A few weeks ago, we asked you guys to answer a few questions for us in our very first Reader Survey (if you missed it, check it out here). Seeing as how it was the first time we’d ever done something like that, we weren’t sure how it would go. So we were over the moon when the responses started coming in. Thank you very much, for taking the time to answer our questions and giving us better insight on what you like and what you want more of. Knowing you guys on a more personal level makes blogging even more fun for us, and we hope it’s going to translate into a more enjoyable blog-reading experience for you!

Today, we want to share with you our findings as well as a few changes that are on the way (good ones, we promise!). We like to call this post our “State of the Blog Address” (and thanks to the White House for lending out their State of the Union logo). Let’s start off with our questions and what you had to say…

Question No. 1: Tell us a little about yourself. We asked this question because we wanted to get a general idea of who’s reading. Makes sense, right? We track our numbers using Google Analytics – which gives us insight on how many people come by each day, how long they stay, which city they’re from, and a bunch of other, more technical things. But none of that tells us who you are. Thanks to your oh-so-lovely cooperation, we now have a better understanding of who’s reading. A lot of you are just like us: 20-something-year-old new (or new-ish) homeowners. But the average is by no means the rule! Ages range from 19 to 61. You’re renters, you’re homeowners, and we’ve even got a dorm resident that responded to the questionnaire! (Ah, dorm life was so fun!) You’re from here in Virginia, and you’re on other side of the planet in Australia and everywhere in between. One thing’s for sure, we’re all interested in sprucing up our places (or future places) we live. In a way, it kind of feels like one big happy family, doesn’t it?

Question No. 2: What would you like to see more of on 7th House? The most common response was, “More of the same.” I guess that means we’re doing something right, right? That makes us feel great! Our aim is to bring you great, relevant content in a very personal, conversational way. A lot of you mentioned wanting to know more about us as people, and we’re really going to work toward making that happen. We’re really grateful that you want to be involved in our lives, and that you were willing to share part of yours in this survey. It only makes sense to continue to develop this budding friendship! : )

Question No. 3: How did you find us? We added this question at the last minute and we’re so glad we did! Most of you said you found us through other blogs (mainly Young House Love) and a mention about our hall bathroom renovation over on Apartment Therapy. Thanks to this question, we even found out about a magazine mention! The majority of the rest of you guys found us via a Google search. Regardless of how you guys found us, we must say, it makes us feel all warm and fuzzy inside that you guys decided to stick around!

Question No. 4: Out of our regular features, which one(s) do you enjoy the most (or least)? His + Her Favorite things took the cake on this one! We’re really happy to know you all love this feature as much as we love putting it together every month. I originally started this feature on my photography blog way back in the day (though at the time, it was called “Monthly Picks” and it featured my favorite things rather than ours). I had so much fun doing it there, we decided to bring it over to 7th House and make it a duo effort. We thought it would give you guys a little more insight to what we like and how we live. You can definitely tell a lot about a person by what they put in their shopping cart.

A close runner up to His + Her Favorite Things was Reader Renos and a few of you even begged for more! You asked, and we listened. We have some great Reader Renos lined up for the coming weeks, and we can’t wait to share them with you. One kitchen renovation in particular is just going to blow you away!

Not many of you pointed out your least favorite feature, but Etsy Thursday got the least nods. I suppose that counts as the least favorite. These days, we’ve been going Etsy Thursdays less and less. We want to make sure we only put great, high-quality products in the spotlight, and that takes some time. We still want to highlight great pieces from Etsy, but we’ll probably continue on the current trend unless we hear otherwise.

Question No. 5: On average, how many times a week do you stop by 7th House? Your answers were a mixture of “every day”, “a few times a week”, and “whenever you have a new post”. Most of you were even nice enough to mention how you read 7th House. A majority said you come directly to the site. The rest of you read via Google Reader (Yay for Google Reader!) and click over to the blog every once in a while. We also found out that a good number of you tend to read on the go – whether it be on your iPad, smart phone or Nook. It’s so exciting to see all the ways our blog makes it into your everyday lives!

Question No. 6: What are your top 3 daily blog reads? All-in-all, the top three (actually four) daily blog reads among 7th House readers (besides this blog) were Young House Love, Centsational Girl, and Apartment Therapy and Design*Sponge tied for third. I have to say, you guys have great taste! We’re huge fans of these blogs, and it’s humbling to be included with them in your list of daily reads.

Question No. 7: Any advice for us as we are getting ready to hit our 1-year mark? We got a lot of “more of the same”-type answers (which, again, makes us feel really good!), but there were some great constructive remarks here that we’re going to take to heart as well as a few funny tid bits including, “Please don’t have a baby and start blogging all things baby!” Rest assured, that isn’t going to happen anytime soon. (Even though I do have a board on Pinterest called “If we had kids…” There’s just too much adorable kid stuff out there!) Even though we’re a “baby blog”, we don’t plan to be a baby blog. ; )

So that’s what you had to say, now for the part where we tell you what we’re going to do. We’ve been putting our heads together, and here are a few things to look forward to in the coming months:

• A Bona Fide Blogging Schedule. Over the past few months, we’ve been trying to come up with a “groove” – a schedule of sorts that works for our individual schedules and brings you high-quality content on a regular basis, and we think we’ve come up with a solution! Our goal is to bring you three solid, high-quality posts every week – Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. We’ll still post giveaways every now and then on Tuesdays (Psst… have you entered in the steam mop giveaway yet?)and sprinkle an Etsy Thursday in here and there. However, if you want to know that when you check our page, you’re going to find new content, a post will be waiting for you right here every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday around 9:30ish in the morning (US Eastern time). Yay for schedules! I feel better when things are more organized, don’t you? Also, when a new post is up, we’ll be sure to let you guys know via Twitter and Facebook. Sound like a plan, Stan? Cool. Schedules make the world go around!
• More Facebook Action. Along with letting you know when a new post is up, we’re going to be spending more time over on our Facebook page. We’ll be sharing links to articles we think you might find interesting, an occasional photo of our daily activities, answering some FAQs, and we might even do a Facebook-only giveaway now and then. So, if you don’t already “like” us on Facebook, head on over!
• A FULL 7^th House Etsy Store. I read an article once about how Apple store employees aren’t allowed to say “unfortunately” because they don’t want to bum out the customers. Instead they are told to say “as it turns out”. So in Apple-esque form… As it turns out, the grand opening of the Etsy store has been delayed due to a what Greg likes to call a PEBCAK (Problem Exists Between Chair And Keyboard) error. Yeah… I spent some time cleaning up my computer, accidentally deleted a bunch of my files, emptied the trash can (twice), then realized I didn’t have a backup. Go me. In the mean time, we’ve added a few more pieces to our “soft opening” that are ready for purchase, including your favorites from the preview a while back. So be sure to stop by and check it out here or just click on the “Store” tab at the top of the page. When the store is “complete complete”, we’ll be sure to make a big blog announcement so you won’t miss it.
• More free loot! We’ve been doing giveaways here and there to kind of test the waters and see if you like them. Now, because of the reader survey, we know you do! We’re going to try to bring you giveaways more and more often.
• Mobile friendly reading. As we mentioned, a lot of you read our blog from mobile devices, and we want to make sure that’s a great experience. In the near future, we’re going to take some time to optimize our site for mobile browsers so that you can access 7th House on the go without having to worry about the site looking strange or the text being too small. Don’t worry–we’re not going to lock you into some alternate-reality version of the site that hides half of the content. We just want to make sure that you can hit the site from your smart phone or tablet without inordinate amounts of pinching, zooming, and scrolling.
• More about us. We tend to be camera shy – well, except for Bentley. He likes to steal the show. Several of you mentioned that you liked our content, but didn’t feel like you didn’t know “us” as well as you’d like. Well, we’ve taken that to heart, and we’re going to do our best to show you more about our everyday lives and who we are as people. In doing so, we hope that we’ll be able to develop a real conversation with you, rather than just words on a web site. We’re excited about sharing our lives and getting to know you!

That’s about all we’re going to uncover for now, but rest assured there’s a lot more coming! Again, thank you all so very much for taking the time to introduce yourselves, and for the kind words about what we’re doing here at 7^th House on the Left. We are truly grateful for all of you, and we hope that you’ll continue to keep us company on our journey as first-time homeowners!

Altered State of the Union photo found here. 1st Place ribbon found here.

****THIS GIVEAWAY IS NO LONGER ACCEPTING ENTRIES****
Scroll down to see who won!

Today, we’re really excited to announce that our friends at Black & Decker are back, and they’re giving a lucky reader one of our favorite cleaning gadgets: the Black & Decker Steam-Mop with SmartSelect™ Technology.

Since we’ve been married, we’ve used two other steam mops, and they were great. We love the idea of killing tons of bad bacteria without using chemicals (which is awesome for small pets like our little guy), and steam is great for getting up stuck-on grime without having to get on the floor with the scrub brush. Since switching over to the Black & Decker Steam-Mop, it’s been like opening a whole new level of cleaning with steam. In other words, it’s everything the “other guy” wasn’t.

First of all, this may seem like a simple improvement, but it’s one that immediately caught our eyes: it stands up straight on its own. Unlike the “other guy”, it’s nice to be able to click it in place and walk away for a second. Also, it stops the steam when you place it in the upright position. Our old steam mop would just sit there and steam the surface it was sitting on – which isn’t good for certain surfaces like hardwood floors.

Speaking of flooring, the Black & Decker Steam-Mop’s SmartSelect Technology is our favorite feature. About 85% of our house’s flooring is hardwood while the other 15% is tile. The SmartSelect dial allows you to choose your surface (Wood-Laminate, Stone-Marble, or Tile-Vinyl) and the Steam-Mop automatically releases the right amount of steam for the floor you are cleaning. This takes the guessing out of wondering if what you are doing is good for your floors.

One thing Ash keeps pointing out when she uses the Steam-Mop is how easy it is to maneuver. The head pivots a full 90 degrees in either direction, making it really easy to get around and under furniture. Yet another thing the “other guy” didn’t do.

The B&D Steam-Mop’s light changes colors when it’s heated up and ready to be used (which only takes 15 seconds). When using our old steam-mop, I would get impatient and try to use our old steam mop before it was ready to go and the only way to know it was ready was by the steam pouring out of it.

I realize it probably seems like we’re just pitching an informercial here, but we really are huge fans of this gadget and really enjoy using it. According to Ash, let’s just say she thinks she has the entire family’s Christmas & birthday presents picked out. And… in my best Pat Sajak voice… we know one of our lucky readers will too once they get their hands on one! Here’s what you need to do…

PRIZE: One (1) Black & Decker Steam Mop with Smart Select™ Technology (Valued at $127!)
2 CHANCES TO WIN: 1) Leave a comment on this post with the words “Steam me up, Scotty!” (that was my idea… can’t you tell?) 2) “Like” Black & Decker on Facebook and leave a second comment here to let us know.  If you already “like” B&D on Facebook, let us know what your favorite B&D tool or gadget is!
NUMBER OF WINNERS: One
PRIZE SHIPS: Anywhere in the US or Canada
GIVEAWAY WILL WRAP UP: Friday, August 5, 2011 @ Midnight EST.  As usual, to keep things fair and squre, you can have up to two entries per email address.  The winner will be selected using Random.org and will be announced right here on Saturday, August 6, 2011. Good luck everyone!

If you want to read more about the Black & Decker Steam-Mop and see it in action, visit their website here for more information and a demonstration video (and yes, it actually works as well as it does in the video!).

AND THE WINNER IS…

Congratulations, Melissa! We know you will love your steam mop as much as we love ours! A big thank you to Black & Decker and to everyone who entered. Check back soon for another giveaway opportunity!

As always, our comments above are our true and honest opinion, and we were not persuaded in any way to make positive remarks about this product.

It’s that time again! Time for us to feature a few of our current favorite things. First up, here’s Greg’s:

1. Washing Machine Hamper – We need a new hamper. Recently, we’ve actually been using an old white plastic one that would look more at home in my old dorm room (not a classy place) than in a home. Ash wants to get one of those nice espresso wicker ones at Target. Me? My vote is for this one! It would certainly make laundry a little more fun. Now if only it was really a washing machine you could move from room to room… I think CB2 would be on to something.

2. Tape Dispenser – Another favorite from CB2 is this early 90′s flashback tape dispenser. It’s kind of funny to think of stuff from my childhood as truly “retro”, but this is pretty cool looking. It hearkens back to the days of my prized Garth Brooks cassette tapes, and I think it could be right at home in my “modern geek chic” office.

3. Indie Rock Poster Book - A cool mix of music and art for your coffee table or office. I’m a big fan of eclectic artwork, and I have an equally eclectic taste in music, so this is right up my alley. Best of all, by buying this book, you’re helping a worthy cause. Royalties go to charities supported by Yellow Bird Project.

4. Pivot Power Surge Protector - So I’m a huge fan of non-standard power strips. Being a tech geek, I have a lot of gadgets with power bricks that take up a lot of space. This one swivels so you can use all six outlet pods. It comes in handy when you need to plug something in the wall in a tight space or around furniture.

5. The Seven Year Pen – I’m a huge sucker for nice pens. This Swiss-made pen is able to write 1.7 meters (that’s 5.58 feet for us in the States) a day for 7 years. As much as I love my Inka, this one seems like a great pen to keep at my desk. As little as I write, this pen would might even last for much, much longer than advertised.

6. Google + - If searching Google is “Googling”, and using Facebook is “Facebooking”, then what do you call using Google Plus? “Google+ing” just looks funny. Anyway, I’m currently loving Google+. For me, Google+ is what Facebook was to MySpace: trimmed down and packed with all the essential features. The only problem is you need an invite to get in. So, if you’ve got a friend who’s on Google+, make sure you ask them for an invite and check it out!

1. Mod Multi Shoulder Tote – I’m what you would call a tote-junkie. I have come to grips with my “addiction” and am living by the rule “If one comes in, one gets donated”. So far, it’s been working out pretty good. That doesn’t mean I don’t like to “window shop” for totes every now and then. This tote, from Paper-Source, caught my eye recently and I’m having to refrain from clicking the “add to cart” button. I love it because it’s roomy, has long handles, a graphic pattern, and it’s made from 95% recycled post-consumer material. It would be a perfect “errand running” tote.

2. Lagoon by Martha Stewart - We recently used this paint color for a project (which we will be talking about on Wednesday!) and ever since, I’ve been looking for anything and everything to paint that color! I’m not sure if it’s too much for an entire room – though, I must admit, I’m rather tempted to amp up the color in the laundry room! Sooner or later, I will find another place to use it. It’s a very cheery, happy blue, but it’s classic and chic at the same time. And it’s Martha Stewart. What’s not to love?

3. Camera Pencil Sharpener – In the digital age, it’s sometimes easy to forget what using an old fashioned pencil is like. It sounds weird, but it’s true! I like to keep pencils around the office for sketching out quick ideas, but sometimes I forget I have them. On that note, I think this camera pencil sharpener is pretty nifty. It’s one of those things you wouldn’t buy for yourself but would love to give (or receive) as a gift.

4. Orla Kiely Pencils – When I came across the pencil sharpener (#3) on the Paper-Source website, I saw these nifty pencils in the “PS Recommends” window nearby. I blame my love for these on the fact that its Back-to-school supplies season and it’s hard to resist.

5. Book Book iPad Cover - Finally, I cute and well-functioning iPad case! Simply put, I LOVE this iPad cover. Not only is the outside cover super classy (and fun) but it’s very convenient too. Unlike other iPad covers, the Book Book turns into a fully-adjustable, hand-free stand. If you like to read books on  your iPad, like I do, you’ll really appreciate the “book like” feel it gives you when your reading. It’s the best of both worlds!

6. Jeni’s Splendid Ice Cream at Home - I ordered this cookbook a few days ago and I can’t wait to get my hands on it! I’ve never had homemade ice cream that actually tasted good, and I hear this book is the answer. We first heard about Jeni’s Splendid Ice Cream on the Food Network when they featured her Queen City Cayenne ice cream on “The Best Thing I Ever Ate”. Oh, and how awesome is this… you can mail-order ice cream directly from Jeni’s! This would be a unique gift idea for that foodie friend of yours that is hard to buy for.

7. Decorate by Holy Becker – This is one of those hardback books that you’ll love having sit on the coffee table but is really useful too! This book is chock full of ideas, solutions, shortcuts, floor plans, and tips from designers such as Jonathan Adler and Amy Butler for every room on every budget. In my opinion, it’s a must have for anyone who is interested in making the most of their home.

That’s the round up of our current favorites. Do you have any new favorites you’ve encountered this month? Share your findings with the class!

We were not paid or perked to include any of these items in our Favorite Things line up. Like every month, they are our honest-to-goodness favorites. Some links include affiliates.