Spring Cleaning

Even though the snow flies in Wisconsin, Rick and I have been busy with a little necessary spring cleaning.

Gladys' windows were filthy, to say the least.  Rick had to start with the eves since washing them later  would just drip dirty water on the clean windows.  While Rick scrubbed the eves, I followed behind with the hose to rinse them.  Then Rick scrubbed the eves troughs and downspouts to get the mold and pollen off them.   The whole process was quite a task, but once that all was done, we could move on to the windows.

The great thing about Gladys is that as it is a ranch-style house, we have no second-story windows to clean.  Rick took off the screens and gave them to me.  As he washed and squeegeed the windows, I scrubbed down the screens with the hose and dried them.  We also washed the window casings.  I took a bucket of water and washed the shutters around the front windows too. Thankfully, the sun was shining brightly, so the screens and shutters quickly dried.

Rick cleans the windows and sills at the front of the house.

What a difference washing the windows had on the light that now flows into the house! We knew they were dirty, but I did not realize they were THAT dirty!

Today we tackled washing the white vinyl fence that surrounds our back yard.  We love the fence, but it gets dirty and moldy without yearly scrubbing.  We were able to finish the inside of the fence today; however, washing it took us all morning to do.

We started with the side of the fence that faces south
so we could complete it before it was in full sun.

I spoke with our new neighbor Leslie to get permission to go into her back yard tomorrow so we can scrub that side of the fence.  She had no problem with that and promised to lock the dog door so their giant Mastiff, Bamma, would not come out to "help" us.  Mastiffs are wonderful, gentle dogs, but they are also large and muscular.  They are very loyal and protective of their human families, so Rick and I do not want to intrude on his territory when his owners are not present.

The back fence was the dirtiest thanks to the trees and the
critters that live in the trees.

We are happy with the results of our work today.  I did the ladder work, climbing up to wash the tops of the posts and the top rail of the fence.  While I did that, Rick took a soft scrub brush and a pail of soapy water to wash down the fence.  We found that car-washing soap works well on the fence.  Our thanks to Lindsay for giving us a bunch of round "scrubbies" for Christmas.  They worked well on the more stubborn stains on the fence, so it now gleams in the sun.

While he was in the scrubbing mode, Rick also washed
down the two sheds in the back yard. 

By noon tomorrow, we hope to have both sides of the fence clean and looking like a new fence again.  Then everything will look good and we can relax when Stephanie comes for a visit.