Clean!

Today's calmer winds were all we needed to get moving on our monster cleaning project. The day-long affair involved cleaning every - and we mean every - interior surface in our rolling home. Though we're exhausted, we're enjoying the payoff of today's team effort: Everything sparkles! And, the place smells great. We're trying not to think about how short-lived this condition is sure to be.

We put a previously little-used tool through its paces today, and are quite pleased with the results. Our moose came with a central vacuum system, but we never really used it. It's not that we never vacuum, mind you. We have a nifty lightweight Eureka that does such a great job, so we never had any reason to open the box with all of the central vac parts. The only part of the built-in system we've used is the "crumb catcher" under the kitchen cabinet. Now, that thing is handy! We just sweep everything in that general direction, give the switch a tap with a toe and the crumbs disappear.

One 90-something degree day in Alpine a couple of weeks ago we decided to give the central vac a try. The Eureka generates a goodly amount of heat, so it was time to try a different solution. I pulled out all of the parts and put them together while Paul stepped outside. Just as I got ready to plug the contraption into its magic outlet, I heard Paul yell, "Stop! Stop! Stop!"

In a microsecond, I flashed back to our walkthrough when we took delivery of our new moose almost 18 months ago. I remembered our trusty guide showing us where the central vac "box" where all the dirt goes was in the basement and telling us their was one bag in there and we'd need to get more. Of course, we never put vac bags on our shopping list. Actually, we had never even opened the "box". Apparently, Paul had the same thought moments earlier and decided to check and see if a year-and-a-half of crumb catching had filled our one and only bag.

I brought my plugging in efforts to a halt as Paul stepped in the door. In his hand was a clear plastic bag containing three central vac bags and an instruction manual. (Of all the instruction manuals that came with this moose, we never really missed that one.)

Paul started with the good news. We didn't just have one bag. We had three. The bad news? Our disappearing kitchen crumbs had piled up in the "box", which had obviously never been prepped for delivery.

We shared a laugh and Paul took a few minutes to clean up the mess and install our first bag. A mere 18 months after we moved in, our central vac was good to go.

Now we're wondering what else we've yet to discover about this not-so-new house. Meanwhile, we have its great big outside to clean.

Can't wait!