Category: Family Room

Brothers from Another Mother?

Published on by Our Humble Abode11 Comments

I hope you all had a fun and relaxing Labor Day weekend.  If you didn’t, I hope you got some work done, like we did.  Our weekend started with a bang, literally.  Ben finished demoing the pool house wet bar with the help of his trusty hammer Meowmeow.  Thor has Mjölnir, Ben has Meowmeow.

Do you see the resemblance?  Sure, Ben can’t grow hair, but he can rock a mean hat.  Though Ben rarely wears a cape.

{unedited picture via}

For now the doors are awkwardly low, but that will change.

A little more digging and knocking down the stone wall to go.  Then we can have someone come in, cut the concrete, and we’ll have a ground level opening to install the new door and window.  Ben will build a lower header to make these the same height as the rest of the house windows.

Thor Ben and Handy Sammy started in the kitchen and worked their way down the line to the rest of the windows.  Taking out the bay window wasn’t terribly difficult.  Some prying, hammering, and wiggling and it came out.

After installing the kitchen window, the big window in the breakfast nook came out.

The original bay window sat about six inches off the floor.  We don’t consider our patio a view, so we decided to shorten this window by about a foot.  Ben built a short wall to raise the new window up to the header.

Saturday afternoon brought on an unexpected complication, this:

So many problems here.  First, someone cut out the rim joist.  Bad. idea.  Unlike Nike’s slogan, just don’t do it.  Then, some genius ran plumbing for the solar panels outside, only insulating with thin foam.  And we didn’t have any support for the window.  Good thing those solar panels aren’t there anymore.  Ben cut off the water lines inside the house and replaced the cut rim joist.  We also shortened the stationary panels on either side of the sliding door, so he built a short wall to raise these windows to the headers.

The sliding door at the back of the house is the first of six we’ll have in the house and pool house.  So, it was a good learning experience.  After reading the instructions, install was easy enough.

I guess the panels are crazy heavy though.  Oh, we found another no no when removing the old door.  Wiring for the scones doesn’t come from the floor or attic.  The right sconce is looped from the left over the door.  Fortunately Ben didn’t cut at that door to get it out.  One more reason those have to go.

Soon, Ben will start wrapping the house with insulation.  To accommodate the added depth, the new windows have supports made of three 2 by 4s.

While we love all the new windows, our favorites are the two larger bedroom windows.  For egress, these double hung windows are 4 feet wide by 5 1/2 feet tall.  In a word, huge.  And fantastic.  The guest bedroom window is about ten inches closer to the floor than the original.

And the boys’ window is about 18 inches closer to the floor.  

An outlet right below the boys window was in the way, so Ben turned off the breaker, cut down for the window and added an outlet on either side.  A nice little two for one special.

Now we’re really excited to get the pool house windows cut and installed.  That means this whole window process is done…until we’re ready for the other three sides of the house.  This is a nice stopping point as the back of the house isn’t easily seen.  And it will give us enough to do before winter sets in without being rushed.

Bring on the insulation and siding.  And tearing up the back yard.

Because this post is already long, I’ll share pictures of the windows tomorrow.  Until then, tell us what you did over the long weekend.  I saw a lot of camping pictures on Instagram.

Musical Rugs

Published on by Our Humble Abode19 Comments

By now, a lot of companies  have decided to partner up with bloggers to offer products in exchange for a review to advertise.  It’s definitely a perk of blogging, but not the reason we do it.  While I get many offers, if they aren’t products I’d usually use, want to try, or home related, I decline.  Well, Mohawk rugs asked if I’d be willing to review a rug, and I got excited.  Ben and I looked at the options and had a hard time agreeing.  He wanted a soft, plush or shaggy rug while I wanted something with pattern and color, less concerned with the softness.  Eventually we agreed on the multi color Cambridge rug, available at a few other stores, so look here to find retailers.

Surprisingly, it shipped quickly and I got the rug less than a week later.  I quickly opened and unrolled the rug to let it smooth out and breathe.

Happily, the background wasn’t overly beige, and the other colors were beautiful.  Sunday morning, we did a little rug switcharoo, complete with Sam cleaning the couch.

Some fiddling and shifting later, we had the rug and sectional centered on the window, looking lovely.

I’m happy to add more pops of blues and yellow, which will eventually tie in with the entertainment center.

I’m sure we could get away with an even larger rug down the road, but the 8 by 11 foot size is the same as the other rug we had in here.

Doses of yellow, blues, and grays tie in nicely, but I’m really liking the large pattern.

I’ll admit, I was hesitant to buy another rug online because Ben cared more about the texture than the look.  What if it wasn’t plush enough?  Well, this is just as thick as the last rug we had.  And the olefin material is soft, too.  But, I do have one problem.  This somewhat noticeable bare spot.  It’s not terribly obvious from far away or when the fibers are matted from foot traffic, but after vacuuming, the strands perk up and it is more noticeable.  Maybe I can exchange it, because I really like the look and materials.

But let’s talk about a happy surprise.  Because we put the new rug in the living room, we decided the best place for the old rug would be in the family room.  For some reason, I always thought this rug was boring with the sectional.  However, in the family room, the pattern looks more luxurious and modern.

I’m digging the lighter look, and this rug is more proportioned to go with the furniture.

If you give a mouse a cookie Amanda a rug, she’ll want to swap all the rugs in the house.  Ben obliged, moving the striped Flor rug into the boys’ bedroom.

I’m not crazy about the abundance of stripes going on in here now, but it will work until we find something else.  Still haven’t found a place for the painted chevron rug though…  I suggested the covered part of the deck, but Ben thinks it will get too dirty.  I suppose he has a point.

What rug do you currently have your eye on?  Maybe you’re playing a little game of musical household items?

Wash and Hang

Published on by Our Humble Abode11 Comments

For Mother’s Day, Ben did a few special things for me, which the title hints at.  First, he took me to breakfast at IHOP.  What can I say, I love pancakes, with chocolate chips.  He also bought me a pretty pink orchid while at Lowe’s.

Just what my office needed, a pop of color and life to take attention off the ugly wall paper and black electronics.

Do you remember the thrift store light I bought for the breakfast nook?

Last weekend, I spray painted the inside white and the outside got a coat of Lagoon.

Yesterday, the boys and I ran to Subway to get lunch, and came home to this.

I noticed it right after rounding the corner.  And I’m thrilled with the look.  Especially with the family room lamps.  Apparently Target blue is a perfect match for Rustoleum’s Lagoon.

Teal pops around the rooms and outside (this bird feeder hangs in the apple tree right outside the bay window) tie everything together.  That concludes the ‘hang’ part of my Mother’s Day gift.  Now you can see the ‘wash’ portion, which most definitely includes the older than I am dishwasher we inherited with the mountain house.  Our new KitchenAid dishwasher patiently waited in the garage, and Ben found some time to haul it upstairs.  After yerking the old washer out, we had an ugly hole.

Don’t ask what the stuff on the floor is, because you don’t want to know.  An hour or so of fiddling and tracing unknown water lines, Ben gave me a functional, new dishwasher.

We already ran it on a maiden voyage and started filling it up for another load.

Ooh, hidden controls and a clean handle.  Now I don’t have to wash my hands after opening the dishwasher.

 

A great Mother’s Day, and a productive weekend, indeed.  That Ben sure knows the way to my heart.  I’m one lucky gal with three great guys in my house.

How was your Mother’s Day?  What did you do?

P.S.  Today marks the two year anniversary of Our Humble A{Bowe}d.  I’ve got a little post planned for this afternoon, so stick around.

Move In Ready

Published on by Our Humble Abode21 Comments

On Friday, I mentioned we moved in to the mountain house, as Ben calls it.  I think a moment like that deserves a celebration of pictures.  So, here’s the mountain house, filled with our crap, I mean furniture.

The entry isn’t huge, but we have a rug and storage bench for putting on shoes.

Our old sectional, which lived in the theater room at the first house, fits in the new living room with plenty of space.

We arranged the furniture to face the television about 2 1/2 feet from the window wall.  I have high hopes for bookshelves on either side of the window and a window seat between.

Small end tables and a bookshelf turned entertainment center work for now.

Ben built that bookshelf for V’s nursery and we’ve had it in the basement for the past few years.  It is the only piece of furniture that can serve this purpose until we get a chance to build a proper entertainment center.  This also means Ben’s kick butt surround sound system is tucked away for the too small shelf.  Once we finish the bathroom, we’ve got this on our to do list.

Okay, enough of my whining.  Here’s our empty dining room.  The stool and lantern are for the deck and the chairs are there as additional seating.

Some day we’ll buy or build a large table to go in here, but that’s not a priority.  Right around the corner is my office.  I’ve got my craft and shop supplies in the lower cabinets and lots of electronics on the desk top, but it’s totally functional.

Jack has deemed this her spot, so I tossed a few towels down to keep her cozy until I can make her a little dog bed.

Then there’s the kitchen.  Oh, the kitchen.  Even though this kitchen is at least twice the size of our other kitchen, we’re quickly learning the main cabinets are poorly laid out.  Not as much storage as it appears to have.

So we’ve been stashing most kitchen stuff in the giant pantries.

That pretty French door fridge above?  I hate it.  Ben packed up all the food from the fridge and freezer at the first house on Friday.  The fridge contents fit without a problem.  However, the two drawer freezer couldn’t hold an entire box of frozen foods.  As I tried to cram everything in, getting more and more frustrated while cursing the LG designer I started crying out of annoyance.  The stress from packing while watching two little boys and unpacking had gotten the best of me.  Luckily, we have space in the utility room for a chest freezer, so Ben bought one yesterday.  Rant over.  Check out the breakfast nook we’re using as the dining room.

That large window is a great place to watch the wild life in the back yard.

Friday night we had five deer visitors, right off the back patio.

It was chilly over the weekend, so Ben built a fire and we roasted marshmallows right in the family room.

Figuring out a layout for this room was tricky.  We have several traffic patterns; one from the stairs, another from the hall, and a third to the sliding door.  This works best, keeping everything centered on the fireplace and windows.  Too bad we don’t have close enough outlets to plug-in the lamps.

I’ve moved my books from the old office into the guest bedroom.  The pile on the bed is my sewing machine and 20 yards of fabric for curtains.

We’re still working on the main bathroom, so we’ll share pictures soon.  Floor tile has been delayed and should be here tomorrow.  The boys’ bedroom layout is very similar to their old room, just a few feet wider.  Here’s V’s side, complete with a dresser due to the lack of organization systems in this house.

E’s side is so bare right now, but he does have a faux Jack to keep him company.

The last bedroom, our bedroom.  We sold our bed to the buyer and we’re using the old guest bed for a while.  Ben hates the headboard covering the window.

I finished painting the closet over the weekend and put our clothes away.  Instead of a pile of clothes, we’ve got a stack of empty bins.  Wahoo!

Ugly master bathroom with an awesome steam shower.  Still ugly despite a few accessories.  I guess putting lipstick on a pig doesn’t make it pretty.

You want to see something that really isn’t pretty (and kind of stresses me out)?  The basement.

It’s funny because we’ve gained square footage over the last house, but we’re desperately lacking built-in storage.  Not to mention we’ve lost two bedrooms (hence the mattresses) and practically two bathrooms.  The main bath is under construction and the basement bath is just gross, leaving us with the master bath.  Eventually we’ll get there, but I think the basement will look like this for a while.

Ben and Handy Sammy hauled over the washer and dryer, too.  The plug for the dryer isn’t the same as the outlet though.

So that’s how we’re living in the new house.  I’ve off to pack up the few remaining things at the old house and then I’ve got some sewing to do.  Mama needs black out curtains in hopes of getting the boys to sleep past 6:30.

What did you do over the weekend?  Do you have a sewing project in your near future?  How about a move?