This weekend was spent doing more cleaning. I have mid-century condo a few streets over and I've been lucky to use the condo as my living quarters while I deal with the mess at Taylor Ave. I've had my condo on the market for years, but have been unable to find a buyer due to changes in mortgage lending after the 2008 financial meltdown. But surprisingly right after buying Taylor Ave. I found a cash buyer for my condo. Since it's a cash offer, the closing comes up really quick and this is my last weekend to spend at the condo. Because I'm losing a clean area to sleep and eat, I need to bust ass to get some part of the Taylor house suitable for living.

After I clean out my condo of my personal items, I figure focusing on the 3rd floor of Taylor would be the best bet. The 3rd floor has the least amount of wear and tear and least amount of dirt. Once I finish the 3rd floor, I also need to get 1 of the 2 bathrooms in shape to at least use the toilet.

The 3rd floor has 2 bedrooms with 4 cots in them. Since I don't trust any of the beds, all 4 mattresses are immediately removed. With those out, I focus on scrubbing the rooms end to end. The AC ducts are full of black dust, so I unscrew those and clean out with a toothbrush. I then wipe down all of the wainscoting with a lemon oil and then mop and scrub all the floors. After hours of wiping down, the rooms look and smell clean enough to sleep and stay in. Luckily not much renovation will be needed on this floor since the wainscoting will all stay. The maddening thing is the white painted molding up here. Also the work is so sloppy with white brush strokes hitting all the natural wood wainscoting. Who would think that replacing natural finish molding with white paint would look better when you're surrounded by beautiful natural wood. And who would do the paint job without at least taping off the walls so you don’t smear paint on it.

Next up is the bathroom. The vanity and toilet are both incredibly gross with all of the nastiness you'd expect from people who don't clean a bathroom. I drench the toilet in bowl cleaner, scrub out everything and then put on a new toilet seat. I start taking notes on what has to go in the bathroom for renovations. Looking around, only the clawfoot tub will stay. The walls have a weird texture on the upper half of them, but it looks like the texture was added in the 2000s since the texture covers the AC grate!

While I was cleaning the 3rd floor my brother and his girlfriend ripped out the carpet in the entryway. The carpet was extremely dirty and was adding to the drabness of the cleanup. They pulled the carpet off, padding and tacks and exposed a filthy floor covered in layers of dirt and sand. It definitely looks like you don't want to use carpet in a beach area with the amount of sand on the floor. Sadly the floors are covered in paint drips and splotches. I guess the worst painters in the world were working here.