Close(t) Encounters

I mentioned the lack of organization in the new house.  Not only in the form of unpacked clutter, but a lack of storage space.  Sure, the mountain house is larger than our first house, but the current storage is inefficient at best.  Take our entry closet for example.

On the top shelf are two floating store-bought shoe racks.  Neither are wide enough for the closet, nor tall enough for Ben’s work shoes.  So we’ve got a pile of shoes on the floor.  I did add a large hook for my purse and a hanging Ikea organizer to corral the most used shoes from the pit below.

The boys’ bedroom closet is rocking a similar look.  A heap of clothes and bins of diapers at the bottom, crammed clothes on one rod (we’ll add a second rod soon) and two shelves above.

The linen closet is my best friend right now.  It’s huge and holds the usual linen-y stuff; towels, blankets, and pillows.  But, it’s large enough to pull double duty as our vacuüm and toy closet.  Supervision required board games on top:

Bins of toys (which lived in our entertainment centers at the first house) on the bottom.  And a chair so I can reach the top shelf.

Of all the existing storage, the master closet is the most useful for us.  Plenty of shelves to hold my purses, pajamas, and such.

Ben’s side is similar, holding his t-shirts, socks, underwear, and shorts.  Plenty of hanging space for each of us, including hooks for belts and hats.

In fact, we’ve got room to spare.  This center shelving is bare, as is most of that top shelf.

I can hang all my clothes on one rod, leaving room for hangers and a huge pile of laundry on the floor.  Gotta get a new outlet to get the dryer hooked up.  Overall, we love the house.  We’re just missing our built ins and organization.  Did you notice I finished the paint?  I love the color, Ben said. “It’s okay…for a closet.”  He said he hated it at first, but I think it’s growing on him.  Maybe not enough to paint the bedroom walls though.

How do you organize closets?  Do you prefer built-in shoe racks?  Hanging systems?  Do you sort your clothes by color and sleeve length like I do?  Have to have matching hangers?  Share your secrets!

Clean Up and Giveaway

This giveaway is closed for new entries.

Our ten winners are ErinMayCheryl BAmanda MStephanieBritnyAmyKarylSaraSarah.  Congratulations!

Recently, a lovely lady named Stacey contacted me asking if I would be interested in trying Shaklee’s all purpose cleaner.  Knowing I had a whole house in desperate need of a thorough cleaning, I emphatically said yes!  I’m happy to say it worked, but I know pictures speak louder than words.  Well, if pictures could speak.  Anyway, take a look at this picture of our kitchen cabinets before cleaning.

The cabinets are sans handles and the previous owner was physically unable to clean for quite some time.  Therefore, we have grimy hand gunk build up in all the usual places.

Check out that grime.  And after a good scrubbing with a sponge and my new friend Shaklee, it’s clean.

Well, as clean as it can be.  Those dark spots are sticker residue from bumper pads.

Shaklee also helped clean our railings.  Kind of looks like dark wood grain, right?

Wrong!  It’s the same sticky stuff the cabinets had.

And after:

Thanks to Shaklee, I don’t feel the need to wear rubber gloves in my own house.  Or ask for a wipe, Monk style.  Though V and E could come in handy for that.  Speaking of V and E, Shaklee is a safe, all natural cleaner, perfect for using around the family.

The Goods: A sample vial of Shaklee Basic H2 cleaner.

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 when you clean.  Every day?  Once a week?  Only when visitors are coming over?

For additional entries:

1.  Visit Stacey’s shop, then return, leaving a comment, letting me know what product you would like to try.
2.  Become a follower of Stacey Lehn and leave another comment.
4.  Tweet, Facebook, blog about this giveaway (1 extra entry each)

Contest Closes: Thursday, May 10th at 11:59 pm, central time.

Number of Winners: Ten!

Ships: Anywhere in the U.S.

Other Info: We will select the winner using random.org and announce on Friday, May 11th.  Good luck!!

P.S.  Check out our wild back yard (and wild child).

Move In Ready

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?

Gimme a Giveaway: Chris Loves Julia

This giveaway has ended.  See who won here.

It’s an exciting Friday for us.  Last night was our first night sleeping at the new house.  Most of our big furniture has been moved and we’re in the process of moving over our smaller stuff. Exciting for us, and this giveaway is exciting for you. It comes from Chris Loves Julia, a fantastic blog and Etsy shop. My gal Julia is one talented lady, creating beautiful chalkboard drawings as well as modern and abstract paintings.

My favorite chalk board drawing is this Kermit the Frog quote:

If you need art for your kitchen, how about this Cow Butcher Chart:

Or That’s Amore for any room in your house.

The Goods: Any chalkboard drawing from the Chris Loves Julia Etsy 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 won an award, and maybe what it was for.

For additional entries:

1.  Add Chris Loves Julia to your Etsy favs, come back and leave a comment telling us what your favorite item is.

2.  Like Chris Loves Julia on Facebook, come back and leave another comment.

Contest Closes: Thursday, May 3rd at 11:59 pm, central time.

Number of Winners: One!

Ships: Anywhere in the United States

Other Info: We will select the winner using random.org and announce on Friday, May 4th.  Good luck!!

And, Julia was kind enough to offer a 10% discount on chalk board drawings using the code HUMBLE10.  So get some shopping in and save a little cash.

P.S.  This blog post is coming to you, live from our new house.  Literally, I just got my computer moved over and set up.

Tub Thumping

Before we can officially move into the new house, I’ve required a working bath tub.

See, we pulled out the claw foot tub and we’ve replaced it with a five foot jetted tub and shower combo.

Which also required removing the small half wall and building a new floor to ceiling wall.

The plumbing runs through the new wall, and a Hardie Backer surround, tub to ceiling.  Ben taped and filled the seams and we’re waiting for it to dry.

We also gained a little bit of space for the toilet.  A claw foot tub plus a wide half wall in an eight foot square room is a tight fit.  Now a five foot tub with a standard wall gives the cramped toilet space a few more valuable inches.

In other bathroom news, we picked up our shower tile and a remnant for our vanity counter today.  Hopefully Ben can start (and finish) the shower surround tomorrow.  But here’s the counter:

The counter is a 45 inch by 25 inch piece of white quartz.  I love that it is light and will allow me to paint the vanity any color I want.  Ben got it for 60 bucks, which is about $400 cheaper than the quote we got from the other granite supplier in town.  Score!

Even better, this granite place has piles of damaged materials.  Ben saw a few pieces of Carrera marble in the heap, so he asked about it.  The company is trying to get rid of these and the employee said Ben could take anything he wanted, free.

Those babies are sitting in the garage, waiting for Ben to cut them down to fit our end tables.  He sure knows the way to my heart.

In other new house news, I hung a few pictures.  Mostly because I don’t want to look at the epileptic seizure inducing wall paper.  And because I have about 10 boxes of art at my disposal.

We were able to sell the old bathroom vanity on Craigslist, and now we’re trying to pawn this enormous wooden pergola on someone.  No clue of its original purpose, but it’s in our yard and we want it out of there.

We met another neighbor yesterday; Rocky, the rock chuck.

That’s the latest progress.  Bring on the bath tub so we can move our beds over!  Tell me, what kind of counters do you have in your bathroom?  Have you scored any free things lately?