Stained

Following last week's power outage, the cleaning and repair of the Unsellable Condo started in earnest this weekend. The cleaning girl, who was supposed to have started Wednesday, called and cancelled at the last minute, asking if Thursday would be acceptable. I agreed, but on Thursday I called her and said that due to some unexpected business at work, I couldn't meet her there that day to let her in and get her started. We settled on Saturday.

So on Saturday, she vacuumed and shampooed the carpet, lifting up a lot of the greasy marks left behind by the previous tenant. But she wasn't able to lift off three stains - one which looks like mustard, one which looks like ketchup, and one fluorescent pink one that looks like who-knows-what. That latter color does not abide in Nature. If anyone has suggestions on how to get mustard (and other) stains out of carpet, I'd love to hear them, or else I'm going to have to re-carpet the condo.

On another note, while I was at the condo with the cleaning girl, I couldn't help but noticing that the contractors, who were supposed to have started on the repair work mid-week, hadn't even been by the place yet. Angry, I called the foreman and expressed my disappointment that the work hadn't even started yet, despite the fact that he's already been paid. "Yeah, I know," he replied, "We got behind on another job we took on" (another job he started after he was supposed to have started mine). "But don't worry - we'll get a jump on it tomorrow."

I told him it was too late to get a jump on it - he's already behind. All he could do was try and maybe catch up. But I bit my words before they came out sounding too harsh - I was angry - and just told him I needed the job done as soon as possible.

Meanwhile, back at the house, I haven't had someone so much as even come look at the place in four weeks now. My realtor held an open house today and two people did show up just as the open house started, although briefly. But that's a 100% improvement over the last open house ("200% improvement," the agent said).

I'm almost half-way through my six-month offer period to transfer to Portland, but if I can't sell my house, I won't be able to move. And if I can't move because of the economic disasters caused by eight years of the Bush Administration, I'm gonna be one ticked-off Buddhist.