Colonial Farmhouse 3 Year Anniversary
It is our 3 year anniversary of living in this amazing Colonial Farmhouse. Woohoo! She’s a good one and we are so honored to be her current caretakers. Were you here when we bought this place? Can you believe 3 years have already passed? I can’t! As I reflect back on it, most of the last 3 years feel like a blur. I guess that’s what happens when your lives have forever been altered by a global pandemic, remote schooling, working from home, and all sorts of other “regular” life adjustments while working on a fixer-upper. It’s a good thing I took pictures of how this Colonial Farmhouse looked when…
Why We Installed a Tongue and Groove Ceiling In Our Carriage House
We have been installing a tongue and groove ceiling in our Carriage House. I’m excited about a tongue and groove ceiling not because it looks good but because it is helping us insulate the building. Insulating the building means a lower electric bill. A lower electric bill means I’ve reached peak adulting. Yep. This is what gets me excited these days. If you’re new here, let me give you the rundown of our Carriage House. It’s a 2-story stone building that’s well over 200 years old. It was originally used to store a horse-drawn carriage and the related tack that is needed when a carriage is your primary mode of…
How I’m Connecting Two Decks With Landscaping
This spring we’ve been working on connecting two decks on the back of our house with landscaping. We’d rather just connect the two decks and make one gigantic deck, but someone forgot to plant a money tree in the backyard. Decks are expensive to build and maintain and this house needs one hundred other things before it needs a bigger deck. Until that day comes we can try to visually connect the decks with landscaping instead. Think of it as a bridge between two islands. Here’s a picture from three years ago when we moved into the Colonial Farmhouse. You can hardly see the small deck on the right because…
The Most Satisfying Staircase Makeover You’ve Seen Today
There has been a major oversight on this blog documenting the fixer-upper projects of this money pit Colonial Farmhouse. I never shared the staircase makeover of our main stairs. Can you believe that? Me. A chronic over-sharer forgot to tell you about one of my projects in excruciating detail. You had one job, Annisa. One. Job. How is this even possible? Well, it’s possible (cue the justification) because I lumped the staircase makeover in with the music room makeover when I wrote about it two years ago. But that post just glossed over the details. You need the details to appreciate what will be the most satisfying staircase makeover you’ve seen today…or…
I Refinished Our Tongue and Groove Closet Doors and It Could Have Gone Worse
Our bedroom has original tongue and groove closet doors. When I say original I mean roughly 200 years old. I’d narrow that date down a little, but I’ve heard it’s rude to ask a door its age. Actually, I just don’t have documentation. That’s why I’m throwing out a conservative round number for the age of the doors. However, I do know they are young at heart! Anyway, when I had the bright idea to refinish these tongue and groove closet doors I didn’t factor in the small (tiny, really) detail that I am not qualified to work on doors that old. Not. Qualified. No sirree. These doors came from…
Built-In Stone Bench Ideas for our Backyard
If I was going to rank backyard landscaping features on their coolness factor, a built-in stone bench around a firepit would be near the top of the list. Not to mention, it’s an introvert’s type of landscaping. I want you to be comfortable enough, feel welcomed, and have the best time, but I don’t want you to feel so comfortable that you stay forever. Hahahaha! But, seriously, I need my sleep. We have a spot in our backyard that would be the perfect place to add a built-in stone bench. In the below photo, it’s the spot to the right of the wood steps. There’s already a rock wall there.…
Check Out Our Newly Painted Carriage House
Cue the celebratory dancing because I am beyond excited to be able to share our newly painted Carriage House on the blog today! I’m still pinching myself because the transformation, thanks to paint, was so dramatic. I hate to use the cliched phrase “the power of paint,” but I haven’t come up with a better alternative phrase! The power of paint is next level on this project. But first! What is a Carriage House? It sounds so fancy, doesn’t it? Trust me – ours is not at all fancy. Originally, a carriage house would have been a building to store a horse-drawn carriage and the related horse tack. It could…
Colonial Farmhouse Two Year Anniversary
Put on your party hats, people! Today is our Colonial Farmhouse Two Year Anniversary! It feels like we’ve lived here for only a minute and also forever, but in reality it has been exactly two years. Two years is actually a long time for us to live in any one place. It is usually a little before the two year mark that I get the itch to move. I get antsy for change. Ready for a new adventure. I’m not saying I don’t have that itch now, but that antsy feeling is tempered by our life stage and changing priorities. Plus, I have plenty to keep me busy around here!…
Updating Our Home With Antique Hardware
We have been replacing “modern” door and cabinet hardware with antique hardware in our Colonial Farmhouse and it is surprising how big of a difference it makes to the overall look and style of our home. I’m using the term modern very loosely. In a house that is 240 years old, anything in the last 100 years could be considered modern. Most of the hardware we’ve replaced is probably 20 – 30 years old. I doubt it was installed as a style statement, but more of a practical response to a “this cabinet door no longer stays closed” situation. This modern hardware didn’t look bad. It didn’t look good. It…
How to Fill Gaps in Wood Floors with Oakum
For the small percentage of you living in really old houses (bless you!), let me share one of the more historically accurate ways to fill gaps in wood floors with oakum. This is the information I needed when we bought our Colonial Farmhouse and didn’t know what to do about the gaps between the original wood floorboards. I had to comb through the internet to find bits and pieces of information, so I’m combining what I learned all in one place with links out to the information that helped me. If the gaps in your wood floors don’t bother you, leave them. But if your kids can push things through…
