Monday, Labor Day, was a pretty busy day. I'm impressed I actually made it to the gym. For you see, there was much to do.
First, we had to create this abomination.
This used to be our dining room table. It won't be for long, even after we clean it off, since we'll use Smittygirl's (it has much better chairs). For now, though, it has the contents of most of the kitchen cabinets. Thank goodness we didn't have to clean out the "pantry" (wire shelving along one wall). There are more dishes on the coffee table and the pots and pans have moved to one of the chairs. By the time work began today, the stove and a small round table had moved into the dining room as well. More tales of destruction follow the jump.
But that wasn't the half of it. After we'd moved the contents of the cabinets away, I really had to get down to work. This time, I remembered to shut off the water to the dishwasher and sink before starting... I also turned off all the power in the kitchen. Then came the fun. First I disconnected the dishwasher drain hose from the garbage disposal. Then I realized I'd thrown away the disposal instructions. Hooray for companies that put their manuals on line! (It's an InSinkErator Evolution Compact if you're curious, and I highly recommend it.)
Next the disposal came off, and then I popped the ring out of the sink basin. Then I took the tubing for the sink hot and cold water off--hot was a flexible tube, cold was copper. The cold water had a mysterious T-junction in it, which I later determined, after looking through the cabinets, was actually the water to the fridge. Our fridge doesn't have an ice-maker or water dispenser so that has always just been there, useless. Of course there was water in it, as I found out later...
With the water disconnected I could unscrew the faucet caps and pull that off. Then I disconnected the copper tubing that provided hot water to the dishwasher and drained as much of it as I could. Then I unscrewed (using too-small channel lock pliers because I don't have the right tools) all the various screws for the sink drain. That was disgusting, let me tell you. The flexible tube that once connected the disposal to the other drain was just foul beyond recognition. Of course it was only foul because it was see-through; the rest of the piping is just as bad but I can't see it.
Next it was time to clear out the bathrooms and closets. Into the bedroom with all of that stuff:
Amazing how much junk there is, isn't it? And we still have to add Smittygirl's stuff to this! Well, fortunately for me, her, and Metropolitan Ministries, a lot of it will be going away. Craigslist will get some of it, but a lot will just go to MM for their thrift store. A lot of glasses and mugs, plates, bowls, some silverware, a lot of my pots and pans, some of the clothes, even some of the small appliances. Do we need two food processors? Do we even need one sandwich-grilling device? Do I need the indoor grill? When you live in a small house you have to either live with a lot of clutter (which I've been doing), or make some tough choices about how much stuff you really need. I'm hoping to use this as my excuse to go through and get rid of things I don't actually need. Incidentally, I have this great Atari 2600 for sale.
With all the mess--and of course the impending loss of kitchen and bathroom functionality--we packed up some clothes and headed for Smittygirl's apartment in West Tampa. Poor Jackson looks a little confused by the whole endeavor.
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