#lets bring that tag back we need some positivity here 😩

[falllpoutboy]

i need a cigarette

[clatterbane]

As it was, though? We got to pay for somebody to sand and refinish most of the floor surface in there, after Old Landlord came by unexpectedly to pick up mail and spotted that cat mark in the hall before I could get around to trying to remove it through less drastic measures myself. 🙃

Really wishing I had done it sooner--or at least that Mr. C had the presence of mind to quickly set something over it before opening the door. (At least the guy knocked...) But, shit happens. And that guy does have at least one cat himself, to know how they are.

It's also irritating that, with the mostly open floorplan, other than bedroom/office and the bathroom off the hall? They apparently couldn't just refinish the hall for that one spot. It was all the continuous floor area, not separated behind an actual threshold. 😑 Not sure how right that sounded, but okay.

I did get way more irritated earlier tonight, though. Come to find out, Mr. C made the mistake of trusting Landlord when he said he knew of somebody to do a final thorough clean in there.

We knew we were going to need to find somebody to handle the final moving-out sweep, with some more thorough cleaning involved. What I could handle was more limited than I would have liked, and he is frankly terrible at it besides having too much on his plate already. So, I found a couple of promising-sounding cleaning company prospects specifically listing packages like what we needed, and sent him links!

So yeah, he was staying busy enough and under enough pressure to get other shit taken care of, that he didn't get around to doing that. I know he's been under even heavier adulting pressure, trying to juggle so much crap on top of a demanding job--as the main interface person who is fluent in the local language and knows way more about how to even go about doing things here. With not the greatest executive function either, as a baseline.

I have felt bad about all that he was needing to try and take on at the same time--and under fairly heavy time pressure. Which has also thankfully let up some!

At any rate, it was evidently looking more tempting by that point to just take Landlord up on the offer of setting us up with a cleaning service. 😩

You can maybe guess how well that worked out.

Now, I kept posting photos showing the inside of Temporary Apartment the whole time we were there. Y'all got to see how far from terrible a cleaning job that should have been. Yeah, it needed a good final sweep-and-mop job--with better attention than I was physically able to give to dusting surfaces, and wiping down some hard surfaces like windows and cabinet doors that I couldn't reasonably take care of. The windows definitely needed a good washing.

Wasn't overly happy about needing to bring professionals in to take care of that stuff, but again? Shit happens.

But, you guessed it: it wasn't that simple! Apparently Mr. C got a pretty much last-minute quote from the bunch Landlord hired today. And was feeling some sticker stock, to say the least.

They were practically sounding like they needed to burn the whole place down and start over. We're talking Augean stables levels of work, according to their estimate (200 man hours minimum!!!)--naturally with the "URGENT work before Landlord really needs to move back in" price tag to match.

But yeah, there's not much we can really do, at this point. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Pretty much have us over a barrel, as they're (all 😑) no doubt aware. We could try and dispute the charges, if anyone here had the spoons to deal with all the extra aggro. But, if that were the case? We wouldn't be in this position at all.

Relieved to be getting out from under the whole mess, tbqh. And also biting back any "I told you so"s (even though I kinda did). He's the one actually paying through the nose to get shed of the situation. And I can well imagine that he is already feeling shitty, and kicking himself more than plenty over that misjudgment.

Once again, I find myself very glad indeed that we don't have another apartment under us, just part of the laundry and trash rooms. As my klutzy wheelie ass is in here at nearly 3 a.m., clunking over thresholds which I haven't gotten very good at judging yet, and dropping shit onto the hard floors. 😒

Betting some of the neighbors at Temporary Apartment really loved me! 💀 Never saw any of the infamous passive-aggressive notes, but it may have been just as well that we didn't have access to the housing association FB group there.

That's another way I've been able to start feeling more at ease, since we moved into this new place that's all ours--or, at least as much as any coop apartment can be. No need to worry nearly as much about scuffing up our own doorways, or bumping the chair into other surfaces it could potentially leave marks on, either! Or possible damage to the finish on what I'm fairly sure are also non-polyurethane treated wood floors in here!

(Seriously though, what kind of maniac leaves a kitchen floor unsealed against moisture?! That's nearly as bad as the '70s carpeting approach. Not that the kitchen floor was what we ended up on the hook for refinishing, but jfc.

We didn't manage to get the one in here done before moving in, just to be safe. But, whatever we or the cats could manage to do before we can swing it? There's nobody else to be breathing down our necks. Makes a huge mental difference every time I drip water or spill something on it, I tell you what.)