I'm in the process of cleaning the sploshes and splatters of paint from the floors of each room... I actually made the discovery that the blades that I bought for the job are worse than useless - the best method is to wet the 'problem area', which incidentally happens to translate to 'the whole house' and rub (vigorously) with a scourer. I did that between 8am and 1pm last Saturday and I only managed to finish the kitchen. After planning to start from the bedroom so that we could gradually move in our clothes and stuff into this very essential living area of the house, I decided last minute that I'd rather have the kitchen all nice and clean first. Go figure. But despite feeling exhausted after a whole morning on my knees (ok on my rubber kneecaps) and perched dangerously high on the (thankfully sturdy) ladder cleaning on top of each cupboard, I am now one step closer to having an actual working kitchen. Oh yes, I forgot to mention that since the existing oven wasn't working, we had to buy one. Our new Siemens oven will be delivered in four weeks' time, meaning five or six weeks by Maltese standards.. you'll see. The microwave we bought was in stock though, so as long as I can come up with dinners cooked solely on the hob, in my slowcooker and in the microwave (not!), for the first month after we move in, we'll be fine. In case of emergency, there's always mother-in-law's oven next door :-)
This week will be spent repeating last Saturday's procedure in all the other rooms of the house. Yesterday, I managed one corner, I kid you not, of the bedroom, just so as to stop feeling guilty about 'not even having started cleaning the bedroom yet'. Then the husband came back from the office (yes, Sunday morning at the office) and instead of cheering me on, he lured me away from housework with a 'let's go watch a movie and then we'll go out' offer. I wasn't complaining and really enjoyed the fact that we spent some time together. Until I get back to the cleaning though, I need to organise my thoughts on how to equip the kitchen with the basic essentials. I think I'm pretty much covered when it comes to utensils and food processing equipment - I got my slow cooker, Magimix food processor, Kenwood hand blender, digital weighing scales, toaster and electric kettle, rice cooker (from Australia, courtesy of Auntie Anne), waterless pots and pans, non-stick dishware, most (if not all) of Tescoma's range of utensils (thanks to the mother-in-law who even bought doubles of some items bless her), enough chopping boards to last me a lifetime (most came free with this and that), and about three full sets of professional knives (it took me a whole morning just to clean them of their very annoyingly sticky labels). So we got the tools - what's left is the basic cupboard staples.. the spices and herbs, the sugar and coffee, the oils, flours, pastas.. you can't just pop out to the nearest town in the middle of making dinner just cause you realise that you're missing an ingredient! Yes, the husband and I need to go on a shopping trip, a shopping expedition to be exact, to my favourite supermarket and fill up our cupboards with ingredients and supplies. That will take place as soon as we're over this verrry busy period at his office.. a wife can only hope!
