Month: October 2011

Gimme a Giveaway Winner: Michelle Smith

Published on by Our Humble Abode2 Comments

Hello, friends!  Another Friday is upon us, which means the weekend is close.  We accidentally (text from another giveaway) asked your favorite rainy place.  I would love to take a trip to Niagara Falls.  We meant to ask whom you’d most like to have tea with.  I’d have to say James Roday from Psych, just to see if his personality is at all similar to his character Shawn Spencer.  Man, that show cracks me up.

Ashleigh, our winner, said her favorite rainy place is her cousin’s lake side cottage in New York.  She also happens to love the ginko leaf pattern necklace.

Good choice, Ashleigh.

So, what are you up to this weekend?  More kitchen work for us, I hope.

P.S.  We’ll be back again this afternoon with more counter top details.  And a few pictures.  

Countertop Considerations

Published on by Our Humble Abode32 Comments

From the very beginning, Ben and I had planned to use some sort of natural stone as kitchen counters.  When we bought the marble slab for our dining table, we thought we’d use the same marble for counters.  It’s beautiful and has held up really well.

The problem though, is the marble we fell in love with was a mis-order, not something routinely stocked.  So we can’t get it now.

With the beautiful marble eliminated, we turned to granite.  I have yet to see a light granite I love.  The only thing that comes close it Bianco Romano, so we figured we’d end up with something dark.  Ben liked Cosmic Black, I thought it was okay.

{via}

The boys and I looked at granite on Tuesday, but didn’t see anything we fell in love with.  And they’re out of Cosmic Black.  I liked the look of soapstone, until I heard that you can easily scratch it with your fingernail.  I’m not big on a patina look, and the $105 per square foot price tag didn’t help.  Sadly, I learned our default granite, Absolute Black, costs 80 bucks a square foot.  Our kitchen, not especially huge, has 34 square feet of counter tops, excluding the bar top we plan to add.  Do the math.  80 times 34 equals $2720.  Ouch.  Soapstone would come to $3570.  No thanks.  Maybe granite isn’t in the cards.  But, this one is pretty.  And so is this one.

We didn’t even consider a different marble because Carrara isn’t practical for a kitchen.  Ben hates the look of concrete (he doesn’t like how modern and cold it looks) and doesn’t like Corian or Silestone.  We’re both opposed to a metal like stainless steel or copper.  We don’t want tile because we’re not going to clean tons of grout lines.  Formica is too cheap looking.  What does that leave us with?  Wood.  Specifically, Bubinga.  In huge slabs, not butcher block.  Here it has been used as a bathroom vanity top.

I haven’t seen the slabs yet, so that concerns me.  We haven’t completely committed, but we’re strongly considering.   And, just so you can see the thought process in my mind, here’s a pro and con list of each material:

Granite Pros:

  • Durability
  • Seen in many kitchens

Granite Cons:

  • Price, running at least $50 per square foot, for anything we like at least.
  • Availability, limited to the suppliers stock.
  • Seen in many kitchens.  Is granite the Formica of the new century?

Marble Pros: 

  • It’s preeeeeetttyy

Marble Cons: 

  • Everything else, not durable or practical in a kitchen

Wood Pros:

  • Used for hundreds of years.  Can look both modern and classic.
  • If damaged, can be sanded to look new again.
  • Price: For 2 inch thick slabs, the price for the raw cut wood is $2376.  It will cost another $100 to have a cabinet company sand it to 180 grit for a total of 2476 bucks for the entire kitchen.  Still $244  cheaper than Absolute granite, not including the bar top.

Wood Cons: 

  • Can be damaged easily by knives
  • We don’t have much wood in our house, other than our floors, so it could look out-of-place
  • I haven’t seen the slabs yet.  This is a huge con for me right now.
  • Ben has to DIY the counters.  If we had a fabricator do the work and they messed something up, we could hold them accountable to fix it.  Now Ben is liable.
Because I want our counters to look pristine, I’d ask people to not cut directly on the counters.  And I would get a nice cutting board to leave out as a subconscious reminder.  Here are some pretty kitchens I found in my Pinterest research.

Who has wood counters?  Love ’em or hate ’em?  Do you treat them as a large cutting board?  Anything we should know before taking the plunge?

Fall Special Giveaway: Shabby Apple

Published on by Our Humble Abode98 Comments

This giveaway is no longer accepting entries.  See who won here.

Yep, we’re a month late to decorate for fall.  To make up for that, we’ve decided a special off-the-routine giveaway was in order.  Gather round for a chance to win one of two beautiful necklaces from Shabby Apple.

Feast your eyes on this golden Light as a Feather beauty, a $48 value.  Hello, lovely.

Or, you could get your mitts on a Through the Looking Glass gem that’s also a locket, a $68 value.

Which ever you choose will pair wonderfully with a nice fall sweater and a cup of cider.

The Goods: One Shabby Apple necklace, either Light as a Feather or Through the Looking Glass.

To Enter: Subscribe to follow Our Humble A{Bowe}d, if you’re not already.  To subscribe, click the “Sign Me Up!” button under “Be the first to know.”  Once you’ve subscribed, leave a comment, which can (but doesn’t have to) include our Just for Fun question.

Just for Fun: Tell us your favorite fall drink.  Apple cider?  Hot chocolate?

For additional entries:

1.  Like Shabby Apple on Facebook and come back to leave another comment.

Contest Closes: Tuesday, October 25th at 11:59 pm, central time.

Number of Winners: One!

Ships: Anywhere in the U.S.

Other Info: We will select the winner using random.org and announce on Wednesday, October 26th.  Good luck!!

Fantastic Fall

Published on by Our Humble Abode14 Comments

So far this fall, we’ve had my family in town visiting, Vincent’s fourth birthday party, we’ve started our kitchen remodel, and our sister-in-law and niece just left yesterday to move to Alaska.  We’ve been busy.  Too busy to think about fall decorations, I’m afraid.  Recently though, I did sew a few fall pillow covers and rearranged the entertainment center for a different look.  When fall rolls around, I love to look at the pretty red, orange, and yellow leaves.  But, I’m not a huge fan of red in our home.  I can tolerate orange in the right application, but I love yellow lately.  Knowing that, I decided to use splashes of orange and yellow mixed with jewel tones and dashes of metallic gold.  Wanna see?

First, I sewed new pillow covers from Pier 1 place mats I already owned.  I dug around in my button stash to find gold buttons.  Sewing the pillow is very similar to a normal envelope closure pillow.  Just add buttons.  The teal pillow behind I made using left over fabric and covered the old inserts.

Total cost so far?  Zero dollars.  I still have to dig out my pine cone wreath.  And probably my Halloween decorations while I’m in there.

I used more left over fabric to make pillows for the living room.  The teal velvet fabric I bought last fall at Hobby Lobby.  The color pops against an orange pillow I stole from my office.  A mix of patterns, textures and colors tickles my pickle.  (That’s what Vincent says).

Color blocking is a hot trend, and it’s easy to do.  I rummaged through my fabric stash and found eggplant and yellow scraps, so I pieced them together and sewed an envelope closure back.  Insert pillow form and done.  Still at zero dollars.

Our entertainment center has rocked the same green and blue theme since spring, and things needed to change.  Not wanting to spend any money, I scoured the house for fall-ish elements.

Here’s a breakdown of new items:

1.  Natural wood tones.  A wooden sculpture from Target several years ago, a wood vase, and a carved stump add warmth.

2.  Metallic gold and brass accents.  Nothing says fall like gold if you ask me.

3.  Pressed leaves taped to a piece of white card stock is quick, painless and free art.  I had some leaves pressed in a book from last fall that Ben’s cousin, Handy Sammy discovered.  I completely forgot until that moment and decided to put them to good use.

4.  Tweed and felt leaf bowls from last year.  Just for texture and color.

5.  I pulled yellow books off the shelves to group together for more color.

It’s not perfect, but it was free.  And it changed the view.

What have you done to decorate for fall?  Are you a fan of red?  What do you think of the jewel tone twist for fall?

P.S.  We’ll be back this afternoon, so come again.

Ventilation

Published on by Our Humble Abode12 Comments

Everyone can use a little ventilation.  Unless you’re Lindsay Lohan or Paris Hilton and you’re getting out of a car with swarms of paparazzi watching every move you make.  Maybe I should say every kitchen should have adequate ventilation, especially over the range.  Just to pull the smells, heat, and moisture out.  It comes in really handy when you burn something, too.  Not that I’ve ever done that.  My point is, after tearing down the wall between the kitchen and living room on Saturday, Ben installed our new vent hood.  I briefly explained our vent hood choice in this post, but we’re sharing all the details now.

We started with a 40 inch insert, with plans to hang it as close to the ceiling as possible.  You know that nice hole we opened up?  Yeah, we didn’t want to cover any of it.

To get started, Ben found the center of the wall and marked it.  Of course, it came out on a joist.  Ben did some bracing in the attic and then proceeded to cut a hole in the sheet rock and joist to run the duct work.

Our vent hood, like most, had one flat side and three angled sides.  Typically, the flat side would be mounted against the wall and the remaining three sides could be boxed out either square or following the angles.

For about two seconds, we considered building a box that followed the angles of the fan, but we decided not to for two reasons.  Number one, we’re planning to add decorative trim and paint everything white and the angles would complicate that.  Number two, Ben worried (and I did too after he mentioned it) about grease and dust settling on the angle and we’d have a perma-dirty hood.  We opted for the simpler square box frame.  Ben carefully measured the vent and built a 2 by 4 box surround to support the new fan.  He screwed it into the joists to make sure it was securely held in place.

In goes the vent, held 1/2 inch from the bottom using the adjustable brackets that came with.  Smartie Ben used a piece of sheet rock as the guide for the spacing.  You’ll also notice that we put the flat part to the front.  This is because our vent has several buttons (for lights and various fan speeds) on the inside of the insert.  I’m short and this sucker (literally) is tucked right up to the ceiling.  If we had turned it 180 degrees, I wouldn’t be able to reach the buttons without either burning myself or getting a chair to stand on.  Neither of which seem ideal.

With everything wired up, Ben covered the box with sheet rock.  Now, our giant hole in the wall looks something like this.

In all honestly, I was a little shocked at how deep it was.  In the week since we took the cabinets and soffit down, I had gotten used to the open feel.  And I really liked how much more open everything was after knocking down the wall.  So this seemed heavier than I anticipated.  But, I was so happy the vent hood only drops 1/2 inch below the sheet rock of the support beam.

Not to mention getting task lighting and a fan back.

And it’s still pretty from the underside.

The 1200 CFM fan provides more than enough air circulation and it’s still quiet.  After installing, Ben turned it on the highest setting and we could still hear the music and carry on a normal conversation between the kitchen, living, and dining areas.  Two weeks ago, this is what you saw when you walked in the front door.

And now, behold our kitchen (and Vincent’s head) from the same angle.

It was difficult to get a good picture with all that new light streaming in from the dining room and sink windows.  Still more sheet rocking to do.  And, don’t pay attention to the too tall stove back, microwave, and jumble of wires.  If you’re concerned about safety, we’ve securely closed off the outlets so little fingers can’t get in.

Consider your self up to date on the kitchen progress.  Hopefully we’ll get some sconces, finish up some cabinet work, and look for countertops soon.  Of course we’ll keep you updated on any and all progress.  You’ve been warned.  Annoying minute details are in your future.

The boys and I are off to do some shopping.  Cross your fingers for a good deal!