Friday 28 April 2017

A tale of two sinks.

*second post in the Domesticated AF series, a tale of two sinks*

“You are going to get sick of doing that in under a week”
..  

Let me just say something right off the bat – nothing chaps my ass more and delights Jake, than when he is 100%, unanimously right about something I so adamantly did not want him to be right about. However, I can’t be too mad about it, because when the shoe is on the other foot, I also delight in it in the least gracious way possible. We must be perfect for each other.

Anywho, he was referring to the only way we have to remove all of the water from our lovely kitchen sink. You see, the lip of the drain is not flush, so the water does not drain itself entirely, and we have to use a squeegee (the kind window washers use basically, but smaller), to scrape the water into the middle to the drain. “Ohh this is fun! It’s like one of those zen sand things you have on your desk” was my first impression, like how fun! As if this is going to get annoying, silly fiance what do you know, this is relaxing. Meditating, practically.

And, well, spoiler alert! Jake was right, and it got old really fast. To my benefit, it was fun for longer than a week, but maybe not much more than two.

Thus, the tale of the two sinks in my kitchen – the one I love, that is a focal point of the kitchen and is a conversation piece for almost every single person who first comes to our house. The gorgeous, huge marble sink that is beautiful, solid as f-ck, and interesting; different. It goes deliciously well with the rest of the kitchen decor, has subtle stripes to please my heart, and is fancy. I adore this sink. It's what caught my eye instantly when we looked at the house, and it just brings the whole kitchen together.
grainy, noisy picture - but look at the smile! the kind of smile that only comes when he's up to no good, in this case running through my shot ;) brat. 

Then there’s the other side of the sink, that is honestly the most useless kitchen sink known to man. That thing is not meant to be a kitchen sink, plain & simple. Filling it with water would take an hour, so washing dishes actually in it is just silly, I have a Rubbermaid container in it that I fill with soapy water, to avoid said squeegee’ing, though I still have to do that when water inevitably gets into the bottom. It traps food bits in and around the bottom of it inexplicably, moves water around every which way when I do use the magic squeegee, and, well, it's bulky as hell! Look at that thing. This is the sink I despise. Useless, beautiful, useless sink. The Instagram models of sinks: nice to look at, doesn't do much for ya when push comes to shove though. The Hampton's Trophy Wife of Sinks, if you will even further.

But, as it is how something goes when it's yours and you love it even though you hate it: only we are allowed to disparage it, you try and knock my sink and you'll have to answer to me. LOL jk, but you'll probably hurt my feelings. Just ask my fiance, I don't take criticism very graciously. 


Tuesday 25 April 2017

Domesticated AF.


Welcome to my new series on the blog, about my foray into home ownership, how it differs from condo ownership, and the trials, triumphs, and wtf's that come with it.

Maybe I’m dating myself here, or I’m alone in this, but was anyone else a Charmed fan back in the day? Just me? San Francisco + Witches + Sisters, like what more could you ask for? Anyway, there was a specific episode where Piper & Leo got engaged, and she wore her grandmother’s engagement ring. Long story short, the ring was enchanted and it turned her into a domesticated, 50’s housewife. Now the storyline there was a lesson that didn’t have a nice ending (the grandmother hexed the ring to teach her never to lose herself in a marriage, and therefore never get married again, yadda yadda). But still, the change it made in Piper initially, is what I can use this for as reference. 

I feel like this house/my ring have the same enchanting effects on me, but in a good way. Since moving in, I have become more domestic than I have EVER been in my life, and am finding myself not only taking care of my home routinely, but I am enjoying it. As I have been saying to myself, I am Domestic, AF. (Mom, AF means as fuck). Things are happening to me, things are changing and what used to be such a chore that I would just leave it for days - FINE - weeks, I now do when it’s needed, and routinely. My kitchen is dirty? Old Brianne would leave it a few days and just ignore the chaos, but DAF Brianne? She cleans the kitchen as she goes along, keeping the mess to a minimum. What!? Any additional dishes are done, dried and put away. That DAY. Bathrooms are done on Saturdays, and floors are vacuumed and mopped (steam mops! #lifechangers) on Sundays.
Look at that SHINE! Shine baby, Shine. 


To highlight how extraordinary this is, at the condo there used to be parts of the house that would collect massive hairballs, and in all honesty we’d only vacuum once they got mega gross. In this house? I don’t even know if hairballs accumulate in the same way, because I vacuum too often for them to accumulate.

I make my bed 90% of the time before I go to work. I keep our bedroom fairly clean, and hang my clothes up once I take them off, not 3 weeks later. I am saying “I” instead of “We”, because Jake is a fairly tidy guy to begin with, so he’s just as pleased that this enchanted little ring came with some added benefits.

We have lived here for just a month, and I have hosted our families 3 times. This last instance, was just on Sunday and I made a wonderful French toast bake. The bread for said French Toast Bake? Made. From. Scratch.
Now, I was a total blogger fail because I forgot to take an after pic of it baked, but me oh my it was delicious, and will be made numerous times again, so next time I will snap a picture! with beautifully curated details in the frame to make up for this fail. And yes, I use old school pretty recipe cards because I am DOMESTICATED! A! F! 

And you know what? I f-cking love it. I love this new role I'm settling into. It's fun! I enjoy it! I don't know if I'm in the honeymoon stage (probably), but I really hope I'm just making habits that last because oh baby, the difference a clean happy house makes.



Next up on the series, Yardwork and all of its gross glory. And, dear God, house Crocs.