Category: Our First House

Our first house, a 1960 ranch home.

Summer Swap

Published on by Our Humble Abode8 Comments

Typically, I’ll decorate the house for only a few holidays and seasons.  Nothing major, usually, just a few decorations.  We don’t have a mantle, so our decor switches are few and far between.  Fall and winter we have cozier, darker fabrics, blankets, and pillow covers.  Spring and summer require bright, cheerful colors and lighter weight bedding.

Our spring coverlet is from Ikea.  It’s not as heavy as our duvet, but not too light for the cool weather.

Our summer blanket is from Target.  It’s a simple, light weight knit blanket with a waffle weave texture.

You’ll also notice I swapped the green shams for pink ones for more color.

Because you can’t see the floor in these pictures, I thought I’d give you a glimpse into our daily lives.  Behold, Ben’s side of the bed.

Yep, a shirt, shorts, green circle toy (one of the boys brought that in, not Ben), small bowl, phone charger and unplugged alarm clock.  Ev likes to turn the music on and off and usually sets an alarm to go off at midnight while playing around.  And, I’m too lazy to tuck his bedding in every day.  Somethings just aren’t worth it.

What seasonal changes do you make?  Just bedding?  What do you have on your side of the bed?  Tons of junk like Ben?

Natural Aphid Control

Published on by Our Humble Abode4 Comments

Perhaps you don’t have an aphid issue, but we do.  On several of the fruit trees.  And bugs creep me out.  Masses of bugs creep me out even more.  I’ll spare you the pictures, but if you want to be sufficiently grossed out, Google ‘aphids on leaves’ to get an idea of what we were dealing with.

After a little searching for a natural, home-made spray, we found something that works.

1 cup vegetable oil
2 cups water
2 teaspoons dish soap

Mix everything together and spray on the affected tree or plant every few days until you’re aphid free.

Basically, the oil in the mix suffocates the aphids.  Apparently, aphids don’t go back to the same tree once they’ve left.

Another option is a garlic oil spray:

3-4 cloves of garlic, finely chopped

2 teaspoons vegetable oil

1 pint of water

1 teaspoon liquid dish soap

To make, combine the garlic cloves and vegetable oil.  Let this mixture sit for 24 hours.  After, strain out the garlic pieces.  Then, add the liquid to one pint of water and dish soap.  This is a concentrated batch, so dilute two tablespoons of garlic oil with another pint of water before spraying on your tree.  Test this out in a small area before going crazy, though.  If the leaves turn yellow, dilute the mixture with more water until you’ve determined it is safe for your plant.

You should know that these mixtures can harm helpful bugs, too.  Fortunately, the lady bugs have arrived to do some work and our aphid problem isn’t as bad.

Green Equals Green: Fruit Trees

Published on by Our Humble Abode29 Comments

I know I’ve mentioned that Ben is a total freak about trees.  He has planted a total of 22 fruit trees in the 5 years we’ve been married.  Crazy, right?  Especially considering we have a 1/4 acre lot.

Seventeen fruit trees are alive right now.  So far, we have 5 apple, 8 cherry, 2 plum, and 2 pear trees, most of which have produced fruit.  Look!  A baby pear!

Actually, the apple trees have done the best, but that’s not surprising considering the climate.  Most of the apples are best for baking, but Ben makes a mean apple crisp.  Is it fall yet?


I am most excited about our cherry trees, though.

Obviously, planting trees is an earth friendly decision.  Yes, the trees require watering, but our soil is pretty sandy with a high water table, so we’ve never had water issues.

We get fruit, so we spend less money on fresh produce.  And, our fruit doesn’t have chemicals or pesticides.  A few days ago, we picked several cherry trees and man, were they delicious.  I can’t wait for more.

Recently, Stephanie, the creative mind behind the Living Room Floor shop, contacted me to see if I was interested in reviewing a beauty product from the Good Fortune shop.

After checking out the site, I decided to give it a try.  Why?  Because Good Fortune uses only all natural ingredients to make soaps, lotions, candles, sprays and other beauty supplies.  And, I love their story and eco-conscious business practices.  The commitment to use natural ingredients and recycle packaging while maintaining quality is amazing.  “Good Fortune is an environmentally friendly company. We use recyclable and reusable paper, aluminum, and plastic in our packaging. Even the smallest steps to taking care of the environment make a big difference. In an effort to reduce the amount of waste generated, we also recycle shipping boxes and cushioning materials.”   How could I say no?  Three days after talking to Stephanie, I received a Kiss Me Kit and I couldn’t wait to try it.

I scrubbed my lips with the brown sugar scrub and licked it off.  I didn’t know if it would actually taste good, but, it was delicious.  Perhaps it’s the sugar.  The scrub was very moisturizing, but I followed it up with the chocolate peppermint lip balm, which was also quite tasty.  And moisturizing.

The only thing that could make this better is a giveaway, right?  Now it’s your turn to try a great, eco friendly product.

The Goods: One Kiss Me Kit, valued at $20.00

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: Which celeb would you most want to pucker up to?

For additional entries:

1.  Add Good Fortune Soaps on Facebook, come back and leave a comment telling us what your favorite item is.

Contest Closes: Wednesday, July 20th 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 Thursday, July 21st.  Good luck!!

Entertaining Entertainment

Published on by Our Humble Abode6 Comments

We’re slackers and haven’t built anything from start to finish since starting this blog.  Our laundry room progress has taken a back seat to project ADD life.  I thought I’d redeem myself by sharing a plan for our built-in entertainment center.

We knew we wanted hidden storage for toys and electronics, so we made a plan for cabinet doors on the lower half.  Open shelving for decorative storage above takes some of the focus away from the tv.  The shelves are fixed, just because we don’t prefer the look of the adjustable metal tracks.

When we build cabinetry, we start from the bottom up.  Ben worries about the durability and strength of everything he builds, so he uses 2 by 4s on edge for the toe kick and counter top.  Then, the cabinets are faced out and doors are added.  It’s pretty much the same process for the upper shelving.  instead of 2 by 4s, Ben uses 1 1/2 inch wide by 3/4 inch thick MDF to support the shelves.

It’s difficult to get into the particulars on how to build the entertainment center without step by step pictures.  I promise, when we finally have the laundry room cabinets done, we’ll share every detail.

Until then, I want to know if you’ve built a piece of furniture?  What about a built-in?  Not brave enough?  Try buying a plain bookshelf and add crown molding and taller baseboards to give it a more custom look.

Simple Solution: Painting and Hardware

Published on by Our Humble Abode10 Comments

When summer rolls in, we seem to get our rollers out to paint.  Last summer, it was the fence.  Now, it’s our front door.  You see, the trim and step looked like this:

Not pretty.  Or finished.  So, I busted out the gallon of satin white exterior paint leftover from painting the mailbox post.  Three coats later, our trim looked satin shiny and new.  But the antique brass lever handle just wasn’t cutting it anymore.

And Vincent always took the deadbolt cover off, so most often it looked like this from the inside.

Ben bought the front door hardware when he bought the house.  When we bought matching hardware for the backdoor, we couldn’t find the same style deadbolt.  All we found was a lever handle with a deadbolt which locked from both sides.  Locked from both sides!  Why?  That meant we had to hang a key from the  backdoor just to open it!

Umm, yeah.  If our kid kleptos the deadbolt cover, you can bet your bottom dollar that he stole the key all. the. time.  And, the front and back door keys were different.  So we didn’t replace strictly for cosmetic reasons.  We chose a  brushed stainless knob and deadbolt set for both doors.  And, they are keyed to match.  Score.

We love the new hardware and convenience from the switch.  Oh, I should mention we chose a knob because V liked to hang from the lever.  Yep, hang from it.  I know, I should have better control of my kid.

We’re I’m still too lazy to touch up the paint around the door we installed two years ago.  I do have a lame defense though.  One, the paint in the living room is old, so it separates while painting, so it isn’t the same color.  Two, when we remodel the kitchen, we’ll have to repaint the living room, so we’ ll choose a completely new color.  Three, I hate touch up painting.  Well, painting in general.

The backdoor is decked out with a new lock, too.

And tons of fingerprints.

Seriously, were these kids raised in a barn?  Must be to have that much grime on their hands.  They’re lucky they’re cute.  Ha.

Now I need to convince Ben to replace our original garage doors.

You’d think it wouldn’t be difficult given the condition.

F0r some reason, he’s resisting.  Apparently the garage is last on the priority list.

Please tell me your kids get fingerprints all over your house.  Or hang on doorknobs.  Do you prefer a lever or knob style?  Do you have two different keys for your doors?  Find it as annoying as we did?