CSN stores giveaway!!!

Good Monday afternoon to you!

I have lots of progress to show on the basement, and I"ll get to that soon, but first, I'm so excited to share this with my readers today! The good folks at CSN stores are offering a giveaway for Our Humble Abode readers! The winner gets $20 to spend at CSN stores! I've been browsing the sight a bit, and this is going to be fun for the lucky winner! I can already see a few things we would love to put in our basement! Everything from couches, to gorgeous pendant lights to literally the kitchen sink! They also have smaller home decor and kitchen items, bowls, baskets and cooking supplies. The lucky winner has a big task ahead of them, there are over 200 stores to choose from, they even have stores that carry baby accessories and fitness equipment! We've been in the market for a swing set and I was overwhelmed with the amount of choices! Choosing what to get with your winnings will probably be the hardest part!

Want to win?
* One entry for a comment
* Become a follower of Our Humble Abode for a second entry (make sure to leave a second comment so I know to count you twice.)

Good luck! I'll announce the winner Thursday morning!

pretty windows!

Hello there! I'm so excited about what's been going on down in the basement that I have to share!

My hubby has some serious skills and has been slaving away to make this basement the basement of my dreams!

I know it's nerdy, but things like this make me love and appreciate him more than anything else he could do. Some gals like flowers and jewelry, I'll take some trim work or house projects any day of the week over those things!

Check out these oh-so-pretty craftsman-y window casings that he built!
We've only done the first coat of paint, they need another for sure, but I love the way they're turning out!

They started out looking like this:
I would say he's come a very long way!

I'm so excited to be in the final stages of our projects down there! We are seeing the light at the end of the tunnel!

Happy Friday, I hope your weekend is fabulous! Mine is going to be great, it will be filled with more pretty trims and basement work!

small change

My red curtains (seen here and here) were starting to make me twitch. I like red, but I got tired of these fast. I'm really trying to mix it up and not be so rigid with my color pallete in my home, but I like what I like... and I like green. :)

I did this about a month ago, and it makes our dining space feel cleaner and fresh, just in time for spring!

{baby boy nursery} idea board

We found out a few days ago that our little one is a boy! He has two big brothers who are thrilled beyond words and can't wait to meet him and start loving him!

I had a lot of fun last night creating this little idea board for our little fellas room. The paint and the tree will stay the same, I'm planning to add in a lot of color with other things, bird pillows (etsy) to go with the birds in the tree on the wall, I found the little kite pillow(also etsy) and plan to make one similar to sit on the toy box under the window, and lots of bright and happy fabrics (tonic living and hawthorne fabrics mostly). I know it looks like a random sampling of fabric, but I want it to all go together without looking straight-from-the-store matchy.

This is just the first round of ideas, a jumping off point if you will, but I'm liking that it will be a bright fun place for him to rest and play. I can't wait to get started! (After we get this basement out of the way, which is making huge progress of late !)

It's a lot of the same colors as Owen's previous room, but now that he's been moved in with big brother, this room is the toy room until we get a new one set up downstairs. I really wanted to keep the tree, but we'll change it up with new bedding and some new colors to make it his own little place.

craftsman cottage

My hubby gave me some homework today, to find an example of window casing styles I like for the trim work in the basement. He's about half way done with all of the trim work down there, most of the doors are trimmed, a lot of the baseboards are up, and it was time to decide exactly what to do for windows.

In my search, I ran across a tastefully renovated Craftsman style Cottage that has me drooling. The interior has all of the elements I want in our "someday" house, the wide plank oak floors, the door and trim styles, the knock your socks of classic white kitchen with vintage appeal and modern convenience, the glass tiled back splash, the whole thing is perfection.

Take a look for yourself:






Go HERE for the 360 tour of the kitchen.





Here's the exterior, I think they did an amazing job!


And the before of the exterior. You can tell that some of the elements are the same, but it's a whole new house!


All images and details came from Tar Paper Crane. http://www.tarpapercrane.com/2010/06/cottage-complete.html

I just expanded the file for my "someday" house, this cottage is right up my alley!