Category: Current House

Video, Video, Video!

Published on by Our Humble Abode21 Comments

Only a month after I promised, too!

First, a few fun facts:

1.  I filmed the entire house, then watched the video, realized how terribly shaky it was, and re filmed the house.  It’s still shaky, but I walked slower, so it is better.

2.  I hate the sound of my voice on video; I sound like a man.

3.  You can see V throwing sand and hear E making noises in the back yard.  And, you can see Jack hanging in the back yard in the pool video.

4.  We’ve done a few little projects you can see, and I’ll share more later on.  Curtains and floor tile, I’m talking about you.

5.  This is the cleanest this house has been since we’ve started living here.  We’re expecting guests and I seized the clean house/quiet kid moment.

6.  Uploading the ten minute house video to YouTube took over two hours.  That’s how much we love our readers.

Here’s the tour of the house:

And a shorter video of the pool room.

Can I get a ‘finally!!’?

So, was it what you expected?

Blog Anniversary: The Past Year

Published on by Our Humble Abode13 Comments

We’ve come a long way since starting this blog two years ago.  Last year we shared our stats and numbers, and we’re keeping the tradition alive today.

Over the course of a year, we have written 563 posts, still averaging .77 posts per day.

1,043 readers have subscribed to our site, not counting any that may follow along through a reader or by checking in each day.

At the end of May 2010, our first month of blogging, we had 253 total blog views.  So far this May we’ve had 47,323 hits, roughly 187.05 times more views than our first month.

In April 2012, we had 118,831 blog views.  Our highest month, March, had 147,538  blog views.

Jen at IHeart Organizing was the first person to feature one of our projects, my office bookshelves.  We’ve been blog friends ever since.

Thanks to Young House Love’s feature of our kitchen remodel, March 29th had 32,346, the most page views in a single day.

Over the course of the year, we’ve had 937,469 blog views and an all time total of 1,366,142.  So far for 2012, we’ve had 494,515 total views, averaging 3,663 views per day.

We’ve uploaded 2,756 pictures.

We’ve held 50 giveaways, including the current Jillian Rene Decor giveaway, and have plans for more.

Our awesome readers have left us 9,435 comments while WordPress has blocked 75,765 spam comments.  Yowza.

Sun Bursting is the most viewed post after the Home Page, Our First House, and About.

2012 has been a busy year for us.  We accidentally found our dream house, made an offer, accepted, and closed on a new house in April, starting the whole process over.  In addition to listing our first home by owner, accepting an offer, and signing closing papers, relinquishing ownership.

We’ve already torn apart a bathroom and have started putting it back together again.  None of this would have happened (well, we still would have worked on our first house and bought the mountain house) without you and your support.  Your comments have made me laugh, smile, and have encouraged and inspired me.  I am grateful to have ‘met’ each of you.  I know I don’t say it enough, but thank you for following along as we work, offering advice, and leaving amazingly kind comments.

That’s how our blog has grown over the past two years.  Now we’re keeping another tradition alive.  A Q and A post, so feel free to ask your questions in the comment section and we’ll write a round up post next week.  Oh, and I’m trying to find a time to shoot a house tour video. Hopefully we’ll have something soon!

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.

Gimme a Giveaway: Jillian Rene Decor

Published on by Our Humble Abode163 Comments

This giveaway is closed.  See who won here.

You know I’m a sucker for pillows, so I was thrilled when Jillian agreed to a giveaway.  Jillian Rene Decor is a lovely little Etsy shop chock full of pillows.

Here are a few of my favorites:

Mustard Yellow Felt Flower:

Purple Felt Flower:

Mustard Yellow Felt Flower:

Girly and frilly, but Jillian has masculine designs, too.  Look at Deer Antler Buttons:

Or Autumn Harvest Tweed:

The Goods: A $50 store credit good for or toward anything in the Jillian Rene Decor shop.

To Enter: We ask that you please subscribe to Our Humble A{Bowe}d.  If you don’t want to receive e-mail notifications, that’s fine.  Let us know if you follow us through Google Reader or another form and it will also count.  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 if you’ve ever been in a fun fight.  Like a pillow fight?  Or a pie fight (clown style)?  Food fight?  Paintball?

For additional entries:

1.  Add Jillian Rene Decor to your Etsy favs, come back and leave a comment telling us what your favorite item is.

2.  Like Jillian Rene Decor on Facebook, come back and leave another comment.

Contest Closes: Thursday, May 17th at 11:59 pm, central time.

Number of Winners: One!

Ships: Anywhere in the United States and our neighbors to the north, Canada!

Other Info: We will select the winner using random.org and announce on Friday, May 18th.  Good luck!!

P.S.  We announced the 10 winners of our Shaklee giveaway here.

Ready To Dish It Out

Published on by Our Humble Abode18 Comments

The mountain house boasts many upgrades over our first house.  Fantastic views, more land, larger home, an indoor (non-functioning) pool, room to expand, and loads of untapped potential.  However, there are several slight downgrades from our first home; dated bathrooms (we’re happy to live with until we can remodel), old windows, and crappy appliances.  Appliances that are as old or older than I am.  Like our dishwasher.

I’m pretty sure its close to original in this house.  At any rate, it’s gross.  And I have no clue why there’s a board on the floor at the base.

Apparently, in the 80’s, this monster was considered an energy saver.  Hmm, I wonder what Energy Star rating it would have today?  It still functions, but not very well.  Clean dishes are hit or miss and the capacity is tiny compared to the KitchenAid washer we bought for our last kitchen remodel.   Seriously, why is the utensil caddy on the door?  Spoons are rarely clean.

While we’re on the topic of the KitchenAid dishwasher, let me show you what we got to replace that puppy above.  This stainless beauty from Lowe’s.

Yep, we got the exact same dishwasher.  Why?  We loved it at our first house.  Huge capacity (seriously, I had to buy more dinner plates because we didn’t have to run it often enough to clean the 12 we had), sleek controls, and stainless interior and exterior.  Ben had to get this big box in his tiny car.  And he did, so we’ve got a new to us dishwasher sitting in our garage, waiting to be installed.  We’ve got 30 days to return it if it doesn’t work, too.  I’m so excited for a new, clean, quiet dishwasher.

What upcoming event are you excited for?  I do deem a new dishwasher an ‘event’.  Score any great deals lately?