What I'm Looking Forward to in England #1 - A Draining Board

As part of my American husband's visa application, we had to have accommodation set up at the time he applied rather than at the time of our arrival. (That is to say, it had to be all organized rather than actually be rented/bought, although try getting someone to rent you something three months off.) So we have already been to our new house and had a good look round.

It's a nice townhouse in a community full of international families which will be a great landing point for us, and particularly for the Boy (now 14, and taller than me). Most of the rooms are a good size and the kitchen has a large fridge, which brought a sigh of relief. For me however, it was the draining board that's built into the sink unit. Oh yes! While the Ball & Chain was checking out the size of the closets and looking in vain for the air conditioning thermostat, I remained entranced, staring out of the kitchen window, and running my hand lovingly along that oh-so-missed stainless steel work of art. It's the little things.

It's very unusual in the US to have a draining board at all. In my old house I had Corian counter tops installed almost purely because they can carve a draining board and sink all out of the same piece of material. Seamless drainage! If you find a built-in draining board in the USA at all, it'll look something like this, rather than the one that comes with the sink unit itself. 

Or this, which was a bit like mine. 

 For the most part in the US, when installing kitchens, the workers install the counter top, cut a big hole where the sink is going, and drop the sink unit into the hole. The sink unit, however, usually involves a minimum of two sinks and that's it. No draining board. There's not a lot of hand-washing that goes on, to be honest, but when it does it's purgatory for those of us brought up with proper draining boards.

Often, people will hand wash and rinse items, place a towel of some sort on the counter top then lie the wet pots or dishes on top. If, like for me, that's just plain irritating, you can purchase something like this -

Actually, that's a fairly posh one. Mine looks more like this -

And because they're not the prettiest of things, and take up room, they are supposed to be stored away under the sink when not in use. You think that ever happens?

So yes, my built in draining board will be one of those things that most people take for granted, but not me. At least for a while. 

Aaaah!