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A Pretty Happy Home

Life, DIY and Random Things That Make Me Smile

  • Home
  • About
    • About
    • Contact
  • Shop
    • Apparel and Shoes
    • Books
    • Crafts and Sewing
    • Decor
    • Furniture
    • Home Improvement
    • Kid Favorites
    • Kitchen
  • Projects
    • Cleaning
    • Clothing
    • Colonial Farmhouse
    • Crafts
    • Decorating
    • DIY Projects
    • Holidays
  • Adventure
    • Moving to Ireland
    • Living in Ireland
    • Visiting Ireland
    • Travel
    • Family and Parenting
    • Humor
    • Learning
  • Privacy Policy
  • Home
  • About
    • About
    • Contact
  • Shop
    • Apparel and Shoes
    • Books
    • Crafts and Sewing
    • Decor
    • Furniture
    • Home Improvement
    • Kid Favorites
    • Kitchen
  • Projects
    • Cleaning
    • Clothing
    • Colonial Farmhouse
    • Crafts
    • Decorating
    • DIY Projects
    • Holidays
  • Adventure
    • Moving to Ireland
    • Living in Ireland
    • Visiting Ireland
    • Travel
    • Family and Parenting
    • Humor
    • Learning
  • Privacy Policy

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  • colonial farmhouse exterior september 2023
    colonial farmhouse

    Caulk, Cracks, and Home Maintenance. Oh My!

    October 9, 2023 /

    Caulking cracks. Chipping Paint. Rotting Wood. When it comes to this old house we live in, it’s us against nature. Who will win? Nature is unrelenting and seems to be in the lead at the moment. But don’t count out me and Handy Husband. We’re tenacious and industrious problem solvers. When you buy a fixer-upper like we did you have to expect to be in it for the long haul, especially if you aren’t doing a major renovation all at once. For the past couple of months, we’ve been focusing on siding maintenance. Like many old homes in the Northeast, we have wood siding. Wood siding can last decades but…

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    annisa 0 Comments

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    The Doors of Our Colonial Farmhouse

    The Doors of Our Colonial Farmhouse

    July 8, 2019
    white colonial farmhouse exterior with sunporch

    Drone Photos of Our Home

    August 26, 2024
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    Under the Stairs Closet Shelves

    December 14, 2020
  • colonial farmhouse exterior with carriage house in may 2023
    colonial farmhouse

    Colonial Farmhouse 4 Year Anniversary

    June 14, 2023 /

    Put on your party hats! It’s our 4 year anniversary of buying this Colonial Farmhouse. It was love at first sight when we first toured this old fixer-upper with its leaky roof, overgrown bushes, and smelly carpet. I kid you not about the heart eyes. I’m a sucker for a project. The real estate agent and I toured the house one spring morning. The owner was waiting for us on the front porch, which I did not know because normally owners do not stick around for showings and the bushes were so thick they blocked my view of the porch. Four years later and I’m still hoping I didn’t say…

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    annisa 4 Comments

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    Painted Black Doors in our Colonial Farmhouse

    July 13, 2020
    Plan to Makeover Our Decks

    Plan to Makeover Our Decks

    June 10, 2020
    Five Old Books I Found in Our New Home

    5 Old Books I Found in Our New Home

    July 31, 2019
  • white colonial farmhouse exterior with sun porch
    colonial farmhouse

    How We Did Meeting Our 2022 House Goals

    December 21, 2022 /

    2022, what a year it has been! At the very beginning of the year (fine, it was mid-February), I detailed five house projects we wanted to tackle this year. How did we do meeting our 2022 house goals? Better than I thought! Although, isn’t that how it always goes when the teacher lets the students grade their own tests? Let’s dive into those house goals. 2022 House Goals #1: Replace rotten siding.  We did this! I have not written a blog post about replacing the rotten siding on the back of our kitchen addition but I did detail the journey on social media as it was happening. Replacing the siding…

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    annisa 2 Comments

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    reproduction hardware

    Updating Our Home With Antique Hardware

    June 7, 2021
    Insight on Repairing a Slate Roof

    Insight on Repairing a Slate Roof

    July 15, 2019
    painted carriage house

    Check Out Our Newly Painted Carriage House

    September 29, 2021
  • colonial farmhouse,  gardening and landscape

    Check Out These Old Photos Of Our House

    October 26, 2022 /

    The most amazing thing happened a while back. The family who used to live here gave us a few old photos of our house from the 1980s and 1990s. The previous owners were the caretakers of this home for almost 50 years before passing the responsibility onto us. We’re so grateful that they loved this home as much as we did and did the best they could with the resources they had to keep this old gal standing strong and solid. I thought it might be awkward meeting one of the kids (now an adult) who used to live in our house. What if they hate what we’ve done? But…

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    annisa 0 Comments

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    clearing the bushes

    The Surprising Way We Cleared 75 Feet of Bushes

    September 9, 2019
    colonial farmhouse exterior april 2021

    Colonial Farmhouse Two Year Anniversary

    June 14, 2021
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    4 Old House Construction Techniques We Found When We Replaced Siding

    July 8, 2024
  • colonial farmhouse exterior with sunporch
    colonial farmhouse

    Colonial Farmhouse 3 Year Anniversary

    June 13, 2022 /

    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…

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    annisa 0 Comments

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    colonial farmhouse front yard landscaping progress

    Front Yard Landscaping Progress

    June 24, 2020
    white colonial farmhouse exterior with sunporch

    Drone Photos of Our Home

    August 26, 2024
    shellac on pumpkin pine wood floors gaps in original pumpkin pine floors from 1780s

    All About Our 240-Year-Old Pumpkin Pine Wood Floors

    March 30, 2020
  • carriage house tongue and groove ceiling
    colonial farmhouse

    Why We Installed a Tongue and Groove Ceiling In Our Carriage House

    May 16, 2022 /

    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…

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    annisa 0 Comments

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    The Case of the Closet Mystery colonial farmhouse

    The Case of the Closet Mystery

    January 20, 2020
    carriage house gym terracotta floor tiles hidden under dirt

    Check Out The Terracotta Floor We Found

    September 16, 2024
    farmhouse black kitchen mini makeover

    Colonial Farmhouse Kitchen Mini Makeover One Year Later

    March 29, 2021
  • connecting two decks with landscaping
    colonial farmhouse,  gardening and landscape

    How I’m Connecting Two Decks With Landscaping

    May 11, 2022 /

    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…

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    annisa 0 Comments

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    colonial farmhouse exterior september 2023

    Colonial Farmhouse 5 Year Anniversary

    June 12, 2024
    Colonial Farmhouse Kitchen Before

    Colonial Farmhouse Kitchen Before

    February 3, 2020
    farmhouse black kitchen mini makeover

    Colonial Farmhouse Kitchen Mini Makeover One Year Later

    March 29, 2021
  • main staircase makeover curved stair tread colonial house stairs
    colonial farmhouse,  DIY

    The Most Satisfying Staircase Makeover You’ve Seen Today

    March 7, 2022 /

    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…

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    annisa 0 Comments

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    clearing the bushes

    The Surprising Way We Cleared 75 Feet of Bushes

    September 9, 2019
    carriage house gym expansion demo a fieldstone wall to prepare for repointing removing concrete from a stone foundation with a chisel attachment on a hammer drill

    Stone Carriage House Gym: Part 2, Demo

    April 28, 2025
    colonial farmhouse exterior september 2023

    Colonial Farmhouse 5 Year Anniversary

    June 12, 2024
  • new living room rug chris loves julia x loloi jules terracotta multi
    decorating

    Our New Living Room Rug Gives a Warm Feel To This Part of Our Home

    January 17, 2022 /

    Make one change and an entire space can feel different. That’s what happened when we rolled out our new living room rug. Our new living room rug gives a warm feel to this entire space. And that’s all I have to say about that. The end. Kidding! You know I can wax on about pretty much anything in a blog post! Our old living room rug, which I still like, had a brighter version of the same colors this new living room rug has. Blues, yellows, orangey reds, browns. It was bright, playful, and didn’t take itself too seriously. Our new living room rug is a bit warmer tone-wise, understated,…

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    annisa 0 Comments

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    3 Reasons to Love Tiffany Style Lights

    July 12, 2021

    Fall Vignette

    October 29, 2014
    The 1971 MLS Listing For Our Colonial Farmhouse

    The 1971 MLS Listing For Our Colonial Farmhouse

    September 4, 2019
  • painted carriage house
    colonial farmhouse,  DIY

    Check Out Our Newly Painted Carriage House

    September 29, 2021 /

    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…

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    annisa 0 Comments

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    My Dining Table Is Now a Coffee Table

    July 29, 2019
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    Which Category of Kitchen Art Do You Have?

    April 19, 2021
    red barn with daffodils and rock wall

    The Great Barn Loft Clean Out

    May 3, 2021
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Hi! I'm Annisa.

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