We have a house to sell. You can see it on Zillow. It was our first house. It's been through two renters, one of which stayed for just shy of six years. We were lucky that he stayed that long, but we're done being landlords - so we have put it on the market. It's not a house that most women will gravitate towards. (The garage is bigger than the house). But if there was a single man looking for a house with plenty of workshop space, this would be the right house for him.
My children say, "It's our very old house." We camped out there on Friday night, inclusive of taking our dog "home" with us. The kids were most excited about the jetted bathtub and usage of a bath bomb in said tub. They slept in my daughter's old room and my six year old whined at me and said, "Where was my room?" Kid, you were in the hospital the entire 10 days that we lived at our old house, so you didn't have a room.
Friday night, we worked on wiping off the living room walls. It has a chair rail around the entire L-shaped room, except the wall that my husband peeled the wallpaper off to use as a projection screen. The cobwebs were of massive quantities and the dust was thick, so it was a challenge to get the room clean. It has Pergo flooring that we put down in 2009. It's a beautiful floor. Using our steamer, the floor shined by the time we were done on Saturday, but to get to that point took a lot of scrubbing and elbow grease.
Speaking of grease, our most current renter, never turned the exhausted fan on. The microwave, stationed above the stove was equipped with a fan, but the appliance was caked in grease. I used what I had available - apple cider vinegar and dish soap. I remembered a trick my friend, Jessica, taught me, when we cleaned out a microwave of another of our friends. Cook a cup of hot water in the microwave for about 2 minutes. Then the food will come clean. It worked on the inside, but I am trying to figure out how to get the outside clean.
Once our old microwave was spotless on the inside, I was done for the day. But, my children were fascinated with the trap door they found. They had asked and asked and asked each of us (me, my husband, and my dad) if we were able to come outside when they found this really cool thing. Each of us said not at the moment and finally I followed them out - and they were fascinated by the outside entrance to the basement. (It was the only entrance to the back yard when we moved in - but in 2007 we took care of adding a back door that was a lot more usable). They were even more excited when they found out they could go to the basement and open up the other side of the trap door.
So far, we've cleaned to as much perfection as we can - the master bedroom, the living room, and half of the kitchen. In this small house, we still need to tackle the second bedroom, the other half of the kitchen, and the bathroom. But - we can't do that until next weekend after ice skating lessons. So if you have suggestions for getting grease stains off the outside of a microwave - leave a comment and let me know.