Moving House - The Cleaning

Things are now starting to happen at half the speed of light!!!! Today indeed marks two weeks remaining at this house!!!!!

Last Friday's schedule meeting with my potential rooming host didn't take place. She got held up in one of her many jobs so was running late. And with a busy week ahead this week for her, we agreed to wait until the following weekend - this weekend - when she is scheduled to contact me again, and have our meetup at the house early the following week. With me due to vacate this house on the 7th, this still leaves a little over a week, cutting a wee bit fine for this Virgo who likes to be organised as soon as possible and not leave things to the last minute, however, I really like her energies, and her room offer all sounds good on all counts from location to room rate with all utilities included.

So now to channel my over-anxious energies into organising for the house to be cleaned. It's in the DNA of Virgos to be over anxious about things, we like to be organised as soon as possible, we hate leaving things to the last minute, and the task of sourcing cleaners for the various tasks seemed overwhelming!!!

OK let's take three deep breaths and begin with the oven cleaning. I googled for a list of oven cleaners. So I tried to call the first of them but no one answered. Then I went back online and happened to find a company that coordinates the various cleaning jobs and one of their specialties is cleaning for vacating rental properties. OK sounds good!!!!!!

So I called them, and told them I need cleaning for the oven, carpets, windows, and general cleaning. At first the sheila told me she would need to source four different people for these four jobs, and each one would call me within two hours. Me the Virgo sceptic, we Virgos are sceptical creatures, thinking that no one would call in two hours and I'd be waiting all day for those calls. And we impatient Virgos hates waiting, we like things organised as soon as possible!!!!!!

Well much to my surprise the carpet cleaner called me within the first hour!!!! And after giving details of the house, he gave me a quote which I thought was most reasonable. In truth I would not have cared how much it would cost, I just wanted this whole affair over and done with, to get out of this house and never see it again!!!!! This whole affair of cleaning and moving is bringing up too much previously suppressed memories of my wife and how sick she was, the worst of her sickness and the hell years of being her carer took place in this house. So yes I just want to get out ASAP!!!!!! Anyway, after giving the quote, we agreed for him to come do the carpet cleaning on the 5th, leaving me two days for tying up loose ends.

And a little while later, actually just inside the promised two hours, the cleaning lady called me, and so we arranged for her to come to the house after work to scope out the place and then give me a quote. It turns out she also cleans the oven, so the oven cleaner problem is solved. And so she arrived at exactly the agreed time, and we went through the house as she checked out what needed to be cleaned. Then she said she would email me the quote.

This left the problem with the window cleaner. I was told the general house cleaner does the inside of the windows but I would need to book a separate cleaner who does the outside of the window, and was told by the sheila on the phone that no window cleaner was currently available, so I would probably have to arrange one from elsewhere.

However the next day I received the quote via email along with a list of cleaning tasks to be done. The quote again was very reasonable, and was impressed at the list of cleaning jobs. I was surprised to learn that she would also do the outside of the windows. Furthermore she included the garage, what I didn't think would occur. I was just going to clean the garage myself which would be nothing more than just sweeping it out. However I was most appreciative of the fact that she also includes the garage, and also the front and back porches. So basically that is all of my cleaning jobs done!!! There would be no more cleaning that I would need to do.

So this happy Virgo now have arranged for the cleaning lady to come on the 3rd which is a Saturday, then the carpet cleaners on the 5th a Monday. Basically the whole house will be cleaned in time for that final inspection.

This leaves me with the task of doing the wall repairs courtesy of that infernal hospital who installed mobility devices for my wife but left a mess on the walls with holes. There were two bolts in the wall which I couldn't remove, so I thought I would have to call for a home handyman to come remove the bolts. I searched online for such a handyman, then something told me to try the bolts again, and this time after a few well timed blows with the hammer was able to work the bolts loose and to remove them!!!! I was so happy!!!!

So now I can repair the walls myself. First fill in the holes and cracks with a wall filler, then to paint it over. Fortunately the wall filler now comes premixed in a tube, you simply apply the paste to the holes in the same way one would squeeze a toothpaste onto the toothbrush. Gone are the days when our only choice was to get the powder and mix it with water ourselves, making sure we do it in the correct proportions. Nowadays we can still get the powder and it is cheaper. But I take convenience over economics, so I opted for the more expensive premixed paste option!!!!!

Next to source the paints matching as close as possible to the wall colors. Repairs needed to be done to the toilet wall which is a dark cream, the bathroom wall which is white, and the bedroom wall which I thought was white but it turned out to be a more off-white color. So while I had gotten the paints for the first two rooms, I will this weekend have to go back to the hardware store to source an off-white paint for the bedroom wall.

Plan is to repair and fill in the holes and cracks this weekend, then wait until the cleaners have done their jobs the following weekend before painting the walls. They would clean any marks off the wall and deal with the cracked and flaking paint near where the hospital did their thing. Then afterwards I would paint the walls at the site of the repairs.

Last but not least the gardens and lawns. This is relatively simple, just a matter of keeping the lawns mowed, the edges trimmed, and the weeds under control - and of course as well watered as possible within the restrictive frame of our rostered watering nights!!!!! So basically just have to keep the lawns alive during these very dry times for the next two weeks!!!!!

Now basically I need to get all of my remaining furniture out of this house by Friday the 2nd so the cleaners could come in on the 3rd. This includes my washing machine, fridge, and bed. If I take the room offer, the room is fully furnished and all facilities provided so I won't need any of these items, so will just transport them to my storage unit and figure out what to do with them later. There is also a cupboard, a couple of tables with my laptop and other electronics, and the TV also used for my PC. I will begin to remove these this weekend then over the following week, hoping by then I will know where I will be going by the end of that week.

So next major point in what is turning out to be a very interesting series of events of my move is making contact with my potential roomie host this weekend, possibly arranging to meetup at the house early in the week. If for some reason this falls through, well it leaves me just a week to find another abode.

This is the story of my life....... nothing ever happens by conventional means!!! Everyone else would just contact a real estate agent and source some flats to rent, inspect them, apply for the rental, and wait for the decision. But me.... no..... I just have to be different..... unconventional..... out of the ordinary....... that adventurous Uranus natal in my Sun sign really kicking in!!!!!!!!!!

All I can say is...... watch this space!!!!!!!!!

Moving House - Room Offer

So much has been happening lately it's been rather overwhelming for this quiet Virgo. I have been spending a part of each evening cleaning the house, most which I am able to do, but identifying some areas which I will need help from a professional cleaner. This weekend I plan to visit the hardware store to acquire items to allow me to paint and repair the walls where the hospital had left its mess in installing mobility aids for my wife, and also to source an oven cleaner and make a booking for him to come and clean the oven.

However the most momentous development came in the past 24 hours. Yesterday I realized that it marks three weeks until I am due to vacate this house, therefore I will now need to take proactive action in searching for a new abode. My Virgo inspired plan was to acquire a new abode about two weeks prior to my vacate date so to enable me time to remove the rest of the furniture and leave the house empty to enable the cleaners to clean the house and to make sure all is up to scratch for that dreaded final inspection.

So I first turned to the scant spiritual community in Perth, and posted to a FaceBook group for spiritual people looking for new abodes. I posted a message in the group specifying that I am looking to move into an apartment, flat, studio, or bedsitter. And I stated the reason for my move is to move on from the death of my wife, and needing to move out of this large house. So I posted the message just before I went to bed on Wednesday night, that is, last night.

I woke up this morning to get ready for work, I wake up very early as I go to work early, and just thought I check FaceBook but not expecting any replies just yet. However I was surprised to receive a reply already - a lady with a puppy dog offering me a room for rental within her house.

OK I didn't specifically ask for just a room rental within a household, though I was actually considering this option. I was considering it but I didn't tell anyone. I believe things happens for a reason, and so I message her back saying I would consider her offer.

Now me being a Virgo I have my habits and my quirks, and there are certain issues that would need to be addressed for me to be renting a room in a shared household. First and foremost I will need an en suite or at the very least access to own bathroom. I am a Virgo, I have my habits, so own bathroom is a necessity. This offer fulfills this condition, she uses an en suite in her room, so the spare bathroom apparently opposite my intended room will basically be my own bathroom.

Next issue is the room rate versus rent for an apartment. When she sent me pixs of her house, it looked very impressive, almost like a mansion, and located in one of the better parts of the city near the river, so I thought it would be expensive. I was surprised when she quoted the rate, it was only a little higher than the cheapest flat in a less desirable part of town. Furthermore the room rate includes utilities. So basically I be paying a flat room rate with no extra utilities bills such as power or water. Of course in a flat you pay the rent then you pay the utilities on top of that. And being in a household, I be able to cancel my landline phone and internet account and just use their wi fi connection. So am really getting an excellent deal here.

Then the shared facilities such as laundry. In moving to an apartment or flat, I already saw that the studios and one-bedroom flats typically has no private laundry facilities and so we be using the communal laundry facilities within the block of flats. Back in the days before I got married I lived in apartment blocks with shared laundry facilities and much to my annoyance found that they never provide enough washing machines for the size of the block. And so the scant supply of washing machines were forever in use, and always a queue for using them. Yes one machine in a block of 20 units is simply not enough!!!!!! Of course in this room rental offer, the laundry facility is shared but by only one other person - the owner of the house. So assuming she uses the laundry maybe two days per week, maybe even three days, that leaves me with at least four other days for me to use the facilities. So no queues and no waiting.

Then the shared kitchen facilities, and again with only one other person to share with, this will not be such an inconvenience. And from the pixs it seems she has a large modern kitchen. The whole house is very impressive, it be like living back with Mother's two-storey house after her 2nd marriage, and just as roomy.

Next is location. Very good location near the river and close to the city, so a reasonable bicycle riding distance to work each day, much of it along the cycleway that runs along the river. In contrast in my current abode, my bicycle ride is mainly through back streets and then along the cycleway that runs along the Freeway with no scenic views.

And it's a spiritual household so my weirdness would be better tolerated. Well she checked my FaceBook page with my weird stories from Taygeta, my Wicca, ET, and Star Seeds stuff, etc, and she still offered me the room!!!! So she must like me despite my weirdness!!!!

So this afternoon we chatted on the phone for a bit..... and she still must like me cos we now arranged for a meetup tomorrow afternoon to look at the house and to discuss the nitty gritty, the finer details, my Virgo habits and quirks, and whether we could indeed live under the same roof. She knows I'm a Virgo and she still likes me, or at least, tolerate me enough to offer me the room, so she must not be fazed too much by Virgos. We Virgos are fussy creatures, we have our set ways, our annoying quirks, are anxious creatures, over-thinking, and analysing everything. And well she just had her birthday which makes her a Scorpio, who are more passionate creatures with lots of energies, and she certainly sounds like a typical Scorpio. She's 50 so similar age to me.

So this will be crunch time, and whether living under the same roof will be viable given our quirks....... especially my Virgo quirks........

Of course being a Virgo we like to take our time in making decisions, we don't rush into anything, we take our time to analyse, compare, weigh up pros and cons, and just generally being fussy creatures and over-thinking on whether the particular offer is viable for our quirks. But she will probably want a decision ASAP, assuming she still tolerates me after our meetup, so.... well.... will see how it pans out.....

Watch this space.

Moving House - Landlord Visits

Well as soon as the landlord received my letter of intention to vacate the property, what happened next is what I knew would happen. He called me that night, and requesting a visit that night!!!! I knew exactly why he wanted to visit so soon. He was in shock and would try to have me change my mind!!! His words were that I have been an excellent tenant and not likely to find anyone else like me to rent his property!!!!

So he came over with his wife, and spent the first 30 minutes trying to talk me into changing my mind. But me being a Virgo once I set my mind on something I very rarely change my mind. He offered to keep the rent at the same rate for the next three years, and even suggested I find someone to share the house and hence the rent and expenses with. However there is more to the issue than just the rent and expenses. It is also the energy expended in maintaining the house, and especially the yard. I am spending nearly every weekend maintaining the yard, mowing the lawn, etc. This is unsustainable when I continue to travel. For example, if I go somewhere for four weeks during the summer months who is going to water the garden??

Being a Virgo I hate to disappoint people and let them down, and my landlord was disappointed, he really did not want me to go. I explained to him that I will be travelling more. He said, well you still need somewhere to live!!!!! Well true enough, but I also explained, since the death of my wife I am no longer needing such a large living space!!!!

Anyway, when it became obvious that my Virgo mind has been made up and is not going to change his mind whatsoever, the landlord went through the house explaining what will need to be done to it prior to vacating. Most of it are just the standard requirements of cleaning the property, however a few extra are legacy of my wife. When the hospital tradies came to install the various mobility devices around the house, the bars, etc, they have a very bad habit of leaving mess behind, such as, holes in walls, etc. And well the responsibility falls on me, and I will have to basically clean up what the hospital tradies left behind - fixing the holes, repainting, etc. Well fortunately I should be able to do most of this myself, just get some crack-filler from the hardware store and small tins of paint nearest to the color of the walls. The landlord did say it doesn't have to be exactly the same color but as close to it as possible. So some white paint for the bedrooms, and beige for the bathroom and toilet. And my wife, behind something of a handywoman, she does have a lot of tools, including power tools, which will make my job easier such as where fixtures needs replacing such as the toilet paper holder which had to be removed cos it gotten in the way of my wife and interfered with her mobility. It is just fortunate I given myself five weeks until I am due to vacate the property, and I plan on moving into my new abode about two weeks prior to the due vacate date, leaving the property empty for the final cleanup and any other issue that needed to be cleared up.

Most of the cleanup and repairs I should be able to do myself. However there are some things that I will pay a professional to do. Such as the tiresome task of cleaning the oven. I hate cleaning the oven, and the fumes from the oven cleaner makes me want to pass out. So basically will pay someone to do the dirty work for me, who is more likely to do a better job than me, thus more likely to satisfy the landlord.

Also I will employ someone to clean the windows, especially outside where I can't reach!! And also the carpets. So the most difficult aspects of the job I will employ professionals to do.

It turns out that my landlord will himself be overseas for four weeks, his turn to travel! ;) And as synchronicity would have it, his return is set for the end of November, just a few days before my set vacate date. I originally planned to give myself just four weeks to vacate the property however I strongly felt to give an extra week. And as it turned out, if I was to vacate the property at the end of four weeks, the landlord would still be overseas or just on his way back. So the extra week is not only for my benefit but for the benefit of the landlord. It is also good that he is currently away overseas, it will mean he won't be in my hair while I am busily prepping the property for vacating.

So now I am in the process of cleaning the place and moving all but bare necessities into my storage unit. As per being a Virgo who works to a plan, I do a small section each night after work for no more than a couple of hours. And by doing a small section each evening for two weeks, pretty well most of the house will be cleaned, leaving the oven, windows, etc to the professionals. By then most of my furniture and items will be in my storage unit.

By then I will also have begun my search for my new and much smaller hence cheaper and easier to maintain abode. After next weekend when I have done the bulk of my clearing out of furniture and boxes of possessions, transporting them to my storage unit via my 4x6 caged trailer, I will then begin my search for my new abode.

OK starting to get ahead of myself here..... a typical Virgo trait!!!!!..... let's focus on the present, which is, being in the first of the two weeks of cleaning, packing, and moving most of my items into storage, leaving just bare necessities which will do me until I find my new abode.

So far I have done the curtains and venetian blinds, the most difficult jobs that I am willing to do. Then the cabinets, where I had to confront my phobia of cockroaches. Even dead cockroaches freaks me out, and there were plenty of dead cockroaches in the mostly empty cabinets, the kitchen and bathroom cabinets. It was just a matter of vacuuming up the carcases however it still freaked me a bit. My vacuum cleaner is one of those newer bagless cleaners with a clear drum, and seeing those dead cockroaches swirling around inside the cleaner was also very creepy. I tolerate indeed even welcome most other creatures, spiders, ants, lizards, even the odd snake..... but cockroaches absolutely freaks me out!!!!! This is because during one of my lifetimes on another planet I was eaten alive by roach-like Insectoid aliens.

So yes I done the cabinets, and cleaned out the wardrobes in the bedroom, so all clothing, etc, except what I normally wear, are now packed away ready to be transported into storage. The bedrooms, kitchen and living room has all been cleared aside from bare necessities, and several boxes waiting to be transported into storage this weekend. Then the next week I start on the garage and shed, and the furniture, removing most furniture except my immediate necessities. Then the property will be ready for the professionals to come and do their job, and it be a relatively simple job of moving into my new abode when I find one.

Moving house is inherently stressful and a lot of work, but a bit of planning which we Virgos are good at doing will make it so much easier, while at the same time, allowing life to go on..... going to work each day, attending my ecstatic dance sessions....... and thinking about my next travel destination...... ;)