My name is Tarah and its great to meet you!

Our Top Thrifty Tips – How we Easily save over $1,000 a year!

My being innately thrifty has helped me out a lot over the years here at Grandma’s house but, most especially, when I was alone here! Back then I had no choice but to be as frugal as possible just to get my bills paid. Nowadays I may not be scraping by like I used to, but that hasn’t changed me and my thrifty ways at all. (Why would I choose to go back to spending more when I don’t need to?) Lodi and I share financial goals and every little bit of savings gets us closer to them. Having a real partner for the first time is pretty incredible! Read More »

Bathroom Vanity, Giving an old Buffet some love

The bathroom vanity in our master bathroom is actually a buffet my mom purchased when she first moved out when she was 19. Years later it ended up in a storage shed out here and then years after that I gave it a makeover! From there I converted it into a bathroom vanity for our master and totally love its deep storage, extra tall height and beautiful look. However, over the years, it now definitely needs some attention again! Read More »

Hanging Barn Door DIY – Working out some Issues…

Our hanging barn door has always had issues. Firstly, when I framed in all of the doors of this house back during the renovation, I just made them standard size. After that (of course) I realized I wasn’t going to be buying new doors for this house because, by some kind of miracle between extra doors I found out in the barn and the doors I salvaged out of here, I had the EXACT amount I needed. So, when I should have framed in for each individual door, I was left modifying existing finished doorways to accommodate a whole range of different door sizes… It was worth it but also a major headache. Read More »

Summer Deck Tour – New Seating, Upgrades and Rearranging!

Summer deck tour. I started writing this post over a year ago in the spring of 2021 when I was still young and full of hope lol. The drought and heat we got hit by last year meant outside pictures were just SAD. And after seven years of living here the only times I’ve ever shown you guys the deck was in the fall. (Here in 2020 and Here in 2017.) So I had to wait another year to get the chance to give you guys a deck tour when its my favorite place in the spring and summer time. Read More »

Bathroom Light update with a Ceiling Medallion and Paint!

Our bathroom light is an upcycle of an old yard light I found right here on the farm. We’ve now used all three of them that were here. One is above our kitchen sink and, just a few months ago, we used the last one above our new work bench. When I went to install this one I was quite disgruntled to find that the hardware I had didn’t quite cover the raw sheet rock edge around the light box. Bummer. And its been bugging me ever since! Read More »

Lower Deck Lighting – a Story of my absolute FAILURE

Lower deck lighting update. Ya know how you get a pre conceived notion in your head of exactly what you want and you won’t settle for less even when new information presents itself? Well that’s what happened with our lower deck lighting last year. I wanted so badly to have legitimate café string lights and so, even after reading dozens upon dozens of terrible reviews on every set of string lights that I could find… I still purchased them. I failed us lol. Read More »

Storage Bench Makeover for my closet – before and after!

Of the four storage benches that we own that my grandparents’ made this one absolutely has had the roughest history. It lived in my child hood entryway for many years and suffered quite a bit from teething puppies gnawing on it. From there it moved to our horse barn where it provided a lovely home for mice and chipmunks as well as storing horse tack and the like. Move ahead a couple more decades and it came with me here to Grandma’s house where it lived in the barn (still full of horse tack), then in the wood shed and then, finally, in the old well house for several years up until right now. Read More »

Basement Refrigerator Makeover – Before and After!

Lodi did a refrigerator makeover a couple of weeks ago and I can’t wait to show you the before and after! Our basement refrigerator is a solid 30 years old (at least) I grew up with this refrigerator and remember poignantly the awesome day when my mom got a brand new one and this one was retired to “beer refrigerator” status. When she moved she asked me if I wanted it and I immediately jumped on the opportunity. Our basement has been slowly coming along but, not long ago, this was a totally unfinished space I often used for painting and staining if it was cold outside. Read More »

Cork board and Key Caddy Makeover!

I’ve had this little pine cork board my grandparents’ made for many years now. It comes with the added perk of also being a key caddy so, of course, we put it right by our front door. It really comes in handy! However, it doesn’t exactly mesh with the look we have going throughout our entryway. Varnished knotty pine in that gold color is really not our style so its been on my list for awhile now to give it a little makeover! Read More »

Adding Tufted Upholstery to an old Coffee Table

Adding a tufted top and a new paint job to an old coffee table. I’ve been working on the refresh of my living room for awhile now. It started when I decided I hated my sofa and was ready for a new one! That worked out perfect because I really needed my old sofa to complete my seating area out in my garage. Following my old sofa to the garage was my coffee table and one of my end tables too! That left my living room pretty barren: the perfect time to do a makeover! Read More »

Three Legged Stool Makeover: Paint and stain combo with dipped legs

Teaming up with Chas in our DIY blog hop this month with projects for our bathrooms! (Make sure and check out all of the bathroom projects following this post and feel free to join in!) This little stool has a fun story behind it. My Grandparents’ were wood workers and made and sold lots of these along with many other pieces of furniture. One of my neighbors is an avid follower of my blog and felt she simply had to return it to me so this milking stool came home after being gone for over 30 years! Read More »

Lace Doily Upcycling on my Radio Stand Kitchen Island

Lace doily upcycling across the front of my kitchen island that I made out of my great grandpa’s radio stand. This piece remains one of my ALL TIME favorite transformations that I’ve created. Some projects just work! It was like this old radio stand had been waiting 100 years to be made into a kitchen island. It looks great from the front and the shelves in the back house all my recipe books too. During my recent kitchen remodel I did some surgery on it to work even better for me. Read More »

November 2022 – a Quiet and Snowy Month

November 2022 was a quiet month for us here at Grandma’s house. Winter settled in with several inches of snow so Lodi got to use our new snow plow and snow blower. I was determined this year to keep the deck cleared of snow by even constantly shoveling if I had to and I’ve basically already lost that battle. With it getting dark at 5pm, the drastic change to sudden winter, and the holidays coming up I’ve been feeling pretty unmotivated to get much of anything done around the house… besides make soup maybe lol. I guess that’s pretty typical of this time of the year. Read More »

October 2022 – Snow Flurries and Turning on the Heat

October 2022. October may be our most bipolar month here in Minnesota. The first couple of weeks we saw highs in the 70s and then BAM. Goodbye warm weather, find something else to wish for. I’ve become pretty notorious for not decorating for the holidays (and being a bit of a Grinch…) however when Lodi asked if we could carve pumpkins I really couldn’t say no and I even picked up some other decorations to surprise him with. I mentioned to my dad that we were pumpkin carving this year and he asked, “Did we ever do that?” If we did I have no memory of it… clearly this is why I am the way I am when it comes to the holidays. Read More »

September 2022 – a Mighty Fine Shindig!

September 2022 – PHEW! Well we had a wonderful reception out here the first weekend of September with nearly 100 of our friends and family joining us to celebrate our getting married in June. It was a BIG weekend, starting Friday with the last of our company not leaving until Sunday evening. Several of my moms cousins came, folks that spent a lot of time at this old farm during their child hoods. To say that there were a few tears shed over the barn is an understatement but it was so awesome to hear stories about this place and my grandparents from years back. Read More »

August 2022 – Planning a Mighty Fine Shindig!

August 2022 – damn this month that never lasts long enough for me. August has always been my favorite time to live here in northern Minnesota. Its a month that can almost always be counted on to be beautiful weather-wise. There’s a coolness in the air that takes the edge off the heat and colder evenings make it prime time for bon fires. I sure do hope we get a long fall to make up for a misery of a spring but, regardless, this has been one beautiful summer. Read More »

July 2022 – Summer Blooms, Bounty & Dreams

July 2022 here in Minnesota was just perfect. I can’t describe it any other way honestly it is the weather example of why we’re willing to put up with -40 degree temps in the winter. Ideally though, of course, we do kind of hope to be able to hop out of here to skip the worst of the winter months someday but that’s a long time off! Meanwhile I feel like this summer is really trying to make up for last year’s summer though we did have a cold, late spring. Minnesota is forgiven in my book though as July and June 2022 were absolutely gorgeous. Read More »

June 2022 – OMG where do I even start!? We got married!

June 2022 will forever remain for me the month that is a blur I think lol. Everything happened so fast that after we got back from our honeymoon I told Lodi that our wedding felt like it happened yesterday but also a year ago! What an amazing trip! Starting all the way back in early June (what feels like a LONG time ago lol) our weather finally made a lovely turn toward summer and, guess what? We got our squirrel back already! He was delivered in his own squirrel box and, no kidding, he remembered us 🙂 Read More »

Holiday – a little autumn Home Tour

I admit in the past I haven’t done much decorating for the holiday around here. There was just always this little thing about budget lol. Not to mention generally far more important projects that I needed to put my dollars and time into. Things are changing around here though. We’ve managed to take several big projects off our plates so I realized we could afford to do a little holiday decorating. Read More »

Garden Tour – an early summer look!

Garden tour, a little walk about in early July! I won’t say things got “away” from me here on the blog due to the wedding but I definitely feel like I’m playing catch up on so many things I want to share with you guys! June (the month of our wedding) definitely went by in a blur for us. What also went against us was the fact that we had such a horrible, cold, miserable, very late, rainy, freezing, absolute nightmare, spring! I planted our vegetable garden three weeks later than last year and was concerned it was still too early. Because of this, when it did suddenly warm up, our farm just kind of exploded in just a few days. Read More »

Master Bedroom Tour – Our Second Floor Oasis

Master bedroom tour, the final completion of the entire redesign of our second floor bedroom. Woah guys how many months has it been? I started on our second floor last winter and am so so thrilled to show you guys the final completion of the bedroom portion. (I’m just finishing up the closet and bathroom too.) There was nothing wrong with our old master bedroom it really just wasn’t US and we were both ready for a change. Read More »

Basement Bathroom Reveal – Pallet Walls, Barn wood and Black Floors!

Basement Bathroom Reveal, adding a touch of girl to this little space because it was starting to feel like a man cave and not in a good way… I am not a girly girl by any means (as I’m sure you’re all aware at this point…) but even I can attest a balance between masculine and feminine in a space is a real must. Outside of this bathroom our living room feels like just the coolest underground speak easy and I totally love it. But with Lodi’s wood furniture and black leather couches no matter what I do it will always feel at least a little like a bachelor pad. Read More »

Basement Living Room Reveal – Speak Easy Theater and Chill Space

Basement living room reveal. So it all started back in 2014 when I purchased and began the renovation of my Grandparents’ 100 year old farmhouse. I was single and the basement had a separate entrance so I immediately tackled it with the intention of putting in a rental suite. It was a ton of money and work that all went for nothing a couple of years later when my husband (now ex) decided that renters were a NO. I used this unfinished space (what a total waste) as my workshop for awhile until I threw him out in 2017. So, I emptied the space to, once again, try to move forward with the rental idea. A lot of life happened in the years since but, finally, all of my time and money down here is no longer for nothing! Read More »

Lodi’s Room Reveal Complete with New Light Fixtures!

Lodi’s Room Reveal complete with New Light Fixtures! Starting at the beginning… When I renovated this home back in 2014-2015 I designed this as a wide hallway which included a huge closet made specifically to house a 6 foot chest freezer. At the end of the hall I put our “back door” which included a doggie door in it – which was a great straight shot out of the house for my big dog at the time. In 2018 I got rid of the chest freezer and I was playing around with making this wasted area into a reading nook / day bed / dog bed area and putting up some kind of gate so I could lock dogs back here whenever I needed to… Read More »

To Grandma’s House we go! (Wednesday Link Party #325)

Welcome to the To Grandma’s House We Go Link Party #325. I cant wait to show you this Sunday’s blog post! We were given a set of LED string lights to review a little while ago and Lodi surprised me one morning with what he did with them! He ran them along the ceiling throughout our entire main floor. Our whole house glows lol he tied them right into our new tree too so they all come on together with the click of a button. Its so festive and warm! Now, on to the Party! Read More »

To Grandma’s House we go! (Wednesday Link Party #324)

Welcome to the To Grandma’s House We Go Link Party #324. Cant believe it but we had a lovely warm up in the weather over Thanksgiving and our four day weekend. We lost a bunch of our snow and wow did 30 degrees feel wonderful! Going a bit chillier now but nothing extreme, is it possible we could have a mild December too? Wow how that would be an awesome gift! Hope you all had a wonderful holiday! Now, on to the Party! Read More »

To Grandma’s House we go! (Wednesday Link Party #323)

Welcome to the To Grandma’s House We Go Link Party #323. Well it looks wonderfully mild over the holiday for us this year. We might even lose most of the snow we’ve all been glaring at! We are as prepared as we can be officially for winter though that doesn’t mean I’m happy about it. Though after such a big summer with us getting married and all there is a certain relief that winter brings. So many projects I CAN’T tackle because they’re outside projects and that’s honestly kind of nice. Less to do! I hope you all have a wonderful holiday – on to the Party! Read More »

To Grandma’s House we go! (Wednesday Link Party #322)

Welcome to the To Grandma’s House We Go Link Party #322. Well I guess merry xmas everyone as we have five inches of snow on the ground… and its still snowing. Really hoping this isn’t the end of being able to see dirt for six months. Is it too much to ask for a little warm up before we take the plunge into total winter? *looks at forecast* Its not looking good! Now, on to the Party! Read More »

To Grandma’s House we go! (Wednesday Link Party #321)

Welcome to the To Grandma’s House We Go Link Party #321. Well the “bur” is settling in but not without some lovely sunny days so I can’t say that I’m complaining. Still no white stuff on the ground! I got out the heated bird bath and we put the tank heater in our horse’s water tank. I purchased the heated water bowl for the birds and still am just amazed (though I shouldn’t be) at how much the birds and little critters appreciate it throughout the winter. I think we all unconsciously just assume that they have plenty of snow so water isn’t a big deal when, in fact, open water is a HUGE deal! Now, on to the Party! Read More »

To Grandma’s House we go! (Wednesday Link Party #320)

Welcome to the To Grandma’s House We Go Link Party #320. Well we’ve been enormously enjoying our long fall weather after a big chill for a couple of days. Its been a long time since I remember it being this lovely into November. Perhaps we’ll get lucky and see some more of it! Every now and again (generally around the holidays) you guys share such gorgeous food that I just have to pick recipes for all five of my features. This is one of those times! YUM! Now, on to the Party! Read More »

OMG Pumpkins everywhere! Hometalk Fall Decor Inspiration board

Hometalk Fall Decor Inspiration board! Summer is absolutely my favorite time of the year – you will NEVER hear me complaining about the heat lol But I honestly think that’s a fact simply because fall and spring are such short seasons here in northern MN. Fall for us could truly last all of three weeks like our spring did this year! And that’s just depressing lol because that means we’re settling into at least four months of some serious cold and snow. Read More »

Hometalk’s Outdoor Projects I Can’t Wait to Build! Do it Yourself!

Inspiration Board of the Outdoor projects on Hometalk that I’ve been drooling over! I received a comment on my outdoor bench saying, “You’re SO crafty, that’s amazing!” And I admittedly got a bit offended, eventually I just laughed about it but I’m not sure how I can build a wrap around bench for my deck and still be called “crafty”. I could’t help but think that if I was a guy she certainly wouldn’t have looked at that bench and called him crafty! I am a builder at heart and I spend most of my time building things in my head or drooling over outdoor projects like these: Read More »

Let’s build some swings! Pinterest Do It Yourself Inspiration Board!

Well now that spring has FINALLY arrived, my dreaming has turned to swings! Let’s build some! These are some of my favorites I’ve found on Pinterest and stashed away for a later time because, seriously, who doesn’t want to swing away a beautiful summer day? Contrary to popular belief, I do NOT feel that swings are for kids in any way. Many of these are very grown up swings for us “adults” lol Read More »

Nooks and Getaway Places: Pinterest Inspiration Board

Nooks, crannies, special getaway places, some of my favorite escapes via Pinterest Inspiration board. It has been a very difficult few weeks here at Grandma’s House, tailing the end of a very, very hard year. I will tell you guys why and what’s been going on when I’m able to get my feet back under me again. To say the least though I have found myself on Pinterest, looking longingly at getaway places and nooks that promise quiet and PEACE. Read More »

Inspiration Board: Six more Summer Projects I can’t wait to build!

Six more summer projects I can’t wait to build for us outside and out on our deck! Some DIYs and things just have to wait for some nice weather not only for us to enjoy them but for us to build them as well. Currently I’m sitting here in late October and we have a winter storm warning 🙁 So, hears to dreaming about next summer and all the things to look forward to building. I posted earlier this year a few summer projects I just can’t wait to build but I’ve seen so many build projects on Pinterest I had to share a few more that I can’t wait to build next summer! Read More »

Inspiration Board: Gorgeous Bedrooms to swoon over!

I spend a certain amount of time on Pinterest gazing with my mouth open at some of the gorgeous bedrooms people have. As far as Inspiration Boards go I’ve published quite a few over the years but I think this one might take the cake. I am absolutely in awe of a few of these. Considering how much time we spend in our bedrooms (albeit it is with our eyes closed) I am a firm believer that they are a VERY important part of our homes. So, without further adieu here’s some gorgeous bedrooms via Pinterest!! Read More »

Water cooler or water filter – which is the best way to go

Living this far outside of town for us means that we all have grown accustomed to living with a well meaning a lot of choose to put a main house water filter in. Sometimes its just a softening system but a lot of people do whole house filtration systems now. Some of them are designed to remove heavy metals, iron, calcium etc. I also know of a couple of people who weren’t able to get safe water to drink out of their wells and getting a water cooler turned into an awesome option for them! Read More »

Top Bedroom Wallpapers For Teenagers

Wallpaper has come a VERY long way over the last couple of decades. It is definitely not the wallpapers our grandparents used to cover everything with! From different styles to easy peal and stick (as apoosed to glue on) wallpaper is accessible and easily applied for just about everyone. Some of my personal favorite applications aren’t even on walls but on furniture! Open shelving can really pop with an amazing wallpaper put at the back of it! Read More »

Improve The Aesthetic Of Your Garden Space

With winter approaching I am already missing our outdoor spaces and garden. It got dark at 5pm last night and me and Lodi just cuddled up on the couch together. In July we would have another six hours of daylight and would be hard pressed to go inside until 10:00pm on a nice night. It is what it is though when living this far north and, goodness knows, we have lots of indoor projects to keep us occupied this winter! Read More »

How to Add Some Grandeur Feel to Your Bedroom

I think when people consider trying to create a graneur feel for their bedroom they automatically think its going to cost a lot. But I don’t think that needs to be the case at all! We just finished our own bedroom makeover and much of it was very inexpensive little tweaks. Things like hooks for our robes, a change up to our windows and new sheets cost very little but improved our bedroom so much! Read More »

Promoting Your Own Mental Health

I feel its really common nowadays for us to take a day off of work to literally WORK on something else. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve taken a day off (and my coworkers too) just to get caught up on chores at home! Having this blog too means I pretty much use all of my vacation time and days off from my day job to work on this blog / projects on the house. Its almost impossible nowadays to do much more than work 40 hours a week, keep caught up on house chores, do anything else and manage to enjoy some free time too! Every now and again, simply for our own sanity, I think we all need to take a day off and give ourselves permission to do absolutely NOTHING. Read More »

3 Reasons Your Home Needs Home Insurance

If you have a mortgage no bank will allow you to go without home insurance but, regardless, I can’t imagine forgoing it as disasters (both big and small) happen all the darn time. We got lucky this summer and only suffered a little bit of bent siding when we lost multiple trees over the course of the year. Read More »