Washing the house takes more than water
- Laura Moore: Housebroken
- July 22, 2020
- 791
The summer months are when houses get a bath, at least ours did. It was a first-time experience for our place.
Bathing a house calls for commitment, strength and endurance. Our shutters were particularly filthy. When I turned the hose on strong enough to remove the dirt that coated them, the force of the water sent those poor things flying off the house and into the flower beds. We were all in shock: me, our house, the flower beds. The hose didn’t care. My Taller Half laughed so hard he fell in the flower beds with the shutters. I will never again wash shutters.
This year our abode is not in too bad a shape, and there are no shutters with which to contend. My Taller Half had given me a rather wimpy hose and window and vinyl siding cleaner. Rain had not visited us for several days, so I took the opportunity to indulge the house with her bath. Rain usually does most of the work for us, but these past few rainy months have left their mark with mud splatters and wet grass clinging to our poor place. She is a rather vain domicile, and those mud splatters had embarrassed her enormously.
With hose in hand, I decided to start the project at the front of the house. That was the best choice I could have made. The front door was dirty and needed lots of scrubbing. The siding had been disrespected by every bird in the neighborhood and took intensive hosing to remove that mess. It was a much harder job than I had anticipated, though our house was totally delighted with her shiny self, and I was exhausted.
With honest plans to hose down the sides and rear of our place that day, I had to first rest up a bit. Actually, I never did get to finish that project. My Taller Half assured me that having the front of our house looking so great, the sides and back would not be noticed. He was right. As long as our place looked so great from the street, she wasn’t too unhappy with her dirty sides and rear.
Don’t think we’ll do any house bathing next year. The mulch we spread about this year has kept mud splatters at a minimum. Perhaps in a couple of years, we’ll give some thought to a house bathing ... or not.