Colonial Farmhouse 7 Year Anniversary
Seven years, folks! We are celebrating seven years of living in and loving this money pit Colonial Farmhouse we call home. Not going to lie, though. After we dealt with squirrels – there’s never just one – in the attic this winter, I did wonder for half a second if we really love it here, or if it’s Stockholm Syndrome? Can that happen with a house? Maybe it’s best if we leave that one unanswered, and we’ll take a trip down memory lane instead. Here’s our Colonial Farmhouse, the first time I went to look at it. Imagine our real estate agent standing next to me, cringing a little while…
Last Minute Father’s Day Gift Ideas – No Clothes On This List
Father’s Day is less than a week away. If you need a last-minute Father’s Day gift for the dad or father figures in your life, I’ve got you covered. These are Handy Husband-approved items, so that means there are no clothes on this list. No neckties. No BBQ grilling items. No golf-related items. What’s left that a dad could want? I’m so glad you asked. Check these out… Rechargeable Jumper Cables | Walmart / Amazon These rechargeable jumper cables that allow you to jump your car battery without needing another car have 127,000 reviews! We’ve owned these jumper cables for two years and have used them recently (yikes!) to get…
Happy List: #439
Hello, hello! Welcome to this week’s Happy List. It brightens my day to see you here. This week on the blog, I shared how I upcycled tissue box cardboard. I hope that blog post inspired you to not necessarily make what I make, but to think twice about the items you might usually recycle. However, if you do make something, I’d love to see what it is. I also shared the demo we did on our stone walls out front. Even the newly constructed wall had to be taken down 16 inches or so to adjust to our new plan for the shape of the wall. You can read about…
Reconstructing a Fieldstone Wall: Part 2, Demo
Welcome back to our Reconstructing a Fieldstone Wall series. Today, we’re talking about the fieldstone wall demo. Unfortunately, we have to take the wall apart before any reconstruction can happen. I’m using the word reconstruct instead of rebuild intentionally, as we are not starting this wall from scratch. We are using the existing wall footings, the original stone, and a historically comparable lime mortar to bring this fieldstone wall back to life. It’s a small nuance in terminology, but one that I think is important in the realm of historic restoration and preservation. That doesn’t mean we won’t make some design tweaks in the service of putting our stamp on…
3 Creative Ways to Upcycle Tissue Box Cardboard
Several months ago, I started saving cardboard tissue boxes because I knew I could upcycle the cardboard itself into something fun! My top two criteria for buying tissues are softness and how pretty the box looks. If I’m being super forthright, as long as the tissues aren’t sandpaper, I’m going to prioritize the box design over some marketing gimmick about moisturizer and aloe. I cannot be alone in this. Does the print on the tissue box match my decor? Will I get annoyed looking at this box for the next two to three months? Will I want to turn the tissue box cardboard into something crafty after someone in my…
Happy List: #438
Hey There! Welcome to this week’s Happy List. It is so nice of you to stop by! This week on the blog, I shared the changes I made that make our utility room, or back porch, as we call it, more functional. We also started a new project! Phase 2 of our fieldstone wall project has begun, and it is a doozy. There will be plenty of social media updates on this project, so be sure to follow along there, too. I don’t take for granted that you’re spending part of your day here, and I hope the Happy List is a bright spot in your day. If you’d like…
Reconstructing a Fieldstone Wall: Part 1, The Plan
Grab your popcorn! A new fieldstone wall series starts right now. We are reconstructing an extremely old fieldstone wall and taking you along for the ride. You get all the perks without having to do any of the work. You’re welcome. Where Is This Fieldstone Wall? The front of our 1780s property is framed by a low fieldstone wall. Low stone walls are common in our area, where old properties had to be cleared to farm the land. The rocks the farmers pulled out of the ground had to go somewhere. They were used for foundations, stone buildings, cart tracks, and walls or fences. And let me tell you, our…
Functional and Pretty Utility Room Organization
Raise your hand if you have enough closets and storage in your house. You can’t see me, but I’m NOT raising my hand. If you’re in a similar situation, this means we get to activate creative mode to solve this problem! There’s no button to activate creative mode (I checked), but I can open the creaky door to our utility room to share some functional and pretty utility room organization ideas with you. If you’ve been reading this website for a long time, thank you! But you might be wondering where our utility room is since I’ve never once uttered those words. It’s our back porch. In a recent moment…
Happy List: #437
Hello! Welcome to this week’s Happy List. It’s pretty darn great to see you here. Did you plant a summer garden? This year, we haven’t done much. We have some tomatoes and herbs going, and that will be enough for us to stay on top of. It was a light week on the blog due to the Memorial Day holiday. I did share a hyper-specific blog post about where to buy lime to mix historic lime mortar. Hyper-specific blog posts that hardly anyone cares about are my specialty. One of my favorites is how to fix a stretched-out toe post on plastic sandals. I don’t take for granted that you’re…
Where to Buy Natural Hydraulic Lime (NHL) in the U.S. to Mix Lime Mortar
The most common question I receive from fellow owners of old homes is where to buy lime to mix lime mortar to repoint a historic stone foundation. They know it’s bad to use Portland cement on a stone foundation, and the appropriate lime is hard to find! So, I compiled a directory of where to buy natural hydraulic lime (NHL) in the United States. It’s a short directory because we get what we get, but it is separated by U.S. region. Don’t completely discount a supplier or brand of NHL if they aren’t in your region; they may have distributors closer to you. I’ve also included which NHL suppliers offer…
