After arriving here on Wednesday we’ve spent the last 5 days cleaning for about 5 hours a day and the end is nowhere in sight. I’m something of a clean freak to start with, but just getting things to a level of basic sanitation and orderliness is my current goal.
For the first few months of my stay in the Philippines I’ll be living out of my in-law’s house, which is a bit north of Manila in a surrounding town. The house has been mostly derelict for about six months, with only an occasional visit to make sure it’s still standing. My in-laws were both living out of other houses in other provinces until just recently. So, the place is a disaster area. Besides the accumulation of junk from decades of things being left here as a store-and-forget drop off spot, there’s dust, cobwebs and the buildup of grime to deal with. So, there’s quite a bit of work to be done to get this place into a condition that’s suitable for living in.
I wish I could just throw money at the problem and make it go away, and for some parts I can, but most of it is just going to require hard work. I have to haul stuff out of the house to the curb and do quite a bit of scrubbing, wiping, dusting, and brushing.
I didn’t realize just how much work it would be. We spent 7 hours on just one room today. It was the worst room, though. It had been unoccupied the longest, so it was full of bags of junk, sometimes literally.
I suppose when you have more than one house, you can’t quite keep up with what all you’ve left where, so arranging it, sorting out what needs to be saved and what can go, and then doing basic cleaning can be a long, long process.
The goal that I keep in mind is that once it’s all done, I’ll be able to relax and enjoy life here. Hopefully with another week of work we’ll have everything wrapped up and ready to go.
Bradley Farless 
Thanks man. I'll try to get some posted. Don't forget to check over at EverythingButBalot.com . I'm going to be posting the non-personal updates over there.
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Well, that's true but you always trade one set of problems for another. Two things I can think of right away here are the crazy traffic and always having to fight and argue to not get ripped off just for being foreign. The price seems to change if you're not Filipino sometimes.
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I'll definitely try. This is just a temporary living arrangement, though, so we might be moving again in a two weeks or so to an apartment in Manila.
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We've definitely been moving from sun-up to sundown and beyond. I'm exhausted right now, but I have to feed my Internet craving. I think we just hit a turning point in this drama that's going to make things a lot easier for both of us. More on that later though.As for the thing with the cat carrier, I sent Philippine Airlines a letter asking for compensation for the damage in the amount of the cost of the carrier, which was brand new. I haven't heard from them yet, so I think I'm going to have to go down to their office and if that doesn't work my wife has a long-time friend that's dating a lawyer who would probably be happy to do us this favor.
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I've been trying to take a few here and there, as I go, but finding time to actually transfer them to my laptop and them upload them is the problem. I swear it seems like we're on the go from early morning until night. It's insane…I think we just hit a turning point where things are going to slow down. More on that later.
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looking forward to the pics of the place and surrounding areas when you are done!
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Take some photos of the new place when you are done!
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Good luck in the Philippines, Brad!!! No more musky-smelling people, and rude pedestrians! 🙂
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Whoa! You've been living life in the go, go, go lane! Just catching up with the cat incident at the airport….how could they be such fools to break a carrier?? I would've been going like Linda Blair in the Exorcist already. What morons.And now this cleaning business. You won't give us a before and after shot? I just imagine a place being that neglected!
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probably explains the lack of pics.
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