We came across this little guy in Bed, Bath and Beyond the other day while we were shopping. I don't know if running across reptiles while shopping is the norm down here or what, but there he was, just hanging out on the salt grinder. Zack is now convinced we should get a pet lizard.
One of my goals as a new wife is to master the fine art of baking pies. Thus far, it has been my Achilles heel of baking and it frustrates me to no end because I think this should be so much easier than it is. This is my first attempt, a cherry pie--complete with a "V" that Zack swears was incredible (he's so sweet).
Our dining room and new dining room table.
Me, cooking our first dinner in our new home.
Me, cooking our first dinner in our new home.
Living room, obviously.
The kitchen, minus the hanging pot rack that will hopefully be added shortly.
Sorry there aren't yet pictures of any of the upstairs. Something's wrong with my camera so I'm going to have to get that figured out before I can post any more.
Now, on to why I am about to consider myself a domestic flunkee. I've discovered, in the week and half that we've been here now, that keeping this place clean is hard. Like, way harder than I think it should be. When it comes to being neat and tidy I would put my housework skills somewhere right in the middle of the spectrum. I'm by no means OCD about cleaning but I do like things to be clean and organized and in their place. Here're the problems as I see them. First of all, this place is old. Not old as in it was built in the seventies and has that weird/gross gold and green trim everywhere, old as in pre-civil war old. Zack thinks its charming, I think it makes for a lot of work to maintain. The whole cottage has hardwood floors, which sounds nice on the surface. But these floors aren't what I know hardwood floors to be. I guess just because they're so old, they've lost most of their finish and polish and whatnot, and now not only does grit seem to "stick" to them, but I swear I think these floors are growing dirt. I don't have any other explanation for the amount of stuff I sweep up from them every day! I think dirt is literally seeping out of the pores of the wood on our floors. I thought about scrubbing them down with bleach but Mom thinks that might destroy them completely and I have to agree. I hate the dirt but I'm not trying to kill my poor floors!
Problem number two is the humidity. It's so humid down here that mildew grows at just an ungodly rate. I bleached my shower curtain right before we moved so that it'd be nice and clean to put in the new house. Seven days down here and it's already starting to grow that weird orange, streaky, slimy stuff that back home would have taken months to show up. I'm talking, this is some quality stuff we've got here. I don't know whether it would be cheaper to buy a 50-gallon drum of bleach or just accept the idea of disposable shower curtains.
Well, now that I have sufficiently grossed everybody out I'd like to say that at this point, I think I'm still winning the battle against the grime. It's taking a lot more cleaning than I'm used to to maintain the status quo, but so far I'm managing to do it. And really, I suppose I shouldn't complain too much. In all honesty our little cottage is really very nice and (especially compared to some of the places we looked at) in excellent shape for its age. Maybe these things just give it a little more personality.
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