I’ve decided that I’m sick of winter, so I’ve started on my spring cleaning/painting. I’ve invested in a Smart Home mop. Since I invested in a new mop, I thought it only made sense to get a brand new vacuum, as the one I currently had plays up from time to time and this makes cleaning a lot harder. As there are many to choose from, a friend of mine recommended I checked out sites like All Great Vacuums, in the hopes of reading reviews that will hopefully make the decision process a lot easier to make. No one wants a dirty house, especially when there are many ways to prevent it. I now have the perfect opportunity to remove dirt and stains on the floors that have been bothering me for a while. On a few of the fifty-degree days that snuck in between the windy, snowy, cold and/or miserable ones, I stained the fascia on the house:
I like painting/staining–not while I’m actually doing it, of course, but seeing the results is fun. After cleaning, there’s only a ten-minute window where everything stays nice before Wiley puts nose-prints on the window or Cam drags a tumbleweed into the house.
Speaking of cleaning, I decided to call in the chimney-sweeping professionals after considering the likelihood that I would break a body part trying to climb a ladder propped on the truck topper to access the top of the outdoor boiler flue. It was a good decision. Jim with Ash Kickers (heh) had all the creosote cleared out in minutes. Power tools are amazing. I also decided that whilst I was at it I would call in some window cleaning people to help me out as well. Might as well get all my jobs done and dusted when I can.
I thanked Jim from Ash Kickers for saving me from probable injury and/or death, and also for not creosote-shaming me. Although I clean out the flue every six months, the creosote had run rampant this winter and had overpowered me and my measly, Katie-powered brushes. His guess was that the milder winter caused the fire to not burn as hot, which led to more creosote build-up. I like explanations that allow me to be (semi-) blameless (they’re rare).