Building In Our Fridge: The Prep Work Is What Gets You
When we purchased our home, it came with a perfectly functional older refrigerator in an off-white color. I’m so glad we didn’t replace it because now we have the opportunity to hone our DIY skills while in building in our fridge. Adding a cabinet around a refrigerator so that it looks built-in is not a novel concept. It’s been done millions of times, so this should not require a multipart blog series. But have you met our house? It is the “hold my beer” of houses whenever we want to do something simple and basic like building in our fridge. This house gives us a run for our money and…
Make A Magnetic Bulletin Board With Sheet Metal
I prefer to test out our DIY creations before I share them on the blog and the magnetic bulletin board we made with sheet metal is no exception. It is the second bulletin board we made for our Carriage House Gym and we have put this magnetic bulletin board through its paces to see how it will hold up. If it can survive being hung in a well-used gym with no heating or cooling and some moisture issues (humidity, not sweat – but a little of that too), it can survive your house or business. Why did we make magnetic bulletin board instead of a cork board? First, they are…
How To Fix Broken Concrete By A Garage Door
If you have broken concrete by your garage door or somewhere in your garage, congratulations. You’re part of a club no one wants to be a member of. The good news is the dues for this club are not as high as you might think. In other words, broken concrete by a garage door is easily fixable. Plus, you don’t need a bunch of expensive tools or know-how to do it. That will all help, for sure, but you don’t need them. You will need the following: mason mix* Portland cement* water bucket small brush a small disposable container (soup can size is perfect) scrap wood or yardstick, if a…
Fieldstone Porch For Our Carriage House
Fieldstone can be used for many things and we put it to excellent use by upgrading the porch of our carriage house. Why did it “need” a fieldstone upgrade? Well, even though it was completely functional it was looking a little sad. Let’s turn that into a DIY word problem. Sad-looking plus completely functional equals unrealized potential! If you combine that with a train leaving the station my recently learned and very basic masonry skills, you get a match made in DIY heaven. First, a mini primer on fieldstone. Fieldstone occurs naturally in the soil, likely deposited by glaciers. The stones are comprised of granite, limestone, and sandstone and are…
Recreating Historic Exterior House Trim – It’s A Process!
Recreating historic house trim on the exterior of a house. If ever there was a labor of love, this is it. We own a really old home. The oldest section dates back to the 1780s and it has been added onto since. Like many homes of that era, the exterior trim is ornate, beautiful, and rotten in spots. whomp, whomp Guess what most contractors want to do in this situation? Gold stars if you answered, “Take it down and replace it with something you can get off the shelf.” In essence, make it look like every other house on the block. I will also award gold stars if you answered,…
European Inspired Home Gym With RitFit Smith Machine
Welcome to our European-inspired home gym in the middle of rural New Jersey. Are you more surprised that a home gym can be European-inspired or that part of New Jersey is rural? New Jersey is used to being the subject of many jokes, but this home gym we created is no joke. It’s our new favorite place! We converted a room in our 250-year-old Carriage House into a European-inspired home gym because that made the most sense, right now, for how we could utilize this space. It started out looking like this. Then we made it look worse when we decided the stone walls needed repointing because no one wants…
Reclaimed Wood Bench With a Story
I love when old pieces of furniture have a backstory and this reclaimed wood bench we just made has the neatest origin story. The benchtop came out of a 250-year-old carriage house where it had been a windowsill for possibly centuries. A windowsill! Whoever thought a windowsill would have the starring role in a reclaimed bench story? It wasn’t on my bingo card, that’s for sure. Did you notice that I used the words “possibly centuries” to describe how old the windowsill was? Gold stars for paying attention. It’s tricky to put an exact date on lumber in this situation. I do have a few clues. According to our local…
Stone Carriage House Restoration Reveal
It took five solid weeks of near daily work to complete one portion of our stone Carriage House restoration. All of that work was done on the walls. We didn’t even touch the floor besides cleaning it up. Five weeks to redo four walls. That’s some messed up math. I think it’s way past time for the grand reveal. Here’s a photo taken approximately 30 minutes into the restoration. To be fair, it looks more like destruction than restoration. It has to get worse before it gets better. You can see the potential, right? No? Well, I don’t blame you. This was definitely a squint and “trust the process” kind…
Check Out The Terracotta Floor We Found
I frequently joke that I’ve been searching for hidden treasure since we bought our circa 1780s home five years ago. I only joke to downplay the fact that I am a grown adult who thinks this could actually happen to me. Crazier things have happened in New Jersey. I grew up reading books where the plot lines contained treasure maps and old buildings with secret rooms and hidden passageways. My imagination runs wild but it’s not implausible to think there are gold coins or Prohibition-era liquor buried around here somewhere. Unfortunately, I haven’t found anything newsworthy yet but it turns out a treasure of sorts was hiding underneath a bunch…
How To Add Copper Accent To Exterior Lighting
Plain to pizazz! Let me show you how to easily add a copper accent to exterior lighting that will take those lights of yours to the next level. All you need is a little hammered copper paint. Any copper paint would probably do, but I’ve been using a quart of Rust-oleum’s hammered copper paint on everything I can get my hands on. It has a gorgeous finished texture courtesy of some magic I don’t quite understand the hammered effect. Plus, I tend to think brushed-on paint lasts longer than spray paint when it comes to outdoor applications. Here’s how the porch light on our Carriage House started. I bought it,…
