The Front Porch Swing

[dpenning]

I used to have my landlady paint my apt walls with semi gloss so I could wash them. She loved it and and said my walls always looked so nice compared to the other apts. (painted.with flat finish) Rules were made to be broken !

LOL! I have large drooly dogs. In my last house I when I was single I used high gloss in the family room and kitchen. Great for scrubbing. I still managed to scrub through it occasionally when I didn't see the drool slingers until they dried silvery. Hubs won't let me do that any more but boy it sure made it easy to keep the walls clean!

 

[Cearbhael]

LOL! I have large drooly dogs.  In my last house I when I was single I used high gloss in the family room and kitchen.  Great for scrubbing.  I still managed to scrub through it occasionally when I didn't see the drool slingers until they dried silvery.  Hubs won't let me do that any more but boy it sure made it easy to keep the walls clean!

Well, what is better, stained flat painted walls with dark areas around every electric switch from dirty paws (human and animal) dingy corners that people can't keep there hands off of, scuff marks from feet, shoes etc...OR
CLEAN walls because you can wash the grime off!!!

 

[Blooie]

Um, wash the walls? We're supposed to wash walls, too?

 

[LBejaran]

Um, wash the walls?  We're supposed to wash walls, too?  

I don't wash the walls, either. I just wipe them down with my hand before painting over the worst smudges.

 

[perchie.girl]

Um, wash the walls? We're supposed to wash walls, too?

I wash doors and floors and wood work but I have never had a washable wall. I have wiped off splashes of soda or whatevers....

Now if the walls were semigloss that would be a difference.

deb

 

[vehve]

I don't think it's possible to touch up a ceiling even with the exact same paint. The angle it reflects light in makes the tiniest differences come out, so if it hasn't been painted at the same time, the color will of have changed when you try to re-paint a spot. Plus, you will get a thicker layer at that spot, so it will change it too.

 

[dpenning]

Um, wash the walls? We're supposed to wash walls, too?

Mostly if you have large dogs that drool and shake their head so your walls glitter like a disco ball when it dries.

 

[wyoDreamer]

OK - story time ... we haven't had one in a while.
When I was in college, there was a retired math teacher who hired a student every summer to do a spring cleaning on their house, it was a 2 week position and he paid 2x the minimum wage. He used that 2 weeks as a mini vacation and went fishing, worked in his wood shop, just basically got away from the house every day. His wife was sick and couldn't cook or keep house and he was doing it all by himself. He was not much of a housekeeper so a thorough cleaning was needed! One summer, I was hired to do this job. I started at the front door and moved on through the house room by room. She visited with me as I cleaned and we reminisced, told stories and laughed. As I finished the first room, the living room, I did a quick wipe of the wall around the light switch - the walls were actually white not yellow! Years of cigarette smoke had built up on the walls. I couldn't in good conscious leave a white spot on the wall, so I stripped everything off the walls and washed them down. I sprinkled baking soda on the couches and vacuumed them off really good to get rid of the stale odor. This was way before Fabreeze was invented. He couldn't believe the difference when he got home that evening. It was as if I had turned on a light in a dark room.
The kitchen was really scary - my shoes stuck to the floor as I walked through. First thing I did was to wash the windows - Oh My - sunlight made it look even worse. I used Pine Sol and water 50/50 that I put on a 1 foot square section of the linoleum and let it soak while I scrubbed another section. I used 2 buckets of plain old water to pull up the Pine Sol and dirt on each square. After scrubbing the cabinets, the stove, the counters and everything on them, I washed the floor 2 more times.
The 2 week job turned into 2 1/2 months, as they kept finding more for me to do.

 

[LBejaran]

OK - story time ... we haven't had one in a while.
When I was in college, there was a retired math teacher who hired a student every summer to do a spring cleaning on their house, it was a 2 week position and he paid 2x the minimum wage.  He used that 2 weeks as a mini vacation and went fishing, worked in his wood shop, just basically got away from the house every day.  His wife was sick and couldn't cook or keep house and he was doing it all by himself.  He was not much of a housekeeper so a thorough cleaning was needed!  One summer, I was hired to do this job.  I started at the front door and moved on through the house room by room.  She visited with me as I cleaned and we reminisced, told stories and laughed.  As I finished the first room, the living room, I did a quick wipe of the wall around the light switch - the walls were actually white not yellow!  Years of cigarette smoke had built up on the walls.  I couldn't in good conscious leave a white spot on the wall, so I stripped everything off the walls and washed them down.  I sprinkled baking soda on the couches and vacuumed them off really good to get rid of the stale odor.  This was way before Fabreeze was invented.  He couldn't believe the difference when he got home that evening.  It was as if I had turned on a light in a dark room. 
The kitchen was really scary - my shoes stuck to the floor as I walked through.  First thing I did was to wash the windows - Oh My - sunlight made it look even worse.  I used Pine Sol and water 50/50 that I put on a 1 foot square section of the linoleum and let it soak while I scrubbed another section.  I used 2 buckets of plain old water to pull up the Pine Sol and dirt on each square.  After scrubbing the cabinets, the stove, the counters and everything on them, I washed the floor 2 more times.
The 2 week job turned into 2 1/2 months, as they kept finding more for me to do. 

That is amazing! I can kinda see how they wouldn't realize how bad it had gotten but whoa! That must have been one heck of a job.

Mom and I used to clean a blood-testing lab every day for months when my grandma was alive. We'd leave at 10 pm and get home around 12 smelling like Fabuloso and Windex. It was how we paid for an extra caretaker to watch over Grandma in the evenings when Mom was working at Dillards. She was (still is) working full time as a teacher, so she was working about 70 hours a week to keep everyone and everything afloat. She still hates the smell of Fabuloso!

I would love to be able to use PineSol right now. At least then it would feel like I'm getting through the old cat urine and weird l greasy looking stains in the concrete floor. I have to use Simple Green, though, since it doesn't have any weird chemicals or ammonia. I'm gonna have to scrub and mop that floor at least once a week for months to really get any left over odors out. Blech!

 

[dpenning]

That is amazing! I can kinda see how they wouldn't realize how bad it had gotten but whoa! That must have been one heck of a job.

Mom and I used to clean a blood-testing lab every day for months when my grandma was alive. We'd leave at 10 pm and get home around 12 smelling like Fabuloso and Windex. It was how we paid for an extra caretaker to watch over Grandma in the evenings when Mom was working at Dillards. She was (still is) working full time as a teacher, so she was working about 70 hours a week to keep everyone and everything afloat. She still hates the smell of Fabuloso!

I would love to be able to use PineSol right now. At least then it would feel like I'm getting through the old cat urine and weird l greasy looking stains in the concrete floor. I have to use Simple Green, though, since it doesn't have any weird chemicals or ammonia. I'm gonna have to scrub and mop that floor at least once a week for months to really get any left over odors out. Blech!

Can you use simple solution? It does wonders on pet odors.