Power Toys

As it turns out, Mr. Highness is a Gadget Man. He likes household electronic toys. A year or so ago he bought a Spot Bot (I think it's a Hoover), which is a great little gadget that helps clean upholstery, carpets, pillows, mattresses, couches, and pretty much anything fabric that you can't toss into a clothes washer.

Sunday he bought two gadgets. We needed a new hedge trimmer since our old one died in the middle of my front hedges being cut. I wasn't even half-way done and the stupid thing whirred and burned out. The second thing he bought was something he's been talking about for over a year. A steam cleaner. Yes, a steam cleaner. According to him it's the first and last cleaner you'll ever need. It cleans floors, walls, toilets, sinks, bathtubs, windows, upholstery, mattresses, microwaves, ovens, tables, and more. Like, anything that won't melt from steam.

So far I've figured out how to wash the wood floors, and I have to admit it worked pretty well on them. It doesn't have the same shine as when I use my oil soap, but they're pretty clean. I still need to go over the floors with a vacuum because of cat hair and the girls hair and doll hair. And of course it won't pick up crumbs or flakes. Something that I did get excited about was how it easily loosened and then lifted some stickers that had been stuck to the floor for ages that I couldn't even scrape off with a box cutter. It also cleaned my kitchen wood block table enough for me to start painting it.

Next I'm going to try to figure out how to get it to clean the oven and then the microwave. My kitchen is pretty much immaculate except for those two things. I don't count my crappy toaster oven because it literally fell apart on me this morning. Yes, it fell apart.

Now, wouldn't you think that a hedge trimmer is a guy's gadget? You know, being a power tool and all? It turns out that's MY power toy. I also quite enjoy my yard edger/weed whacker. I love the feeling of cutting things and shaping them and having bushes and other garden-type things go from looking over-grown, almost-overgrown, and weedy to trim and clean lines. I'm a sucker for clean lines. I also like the freshly-cut branches scent that just smells so clean and sweet.

That's sort of why I'm painting my kitchen table, so that it looks cleaner and brighter and then hopefully the kitchen will look cleaner and brighter. I'm using a lovely eggshell white on the table an so far it looks very nice. It needs a second coat on the top and I still have to do the legs but it already looks good. I was thinking about spicing it up a little more though, because I'd love to tile the top of the table and then put some sort of glaze over the top to make it flat and even. Then we could get some stools to slide under the table and it could be more than a storage space in the kitchen, but actually usable. We do use it to put party foods and gifts on when we have parties, but the rest of the time it becomes a catch-all for everything else that doesn't have it's own space. Most kitchens have a junk drawer. My house has had a junk table. That's over, starting last night.

With that, I'm off to do some more home improving. I think I'll work on the table.