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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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  • fieldstone porch made with fieldstone and lime mortar skimmed over concrete
    DIY

    One Thing That Will Wreck Lime Mortar

    May 21, 2025 /

    One thing that will wreck lime mortar on a fieldstone wall are ice melt products, specifically salt. Learn from our mistake this winter. We have a concrete porch wrapped on two sides in fieldstone. The fieldstone is adhered with lime mortar. Not a classic application of fieldstone and lime mortar, I know. Everything was fine until that concrete porch got icy during a winter storm. It was so treacherous. We didn’t even think about it and scattered some deicing salt on the concrete. I know, I know. You don’t have to tell me that stuff is not great for the environment. I’ve vowed to do better, especially after this debacle. …

    read more
    annisa 2 Comments

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    A Modern Country Laundry Room For Our Colonial Farmhouse

    March 29, 2023
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    Check Out Our Newly Painted Carriage House

    September 29, 2021
    saving historic window drip edge trim detail on a 250 year old colonial farmhouse

    Saving a Historic Window Drip Edge Detail

    August 19, 2024
  • repointing a stone wall with old pipes embedded in the wall
    DIY

    Stone Carriage House Gym: Part 4, Pipes In Stone Walls

    May 14, 2025 /

    Our stone Carriage House was built in the late 1700s before indoor electricity and plumbing existed. Just think about that for a minute. If you had to do your business outside, that building is old. If you want to do your business inside this old building, some retrofitting is going to have to happen. Today, we are going to talk about the pipes in our Carriage House and how they clogged up the flow of our restoration progress as we’ve been repointing this building’s stone foundation. To plumb an all stone building, you’re going to have to bust through the 18-inch thick stone foundation or walls in order to insert…

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    annisa 2 Comments

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    October 23, 2015
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    Messy Middle – Stone Carriage House Gym Conversion

    August 21, 2024
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    Under the Stairs Closet Shelves

    December 14, 2020
  • carriage house stone building with metal grate for a window
    DIY

    Stone Carriage House Gym: Part 3, Old Windows

    May 7, 2025 /

    Work on our stone Carriage House gym continues and today we’re going to discuss old windows. It is hard to explain the window situation on this half of the building. I think the short answer is someone thought windows were overrated. Natural light? Who needs it? Glass panes? Metal grates are stronger. The longer answer is that on the end of the building we are currently restoring, there are two small window openings with cast iron grates instead of glass panes. Were glass panes ever there? Maybe. There is no longer evidence of them if they were there. Poof. History erased. One of the grates on the west facing side…

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    annisa 0 Comments

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    Fixing the Rattling Windows in the Back Door

    September 14, 2015

    Kitchen Refresh Part 3: Be Prepared For Anything

    April 20, 2015
    removing a wood stove

    Do We Regret Removing a Wood Stove From Our Home?

    January 24, 2022
  • buried treasure searching for treasure on a 250 year old property but mainly finding old trash in the ground like tin tiles from vikon tile company in washington new jersey
    colonial farmhouse,  DIY

    Did We Finally Find Buried Treasure?

    April 30, 2025 /

    If you’ve been reading this blog for five minutes, you’ll know that I am unabashedly on the hunt for buried treasure on our 250-year-old property. Surely, surely, there must be something hidden around here somewhere. Preferably, this something would be valuable enough to pay off our mortgage, but I’m not picky. We recently dug a trench alongside our Carriage House and that trench was full and I do mean FULL of buried treasure. I don’t mean the valuable sort of treasure. More like this was someone’s garbage pile. An actual garbage pile that had been buried over time, and now I’m donning my proverbial Indiana Jones hat and saying under…

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    annisa 2 Comments

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    Wood Chandelier in the Music Room

    August 3, 2020
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    Built-In Computer Desk Reveal

    January 27, 2020
    red barn with daffodils and rock wall

    The Great Barn Loft Clean Out

    May 3, 2021
  • 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
    colonial farmhouse,  DIY

    Stone Carriage House Gym: Part 2, Demo

    April 28, 2025 /

    If you missed it, we are expanding our home gym. This space, that I affectionately refer to as the ‘little torture chamber,’ is located in our stone Carriage House. The part of the home gym we completed in 2024 looks like this now. The other half of the building, where we want to expand the home gym, looked like this (see photo below) last month. It was a tad bit creepy. When I say creepy, I mean that’s where the cave crickets lived. I think they are gone now. *fingers crossed* You can catch up on why we are doing this expansion and feast your eyes on all the creepy…

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    built-in stone bench ideas

    Built-In Stone Bench Ideas for our Backyard

    October 4, 2021
    tongue and groove closet doors

    I Refinished Our Tongue and Groove Closet Doors and It Could Have Gone Worse

    January 19, 2022
    Colonial Farmhouse Kitchen Before

    Colonial Farmhouse Kitchen Before

    February 3, 2020
  • entryway refresh with buffalo check curtains and new front door window insert
    colonial farmhouse,  decorating,  DIY

    Entryway Refresh and a New Front Door Window

    April 16, 2025 /

    Last month we did an entryway refresh on our home and now I’m wondering why we waited so long? That’s how it always goes. I prefer to sit with things before I write about them. It gives me some perspective on the change. It helps minimize the number of instances where I have to apologize because whatever thing we changed didn’t hold up or perform as expected. Also, it gives us time to “laugh about this later” when things go wrong and they always do with our projects. I really want to meet these people where things seem to run like clockwork for them. What’s that like? How do they…

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    annisa 0 Comments

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    Back Staircase Before and After

    January 6, 2020

    Removing Rotten Trees and a Chainlink Fence

    August 12, 2019
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    Music Room Before and After

    October 7, 2019
  • DIY

    Faux Garage Door Windows – Easy Curb Appeal Upgrade

    April 7, 2025 /

    I’m about to blow your mind with how easy it is to upgrade the look of a garage door with faux garage door windows. I know you have your skeptical eyes on right now. Good. That will make this even more impactful. What are these so-called faux windows made of and how “easy” is this DIY really? The faux garage door windows are made from magnets. If you can place a magnet on a metal surface, that’s how easy this DIY is. A toddler could do this DIY, but they’d probably put the faux garage door windows on the bottom of the door and all on the same panel like…

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    annisa 2 Comments

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    January 8, 2016

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    September 12, 2018
  • DIY

    Stone Carriage House Gym Expansion Part 1

    March 26, 2025 /

    Last year, we made over one room in our stone Carriage House and turned it into a home gym. It took us at least six weeks of continual work to make that happen, partly because it’s a long, laborious process and partly because there are only two of us. The DIY experience is one constant reminder that you are limited by the amount of time in a day and the number of hands you possess. You’d think evolution would have fixed one of those problems by now. The Carriage House is a separate building on our property and it is divided into three parts. The entire top floor is a…

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    annisa 4 Comments

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    Trash to Treasure Mirror

    August 2, 2017
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    Vintage Post Office Box Door Photo Frame

    June 26, 2024
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    Magic Light Trick

    October 21, 2019
  • The-Gloss-Magazine-Interiors-Gillian-Sherrard-photo-Dylan-Thomas-via-mygloss hidden bookcase doors
    DIY

    The Case for a Hidden Bookcase Door

    March 24, 2025 /

    Hear me out. Our house *needs* a hidden bookcase door. Do you know what I’m referring to? A wall that looks like it has a gorgeous bookcase, but you pull a secret lever and the bookcase opens to reveal a hidden room behind it. How cool is that? No question about it. We DEFINITELY need a hidden bookcase door. I just have to convince Handy Husband that it wouldn’t be a colossal pain in the patootie to build one. Just the normal amount of pain. For instance, we don’t need to have a curved arch over the hidden bookcase door. I could compromise and let that idea go. See how…

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    annisa 2 Comments

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    10 Tips For Building An Outdoor Ping Pong Table Using Cement Board

    June 12, 2023

    Piano Harp Art

    September 30, 2019
    Restored wood Arched Mirror

    Restored Arched Mirror

    September 30, 2020
  • bedroom peg rail above a dresser in a colonial farmhouse with tiffany lamp
    decorating,  DIY

    Bedroom Peg Rail – One Entire Wall of Storage

    March 12, 2025 /

    By adding a peg rail to one entire wall of our bedroom, we gained 15 feet of storage and organization space and an unlimited amount of glee over this addition. Is there a Guinness Book of World Records category for the world’s longest peg rail? If so, I’d like to submit our bedroom peg rail as an entry. You’ll have to use your imagination a little because it was hard for me to get a decent photograph of one gigantic wall broken up by a door. That’s why I’m showing the two sides of the peg rail in different photos in this blog post. The hardship, I know. Thank you…

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    In Praise Of: Ceiling Medallions

    May 3, 2023

    Gallery Wall

    November 16, 2015
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    Gross To Gorgeous Pantry Cabinet Transformation

    January 17, 2024
 Older Posts
Hi! I'm Annisa.

Recent Posts

  • Happy List: #391
  • One Thing That Will Wreck Lime Mortar
  • Front Porch – More Seating and a Light Update
  • Happy List: #390
  • Stone Carriage House Gym: Part 4, Pipes In Stone Walls

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