Today was the day the world came to see us.
We’d asked our house cleaner to skip our house on what would have been her first March visit – of course, we paid her because we’d cancelled the session. And after that, she couldn’t come because of the shelter-in-place – we kept her on retainer, though, and paid as if she were working for us.
Last week, she texted and said that the relaxation of the shelter-in-place meant that she could clean our house today if we were willing. We talked about what she’d have to do to make us comfortable (and vice versa) and agreed to have her come over and clean today.
Her usual visit is just about two hours; we planned to leave as soon as she got here and stay out until she left (in other words, we were going to follow our usual Tuesday routine of a walk and grocery shopping). But she told us she’d need more time than usual to clean everything; I still hoped to stay away until she was finished, but while we were out, Rupert, the guy doing our deck repair and refinishing said he wanted to come over about noon and finish up.
We went home a little before noon; our housekeeper was still working but she was nearly finished – we stayed outside as much as we could until Rupert arrived and started removing boards from the deck and we had to retreat inside.
After a few minutes, she left and we took a look around – even though we’d been keeping things cleaner than usual, I could tell the difference that a professional makes!
Rupert finished an hour or so later – but he was outside and we were inside, so all was well, and with any luck, we won’t see him again for several years. :-)
I have to admit that having someone else in the house was a little unsettling – but I expect we’ll do it again in two weeks.
We had to get an HVAC system replaced with similar discomfort plus added heat.
We out our wonderful cleaning women on hold until July 1. Still a little nervous. But boy do I miss them.