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victorluvsalice · 2 months

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Welcome to another episode of "I have decided to upgrade the Valicer farmhouse!" It's been a while since Victor, Alice, and Smiler's home got a refresh, and this particular one was prompted mainly by the following two facts:

A) Thanks to all their various side hustles (Victor selling the produce from his greenhouse and occasionally licensing songs, Alice writing books and selling paintings, and Smiler making SimsTube videos), plus the profits from their grocery store and Alice's brief career as an official Artist, the gang had LOADS of money to spend on new furniture and the like

B) My parents agreed as a birthday present to buy me 100 bucks worth of Sims 4 packs, and I spent a good chunk of that on them purchasing Horse Ranch and Home Chef Hustle, so I had some new Build/Buy items to play with!

So yeah -- figured it was time to upgrade some furniture and add some new fun stuff for the trio to use in their daily lives! Let's take it room by room:

Smiler’s Party Barn – This space was pretty much all about the furniture upgrades -- I updated the couch by the stairs to the most expensive and comfortable one (in of course the most wild swatch I could find – purplish-pink with zebra print details on the frame); changed out the chairs around the games table to more expensive and comfortable ones from that actually matched the puzzle table and were still just as colorful; and updated Smiler’s bar to a bigger one (it’s now a three-tiler, black with glowing yellow lights along the bottom -- aesthetic!) and got the most expensive and comfortable barstools to go along the front. Gotta make sure the guests are comfy! :D Even more importantly, though, I ended up changing around a bunch of the pictures and posters – the two sky prints the trio’s picked up from observatory visits are now behind the bar with a couple of space-themed posters; the DJ posters previously behind the bar are now above the ottomans on either side of the karaoke machine; a cute purple painting of a woman previously above the bar is now over the stairwell; and the big portraits of the Valicer wedding (Victor and Alice kissing and Victor and Smiler kissing) are now by the ping-pong table, in a collage with the two biggest pictures of the trio posing in their swimsuits on their honeymoon. :) But where did the other pictures of the wedding and honeymoon go? I’ll tell you shortly...

Cow Paddock – But first, let’s go outside and around to the back of the barn to Moory’s pen! Where, with the power of Horse Ranch, I added some patches of prairie grass and a proper water trough for our cow (moving the CC bucket fountain from "Cottage Garden Stuff" by @plumbobteasociety I was using to represent a source of water for Moory over to the corner of the pen for decoration purposes...though it occurs to me it might be nice to put in the chicken pen to pretend it’s now a drinking fountain and bath for the chickens). The water trough is probably just going to be for decoration (it’s intended for the horses that came with Horse Ranch and I’m not sure other animals can drink out of them), but the prairie grass actually serves a purpose – I know from seeing the option grayed out on the shed previously that you can refill a cow or llama’s feed with the stuff! So that’s cool. :) (And yes, I saw that option BEFORE I owned Horse Ranch, so, uh, great job Sims team.)

Living Room – I changed out the rug under the couch, coffee table, and TV stand for one of the new colorful Horse Ranch ones (doesn't it look cool?), and upgraded the couch and the two chairs in front of the fireplace into more expensive and comfortable models (though I made sure to keep the bright and wacky colors -- the Get Famous and Growing Together furniture have really good swatches in this regard, I'm pleased to report). Again, though, the big change was updating all the stuff on the walls -- mostly because I absolutely had to clean up all the photos around the house so I actually had room for NEW snaps. Plus I'd started looking at some of the photo collections and going “Do we really need this many pictures of you guys in front of your house at the family reunion?” XD I mean, I like them, but maybe some variety would be a good thing. And look a little less self-important. XD So what I did was remove the four-picture collage of the gang doing various poses in front of the house at the family reunion from one side of the TV, grabbed one medium-sized photo out of the set to keep, sold the rest (and the frame), and moved into its place the picture of everyone posing in front of the store that was upstairs by Smiler’s room previously. And THEN I moved the collage of photos of them on their honeymoon that was previously in the little notch next to the kitchen (which no longer exists as I made the kitchen bigger -- more on that later) over to the corner by the phonograph! So it’s right near the other big wedding collection. :) So THAT’S a little better!

Study – Mostly more picture rearranging in this room, though I did upgrade the chess set and chairs on the left wall to fancier versions – and discovered that the black and red chessboard also has black and red pieces, so I decided to go with that as a color theme. *shrug* If I can’t have white and red, I’ll go with black and red! Anyway, over the chess table, I stuck four of Victor and Alice's original Selvadoradan honeymoon snaps into one of the four-photo collage frame sets I unlocked, then arranged the remaining two photos on top of them in a way that made them look like part of the set (you can tell they're not because the frames aren't as thick, but still works). Then, over by Smiler's guitar, I got two more three-frame collage sets, put the photos from the trip to Granite Falls in those, and arranged them appropriately behind the rug, next to the window. The picture Alice painted of Smiler playing their guitar and the the one she painted of the Granite Falls ranger station sign then went up on the side wall next to the rug (because Victor has the picture Alice painted of him playing piano next to his piano, so I wanted Smiler's portrait to be next to THEIR instrument). After that, I moved the picture of Alice scratching herself that Victor did on the Valicer Honeymoon out of there and upstairs to the attic rec room (I couldn't bring myself to delete it, it amuses me too much XD), then moved the sketches and fancy light Alice unlocked from the Artist career over a little, into that space. Making room for a little photo collage of sorts next to her fancy easel -- the photo of her painting at their old house that Victor took on the top, one of the photos she took of Rory to become friends and get her to turn her into a werewolf on the bottom –

And one of those Moschino Stuff slideshow photo frames in the middle! Because I've been meaning to start using those for AGES now. This is where a bunch of the smaller photos went – I put all the little photos of the wedding from the party barn, one of my favorite little photos from the family reunion, a snap of them posing in front of the store, and a snap from their New Year’s Eve trio date into there and turned on the frame to display them as a slideshow, changing once per hour. :D So now I have a spot to keep tiny photos that I may like, but don’t have room for on the wall! Yay! :)

First Floor Hallway – Bunch of little changes here -- first up, I made the washer and dryer brighter colors (because why wouldn't I?) and put the MySim trophy of Yuki Alice found recently on top of them – turns out that WASN’T a duplicate after all! Nice! Then I got one of the three-photo-frame collage sets I unlocked with the family reunion, put the best three photos of the scenery around their honeymoon island in it (and sold the fourth, which was of a rainy miserable day anyway), and slapped the set up next to one of the windows beside the study. Wasn’t sure where else to put them, and they looked good there! And finally, I grabbed myself the egg-shaped decorative egg display shelf I downloaded from @somecreativecc (seriously, if you need displays, they are the place to go) and slapped it up where the previous hanging shelf with all the eggs had been (right by the entrance to the kitchen and the cats’ downstairs scratching post), moving all the eggs (with the help of “moveobjects on” to access all the slots) onto there! So now all ten eggs fit properly on those shelves, and there’s a dedicated space for the remaining two that need to be found, yay.

Downstairs Back Entrance/Mudroom – I had to move one of Alice’s paintings out of here into the kitchen, and rearrange the boots so they were along the wall next to the coat rack – reason being, the room is now smaller! And why is it smaller?

#sims 4 #the lazy save #builds #house remodel #I wanted to do this earlier #but then I thought 'okay wait I KNOW I am getting Home Chef Hustle at some point'#'because I want the small appliances to remodel the kitchen with'#'so wait until you've gotten that and any other packs you want for Christmas'#and so I did #which was a good idea because I got more stuff to play around with :)#I don't actually have that much interest in giving the trio a horse #but I like using some of the objects in the game to make my farm a little more realistic #that water trough is nice even if Moory can't use it #and that rug is lovely! So colorful :D #and yes the gang had money to spend so I spent it #only the best furniture for my trio now #as long as it comes in absurdly colorful swatches XD #I have embraced color in my game #and all of you are going to have to deal :p #queued

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mentally-illenial · 1 year

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Okay so this post ended up being YUUUUUUGE, sorry y'all lol. TL;DR in last paragraph.

The past two days have been busy! On the day before yesterday, I prepped the kitchen at the bee farm for it's regular service and for yesterday's soft launch coffee and limited menu service. This soft launch was a last-minute Collab idea between the owner and myself. Their whole purpose for wanting to establish a coffee service at the farm kitchen was to service Bee Pick-up Season. Though our farm does sell honey and beeswax, as well as offering a unique tourist experience with the meadery, gift shop, BNBs, tours, weekend events and festivals, etc., our main purpose as a farm is to sell our special bees. Our bees have been genetically selected for their inherent mite-resistant behaviors, which makes the bees stronger and safer against absolute colony collapse and destruction at the hands of a devastating pest without the influence of and dependence on harsh chemical treatments. This makes the bees high quality and value, and we breed and sell our bees to keepers of all levels and purposes all over the continental US. So the time of year during which these bees are picked up by customers, Bee Pick-up Season, is our busiest and most important by far. And these customers come from far and wide to get these bees in person, and often arrive very early to do so. The owners thought a small coffee and morning snack service would be a boon, and they were right! The coffee concept has had great interest and reception from guests. But I was basically hired to create, install, and run it. When they got my resume, they were STOKED to see my extensive culinary and coffee experience, and they told me as much. That is why I was confused to be mainly set up as a retail associate, but I have finally been able to spend more time in the kitchen as we get closer to our busy season, but I digress... I set up the new commercial brewer and set 'the girls', our kitchen lead's daughters and main workers, up for two successful services while their mother/boss was out of town. The kitchen and menu are not very big or complicated, and they have plenty of experience running the joint, so it shouldn't have been an issue. I've had to train myself through trial by fire and crash coursing my way around, learning everything first hand, pestering the kitchen lead/the girls' mother for unwritten recipes and inventory which I could then transcribe and establish, etc. So I've been at a disadvantage and have been relying on my personal culinary knowledge, skill and experience to get me by. All I needed was for someone to show me how they assemble and send orders, and I was set.

(Quick background on the kitchen: it was a pet project by one of the owners to support the meadery. There are certain laws around the service of alcohol that require food to be available for customers. Their go-to had been contracting food trucks, but due to our rural location and unpredictable customer population, it isn't always guaranteed that a food truck could be on site. So a snack shack was an obvious and brilliant idea. They built a new building next to the office/gift shop, which would serve as storage and kitchen space. They built a small but very high potential kitchen, and then attempted to establish service. Unfortunately, they hired someone with a false resume, who simply did not know how to establish, run, or even work in a kitchen, let alone have basic cooking skills. It turns out I actually know this person socially, but that's irrelevant. This person ordered tons of useless and random inventory, made a lot of waste attempting to develop recipes and menu items with zero skill or know how, and made a bad impression on paying customers, receiving multiple complaints and refunds. They were unfortunately fired, and our kitchen lead, Amber, who was primarily an office/retail worker, and her family stepped in to put the fires out. They did a wonderful job at righting the ship; they successfully established a working menu and service procedure, and were able to get the kitchen running again. There is no question that their efforts have been invaluable. But they, too, are not trained and experienced cooks. Amber, the mother, is an amazing home cook with a great eye for flavor. But she doesn't have the experience and exposure I have to the actual structure and function of a professional kitchen. That was why I was hired, I was told. To help in retail, and to bring the kitchen up to it's absolute potential and easily achievable standard. And that's what I've been trying to do for three weeks lol. Memorize retail and bee info, while basically building a kitchen. I was told I would be working in the kitchen when they needed help, like this week, while Amber is away. I was not properly trained or informed, because training doesn't exist yet lol. It's on my to-do list.)

Again, the girls are not actual cooks. They're not trained in basic kitchen protocol or etiquette. They're also simply work-inexperienced teenagers, no fault of their own, and they're used to their momboss doing all the detail and support work of the kitchen, while they usually only perform basic tasks: taking orders, assembling orders, and simple cleaning tasks occasionally. This is not me talking down on them; we all start someplace, no one is born skilled and experienced. But the kitchen needed to be run like a kitchen, and I think we all learned these past few days how ill-equipped the general crew are for independent work.

Two days ago, on my first full shift, I asked them if they knew how to make a specialty gourmet honey tasting box for a tour group, and they said they did. I asked them to make two of them for the tour the next day (which was yesterday at noon), and they agreed. I did not fully communicate the details of my needs in this situation, because 1. I didn't even know what they were as I have not received proper training or information, and 2. I didn't know how much guidance they truly needed. I was under the impression they were more self sufficient.

Yesterday morning I arrived to an unlocked building. I was the first non-beekeeping worker on site. The tip jar was left out on the porch, with money in it. The kitchen was not swept or mopped. The sinks were full of food debris. The trashes were not taken out. There were no notes or communication left behind to explain why this might be, but it turns out the only real reason was that they were used to their momboss doing these 'little, behind the scenes things' for them, so it didn't cross their minds... Despite the fact that I reviewed the open/mid/close task sheets which I had created before leaving them alone for the day. They should have known where to find the information to understand what needed to be done. And most unfortunately for me, one of the beekeepers had entered the building that morning before I arrived to gather supplies, and noticed the disarray. They then promptly told others about it, and as soon as those others arrived at the farm for the day, I was the one held responsible for the mess and for correcting the girls' mistakes. Mind you, I'm not an established kitchen lead or trainer; I'm titled and paid as an entry level worker, just like they are. It is just publicly known that I am a skilled and experienced professional, and that this week was my first scheduled shifts in the kitchen, and thus the kitchen was my domain and responsibility. I will admit, I did receive an unexpected dollar raise for my effort last week, but I feel it was well earned and easily proven by my daily performance, under which the duties of kitchen manager/shift lead do not technically fall. Regardless... It was humiliating and frustrating. I was being held accountable for the irresponsibility of others, despite the fact that the others are regularly depended on and perceived to be fully functional and independent kitchen workers without my leadership.

So I fixed the messes and made notes for corrections and training. I moved the task sheets to the kitchen door, and taped a dry erase pen on a string to it as well, so that the tasks are always highly visible reminders for basic kitchen duties that anyone can access and interact with. I then prepped and launched my first morning mini service... And discovered that not only did the girls NOT make the gourmet boxes (they made regular grazing boxes which are sold on daily service and not part of a tour package), but they SOLD one of the two boxes I asked for, which would have left me short stocked even if they were the correct items. So I had to scramble to find someone who knew the ingredients of and procedure for these specialty boxes, so that I could make them! It was a very frustrating way to learn a new task, and I had to bring it up with the girls when they arrived, too. Thankfully it went smoothly once I was able to access the resources.

After my solo service (which was very small and slow, as expected, but successful; the customers were very happy with the coffee options and quality), I closed the kitchen until afternoon service started at two. The girls arrived 30 minutes late. I immediately took lead of the kitchen and began explaining how their closing mistakes were pretty serious and cannot be repeated, then showed them the new task list set up. I made sure they both had my phone number in case they had any questions. I let them know that a gourmet honey tasting box is not the same as a regular grazing box. I trained them one on one in real time practice with making the gourmet boxes the correct way, and we prepped the boxes for the next day's tours (today's tours, of which we actually have quite a few). I taught them how to serve and clean the drip coffee machine (I decided lattes were too intricate for now, and shut the espresso station down for the day myself), and basically ran half their shift like a training shift: I taught them proper knife handling and basic cutting skills, basic food prep and handling skills, and basic sanitation and cleaning skills. Nevermind that all this information was plastered on the walls in front of them for at least a week already; I had already taken the initiative to post informative signage all over the kitchen in their appropriate sections, with rules and reminders for proper etiquette and procedure so that no one needed to feel unsure. I had to regularly remind them to use gloves on ready to eat foods and label items before storing them. It's become kitchen boot camp 101, at my expense. Again, I am not paid or titularly recognized as a trainer or kitchen lead, so I do feel as though I am just giving away my time, knowledge, and skills in order to meet what should be a basic function food service standard.

In between all of this training and regular customer service, I cleaned, organized, and labeled the ENTIRE kitchen. I made the low boy fridge and storage fridge more organized and efficient for service. I repackaged current food storage to be easier to use and store. I threw away old or unusable things. I safely organized and labeled tools while disposing of unsafe and unusable ones. I organized and stocked dry goods and paper goods. I put away orders and organized the stations of the kitchens for efficiency and ease of use. I even developed and tested a quick side recipe to enhance our tacos and nachos: green apple jicama slaw, made, of course, with our honey. And I didn't leave the building without many many reminders of closing and cleaning duties.

I do feel taken advantage of, and I am saddened by the feeling. I do believe in my heart that everyone at the farm has the best intentions in mind, and that they do recognize my skills and what I have to offer, but perhaps to not realize the value I hold as well. In any other setting, you would hire a consultant or contractor to establish and train, and they would be paid and provided for with access to resources appropriately; or you would hire a full time, fully titled, respected and established chef/kitchen manager, appropriately compensated. Currently, I am being treated as an entry level retail associate, while being expected, whether they realize this or not, to perform the duties of a kitchen manager and head chef. I do not, on any level, feel as though this behavior is malicious. I believe that this is a small operation, with the dream of a self sufficient, self sustaining food and drink option which simply supports and highlights the unique offerings of the bee farm. And I believe that the managers and owners simply do not understand the intricacies of establishing and running a professional kitchen. While this position is easy to understand and be empathetic towards, it isn't realistic. If they are presenting themselves as a professional food service, and offer actual crafted food items to customers, they must meet a basic standard, legally and socially. I can and will provide that standard, but it cannot be at my personal expense. I do deserve monetary compensation equal to the extra duties I'm taking on, as well as appropriate recognition and authority in order to establish and maintain the standard. I don't want to kick down their door and start barking demands for behavior and payment, but I also owe it to myself to set boundaries. Right now I'm playing double duty, and taking personal time and effort to support and build the kitchen. My superiors and coworkers have been very vocally supportive and readily acknowledge and appreciate my improvements and efforts. But in reality, I will burn myself out and be left at a disadvantage if I do not establish these boundaries and expectations. It's a lot of confrontation and enforcement which I do not want to engage in, as it is very uncomfortable for me to be so assertive. But if I'm not, then all my effort will eventually be undone as people fall back into old habits, and I will not have the access or authority to correct the actions and improve functionality. And I will be left at a physical, mental, and financial deficit with nothing to show for it.

I adore this job and farm. I adore my bosses and coworkers. I'm incredibly grateful for the opportunity and experience. But I have to make some big moves now, and I'm nervous to make them. I don't want to burn bridges or build grudges. I just see so much easily accessible potential in this kitchen, and can't help but jump right in. But I need to do it right, you know? There has to be a purpose and clear plan of action for all of us to succeed. We deserve it.

TL;DR: The kitchen needs major help and I need them to let me do it and I don't know what will happen lol.

#personal fitblr #bee farm #2023 me #chef

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