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Gimme a Giveaway: A. Heirloom

Published on August 17, 2012September 14, 2012 by Our Humble Abode285 Comments

This giveaway is closed. Thanks for entering! See who won here.

Happy Friday, everyone! We’ve got a great giveaway from A. Heirloom today.

This fantastic shop has dozens of state and country cutting boards, each bamboo board custom-made. So you can choose the state you live, your home state, a state you’ve visited, or which ever suits you. To further customize your board, place a star or heart on your city.

Of course I’m partial to Montana:

And Minnesota:

Here’s everything you need to know to get your hands on one.

The Goods: One cutting board of choice from A. Heirloom.

To Enter: Leave a comment, which can (but doesn’t have to) include our Just for Fun question.

Just for Fun: Which state would you least like to live in and why? Florida because hurricanes? California because the earthquakes? Nevada because you’ve got a gambling problem?

Contest Closes: Thursday, August 23rd 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, August 24th. Good luck!!

Simple Solution: Brokeback…

Published on August 16, 2012October 9, 2012 by Our Humble Abode1 Comment

Couch. Betcha thought I was going to say mountain. Well, I didn’t. Oh wait, I did. Gah. Back to the point. Probably a year or so ago, the supports of our sectional broke. Only because we moved it to get the rug under did we decide to fix it. It only took two pieces of scrap 2 by 4 and screws, too. I don’t make it a habit to deconstruct furniture, so I was surprised to find this is all that held our butts up each night.

Seriously, that’s a few scraps of wood, some string, foam, and fabric. But the real problem were the pieces of 1/2 inch plywood, which should be attached, thus keeping the springs against the seat. Instead, these pieces that should be flush come apart. Every time someone sat on the couch, these pieces sagged, making an uncomfortable Lost watching perch.

For a quick, durable fix, Ben measured the depth of the couch and cut a scrap of 2 by 4 (left over from the garage wall he had just torn out). Then he screwed into the plywood and the 2 by 4 on the other side. Now we shouldn’t have problems, and if we do, I think a new couch is in order.

What took us so long to, in the words of my favorite redneck, git ‘er done? What have you done that’s been a problem for a while? Fixed any couches? Maybe you’re shocked at how little furniture is actually made of?

Musical Rugs

Published on August 15, 2012October 9, 2012 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?

Beam Me Up, Scottie

Published on August 14, 2012October 9, 2012 by Our Humble Abode6 Comments

As I mentioned yesterday, we were able to get some work done in places other than the roof this weekend. One of those projects included tearing down a load bearing wall. In a word, gulp. We’ve torn out walls before, like a load bearing one to open up the kitchen at our first house, but it was a short span. Worst case scenario, our roof fell in. Ha. This time, we took out a wall in the garage supporting the upper level of the house.

Here’s the thing, our garage is roughly two and 3/4 stalls wide, with only two garage doors. The 3/4 part was separated into two storage rooms, one accessible from the garage, the other from the utility room. Because we’ve got two cars and a boat to park, we decided we could live without the storage rooms. So Ben tore out the separating wall and the sheet rock to prepare for the change.

Then we started the time-consuming roof project and not much else happened throughout the house, garage included. On Thursday, Ben ordered a 24 foot long 18 inch tall by 6 inch wide glue lam beam to take the wall out. The next day, a truck dropped it off and Ben got antsy to get started. After making us chocolate waffles and eating breakfast, Ben and Handy Sammy got started with operation wall removal and beam placement. I stayed in the house with the boys, so I don’t have pictures of the process, but Ben borrowed a set of beam jacks from a contractor friend to hoist and support the beam in place.

Once the beam was above their heads, Ben added support posts consisting of three 2 by 6 pieces on either end.

I guess Ben enjoyed that part, learning something new and using borrowed tools and all. Of course demoing the old wall was fun, too. And hey, hey, we’ve got ourselves an open garage.

Still to come, cutting these bolts off.

Building a wall in place of the door to the utility room.

And framing out the exterior walls, adding insulation, and moving our stuff in. Although, the garage currently has construction supplies in place of our cars.

Regardless, we’re breathing easy now that we’re done with the big part. We’ve also ordered new garage doors, so we should get those installed in a few weeks. We’ll have to clean crap out before then. Eek, the garage might look okay and be usable in the near future.

Anyone out there have a garage that looks like ours? How do you like to contain the tools and mess?

The Sky Is Falling

Published on August 13, 2012October 9, 2012 by Our Humble Abode23 Comments

Wow, it’s crazy how much we can get done on the house now without the roof demanding so much attention. We’re currently between big projects, having just finished the roof and waiting for our windows to arrive. Which gave Ben some time to tackle a few, slightly smaller projects, including installing the Sky Tube in the bathroom.

After some debating from everyone (you included!) we landed on centering it over the tub width wise, and centered over the shower curtain depth wise. Ben started by tracing and cutting most of the outline of the light. Before cutting it completely through, dumping a pile of insulation on our heads, be climbed up in the attic and moved the offending insulation. From there, Sam cut the rest of the sheet rock left, and installed the bottom glass part of the light, screwing it into the joists above.

Ben attached the flexible duct work to the cover he had already installed while roofing and we were ready to rock. And on an overcast, rainy day, this bathroom saw its first shred of natural light in existence.