One Year With An Electronic Door Lock. How Do We Really Like It?
It has been one year of living with an electronic door lock on our Carriage House. How do we really like it? Are you ready for me to dish the dirt? Eh. There’s not THAT much dirt. Unless you want to count the dirt that gets tracked in every time that electronic door lock grants access to someone with dirty shoes? *sigh* Modern technology only gets us so far. If I recall correctly, I approached the installation of this electronic door lock with great enthusiasm. I was ready to throw it a ticker-tape parade. Kidding! I actually approached the situation with great reluctance, which is my standard response to all…
Do We Regret Removing a Wood Stove From Our Home?
Do we regret removing a wood stove from our home? Nope! Not yet, at least. Will we regret it someday? This decision seems a little less permanent than getting a tattoo, but I do not have a crystal ball to predict whether or not we will regret this decision someday. Our house does have three fireplaces that we could put back into use should we have the strong desire to use wood heat, so the odds seem in our favor that we will not regret removing a wood stove. Plus, this isn’t our first time removing a wood stove from a home, so we’re well versed in the ins and outs…
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…
We’ve Added A Lot of Closet Shelves and So Should You
We’ve added a lot of closet shelves to our Colonial Farmhouse in the last two and a half years. In fact, we’ve added a significant number of shelves everywhere in this old house. It has been AMAZING. Zero regrets. Does anyone ever regret adding a shelf? Now here is a fair warning. Today’s post is going to contain many shelfies. If you don’t like closet shelves or pictures of shelves or thinking about shelves, this is not the post for you. Oh, and these aren’t Pinterest-worthy shelfies either. These are closet shelves and regular shelves that make my life function better. Or give me the illusion that my life functions better.…
Mountain-Themed Pool Ball Rack Art
I found a pool ball rack at an antique shop and turned it into Mountain-Themed Pool Ball Rack Art because why not? It seemed like the inspired thing to do even if creating this Mountain-Themed Pool Ball Rack Art (Say that five times fast!) was a creative accident. I was going to turn the pool ball rack into a leather-lined tray, but in the process of laying out the leather, I realized the leather shapes looked like mountains. Hold onto your hot glue gun, folks! With that “aha” moment, this project climbed in an entirely new direction. I’m not sad about it! The creative process can be a long and…
12 Handmade Holiday Gift Ideas
I hear supply chains are constricted, so here are 12 handmade holiday gift ideas to consider making for your friends and family this year. The best part is some of these gift ideas are DIY cheats meaning not totally handmade from scratch. They just have a handmade, personal touch. That totally counts! Ready? Let the inspiration flow: Handmade Holiday Gift Ideas: Game Boards Board games are often popular gifts. How about making a handmade checkers board or chessboard? You could keep it a little easier and make a Tic Tac Toe board too. If you’re interested in vintage wood checkers to go with your game board, you can find them on…
DIY Plant Hanging Rod Secured to the Ceiling
We recently built a plant hanging rod on our sunporch, so I guess I’m a plant person now? Perhaps I should have ended that sentence more declaratively. I’m a plant person now! Nope. That label still feels more uncomfortable than that time I touched poison ivy. I have some house plants. Not a lot. More than what’s on the barren surface of the moon and less than what’s in a tropical jungle. I also have some outdoor plants that I had the wild idea to try and keep alive over the winter. Three of those outdoor plants are ferns in hanging pots. They really liked hanging on my front porch…
How to Remove Plexiglass Film That is Stuck On
After much trial and error, I can definitively tell you how to remove plexiglass film that is stuck on. I’m talking baked-on protective plexiglass film that no amount of prying or peeling will remove. If Google brought you here to fix this specific problem then this below photo of plexiglass film that is stuck on probably looks familiar. Hopefully yours isn’t dotted with tears of frustration. We had a piece of plexiglass that was installed over a broken basement window. We don’t know how long the plexiglass had been filling the role of a window but suffice to say it had been years. No one had ever removed the protective…
How to Fix a Sagging Wood Bench
So you have a sagging wood bench and want to know how to fix it? You’ve come to the right place. If there’s one thing we can help you avoid in life it’s the potential emotional and physical trauma that would come from sitting on a sagging wood bench and having it break. No one wants that to happen to them. But if it was caught on camera and you were okay…Alright, not even then. Now on to the tutorial! First of all, I’m going to assume that the wood that is sagging on your bench is not rotten. You need to double-check that. If it is rotten and you…
How to Make a DIY Brass Pumpkin
I’ve found a gap in the decorative pumpkin market (gasp!), so today we are remedying that and I’ll show you how to create a DIY Brass Pumpkin. Move over, sweater pumpkins! This brass pumpkin is going to take over the world! What?!? It could happen. Here’s how to DIY a Brass Pumpkin: DIY Brass Pumpkin Step #1: Start with a rectangle of thin brass sheeting. Thin brass sheeting is available from Amazon. Once you buy a roll of this stuff, you’ll be hooked. It’s a gateway to all sorts of crafting shenanigans. Don’t say I didn’t warn you. I purchased this particular roll of brass sheeting. It is 1000mm long,…
