to only live in 3 of the downstairs rooms (with furniture the house gave me the creeps upstairs, besides, their ceilings and walls were in a worse state than one of the rooms below).
first, thorough cleaning was needed – of those 3 rooms, the loo and a pathway to it.
it took me 4 days. no kidding. each room needed first a good sweep ( would have killed the vacuum otherwise) of the walls as well as floors, then a vacuum, then a mop, but as the water was black after only two dips into the bucket, several refills were required before finishing off with a last, fresh mopping.
then back to 