About Grandma’s House DIY – Storyhardt Farm est. December 15th, 2017

I realized after I wrote Our Story that it really didn’t tell you guys exactly what this blog is focused on. There is nothing I love more then making something new and usable again that someone else would have thrown out or torn down.

I’ve become so hard core in this fact that now when I see new things I don’t even like them most of the time. There’s no character there, no pride, no workmanship.

Literally hell to me would be living in suburbia where all the houses look the same and there is no amount of “money worth” or “price tags” that could ever make me feel any different.

Of course this isn’t true of all new things!

I’ve always loved homes and architecture and I have literally spent hundreds of hours on my computer designing homes from the ground up using this program: Home Designer Suite. 

I’m the girl that just drives around looking at houses for the fun of it but, until I faced that garage full of furniture left to me by my grandparents, I hadn’t yet truly found my passion.

I loved the work – from the stripping, to the sanding to the final finish coat, I just loved it!

I also come by all of this naturally as my grandparents’ retired to wood working after farming and milking and that’s when their barn became their wood shop.

Stanchions, once housing cows, were filled with oak and pine – they built everything from hutches to dressers to cabinets and benches, there was nothing my grandparents’ couldn’t build and they loved it.

You’ve probably already noticed that saving money, recycling, doing it myself and using what I already have is what I’m all about around here. Though I may just prefer an old buffet for my vanity the truth is that the cost savings is enormous!

I built my entire kitchen and I don’t know if I would have had it any other way even if I could have afforded to buy new. After all the work I put into this house and after hand making so much, I think new kitchen cabinets would just not have seemed right.

It has just always seemed wrong to buy something when I could build it. Or to replace something when I could use something I already had and that’s just how I’ve always been.

When I first started refinishing my old furniture I was often met with, “How do you know how to do that?” But what they really meant was, “Why would you want to when you can just go and buy one?”

It seems like most folks just call someone when they need something done or just go buy a replacement and never once considered (or ever wanted) to do it themselves. I’m the opposite, I hate to call anyone and to have to pay someone to do it is about the worst case scenario in my life!

I don’t like strangers in my home but, even worse, having to trust them to make the same decisions I would for the safety of my family is just something I find very hard to do. 

If I can do it instead then why wouldn’t I?

So that’s who I am and what this blog is all about! Self reliance, do it yourself, refinishing old furniture, re-purposing old pieces or building it from scratch instead of buying new and saving money every step of the way!

Hopefully some of my ideas can help you with your own projects and save you some money along the way too! Trust me, if I can do it you can can too!