Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Back in the V-T-A

So I moved back to Ventura 2 days ago, and it feels pretty weird. Almost as though I never left . . . but not really. It's hard to explain I suppose.

I arrived on the 25th of January at approximately 3:30 pm . . . only 5 1/2 hours after I left the Bay area. Impressive? Yes . . . sort of. It took my dad 6 1/2, so I think it was pretty good timing.

Once I had arrived I immediately began cleaning what was first my oldest sisters room, then mine, then my brothers, and is now mine again. It wasn't messy per-say . . . just full of stuff I didn't want in there. Although the closet was messy, and I have 4 full trash bags to prove it.

The cleaning was challenging because I had a lot of stuff and no where to put it. Imagine moving someone out just so you could move yourself in. . . but the person you were moving out had no where to go. Not that I minded, I told my mom not to do anything, I wanted to do it myself. I guess I just didn't realize how difficult it would be. So I threw stuff away, and I boxed up some giveaway stuff that was my brothers. In the process I found some suweeet sunglasses . . . as I mentioned earlier in my twitter.

The next road block I hit was the fact that I have no furniture. I have one shelving unit thing that I bought at Target 6 months ago, but I don't really want to use it. Needless to say, all my things . . . minus my clothes . . . are still in boxes.

So the room is still a work in progress . . . but my mother and I have plans . . . BIG PLANS! But I'll talk about those later.

Yesterday, I woke up at around 7 am and began getting the bathroom cabinet ready for painting. First I cleaned out everything inside. You don't want to know what I found in there. When I was done I had another full trash bag to deal with and about 18 bottles of cleaner, which I was instructed NOT to throw away. Now, It's A LOT of cleaner.

I then proceeded by wiping down the outside of the unit. When I finished with that it was about 9am and I decided to take a break because the next step was sanding and the electric sander is extremely loud. I didn't want to wake my mom. On my break I watched the latest episode of Grey's Anatomy.

While watching Grey's I cried a lot. It was a REALLY sad episode. I dare YOU to watch it and not cry, that's all I'm saying.

At 10 am I gave up on my mom waking up anytime soon and began the sanding process. It was a VERY long process. I finished at about 1 and then began painting. That was an even longer process, but I'm almost done. It looks pretty good so far.

Today my mom and I went to Lowes, where we got paint for the bathroom walls . . . which we will start on thursday. While we were there . . . and waiting for the paint . . . we roamed the aisles thinking of all the things we could do if only we had thousands of dollars to spend. In the end, it was kind of a depressing trip, because we don't have thousands of dollars to spend . . . we don't even have hundreds.

Stay tuned for "The Painting of the Bathroom" and "The Making of Penguin Palace" . . .

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Sounds like some serious work!! I hope all goes smoothly. 18 bottles is A LOT of cleaner. You should try to find expiration dates on there, so that you can throw a few of them away. I don't think any 1 cabinet needs any more than 12 bottles of cleaner.

Anonymous said...

Wow! Are you going to fix up the living room next? That would be cool. And would make mom happy. You could be the good kid. The rest of us kind of suck.

cadiz12 said...

man, that's inspiring. you haven't wasted any time getting down to business! i'm intrigued by this Penguin Palace thing. especially because Ventura doesn't get very cold, right?

Madelyn said...

Anonymouse 1 - I don't think my mom would be fooled by an expiration date. Anyway, when I cleaned the tub I'm pretty sure I used about 15 of those cleaners (one on top of the other) so who knows they might go faster now that they are easily accessible.

anonymous 2 -The living room is not next, Penguin Palace is . . . then the living room. I was surprised though, the living room doesn't have as much clutter as I thought. I put the Piano up on craigslist so hopefully it will sell.

Cadiz - You should be intrigued by The Penguin Palace . . . it will be nothing short of amazing.

Unknown said...

So wait...... Let me get this straight. You were instructed not to throw out 18 bottles of cleaner valued at $3 each but they are letting you sell the Piano valued also at $3??? This is huge!!

Jon said...

I hope you are taking a ton of pictures along the way. It would be great to see the transformation.

Penguin palace you say? I'm absolutely positive that I left behind a few things that will contribute to its construction. i

Madelyn said...

Amanda- I'm just trying to follow their rules, as I tried to follow yours.

Jon - Your penguin paraphernalia is what inspired the idea.

Anonymous said...

Do tell more about penguin palace!

Madelyn said...

I cannot reveal the details of The Penguin Palace at this time, all I can tell you is that it's location is the room in which I am currently staying.