Airing Things Out

Published on by Our Humble Abode16 Comments

Montana summer is near, and we love enjoying the warm weather outside.  And we want that warmth to stay outside.  In our first house, keeping it cool wan’t too difficult.  Ben super insulated the walls and we had a functioning geothermal to cool.  Well, the mountain house has neither and we’ve got loads of large windows and southern exposure.  It heats up in here.  Luckily, our nights cool off nicely this time of year. Ben came up with a genius idea to tide us over during these in between months; a whole house fan.

After some discussion and weighing our options, we decided to remove the ugly fluorescent light in my office to make room for the fan.

The electric from the light made install easier.  Removing the light was easy enough, then Ben located the roof rafters using a stud finder.

Typical install involves cutting the rafter to make room for the fan.  Not cool with us.  Something about tearing out part of a structural element seems wrong.  Instead, Ben used the fan template and cut the sheet rock around the beam.

Here’s the big guy now.  The fan, not Ben.  🙂

Ben used 2 by 4s to build a brace around the outside of the opening, then put the fan in place.

I’d love to give you a detailed tutorial of everything he did, but I wasn’t in the attic.  However, I can give you this shot of how it looks from afar when on.

The fan sucks warm air from the house and puts it in the attic, which also pulls the louvers up.  The beam across the middle blocks the center louver from moving, so Ben cut it loose from the rest.

When off, the louvers kind of look like a vinyl fence.  Still, it is a far better look than the huge oak encased light of yore.

Even better, when on, the fan does a great job pulling the cold outside air through the open windows.  If we close everything early enough, the house stays cool throughout the day.  What a smart man I have.

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.