Walt Disney 2020
Continued Day 1: Our evening, home dismay, injuries, and midnight trips
After picking up our rental car and putting our address in the GPS, we were on our way to the house and the excitement was building. It was about 20 minutes away from the airport, which wasn't that bad.
We arrived to our new home away from home a little after dark. We walked down the sidewalk to the entrance door on the side area of the house, the light was flickering like a haunted house and we located the lock box hanging. Wait, where is my "house" folder? I'm frantically looking all over the place for it. It contained my instructions on checking in along with the code to open the lock box. I couldn't find it anywhere. Is it possible I left it somewhere? At home? The airport? I wasn't sure but I "thought" I remembered the code and gave it a try. I was wrong. Then I tried again. Still wrong. I knew it was a combination of 4 different numbers, I just wasn't sure what order they went in. The hubby gave me a "move over and let me try" look and I moved aside. Meanwhile, I tried the door knob...and boom! It was unlocked. I thought that was really weird and knew that you are to lock up upon leaving the home.
I was the first to walk in. I'm feeling the side of the wall for a light switch. I felt nothing. Sakari went around the open door and felt the other side. As she was doing that I felt the floor move out from underneath me. I felt myself lose my footing and I was going DOWN! I swear it all happened in slow motion. Every second felt like minutes. I tried again to find the floor. No luck, I hit something else and before i knew it I was laying on the hard ceramic floor not understanding what just happened.
At that point Sakari had found the light on the opposite side of the door opening and the hubby was rushing to my rescue. Here's the reason for my fall in the dark....
Now why would anyone do such a thing? Either keep some type of light on in the house for new people to be able to see there's a drop off there or have a light switch on the other side to immediately be able to turn on the light and see your new surroundings! Ugh...I would pay the price for this for sure.
The hubby helped me up and I was still in shock. I didn't feel any pain in my bad ankle with plates and screws but I did hit various parts of my legs and foot.
After getting up, it was time to explore the home. I was super excited but that excitement turned into dismay quickly.
This house was filthy. The floors weren't swept, the carpet not vacuumed, food all over on the floor and the tables/counters, beds not made, clothes laying around the house, trash all over the bedrooms, a huge pile of towels and blankets laying in the garage and so much more. Was someone still staying here? The hubby yelled out "HELLO????" There wasn't an answer. We were almost afraid to proceed throughout the house. But in the end, no one was there.
I honestly just didn't know what to do at that point. I knew there was no way for us to stay there with it like that. Do we find another place to stay? Do we just go somewhere for the night? Do we stay up half the night cleaning everything? I was afraid to touch anything quite honestly. I sure wasn't feeling the greatest about any lingering COVID that might be around the house at that moment.
I've never seen Sakari so let down and disgusted at a place we've stayed in. She DID NOT want to stay at all. But, she did get a look at the pool all lit up that night and said "well, this is the best part about the house and I would like to swim".
Here's a look around the place upon our arrival. Now just know that I didn't get pictures of quite everything and it was just so nasty that I completely forgot what I had taken pictures of and what I hadn't.
Walking into the main dining room there was food on the table, floor and seats along with dirty floors from walking in and out.
Heading into the living room there was a unswept dirty floor of course and a huge area rug that was filthy and not vacuumed, various items laying on the floor and even broken items.
Next up would be the kitchen. The floor was dirty, the trash wasn't taken out, there was food on the counters and floor, the stove had food and splatter on it, dirty dishes and even "clean" dishes in the cabinets with food still on it. There was used food in the refrigerator (opened), wine and Crown in the freezer, opened drinks and food in the pantry. And this fruity pebbles cereal would be EVERYWHERE around the house and I mean everywhere!!! Kitchen, dining, all bedrooms whether carpeted or not and even the bathrooms. Like if my kids would ever just walk around the house with cereal in every room just spilling it everywhere I would just flip my lid! It was quite obvious that these parents allowed their children to disrespect this home...but then again, it was obvious to me that the parents did the same thing. I guess they led by example.
The small dining room off to the kitchen had food on the table, under the table and globs of hair, that looked like someone had pulled out of a brush, woven into a knitted dolly sitting on the table. I would find globs of hair everywhere around the house. Did the females not understand what a trash can was or even the toilet? So disgusting it gave me chills. There was also game pieces all over the place including the bedrooms, dining room and loft area. Nothing was put away and one game had the box lid on the floor and torn up.
Globs of hair sitting on the steps would not be the exception either
The master bedroom down stairs would have trash on the floors, dirty floors, socks, ping pong balls, a used toothbrush in the shower, some feminine wipes (used) laying on the towel shelf with an open container laying on the toilet with used up toilet paper rolls, stained mattress covers and a hand towel laying across the head of the bed...which I did NOT want to know what may have been on that. Oh and don't forget a glob of hair sitting in the corner of the shower.
Now I was seeing all the dusty greenery that everyone was talking about. There was A LOT of it around the house. Honestly, they needed a good cleaning company to be coming in to clean this place. They could come in once a month and do a deep cleaning by removing the greenery and hosing them down. They needed all the curtains to be taken down and washed throughout the house. They were dirty and splattered (kitchen) and dusty as well. Little things that could spruce up this beautiful home.
One thing I have to mention, that goes along with the deep cleaning of this house is that I can almost guarantee that had I NOT walked into such a filthy house upon arrival that the person they have cleaning this house between customers is NOT doing their job at all! I can guarantee they are probably wiping down what they see dirty and quick sweep and doing the laundry. If you were actually coming in and cleaning and especially sanitizing for COVID between visitors, you would not have a chance to accumulate any of this (below) in between stays.
Yes, that was mold growing in the grout in the shower!
The garage had piled up laundry and I would find the mop broken in half. The washer and dryer were also located out in the garage and there was a cooler full of trash and also a trash can that no one had emptied.
The next thing I wanted to bring to your attention is the garage windows. We did not discover until really late that night that one of the windows had even been busted out as well. We only discovered this because Sakari went out to get her suitcase from the van and cut her foot open. We couldn't figure out where or on what and then I finally seen it the next morning when it was daylight out. Glass was everywhere both inside the garage and outside in the driveway.
Now outside at the pool area. It would not escape the destruction of this previous family either.
We found the pool nets thrown in the pool, toys left sitting on the bottom of the pool (which I forgot to take pictures of), shoes left behind under the table, cigarette butts, empty cans, food on the ground, and of course socks. I think this previous family must have had "vacation socks"...ya know, you just leave them all behind and buy new when you come home.
During our stay, we would notice that when the pool pump would kick on, there were little clear round pieces floating in the pool. We had no idea what they were and they looked like fish scales. LOL We would find out later in the week that they were the "bubbles" to the solar cover. I tried to cover the pool one day to retain the heat on the days it was a little chilly out and found that the solar cover was ripped and decaying and the bubbles were popped and falling apart. It really needs replaced.
Not only was the solar cover falling apart, but the pool was going to need to be repaired soon as well. There were several tiles that were broken and it had weeds growing in them by the water.
Time to head up the stairs to the "second" level of the home.
Here you will find a 3rd bathroom with the previous renters shampoo and conditioner left behind, some toilet paper that was destroyed, a plunger with some bloody looking something or other tissue on the floor and some hair spray.
I will just combine both of the bedrooms on this level together. They pretty much had trash on the floors, under the beds, in the window sills, on the dressers, booze on the dressers and socks...more socks!
Going on up the stairs to the "third" level you will find the loft converted into a bedroom/tv room.
It was a disaster as well. There was food everywhere (even chicken bones on the carpet), socks, cereal, tons of boxes of candy, beds pulled out, stains on the couch, games pieces, shirts, broken outlet covers, bed skirting ripped and then....they had ripped down the curtains and the rod to this room. We would find it over in a corner on the opposite side of the room. Now this particular window was facing toward the street...so not exactly a window that you wanted to have a curtain missing at night. I made sure to have Sakari shut her door when she was dressing and keep the lights off in that area.
Going into the second master bedroom we would find the usual food/cereal and trash on the floor, popcorn on the floor in the bathroom, used shampoo and soap in the shower, a used wash cloth as well, game pieces, SOCKS, some gooey substance (pink and white) on the night stands, and then I seen the closet. Items were thrown everywhere in there and there was a mirror that matched the bedroom suit and I would confirm the next day that it was NOT supposed to be in the closet but attached to the dresser instead. But, the first thing you would notice when entering the room that the curtain rod was broken and the curtains were hanging. WHAT.THE.HECK.WAS.WRONG.WITH.THESE.PREVIOUS.PEOPLE?!?!
Now there was just something about the upstairs that freaked Sakari out. She didn't want to the master bedroom, she most definitely didn't want the loft and said she would prefer to sleep on the couch instead of upstairs. She didn't want to go up there at all after seeing it the first time. Maybe it was the curtains being down. I just don't know and she wouldn't elaborate. So, that meant that the first night we were going to take the upstairs master and Sakari would take the downstairs master. Now remember, I had just fallen and gotten hurt. It was not a wise decision for me to do this trade at this time. I don't know what I was thinking.
So we made the decision to all take a needed brain break from all of this mess and just hang around outside and go swimming to de-stress from this entire situation. After a little "fun" time, THEN we would head to the store to get tons of cleaning and disinfectant supplies and start scrubbing this house down! Sakari immediately went to gathering things out of the pool.
Once we got our swim on and I feel that we had all recooped our mental health again, it was time to get dried off and ready to find the closest store to buy cleaning supplies. We found that there was a Walmart close by and we headed out. We bought everything you could think of, including a mop, disposable gloves, disinfectant, and also groceries to last us for the stay (even though we had brought a bunch of non-perishables from home to help with the expenses). We walked out about an hour later and home to start the cleaning process. We cleaned late into the night/early morning and did laundry to make sure all the bed sheets, pillow cases and comforters that we would be using were clean and fresh. This meant we probably didn't go to bed until around 2-3am. Thank goodness we didn't have plans for the next day to go to one of the parks. I have to say that by the time we were done, I was in so much pain from my fall, I knew it wasn't going to be good the next day.
I did message the rental person about our findings and how upset we were. Her response was that the cleaning company had it down on their schedule for a clean tomorrow. They must have made a mistake. She said they would be able to come the following morning. She apologized over and over and I think she sincerely meant it. She said with COVID people were booking and cancelling and moving dates around that somehow things got messed up with the cleaning schedule. She said that the cleaning company would be out around 9am the following morning. Um, not that this would do any good because we had already cleaned everything...well, everything we had intended on using (which would not include the 2 bedrooms and bath and also the loft upstairs). If I'm not using it, I'm sure not cleaning it...which included the mound of laundry out in the garage. I'm definitely not using my detergent on that mess! The positive is that they did have excellent communication back and forth during this entire process.
I basically crawled up the stairs to the bedroom after relinquishing the master bedroom downstairs to Sakari and I think I fell asleep the minute my head hit the pillow.
Up next, our second but yet first full day in Florida.