Round kitchen clock with mint green frame on yellow field. August 1, 2022.
family home pragmatic historian projects work in progress

My Husband Cleaned My Clock

by Mary

No, he did not punch me in the face, which is one meaning of the phrase, “cleaned my clock.” He literally cleaned my clock.

In his effort to repaint the kitchen, Erik had to remove everything hanging on the walls and clean the walls and cupboards with degreaser.

I shared the following photo in last week’s blog post, pointing out how the area behind the stove still had to be painted.

View of the southeast corner of the kitchen, showing the green area behind the stove that we need to paint yellow. July 31, 2022.
View of the southeast corner of the kitchen, showing the green area behind the stove that we need to paint yellow. July 31, 2022.

In the middle foreground of the photo, sitting on the kitchen counter, is a round, battery-operated clock with a mint green frame. The clock reads approximately 9:45 and, judging by the amount of light outside, I’d say it was 9:45 a.m. This clock’s normal home was on a wall behind where I took this photo and it was driving me utterly bonkers not to see it there when I glanced up to check the time.

Erik took it upon himself to degrease the clock before hanging it on the wall again.

And, boy-howdy, it needed it!

You never really know how much grease has flown around the kitchen while you’re cooking until you have to clean things that rarely get cleaned.

Hubby kindly took photos of the process.

Photo showing a portion of our round kitchen clock with mint green frame. Part of it has been degreased. August 1, 2022.
Photo showing a portion of our round kitchen clock with mint green frame. Part of it has been degreased. August 1, 2022.

After Erik had degreased about a third of the clock, he had to show it to me, asking, “Can you tell where I’ve cleaned?”

Umm, yeah!

The round green kitchen clock with mint green frame standing upright in front of a purple plastic bottle. Half of the clock has been degreased, which can be seen by the line between the dirty and clean halves of the clock. August 1, 2022.
The round green kitchen clock with mint green frame standing upright in front of a purple plastic bottle. Half of the clock has been degreased, which can be seen by the line between the dirty and clean halves of the clock. August 1, 2022.

Erik’s favorite degreasing product is Super Clean Degreaser, which easily removes grease even when diluted.

Round kitchen clock with mint green frame sitting on counter next to orange microfiber rags and in front of a purple bottle of Super Clean degreaser. August 1, 2022.
Round kitchen clock with mint green frame sitting on counter next to orange microfiber rags and in front of a purple bottle of Super Clean Degreaser. August 1, 2022.

Here is my clock, all gleaming and rehung in its proper place on the kitchen wall.

Round kitchen clock with mint green frame hanging on a yellow wall next to a window. August 1, 2022.
Round kitchen clock with mint green frame hanging on a yellow wall next to a window. August 1, 2022.

And here’s a closeup of the clock.

Round kitchen clock with mint green frame on yellow field. August 1, 2022.
Round kitchen clock with mint green frame on yellow field. August 1, 2022.

For those of you who followed my blog(s) when I was writing as The Pragmatic Historian, this closeup of a clock should seem familiar. I often used a closeup clock photo at the top of my Pragmatic Historian blog posts as a featured image. I’ve done the same with this photo in reminiscence of those posts. (You can find those posts by doing a search on this blog for “pragmatic historian” using the search box at the top of the page.)

Thanks to my honey of a husband for cleaning my clock and providing the idea for this week’s blog post.

In other news, he finished painting the wall behind the stove. As I surmised, the yellow made the stove pop more than the dark green did.

East wall of the kitchen with hanging cupboards above a stainless steel and black stove with a counter-height cupboard next to the stove. The walls are all bright yellow. August 1, 2022.
East wall of the kitchen with hanging cupboards above a stainless steel and black stove with a counter-height cupboard next to the stove. The walls are all bright yellow. August 1, 2022.

After he finished the kitchen, he moved on to painting the basement stairwell.

Here’s how it looked before, with the left wall a deep olive green and the right wall a light peach. You can see Erik’s bear rug on the green wall. We hung it in the stairwell so it would not fade by being exposed to sunlight.

Looking down the basement stairwell with bear rug hanging on olive green wall on the left and a peach wall on the right. A ladder is on the landing at the bottom of the stairs. On a ledge on the right wall, there are a couple of signs, a toolbox, a bottle of window washing fluid, and box of garbage bags. January 14, 2022.
Looking down the basement stairwell with bear rug hanging on olive green wall on the left and a peach wall on the right. A ladder is on the landing at the bottom of the stairs. On a ledge on the right wall, there are a couple of signs, a toolbox, a bottle of window washing fluid, and box of garbage bags. January 14, 2022.

And here it is after, with a white so bright the stairwell almost glows while the lights are off.

Basement stairwell painted white. August 4, 2022.
Basement stairwell painted white. August 4, 2022.

You know what came in handy while Erik was painting this very high stairwell?

That plank I mentioned a couple of posts back. Once again, it was the right tool for the job.

That’s the home renovation update for this week. Wonder what we’ll get up to next week?