winter cleaning

Christina first started coming in September 2007.  

Christina would come every two weeks to clean my apartment.  Later, when I lost my job, I had her come once every three weeks.  She is very efficient.  In and out in three hours flat.  Sometimes less, rarely more. Now she doesn't come at all.

Christina is a feisty woman, originally from Mexico, but she has lived here a long time.  She has a great sense of style, a daughter who graduated college and is about to get married, a husband who works, and two homes.  I like Christina.  She is a hard worker, reliable, and knows her craft.  It wouldn't have felt right to fire her when I could no longer afford a cleaning person, but I didn't have to.  In June, Christina had to go to Mexico to visit her mother. I'm not sure if she decided to stay, change careers, or drop me as a client, but I never heard from her again.

So now I'm learning how to really clean.  

Today I am tackling my small kitchen (roughly 7' by 11') and my even smaller bathroom (roughly 7' by 5').  For inspiration and tips, I google How to Clean a Bathroom Floor and find some great videos from Better Home and Gardens. Turns out that 1/4 cup of vinegar, 1 T of dish soap, and 2 gallons of water do a great job. 

It takes me two and a half hours to do both rooms.  

my tiny bathroom 

my tiny kitchen

Two and a half long hours with no interruptions.  No phone calls.  No texts.  No emails. Not even a break.   And that doesn't include the top or inside of the refrigerator, the inside of the stove, or the inside of the toilet bowl (I couldn't open the Mrs. Meyers Toilet Bowl Cleaner I bought two days ago).

But I do have to wonder.  Am I that much less efficient than Christina?  

True, I have less experience.  But how could she, in just three hours or less: clean my bathroom, kitchen, living room, dining area, hall and Alexander's room; do four loads of laundry, fold and put it away; change the linens in both my room and Alexander's; vacuum everywhere;  and still have time for a few phone calls and a quick snack?

I still have a lot more cleaning left.  I figure I should be done by Valentine's Day. 

collateral damage or, my bathroom update

I used to love reading this book to Alexander.

It's about a mouse who wants a cookie. When he gets the cookie, he needs milk to go with it. When he gets the milk, he then needs a straw, and on and on until he needs another cookie.

A week ago my building management agrees I can get a new bathroom sink. I spend hours online and at Home Depot (twice) researching sinks. My research even includes a few calls to manufacturers and a couple of emails trying to find M's sink, only to discover it is no longer made and that the company (Cesame) is out of business.  I decide on a white Memoirs sink from Kohler; it looks far nicer in person. 

I learn too that faucets are sold separately, and finding the right one becomes another big project.  I enlist the help of two friends (thank G-d I have willing friends) and ultimately decide on these, also from Kohler:

But with a pedestal sink, I’ll have no room for storage. I have to order shelving.  I chose these minimalistic shelves from VIPP.

And now with a nice new sink, the ugly bathtub next to it will be magnified. My building won’t update my tub as this would require renovating the bathroom, something they only when a tenant moves out.  But I ask for a new showerhead and they surprisingly say yes.  So I find the king of showerheads and order this one from Speakman.

If I can't get a new bathtub, can I at least get a new door?  I think my building is sympathetic to the constant banging going on above me, as they say yes to this as well.  After vacillating for at least three days between frosted and clear, and researching the pros and cons of each, I decide on clear and go with this frameless door from Kohler. 

But then I need to get the Cleret Squeegee to keep the glass clean, a tool I had no idea even existed.  But I find the best squeegee maker (of course) and am even impressed with its aesthetics. I find out later it's been selected for inclusion in the Smithsonian's permanent design collection.

And finally I get a new Kohler towel rack to replace the junky one I have.  I have no idea why I didn't do this easy fix years ago.

On Monday, when the banging starts again, I will try to ignore it, and think instead of its collateral damage — the updated bathroom I will soon be getting.

yes, I can hear you now!

A gut-renovation is taking place in the apartment directly above mine.  Work begins at nine and ends at five.  I’m told it will take three to four months, which probably means double that.

This is what I hear for eight hours on a good day.

Today is not a good day.

another interview, sort of

A prestigious midtown address. An energetic office.  Women in expensive suits, fabulous furs and Louboutins.  This real estate company is professional and one of the country’s largest. Its beautiful design and large space suggests money.  Lots of it.

I arrive a few minutes early and the assistant to the woman (I’ll call her Jane) I’m seeing offers me tea and tells me Jane will be available soon. She hands me an impressive pamphlet with many one-pagers about Jane’s accomplishments and her uber team.  This is an immensely successful group.  It even has its own marketer and graphic designer.  And, everyone in the group is experienced and multi-lingual, equipped to handle international clients. I realize then that Jane is seeing me as a courtesy, not as a potential hire.

Thirty minutes past our meeting time, a rushed and stunningly dressed Jane emerges.  “I’m sorry I’m late.  But let’s get started; I only have a few minutes and then I have a Board meeting.”  I had contacted her.  I know her by reputation (she’s one of this city’s top salespeople), and by the fact that our children went to the same elementary school. We met a few times many years ago.

Jane is all business; there is no chitchat.  I’m not even sure she remembers me.  Probably not.  She begins by telling me she is not hiring.  “Everyone on my team speaks several languages.”  She also tells me that inventory is down 40% (I don’t ask from when as it doesn’t seem to matter).  She adds that business is very tough, ridiculously competitive, and no one has time to train.  (I don’t ask the obvious:  if inventory is down, doesn’t that mean business is slow, and then doesn’t that free up people to train others?). 

She tells me she’d be happy to make an introduction to someone else in her firm who maybe would interview me.  But she also tells me that new hires, without experience, usually come with a strong rolodex. “Do you have one?” I tell her I don’t.

In the course of our very brief conversation, I tell her I recently met with someone at company X and they are willing to take me on.  She says, “They hire everyone.  But that’s a good firm to start with.  They usually do studios and one-bedrooms,” implying — not townhouses and four-bedrooms like my group does.

Our meeting is over in fifteen minutes. I feel like I’ve just come from an interview with the admissions director at Harvard who tells me I’d be a good fit with DeVry.

wish I hadn't gone

Okay, so today I meet Andrea and her mom to go watch the Law & Order shoot.  We get there and there is no big trailer, no cameramen, and no stars.  Just ordinary New Yorkers walking around in the Arctic weather.

I come home.  Call the number on the poster the network had posted on trees.  I am told that, yes, they are shooting, but a block from where the sign said they'd be.

I put back on my mittens, hat, long shearling coat and Uggs.  I find the shoot.  I see an inviting set up for food beside a mound of off-color snow.

I see trailers.  I see people congregating and talking network-speak.  But I see no stars.  No fake guns.  No running around.  No Olivia. No Nick. No Amanda. Nada.

I see someone who looks official.  He tells me they are shooting some scenes inside a bar, and maybe when the sun goes down they'll begin shooting some outdoor scenes if I want to come back. 

I don't even consider it.  

glad I didn't go

It’s a frigid January night. 

Grey snow everywhere.  Icy sidewalks.  And I have nothing to write about.

I remember the sign my friend Andrea posted recently.  Law and & Order would be filming on her block beginning at ten tonight.  I love Law & Order, and Andrea lives less than five minutes from me.

But do I want to get up from my comfy sofa, at a time when I should be watching The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and contemplating sleep? Why not, I think?  At least I can blog about it.

I send an email to Andrea asking if she wants to join me at eleven tonight?  She doesn’t say no.  But she does say this:

You crazy kid you.  Are you sure they're filming tonight?  I thought it was tomorrow.  You just have to move your car tonight at 10pm.  The sign is attached, what do you think?

Hmmm.  I bet she’s right.  But just to be sure, I look at the photo again and call Vanessa, whose number is on the poster. Shooting is tomorrow.

Imagine how upsetting it would have been to stay up, fully dressed, at home until 11pm.  Then, put on all my heavy winter gear and trek three blocks in the sub-zero cold only to see people moving their cars.

Thank you Andrea.