Thursday, November 30, 2006

Pre Move-In

I've been running around to Home Depot and Lowe's lately, buying little odds and ends. It's funny, walking around this empty apartment, not quite knowing what to do with myself! I couldn't do too much before having the floor done. But now it is done (and I did indeed make a tidy profit by taking the credit at closing and having it done myself). And in any case, despite the fact that I've already spent hundreds of dollars at these home stores, I don't have that much to do. A little caulking, some paint touch ups, a towel ring... and a new door knob! This is what I love about tackling little household projects-- changing a regular door knob to one with a lock is the easiest thing in the world! But I wouldn't have known that if I hadn't decided to try doing it myself. I was originally going to call a locksmith, but now I'm so glad I didn't.
Other things I've bought: a welcome mat and an extra phone, since I now have 4 jacks instead of one, whoo hoo!
But back to the DIY question... I ended up deciding not to hire cleaners. I debated this for a while-- I called a couple of places, and for under $150, I could have had people come in with their own equipment and clean the whole place. But in the meantime, I'd been buying some cleaning supplies and doing some minor cleaning in some rooms, and it started to seem like the only reason I really needed the cleaning people to come would be that I lacked a vacuum. Then my aunt got involved and said she knew a cleaning lady who wanted work, and though it didn't sound like this lady would be able to bring her own equipment, I was worried that my aunt would be insulted if I didn't take her recommendation-- that is the only downside to having family connections to these kinds of things! But when I told my aunt I needed a vacuum, and started discussing where I could buy the one I wanted (after looking at the ratings on Consumer Reports), my uncle chimed in: "A vacuum? That's all you need? I'll give you a vacuum!" It turned out that he had found a nearly-new vacuum with a HEPA filter and all its attachments and manuals etc., and since he didn't really need it for himself, it's now mine.
I think there must be a Vacuum Fairy who is looking out for me, as this is my 2nd free vacuum! The one I have in storage was a free gift from a friend too, and nothing was wrong with it except that the cord didn't retract. I later broke one of its wheels, which concerned me a bit since I now have this gorgeous, newly polished floor that I don't want to scratch. I was thinking of ways to attach some kind of slider thing where the wheel used to be, but now I won't have to worry about that!
So now I'm all set. I definitely have no excuse for not doing the cleaning myself. It would have been kind of nice not to have to deal with it, but in some ways, I like having these things to keep me occupied! And I've saved about $150 on cleaning and $400 or so by not having to buy a new vacuum. Tomorrow is cleaning day, and Saturday I move in!

4 comments:

HC said...

Congratulations on finishing all those projects by yourself. Rock the DIY-ness.

And enjoy moving in. I'm sure it won't take long to feel like you've made it all your own.

mapgirl said...

Ask and ye shall receive. Speaking up makes a difference. Even if you idly say something to a friend about needing X object, you never know, they might have one for free or one to loan out. That's pretty cool that you have a vacuum fairy.

Single Ma said...

HA HA @ the Vacuum Fairy

Just goes to show, it never hurts to ask.

And I'm really diggin the DIY jobs. I was so intimated when I first entered a Lowe's or Home Depot. Everything seemed so big and dirty. I felt out of my league. All it took was a few trips and millions of questions, and now the guys know me by name. Especially when I go on Sunday afternoon. The cashiers know me too. LOL

Congrats again and I hope you have a smooth transition with the move.

Tiredbuthappy said...

Yay, at last!

I was getting ready to post a comment demanding apartment news OR ELSE but when I got here, voila, you had already written about it.

When will we see more pictures?