Clean And Pristine

The carpets in our house were already due for a cleaning when Jackson the Cat had a misadventure a couple of weeks ago that led to a cracked nail on his front paw.  As a result of his injury there were tiny cat blood spots in my bedroom and on the stairs, and the job moved up to the top of the house To-Do list.

One of the main reason I hadn't had the job done was time. With my work schedule it's hard for me to come up with a long enough block of it during the week (and even though they'd come on the weekend, I didn't want to use my free time being stuck inside the house). To solve the issue I usually have the job done in two parts-the lower level and stairs in one appointment, followed down the line by a second appointment for the upper level. However, Hubby Tony volunteered to work from home one day and quarterback the cleaning so I gratefully took him up on his offer.  He set up an appointment for the whole house to be done yesterday.

Tuesday night we removed as much of the furniture as we could. The cats were fascinated by all the changes, especially the tables we stacked in the dining room. They were less captivated when we interrupted their morning nap on Wednesday to carry them down to the basement. When we closed the door behind them they tried to escape, but we assured them they'd want to be out of the way once the cleaners arrived with their loud machine.

The technicians were scheduled to be there at 9:00, but they were knocking on the door fifteen minutes before that. right as I was leaving for work.  When I came home six hours later the house was closed up and the ceiling fans in the family room and bedrooms were running to circulate the air. I reminded Tony about the two box fans in the basement, which he brought up and set in different spots on the main level to get additional ventilation. They're very noisy, and you could hear the rumble all throughout the house.

The cats were out of the basement.  They were annoyed by the indignity of getting their paws wet on the damp carpet, and the rumbling background noises had them on edge. Tony and I solved the noise problem by going out to dinner and running a couple of errands. When we arrived home the 'boys' weren't any happier. When we went to bed we moved the box fans upstairs and set each in a spare bedroom, where their rumbling had ME on edge.

I know from experience that it takes a long time for the carpet to be completely dry, so having the whole house done during the warm weather may not have been the best idea. In the middle of the night I woke up (and had trouble getting back to sleep) because my skin felt sticky from all the humidity in the air. The moisture also meant that this morning my towel was still damp from yesterday's shower, as were the knee-high hose I'd washed and hung up after work yesterday.

The spare bedrooms were pretty dry, so I moved the fans back down to the main level before I left for work today. When I got back home most of the carpet was dry; I placed the fans back downstairs to finish the job off.  I can't wait to vacuum the carpet and start putting things back where they belong.

A side note--yesterday when I came home from work I went upstairs to change my clothes and saw both cats were in the bedroom. One of them (as usual, the culprit wasn't confessing to the deed) had left a hairball on the bedspread. I guess the carpet was too wet.  Either that or he did it out of respect for my feelings because he knew how frustrated I'd be to see it on the pristine carpet.

Five years ago today: Official?