Let the cleaning begin

The first thing we did when we got in the condo was clean clean clean. This of course you think would be quick and easy...but like everything with this condo it turned out to be more of an adventure than we planned for.  Chris' mom Jill decided to start with windows and man was that an awesome decision. Such an immediate improvement...we could finally see out of windows which probably hadn't been cleaned since the renters moved in years ago. My mom picked the bathroom to make it usable and Chris picked taking down all the shades, nails, other leftover hardware. I picked the kitchen hoping to get the cabinets cleaned quickly to move things in....quickly turned into about a combined 6 hour session and help from Jill.

Smiling in this one because I just started the cabinets

All of the cabinets were covered in a thick layer of pure cooking grease that did not just wipe away. Started with fantastic and ended with industrial goo be gone. I had to use a puddy knife to scrape it all off. It was on top, on the outside and inside of all the cabinets. After hours of cabinet cleaning Jill put the finishing touches on making the cabinets pretty and usable by adding contact paper to all the shelves and badly stained cabinet walls.

Jill's masterpiece

The importance of this post is what we discovered when the new appliances came (future post).  Chris and I bought a recirculating over the range microwave because the other side of the wall is the back hallway not outside, therefore we couldn't do an externally vented micro. No brainer right? Well apparently not. When the new appliances were installed we were told that they had incorrectly vented the previous micro as if it was an external vent which means the microwave had been filtering into the walls, cabinets and counters. SO take it from me, you want the microwave to be venting the way it should be or you're going to have a nasty mess to clean up.