I know we said the kitchen was crossed off the list. And it is, in that it will not be getting any structural altering anytime soon. That said, we just couldn’t live with its current state of cleanliness.

The kitchen is gross but, thanks to our wonderful mothers, it’s now significantly less gross. To refresh your memory, the kitchen looks like this.

The 4 upper cabinets you see are the only 4 cabinets in the entire kitchen. The back of the island consists of a broken slab of green granite supported by strategically placed 2×4’s.

(pic taken prior to previous tenant moving out, so that’s not our stuff)

The other side of the kitchen is fridge, stove, spot where a dishwasher used to be, and sink. Yup. That’s it.

(again, pic taken prior to previous tenant moving out, so that’s not our stuff)

A full kitchen remodel isn’t in the cards just yet, so we need to be able to live with what we’ve got. Being the saints that they are, our mothers spent their last Saturday making our hovel of a kitchen sanitary.

This is the point where you may want to stop eating or drinking.

And when I say “cleaned”, I mean “cleaned”.

The fridge & stove were mostly disassembled and pulled away from the wall.

They vacuumed under & behind the appliances. (Which I’m about 87% positive they regret due to some unfortunate findings.)

I pretty sure this was taken just after the mummified mouse was found underneath the stove. That’s right folks – not only was there a plethora of mouse poop, crusty food, and dust bunnies – there was a bonus mouse mummy.

Side note: I once knew people who found a cat mummy under their porch. They left him there and he was named Winston, The Mummy Cat. He became the mascot for the house. Here’s to you Winston, The Mummy Cat. Our mummy mouse was not granted such an illustrious gesture. It was promptly thrown away sans name.

Squeaky clean stove!!!

Besides the mouse mummy, the freezer sported what looked like a fuzzy green throw rug or maybe forest moss.

Did you just throw up a little in your mouth? I know. I did too; a little. Ok fine. More than a little.

Whether it was penicillin cultures or frozen exploded pea soup, I didn’t have to find out. I saw it before and then I saw it after.

VOILA!  { { { cue choir of angels } } } I’d actually feel comfortable storing food in that now.

I love a good “Before & After.”

But I love a good “Before & After” most when I didn’t participate in the “During”.

Thanks Mom’s! I know you had to wear a hazmat suit for the better part of your Saturday but (for us) it was worth it.