We have been cleaning everything that we take out of our old apartment with heat and bleach. And that's just our clothing and dishes! Any furniture that leaves will be cleaned with bleach and pesticides. I'm pretty sure that I'll get cancer as a direct result of this experience. That said, I'm particularly cheery, considering.
I got a fantastic sleep last night. I was exhausted and went to bed at 8 pm with the girls. I woke up at 6:30 feeling totally refreshed and ready to fight the war. I am armed with a spray bottle of bleach, some rubber gloves and a can of killer pesticide. I am so freaked out that I bring other clothes to wear after I've cleaned. I carry them into the apartment inside of a dark trash bag that remains closed the entire time I'm there. I clean, shower, put on my clothes and leave. I also wipe my shoes off with a bleachy towel before going.
Jay, in contrast, woke up a hot mess! He called out of work and is in bed asleep. Last night he stayed up recleaning our clean clothes. He drank an awful lot of beer. Alcohol, sleep deprivation, work stress and a wife that is screaming at you all of the time for things that you had nothing to do with... does a sick man make. He dropped me at the apartment this morning to get some work done. Then he dropped Lila at school and ran Bunny over to CHOP for a follow-up x-ray.
When he came to pick me up he dissembled a bed and found 0 bedbugs. We STILL haven't seen one... which is fantastic. It means that our infestation is likely very small. We are throwing out our bed and just sleeping on our new mattress and box spring for awhile. I think that I"ll throw out our night stands as well. We're going to clean everything that can be taken apart. Trust me, nothing will leave our apartment until it's been coated in something cancer causing that is fatal to all insects.
I am serious.
This is a war.
I am a winner.
Here's a good youtube clip I found about bedbugs.
On a bright note, Bunny's arm is healing well. I feel so sorry for her because I promised that we'd get her ears pierced but we haven't been able to do it. I really don't want to pierce in a mall kiosk with a gun, but piercing salons can't pierce anyone under the age of 16 in Philadelphia and our pediatrician doesn't do it. She's so upset about this that I think I might just have to swallow my idealistic dreams of good health and take her over to the mall.
Wow... I was just catching up...
ReplyDeleteThere has to be some renters rights that should have the property management company and/ or owner expensing this rather than the tenants in the building. I mean, it's quite obvious with exterminators coming and going that you are not the only apartment with this problem.
So sorry that so many of your belongings have to be tossed... keep your chin up! You'll get through this! xoxo
Thanks Mandie!
ReplyDeleteI will catch up with you soon, though I have to admit that it makes things easier now that you've read my blog.
THIS is why I need YOU to get a blog, my friend.
And my mom says the same thing about the renters rights group. I will think about it more after things are done. Consider that when our smoke detector was out... it beeped for six months before they fixed it. We've been waiting for the microwave they ordered to come in since May. We have whole window panes sitting in our apartment because they FELL OFF THE WALL and they can't figure out a good way to fix them. I just don't have any faith that they'll do the job right, right this second. Which is totally what we need.
I definitely think that they owe us money. I think that they owe us money from lots of things... like the fleas that my INDOOR pets contracted after moving to Philadelphia and that cost us a thousand dollars to exterminate.
On the other hand, I just want to put this behind me.