Oven Cleaner

I know that i should be posting pictures from graduation and talking about what a fabulous weekend i had with my family...... but instead i feel the need to write about oven cleaner

Our movers come tomorrow and since everything is pretty much packed, i have begun the deep- cleaning of my home. I have lived and cook and baked in the same house for two years now and have yet to clean my oven a single time. It has become more and more dirty with overflowing casseroles and falling of pizzas through the racks. Several months ago i bought all of the proper equipment (cleaner, sponges, rubber gloves, etc) to give my oven a good cleaning but managed to always find a reason not to do it despite the smell of burning bits every time i use it.

Today, no longer able to push the oven cleaning to another day, i donned my gloves, spread newspaper over the kitchen floor, held my breath, and sprayed the noxious foam into my oven. After an hour in the backyard raking pine needles, i filled a bucket with water and went to work.

With the first swipe of the sponge i was amazed, enthralled, and totally enamored with cleaning my oven. The grease, grime, and ugliness was so easily wiped away and the beautiful oven beneath shined. I spent a happy 30-45 minutes washing the cleaner out of my oven and watching the smooth blue surface reappear.

I know i am crazy. I know my crazy OCDness is why i loved cleaning my oven today... but for all of those other cleanliness OCDers out there, go feel the joy of a good oven cleaning. It is truly amazing and oh, so satisfying.

More Michigan Pics

The beach in Grand Haven, I just had to take a picture of the sign!

Nice open layout on top floor, This is Hannah's sweet room

Some great built-ins on the bottom floor

I am adding some more pics of the new house at the request of many viewers

On our last couple of days in Michigan we drove around to get to know the area, visited one of the four (that i know of) malls, and visited the beach town of Grand Haven.

We are told that after school gets out, all of the beach towns (7 of which are withing 30-60min) come alive with festivals, active boardwalks, and fantastic restaurants. It was a little quiet this time of year but Lake Michigan is beautiful with miles of sandy beach.

Success!!

Chris and I are in Michigan. We flew to Chicago on Monday and stayed over night with a friend of mine before driving the three hours to Grand Rapids, MI the next morning. Things happened quicly once we arrived starting with an appointment with our lender (for which we were 15 min late b/c we didn't realize that GR is an hour later than Chicago!). When we were done signing about a million papers, we were off to look at houses and saw six the first day.

We liked a couple on Tuesday but Wednesday afternoon we saw three great houses.
(in house hunter's style, HGTV)
1. a 1940's super charming house with wood floors, a huge walk-in closet, next to the Great River and an amazing park, but only had 1 &1/2 baths and a 1 car garage

2. A newer home with a great layout, big kitchen, and everything we were looking for but had the smallest backyard and no deck and was next to a borderline neighborhood.

3. An older home that was completely renovated and had a great yard w/deck in a fantastic neighborhood but was priced 10,000 more than the others

So what did we pick? Well, we had one in mind but wanted to sleep on it. On our way home thought, our realtor called and said that there were two other offers in and if we really wanted it we had better submit ours that night!!!

With no time to sleep on it or even discuss it over dinner, we decided to go for it! We put an offer on house #2 and it was accepted!

We are so happy and can't wait to move into our new home!