House cleaning in Batavia, IL

Cleaning a home in Batavia

Batavia grew up around the Fox River, and it shows in the housing. The streets near the river hold nineteenth-century houses, some of them built from the pale limestone quarried right there, with plaster walls, wood floors, deep baseboards and stone-walled basements. Old sash windows still open on ropes. Head east or west and the town turns into subdivisions from the last few decades: drywall, carpet, attached garages, wide open kitchens.

The two kinds of house ask for different days. In an old one the time goes into hand work: carved trim, radiator fins, tall baseboards and window sashes that hold dust in the corners, and wood floors that want a damp mop and not a soaked one. In a newer one the square footage is the job, with carpet through the bedrooms, hard floor below, and a full bath on more than one level.