Happy List: #411
Hello! Welcome to this week’s Happy List. I’m thrilled you could make it. We are on a fast track to the end of 2025. That feels weird. It also feels weird that I did a 5-year update on how well the mini makeover we gave our kitchen is holding up. That makeover was supposed to be a short-term fix until we built a new kitchen. Haha! It just goes to show that we are not the boss of this house. This house is the boss of us. I also shared a roundup of beautiful Christmas ornaments from small shops. If you add to your ornament collection each year or are…
14 Beautiful Christmas Ornaments
Hold your candy canes, folks, because today we are dipping our toes in the sweet inspirational bliss known as beautiful Christmas ornaments. I haven’t started decorating for Christmas yet, but I have Christmas ornaments on my mind. It’s an actual treat for my brain to think about Christmas ornaments instead of what to make for dinner (again), work deadlines, the driver’s license I need to renew, anything on the news…you get the point. I love making Christmas ornaments, and I always buy or make a Christmas ornament for my kids. The “it” gift of the season comes and goes, but those Christmas ornaments last forever…because Mom stores them in her…
Mini Kitchen Makeover After 5 Years – How Has It Held Up?
Home makeovers are fun, but what I really want to know is how your makeover has held up over the years. That’s why I’m sharing how our mini kitchen makeover is holding up after 5 years of extreme use. It’s five and a half years, technically speaking, but that’s not as catchy. When I say extreme use, I mean this kitchen is put through the wringer. We rarely eat out. We work from home. We were holed up in this house during a pandemic. We’re still holed up in this house because we like it here. We do a lot of DIY projects, so we’re always tracking dirt in and…
Happy List: #410
Hello and Happy Halloween! How sweet it is to see you here. I hope you have fun plans that you’re looking forward to this weekend. This week on the blog, I shared the new project we started in the Carriage House. We also finished (for now) the project. Can you believe it? One and done in a week! This little bit of work now will give us a jump start on installing a window next year. Once again, I am grateful that you’ve chosen to spend a few minutes of your day here. I hope you leave here feeling inspired and less stressed out. Maybe you even laugh. Too many…
Converting a Door Into a Window In a Stone Building, Part 2
Today, I’m continuing the story of how we’re converting a door into a window in a stone building, our Carriage House. You can catch up on part one, which includes why we are doing this, here. When we last left off, we had removed the lower half of the Dutch door in this space, removed the bottom part of the door jamb, and added a window sill. It might seem like a backwards way of doing things, adding a window sill before we have window framing or even the window, and it is for sure. However, this order of operations was selected for a reason. We need to fill in…
Converting a Door Into a Window In a Stone Building, Part 1
We are converting a door into a window in a stone building, our Carriage House. Want to see how that’s going to work? If so, you came to the right place. If you want to know why we’re doing this conversion, you also came to the right place. All signs are pointing to you being exactly where you need to be at this moment. Lucky you! Multiple entrances to a building are usually a good thing. Multiple entrances to a building are unnecessary if they are 18 inches apart and open into the same room. It would be like having two front doors, and that’s exactly what is happening with…
Happy List: #409
Hello, hello! Welcome to this week’s Happy List. It was a big week on the blog for us as we finished a project. On Monday, I shared the swoop progress of our fieldstone wall. On Wednesday, I showed the finished wall pictures! I don’t have words adequate to describe what happened next. Simply put, we have been overwhelmed in the best way by your kindness after I shared those pictures. Handy Husband and I could probably both float away with how high you’ve lifted us with your generous words. Thank you. I also want to give a shout-out to Kristin at My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia for featuring my floral…
Curved Fieldstone Wall: Part 12, Reveal 2nd Wall Section
It’s Reveal Day! Welcome back to our Curved Fieldstone Wall series. I’m so glad you’re here. In August, we decided to reconstruct the crumbling fieldstone walls in front of our house. We reused the original stone to build the new wall. We used lime mortar to keep it historically accurate. We added a little flair to the wall design to call it our own. After 75 days of solid work, we can finally call this fieldstone wall complete. Thank. Goodness. Here’s how it started. The wall definitely exuded a certain old house charm if you didn’t look too closely to see that it was barely hanging on. This wall was…
Curved Fieldstone Wall: Part 11, 2nd Section Swoop
Welcome back to our Curved Fieldstone Wall Series, where we attempt to rebuild the curved fieldstone walls in our front yard using historic masonry techniques. This is part eleven of a twelve-part series, which is your not-so-subtle hint that we are almost done with this project! I don’t know whether to cheer with joy or weep with relief. Maybe both? If you’ve been following along for this entire series, thank you! If you haven’t and want to catch up, I’ve linked the entire series at the end of this post. Today, we are discussing the swoop. If that wasn’t a technical term, it is now. The original curved fieldstone wall…
Fall Break 2025
Hey, Folks! I am taking this week off from the blog because my kids have a fall break. Even college kids get a fall break! They shut down the dorms and cafeteria. You can get an exemption to stay on campus if you live more than 200 miles away, but you’ll have to forage for food on your own. I’m hoping to finish my fieldstone wall this week, too. If I don’t finish it, you’re going to have to commit me to an institution for DIYers with lingering projects. Hopefully, this institution is on a warm, sunny beach with tropical drink service. I tell you when I’m taking a blog…
