Cleaning house

So today I cleaned. And I mean cleaned. vacuumed. dusted. swiffered. windexed. you get the idea. 

And I even took care of an ominous, possibly & likely life threatening white powder covering the exposed brick in our kitchen. you know, where we eat & make food. This white mystery powder was probably poisoning our family. 

Intimidating, right? I know. 

See, we don't really have brick in California. Something about earthquakes. So this stuff was completely new to me. I was clueless. 

Asbestos? Does that show up on brick like that? 

Were the last tenants cocaine addicts? (okay, perhaps that idea was ever so slightly irrational). 

Anyway. I was frightened. and determined. So first I scrubbed, which made a bigger mess and spread the scary white mystery powder all over my kitchen. NO bueno. I was not going to die like that today. So I vacuumed our brick with the little brush extension while I covered my mouth with my scarf. 

And voila!

Clean brick! Huzzah! 

And after I'd tackled the powder beast I thought I should probably do some research. (better late than never right). 

According to some brick company's website...

Q: I have a white powder on my brick. What is this and what do I do about this?
A: This white powder is called “efflorescence,” and is caused by water in the wall dissolving mineral salts in the brick or mortar. When this leaches to the surface, the water evaporates, leaving a whitish mineral-salt residue. Most efflorescence is water soluble, so it can usually be removed by washing with plain water when the weather and the wall are warm and dry. This helps keep the cleaning water from causing additional efflorescence.

Mineral-salt residue. From water. Pretty sure that won't kill us. 

cool. 

Well, at least our brick is all spiffed up. 

And I feel accomplished. silly and irrational. but nonetheless, accomplished.