Spring cleaning

Ugh.

So the H arrived on Sunday, and since Tuesday we have been spending all our time shopping for, and cleaning the apartment.

I had warned the H over the phone before his arrival that we should probably hire a cleaning lady (people tell me that it will probably be in the $60-70 range for a studio). The H kept saying, "Oh, it can't possibly be THAT bad; you'll see, we'll clean it ourselves and save that $70 for something else, like a new air conditioner!"

Well, when he went to look at my apartment on Monday, he was like, "Oh, crap." It was unfortunately quite overwhelmingly dirty. But seeing as he doesn't believe in hiring cleaning ladies, he was quite stubborn about us cleaning it ourselves (to my extreme dismay).

We spent several mornings going to places like Target, Bed, Bath & Beyond, and Ikea. In the afternoons, we clean. I have to be honest and say it is mostly the H who cleans, as I have a tendency to take many cigarette breaks (also because of the severe amount of dust in the apartment, I get massive allergy attacks the minute I touch something in there). Anyway, it took about 2 days, but we managed to completely clean every inch of the bathroom - and it looks really good! It is all white and shiny just like it used to be. Last night we got part of the kitchen done.

While it's nice to be making progress in the apartment, the H and I keep saying every few minutes, "Dude, what is this guy's PROBLEM???" It is so obvious that the guy has not cleaned in like, 3 years. On Tuesday we started throwing out a whole bunch of his stuff and when we went through the kitchen sink cabinet, we found all of my cleaning products that I had left behind. They were all clustered together way in the back gathering dust. I was kinda like, "Wow, so he basically just never cleaned ever since he came into the apartment! My cleaning products have not been used since last time I lived here!" (And believe you me, I left a LOT of cleaning products behind).

The most disgusting part has been cleaned - the toilet. In fact, we even bought a new toilet seat because it was just so gross. Yesterday when we cleaned the kitchen, there was like some weird moldy dirt all around the kitchen sink and when we cleaned the stove, there was like all this dried food stuck everywhere, including INSIDE the stove top - like dried pasta, garlic, etc. "Ugh," I had said, while vacuuming the inside of the stove top, "no wonder this guy has been single for 3 years. He has some seriously questionable hygiene. Like, okay, so you don't like to clean - at least hire a cleaning lady to come once a week or something. I mean, who can LIVE in this kind of a mess? You have to wonder how often he showers!" To which the H replied, "Well, considering how dirty the bathtub and shower were, I'd have to say he must have showered regularly, but maybe it wasn't very efficient considering the build up of dirt in there..."

The guy still has not contacted me yet regarding the rent (and last month's ConEd bill, which I just received, for $81 from March 14 - April 14; I'm going to have to ask him to pay like $65 of it, since I wasn't really there until April 14th when H and I went over to check out the damage. Earlier this week though, I did get an email from him saying he was just recovering from pneumonia. I sort of feel sorry for him, because he obviously has been very sick and has financial problems - I received a bunch of mail for him, and among them were tons of credit card and bank bills as well as several doctor's bills and medical lab bills - so he wasn't lying when he said he had been sick with heart problems previously. At the same time, from my point of view, it's kind of like, "Well, it's not really my problem, considering the mess you left me with, plus the money you owe me." So most likely, the guy really did have pneumonia, which I am very sorry about, but it's also like, "Dude, you could have at least contacted me earlier, and where is my money? It's been like, 3 weeks now..."

The other piece of good news is that H managed to put part of my Ikea Billy bookcase together. We also opened our new joint account with HSBC US (we already are with HSBC in France). All that is left now is to install some new Ikea furniture (well, not furniture, but we bought some shelves for the bathroom and kitchen) and wait for H's social security and green card - he is pretty much blocked from doing anything in the US until he gets that social security number.

Anyway, we are off to my apartment again...hopefully it won't be too much of a nightmare - we have to take my mom's car in as we need to bring a bunch of stuff with us and bring back all the cleaning supplies for my mom's cleaning lady tomorrow. The problem is that the Pope is visiting New York right now, so there will most likely be some major nightmare traffic going on. Oh, well. At least progress is being made and that is always good. (But still, who DOES THAT to an apartment that they SUBLETED?!)