housing inspection

Exhausted But Triumphant Productions presents:

Ten tips for making housing inspection preparation more fun:

1. Leave work early - no point in being tired when you start.
2. Arrive home to find your flatmate has taken it upon himself to degrease the oven/grill (a.k.a. the worst job in the world) before leaving for work. (AND he got marks off the stove that were there before I even moved in!) Yah for Phi!!
3. Invite (read: pay) an 11-year-old to help.
4. Have him do all the usual stuff you hate doing (vacuuming, mopping) while you focus on the details that property managers always pick up on.
5. Wash the windows and large glass sliding doors all around the house together using a tag-team style approach which involves constantly swapping the sponge and squeegie. (I did the top halves, he did the bottom halves. Lots of laughs. ^^)
6. Let him cut up the boxes for recycling because it makes him feel 'dangerous' (make it seem even more dangerous by giving safety demonstrations beforehand on the five easiest ways to accidentally slash yourself with a stanley knife).
7. Stop in the middle to go get a big bag of ice from the gas station & make enormous, icy cold drinks. Theorise on the possible plot direction of Harry Potter book 7.
8. Power clean for the next two hours and then walk around the house congratulating each other on how gorgeous everything looks.
9. Eat a late dinner (soooo good, because we were soooo hungry by then) and drive 11-year-old home WAY later than planned (school doesn't start again till next week).
10. Snuggle into clean cotten sheets & sleep.

And yes, of course, because the house looks perfect, the property manager did indeed ring and postpone the inspection! Now we have to keep it all pristine and pretty for the whole weekend. Ack! Still, it's going to look very impressive when the new boarder moves in on Sunday.