What a difference a bit of sunshine and open shutters makes to not just color, but the enjoyment of the house. It felt more like home...well, it does each time we go there. Pretty much every surface was cleaned in here today. I couldn't believe how moldy the mirror was!

 The lights in these rooms are woefully inadequate, so Waz has his work cut out for him installing good lighting throughout the home. Lovely to see the sun coming in the window and all the light.

We had to call it quits about 5pm. Long day working our butts off, but happy, both of us.
I think we will be sore tomorrow!  This is good for us, and we are enjoying the activity and the planning.
We will be back tomorrow and hopefully be able to leave the house in reasonable state. It will certainly reduce the stress level while we are away. Our house carers will be able to do some things while we are gone, but we dont expect much.

Progress!

Time for bed! I think we will sleep well tonight!