Cockroach Kitchen - in which I deviate a bit from blathering on about knitting

Terri and I moved to our new apartment several months ago. As you live in a place you start to really get to know the quirks about it, or why it was cheaper than other places you inquired into.

The building went up in the 70's, so much of it is older and in need of some care. When we toured the place the apartment itself seemed very clean with new paint and fixtures and the like. It was one of the cleanest we looked at. And we looked at a lot of places. As we began living here, however, it became aparant that we are not alone.

The saving grace in it all is that they are not everywhere, they are only in the kitchen. The cockroaches take advantage of something I did not know to look out for, an improperly sealed kitchen. There are gaps in every corner and crevice inside the cupboards where wood should meet wall. I'm not even really sure how you could mess up a cupboard install so poorly. Isn't it all supposed to be sealed?

We have tried all the normal options. Roach traps. Borax killer stuff. Telling the management and having the bug man spray. Then I found a gap under the kitchen cabinet that is probably an inch wide. Who knows where it leads but I'm betting somewhere into a neighbor's apartment where they don't care so much about the roaches.

Terri and I have been using foam sealer to try to fill in these gaps. It is seriously easy to use, just shake the can, point and spray. I did a bunch of sealing of the upper cabinets yesterday and got so excited about using it that I forgot to change into grubby clothes and ruined a pair of pants. Oops!

We are on a sealing quest. I don't want to live with cockroaches and I have to do everything in my own power to get them out. I am hoping that sealing will solve a lot of the problems. We just have to make sure to seal everywhere. I'm even going to seal around the dishwasher. Deposit back? Meh, I can scrape all the foam off if I want to when we leave.

After we've sealed everything we can I'm going to get fresh roach traps and have the bug man come spray again.

Despite my determination though, the cockroach has been around a lot longer than we have. Mad props for that.

Wasn't that a lovely digression into cockroaches. Ick! I have actually been knitting quite a lot lately, much more than I had expected. More on that to come, and with pictures too!