We do not have breakfast with the guests. Too busy prepping, cooking, serving and clearing promptly. DH will often have a casual cup of coffee with them while breakfast is in progress, to see to needs I can't, while in the kitchen. We aim for good food and prompt, efficient but non-obtrusive service. I also want to get the bulk of the clean up accomplished before one of the guests wanders in to the kitchen afterward to make a comment or ask a question. (door not yet installed) I usually make it. We make it look easy.
-KathleenM.
Not sure how sloppy a cook you are but our kitchen is completely open to the dining room and guest see the whole thing all the time. We just have to accept that part and we try to keep things as neat as possible during the serving of brekkie. Still, guests will come right up and want to fill water bottles in the completely full of dishes sink and it doesn't seem to faze them at all. Makes me batty, so I take the water bottles and fill them myself!
All that to say, unless it routinely looks like a bomb went off, most guests just don't care about the same things we do. We have to do the cleanup in full view of everyone and sometimes guests will just gather at the counter to talk while hubs puts the dishes in the dishwasher, cleans up the counters and then scrubs the floor on hands & knees. Guests are still talking but now hubs is crawling around on the floor. So, seriously, a lot of people are just happy to have someone to talk to about their pet peeves and they don't care what else is going on.
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Bree said:
Not sure how sloppy a cook you are but our kitchen is completely open to the dining room and guest see the whole thing all the time. We just have to accept that part and we try to keep things as neat as possible during the serving of brekkie. Still, guests will come right up and want to fill water bottles in the completely full of dishes sink and it doesn't seem to faze them at all. Makes me batty, so I take the water bottles and fill them myself!
All that to say, unless it routinely looks like a bomb went off, most guests just don't care about the same things we do. We have to do the cleanup in full view of everyone and sometimes guests will just gather at the counter to talk while hubs puts the dishes in the dishwasher, cleans up the counters and then scrubs the floor on hands & knees. Guests are still talking but now hubs is crawling around on the floor. So, seriously, a lot of people are just happy to have someone to talk to about their pet peeves and they don't care what else is going on.
It is uncanny how similar some of our experiences are.
I don't care how many times I brag to our guests about our wonderful well water is, a fact that is confirmed by the lab it gets tested by every quarter, water bottles can only be washed, rinsed five times and refilled AT the kitchen sink right when we both are up to our elbows in dirty dishes, foodstuffs, etc..
Its not like they all are water snobs either insisting on only filling from the reverse osmosis filter. The water coming out of the kitchen faucet is no different than the one in their bathroom.
Or the only time the "lonely puppy" guest who is looking for anything with a pulse to talk to, will find me is when I have fifteen other things to do.
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Actually, here they are better off filling water bottles in the kitchen because that water is filtered. Otherwise our water is highy chlorinated.
Next time you get a 'chatty cathy (or charlie)' try this on them...glance at your watch and yell, 'Time to leap into action!' and then jump up. It works like a charm for hubs. Most of the time he will chat, tho, unless he's having one of his bad days. (Disabled vet, he sometimes just can't stand the pain.)
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Bree said:
Actually, here they are better off filling water bottles in the kitchen because that water is filtered. Otherwise our water is highy chlorinated.
Next time you get a 'chatty cathy (or charlie)' try this on them...glance at your watch and yell, 'Time to leap into action!' and then jump up. It works like a charm for hubs. Most of the time he will chat, tho, unless he's having one of his bad days. (Disabled vet, he sometimes just can't stand the pain.)
All of our water is filtered and we understand the "routine" for some, but its the timing that sucks. Unless they use the reverse osmosis faucet in the kitchen, the water coming out of their bathroom sink is exactly the same pure, sweet, well water as in the kitchen.
Our open kitchen format appears to not be unique or without its challenges as far as keeping folks from getting "too at home" but we try to make it work as best we can.
The cabinet rummagers, stealth cookers when we're not around, seem to take us for idiots. We know our stuff, its proper places and know when somebody has been rooting around.
Our "salad" is not a meal guests took the cake though. Our local health code forbids guests from using the kitchen to make any "meals" for both hygienic and safety reasons. These two would come back each night, go through all the cabinets, draws, etc. for whatever they needed and make themselves a huge dinner salad. Sure, they modestly cleaned up after themselves, but it was the principle of the thing, that they thought the "semantics" argument would actually fly with us.
Thankfully, we don't get very many folks who can't tell the difference between a vacation rental with ful lkitchen privileges and a B&B with whatever local regulations it must follow.
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