Monday, August 25, 2008

Arachnobanhammer

My goal for the week, in addition to embarking on some quality time with the Monkey, (and possibly teaching him to tie his shoes) is to de-scarify the laundry room. It's a seldom-used space in this little house. I'm down there maybe once or twice a week doing laundry and beyond that, I don't think about it.

And it shows. Voici, the "before" pictures...


...that's a sump pump in the corner (one of three that live downstairs with me). And that, over the sink, is one of two non-replacement windows in the house. I won't be really dealing with that just now. What you can't see is that there's a power strip bolted to the wall to the right of the washing machine...with a big orange extension cord tacked up to the rafters and extending across the room. Hello fire hazard!!


What you also can't see are the spider webs...and the spiders who both made them and have been actively calling them home. More than one person has skittered out of my laundry room completely creeped out by the spiders. In truth, that was a big part of the motivation for dealing with the place...

Today, during the initial clean out, I became TALL-L DESTROYER OF (spider)WORLDS. I bludgeoned three spider-crickets with an umbrella and squashed the littler ones with my shoes. I discovered that my dryer has probably been venting into my laundry room directly since I moved in due to a completely ripped exhaust tube...and, for added fun, the whole place needs new baseboards (and some *serious* caulk).

I know I'll be doing my best to shore everything up, but I'm not sure how far I'll go with the pretty. I guess we'll see how things go and how energetic I feel. There are shelves to be built...that's a must. And I'm still contemplating laying down a coat of paint on the floor...but that could be a costly, yucky venture that may not be worth it. I guess we'll wait and see.

For now, however, the spiders are gone and the initial clean out is done. I can stand in the room and it doesn't feel like it's moving.

Take that, arachnoids!!

3 comments:

towwas said...

I don't really mind spiders (although I don't know how big or numerous yours are), but I HATE basement crickets. They are horrible. They make me want to shriek and climb on things. (Or go find a shoe/fly swatter/newspaper.) Ugh.

MonkeyMom said...

Yeah, the jumpy things bug me (har!) more than the crawlies...but I just killed everything for good measure. Seemed the right thing to do.

Labelmaker said...

basement crickets are NASTY!

Ew ew ew.

They are the same as, or are related to, cave crickets, which will jump into your camp fire to get warm and then jump right back out, sometimes right onto your lap. Or in your hair, or on the back of your neck.

*shudder*

So glad there are a few less in the world . . . thanks to TallL - The Destroyer.