Our renters finally moved out of our Gilbert house so we headed down there Friday to check the place out and get some stuff done. We were planning to spend the night but that didn't happen. We were SO excited to be in Gilbert and be able to walk into our house and check it out. We pulled in and it looked good from the outside... but the real test was the inside. We were worried it was going to smell awful since the tenants cooked with a lot of curry. I am not a fan of the smell or taste of curry. However, we were pleasantly surprised that the house didn't smell bad at all. That's where the pleasant surprises ended unfortunately.
Our beloved house was covered in dirt, dirt, more dirt, trash, crayon, pen, pee, spills on the carpet, dust, food grime, and worst of all it was infested with roaches and beetles. I'll spare you the dozens of pictures I took of dead and living bugs. If you opened a cabinet or vent a roach or two jumped out, we saw many bugs crawling up the walls, on the floor etc. It was NASTY. I'm not sure if you remember a while back I did an AZ v MN living post and in that post I noted that there were no bugs in Gilbert. In the 2 years that we lived in the house I can honestly say that we killed maybe 4-5 bugs total. And it would be something like a little fly or maybe a spider. We had a lizard in the house once, but never a roach.
Aside from all of the bugs the house was filthy. Crayon on the walls in numerous places, lots of bright pink and orange carpet stains, bright pink something on the outside of our house, duct tape in the bedroom, nasty ceiling fans, standing water (with bugs of course) in the bathtub, etc. I won't go on and on about each and every single thing we found. I was blown away. I'm not sure how it is possible that they accumulated so much dirt and grime on everything from all the walls, doors, blinds and windows in the span of one year.
We were lucky in that we were able to find cleaners and an exterminator that were able to come out that same day. I don't know what we would have done had we not been able to find people to come out the same day. I can't imagine walking away from the house knowing the state it is in. Not at least we know it is half cleaned and the bugs are on their way to dead.
Normally I would say a post without pictures is worthless, but in this case I think a post without pictures is a gift. It was bad enough that Joe and I had to experience this grossness. We don't need to share it with others. Not to mention we brought Carter down with us. We held him all. day. long. Poor guy didn't get to stretch his legs and practice his walking - which he is doing really well with! Thankfully around 4:30 we went to pick out our new carpet and we were finally able to let Carter crawl, walk, and explore the store. He had a blast emptying my purse (we were the only people in the store), he put his face on lots of carpet samples, crawled all over the carpet samples, and practiced his walking a bunch.
The positives of the day were the cleaners, exterminator and finding carpet. We lucked out that we were able to find good people on such short notice. Oh and new locks! We've still got our work cut out for us but at least we're headed in the right direction. Joe will be in PHX again this upcoming Friday so while he cleans up the garbage they left and replaces some lights, etc. we're going to have the cleaners come back so the whole entire house will have been professionally cleaned top to bottom. Including all the base, doors and walls too. Then Joe is going to rip out all the nasty carpet and carpet pad and we're going to have the house sprayed for bugs again. A few weeks later the entire house will be painted and then get all new carpet pads and carpet.
We're thankful that we decided against hardwood floors. If we had gone with wood floors we would have already ordered them. Then we would have seen the house and thought OMG everything needs to be repainted and the carpets are nasty. I can honestly say that I would not move back into the house if we weren't putting in all new carpet and pads, professionally cleaning the whole place and painting everything. I want to move into a nice clean house that I can set Carter down on the carpet and let him explore and play. I know we're on our way to getting the house cleaned up but it might take a while longer for me to forget what we saw yesterday.
The moral of this long and gross story is to never, ever, ever, ever, no matter the circumstances, rent hour house. Especially if you plan to move back into it.
2012 is the Tara & Joe comeback year. By then we'll only have 1 house and live in it. (knock on wood that happens way before we get to 2012) We'll be like normal people! Only 1 set of utility bills, 1 house payment, etc. We're looking forward to that day!
