Aaron reminded me upon reading the last post, that, The Teriyaki Incident of 2011 actually occurred during a hand-off exchange between the fridge and the counter. Being on the other end of this exchange, I may have had a hand in this incident. So, just to get things straightened out, I may not be completely free from accusation--though I do not take full blame. Don’t worry, you won’t find us on Judge Judy any time soon…
Anyway, I have a lot to fill you in on, so let’s jump right in.
6. Beginning of September move-in is a zoo in Boston.
After doing our time in Braintree we were set to move-in to our apartment in Roxbury Crossing come Friday, September 2nd. We had the keys, movers were hired, Penske truck and Aaron’s car were loaded and ready to go. Bright and early we said farewell to our Braintree hotel and caravanned over to the apartment.
We had witnessed the zoo-like madness that was ensuing in our neighborhood the day before when we had come over to get our keys from the realtors. To paint a little picture: The turn-over for most apartment complexes in Boston occurs on the first of every month. Since the Boston area is home to over 100 colleges and universities, the beginning of September is the craziest…Aand of course we just happened to be moving into an area in which we would be surrounded by students from Northeastern, Mass Art, Boston College…So picture narrow streets (that are crowded on a normal basis) crammed with moving trucks, parent and student cars, as well as the cars of your long-time residents. Now picture movers, parents, and students moving in and out of tiny apartments with boxes, lamps, tables, chairs, stereos at the same time as other movers, parents, and students are moving in and out of tiny apartments with boxes, lamps, tables, chairs, and stereos…Finally, picture a hobo’s paradise: perfectly good dressers, lamps, speakers, Tupperware, shoes, hangers--just about any random item you could ever want or need—piling up out on the curbs for trash and recycling pick-up. It was nuts. At least we had received a taste of it all a day ahead of time so we knew what we were getting ourselves into...Or did we?? (Duh duh duh...)
One thing I must mention is the state of our apartment when we showed up that Friday morning…When we had peeked in the day before (around 5:30 pm or so), our realty company was just beginning to do some cleaning. Great that they were cleaning. Not so great that it was 5:30pm, the evening before we were suppose to move in, and it looked like a pig sty: dirty walls and counters, stuff still left in cupboards and closets…We hoped for the best and prayed that these cleaners would work some extreme magic.
7. Upon hurriedly exiting an apartment, apparently it’s okay to leave things in complete filth and disarray.
Well, when we showed up at 6 or so AM that Friday morning, it was still a sty. Yes, it was evident they had done some cleaning—but it was also evident that we had more work ahead of us than we had ever dreamed. As I did a walk-through inspection, and documented the mess in pictures, my heart sank deep into my chest. Cupboards: full of half-used boxes of food and ingredients. Drawers still full of dishes and utensils.Fridge: extremely gross. Still full of leftovers, wilted produce, used condiments, beer. Possibly blood from raw meat dried and incrusted on the bottom? (I still shutter at the thought of this image…) Stove and oven: rusted, food and grease splatters from the dark ages. Counters: evidently used to open beer bottles, home to food in plastic bags and stacked dishes that were thoughtfully left by the cleaners for us to sort through. Closets: orphan hangers, as well as abandoned cleaning supplies, paper towels, plastic cups, and toilet paper. Back porch: beer bottles scattered everywhere, along with other random pieces of junk. Oh and there were also the maintenance issues, such as: the fist-sized hole in the entry way closet door, snagged carpet that bares nails underneath, cracked kitchen tiles, crumbling walls, baseboard heating in which the baseboard had pulled itself away from the wall…
I could have cried.
Aaron’s dad and I knew Aaron wasn’t going to be able to help us out much that day because, being a Friday, he had to work. We also knew the movers wouldn’t be coming until around 5, due to the high number of people moving. But this didn’t keep Aaron’s dad and me from tackling the apartment bright and early that morning…It was tough figuring out where to start, but as soon as Aaron left for work, his dad and I dug in.
As his dad began cleaning off the porch and bringing in boxes, I began cleaning inside. I knew I was going to have my work cut out for me that day, but I had no I idea how extensive a cleaning task I was taking on right then and there. Vacuuming the floors and the heating vents was enough to gross anybody out. Then there was the kitchen. As you already are aware, it was pretty disgusting--and it became my nemesis that whole entire day. One thing I did learn for certain through this process:
8. I hate putting up shelf paper. I’m not good at it. The whole process makes me edgy and frustrated, and it never turns out how I want it to. Out of all of my least favorite things to do in the world, I’ve decided this is a big one on the charts. I hate it. Thanks for letting me get that out there...
Oh and also,
9. Grease has a way of caking itself to places you would never expect in a kitchen.
Like…the top of the cabinets above the stove. Who knew? And who knew it would be SO TOUGH to remove!? I didn’t…until I worked up a sweat after 45 minutes of elbow-greasing it.
All in all, I’d say Aaron’s dad and I were a pretty good team that day. I mean, we covered a pretty vast chunk of ground. By the time Aaron got home (lucky guy), about half of the boxes from the truck were in the family room, the porch was clean, the floors and vents and baseboards were vacuumed, the old food had been thrown out, the fridge and freezer were clean emptied and spotless, the stove was coming along, and just about all the counters, cupboards, shelves, and drawers in the kitchen had been gutted and cleaned out. It was a start.
From there, things picked up pretty quickly. Once Aaron arrived, the movers arrived not long after, and no later than an hour and a half after the movers had arrived, they were gone. Finally, we were able to stop, take a drink of water, and take a look at our apartment. Everything that had once been 3D puzzle-pieced into our Penske truck was now surrounding us in our family/dining room. Not going to lie, it was a little bit of an overwhelming feeling. One hurtle down, the next stared us in the face. One thing we knew for sure: it was going to be like a game of Tetris trying to figure out where to start in on those boxes.
First step, we figured, would just be to clear enough space for us to sleep for the night.
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