How I spent the first day of 2010 – Part 2

The garbage and junk gone, a fresh coat of plaster on the walls, and I was at a loss. Hard to believe when such a giant DIY project is underway.

While Mrs. DIYr spoke with the former owner and the real estate agent, I started on the kitchen. Did I mention that Chinese renters are not kind people? I think that in many parts of the world getting your security deposit back requires that an apartment be clean when returned to the owner. Not in China apparently.

The galley kitchen has a cupboard and food prep area, and a cooking area in a smaller, doored room. This is common in older Chinese apartments. New units have a more “western” kitchen. Cook in a small room, keep the smoke and grease out of the rest of the house – I think is the rationale.

The lower cupboards, under the sink, are rotted out. The backsplash was not sealed properly and water leaked in behind. The counter top shows signs of (extreme) wear. The upper cupboards are intact but the insides of the doors have a colorful whirl of what I believe to be an exotic mold.

It may be best to junk the lot. Or, start making penicillin and selling it to my new neighbors.

The cooking room at the end of the kitchen was covered in a thick layer of grease. I mean everything: The walls, the floor, the windows and counter. Guns are usually packed in grease for shipping – perhaps the former renters were secret arms dealers?

I wrestled the exhaust hood from the wall. The dapper garbage man didn’t get covered in grease when he carried it away, a testament to his abilities. Using an entire bottle of kitchen cleaner and a green scrubbie thing, I went to work. As the bottle came up empty the small, depressing room was starting to look not bad. After lunch and a nap I returned with more cleaning products and a mop. The tile walls weren’t all that difficult to clean. A little elbow-grease (hehe) and they were reasonably clean.

The window frames were another story. Black crusty soot, the remnants of a thousand greasy meals and dust- laden Chinese air, covered the aluminum.

The renters, who I am starting to hate, did do one nice thing: The left a small knife in the dirty kitchen sink.  Said knife became my soot-fighting tool. After my assault I think the window frames are still structurally sound, but I may need to contact an engineer for confirmation.

I scrubbed the mysterious black crud off the tile floor and then called it a day. All in all, it looked a lot better. Then again, a properly place bomb would have made it look better.

What’s ahead?

When I return to Chez DIY from my week o’ work I will sand and refill the small holes in the walls, and hope against hope that the plaster in the larger holes has set. A contractor will do a couple of small jobs over the weekend. This will be his test. There are some tasks (plumbing, floor refinishing) that I can’t do. He seems a nice guy, we’ll see how his work looks.

Tagged as: arms dealers, bomb, China, chinese, clean, cleaning, grease, kitchen, knife, renters