My name is Tarah and its great to meet you!

Inexpensive wood floor that looks like a million dollars!

Beginning our whole month throwback series with our very first do it yourselfer post here on Grandma’s house DIY. How to put down an inexpensive wood floor! I can’t believe we hit our 400th blog post not too long ago and this year will mark EIGHT YEARS of my living here and blogging about it. Sharing my life out here with all of you guys and improving Grandma’s house has been such an incredible adventure. This post was first published on Aug 26, 2015 and our inexpensive wood floors are still looking good to this day! Here’s a few of our most recent entryway photos so you can see how nice it still looks before diving into the old post on how I did it. Read More »

2023 Winter Project List

Our winter 2023 Project List. Next Sunday our 2022 recap post is coming out and PHEW! It was a big year for us. Maybe as big as it gets with the wedding, the honeymoon and the reception. It took us months to get caught up before Lodi and I felt like we’d financially and emotionally entirely recovered. It was all wonderful and I wouldn’t change a thing but returning to boring life and back on track to our financial goals (and house projects!) feels like Heaven! Read More »

Workshop Office Combination… Making it make sense

Figuring out how to make a workshop office combination actually make sense. Lately I’ve been spending more and more time working from home on my computer and also playing a considerable amount of Fortnight with my dad, Lodi and several nieces and nephews. Which all adds up to my “office” being glaringly insufficient. I’m tired of sitting in our entryway / dining room lol. Call me spoiled because what a first world problem to have but dang it, I really wish I had my own office space. Read More »

Old Well House – Starting with the Clean Out

A very long while back I mentioned the old well house we have out in our horse pasture. I was going to save up posts for when we actually made some kind of progress but then I decided that the clean out is absolutely progress in itself. And I have also totally forgiven myself for not progressing further on it this last summer cause, ya know, Lodi and I got married and had a honeymoon and held a big reception out here… The weather held for us though so with all big “events” behind me I realized I could actually get a couple of things done this year before winter hit. Read More »

Cutting out an Access Door for our Garage Addition

Ever since we completed last year’s third stall garage addition, getting an access door put in has been in the back of my mind. Once you add power to your garage door you’re pretty much sunk in the case of a power outage if you need to get in… Not good news for us here as it isn’t unheard of during our rough winter months. Neither Lodi or I wanted to be out here in 30 degrees below zero making this hole WHEN WE NEED IT. No I would much rather do something like this, ya know, when its nice outside. Read More »

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 »

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 »

7 Simple Tips for Trash Disposal

Living out in the sticks where we are we don’t have a whole lot of options when it comes to trash disposal. I remember a lot of people burned when I was a kid (including my family) but I’m not even sure if that’s legal now. Of course there is always the ability to “rent” trash cans with a local removal service but that’s pretty expensive. I simply drive it into town and drop it at our local dump a couple times a week. I would love to get into composting but we’ve never had enough leftover to really start that and those scraps that we do have the squirrels and bunnies just love them!
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January 2023 – Recapping 2022, we got married!

January 2023, a recap of 2022. Last January started off with a real accomplishment for me though it took me so long to get there it was a little non celebratory I’ll admit lol. I set out to repaint this entire home back in early 2018 as it was badly smoke damaged from heating with wood here for a couple of years. Four years of painting, finishing, accomplishing and designing each space as though I was just starting over. And, with a whole bunch of help from Lodi, I did it! Read More »

December 2022 COVID and so so so so much snow

I’m not going to beat around the bush with this one as December 2022 pretty much just sucked for us lol. Xmas was still lovely of course and we had a great time with friends and family. But there was a couple of weeks there in the middle of December where it just felt like this month could not be gone soon enough! It began at my day job when we had a gal go out with COVID and then another gal went down with it and then a third gal headed for a long planned trip to Florida. And then I got COVID! There are only five of us lol. 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 »

Master Bathroom and Master Closet Tour

Master Bathroom and Master Closet Tour it dawned on me this is the first time I’ve done a full reveal of these two rooms together. WAY back in 2015 was the last time you guys saw the closet and, even then, it wasn’t much of a reveal. You know I’ve been working on our master suite second floor for nearly a year now. I refused to stop until every. last. thing. I could think of was completed and / or fixed. I’m very happy with how it all turned out! Read More »

Elegear LED Lights! – Adding warmth to our main floor for Xmas

There’s been some changes here at Grandma’s house that you will definitely notice in the pictures! I’ve moved my office into our workshop thus freeing up our entryway entirely. There’s lots more to do and posts coming out all about my new office workshop and our new open plan entryway. But, first, what Lodi did with these incredible Elegear LED lights that were gifted to us! Check them out here on Amazon and make sure and use the 10% off discount code: DHSCZOTA 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 »

To Grandma’s House we go! (Wednesday Link Party #333)

Welcome to the To Grandma’s House We Go Link Party #333. Well we finally got hit by the deep cold. It was -20 degrees when I went to work this morning YEESH. Cant really complain though as the majority of January we saw wonderfully unseasonably warm weather and once we make it to February it really does feel like we’re well passed halfway done with winter. Lodi’s birthday was over this weekend and after chores we really just took the time to chill out and be together. Now, on to the Party! Read More »

To Grandma’s House we go! (Wednesday Link Party #332)

Welcome to the To Grandma’s House We Go Link Party #332. Well the deep freeze is finally coming after we saw such incredibly warm weather for the majority of January. Can’t say I’m really complaining though as we are past the half way mark and winter has not been all that bad so far! With the holidays behind us and returning to something resembling normalcy after suffering the loss of a family member, Lodi and I are both anticipating quieter days and time to finally get some things done on the house. Now, on to the Party! Read More »

To Grandma’s House we go! (Wednesday Link Party #331)

Welcome to the To Grandma’s House We Go Link Party #331. Hey guys – PHEW – returning to “real life” after our family experienced such a loss has been both strange but also very relieving. January for us saw some of the most beautiful weather I can ever remember in northern Minnesota. I’ve heard so many people say, “How is this January!?” With us hitting temps in the upper 30s and staying in the 20s so far with the same temps in the forecast. Its certainly going to help us get through this winter! Now, on to the Party! Read More »

To Grandma’s House we go! (Wednesday Link Party #330)

Welcome to the To Grandma’s House We Go Link Party #330. Hey guys I apologize for not being able to get features chosen this week. We’ve recently had an unexpected family emergency. I will choose extra features from the last party next week! Now, on to the Party! Read More »

To Grandma’s House we go! (Wednesday Link Party #329)

Welcome to the To Grandma’s House We Go Link Party #329. Both of our families are very flexible when it comes to the holidays which is wonderful because it means we never have to “pick” anyone to enjoy Christmas with but it also means we end up with the endless holiday lol. Four weekends of Christmas with one more to go and Lodi and I agreed that after this we’re not going anywhere for at least a month. We didn’t quite make it to midnight this year but we did have a good weekend, I hope you all had a wonderful New Year! Now, on to the Party! Read More »

To Grandma’s House we go! (Wednesday Link Party #328)

Welcome to the To Grandma’s House We Go Link Party #328. Well, despite truly horrible driving conditions, we survived (and had a good) Christmas weekend. We didn’t have far to go but with the deterioration of the weather 200 miles round trip felt like a long way… We went all out on the food for Thanksgiving this year but with my still feeling the COVID fatigue, I was silently dreading doing it again. My mom must have sensed it because she asked if it would be OK if she just made homemade pizza for all of us. I just love that woman SO much, it was wonderful! 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. From gorgeous colour palettes to hardwood bedroom furniture options, there’s always amazing bedrooms to look at when you are scrolling through Pinterest. In fact, the inspiration doesn’t stop coming the moment you type in beautiful bedrooms into Google! So, without further adieu here’s some gorgeous bedrooms via Pinterest!! Read More »

Best Mower and Lawn Care Tool: A Guide for Your Yard

Wow I cant wait to sit outside on my deck and watch Lodi maintain our lawn this summer lol. It is no secret that after mowing a golf course for ten years I really LOATHE the idea of getting back on a mower. Fortunately Lodi loves it! He has done so much for our yard over the years but he couldn’t have done it without countless really amazing tools. Read More »

4 DIY Energy Saving Projects To Start The New Year

With winter here, and bills going through the roof because of the incredible cold we see here in Minnesota, its always a time when we start thinking of ways to save more energy. There are more inexpensive things that we can do just to help with the cold. Even really good energy saving windows we can cover with plastic to give us a whole other extra wind break. We still use our electric heat even though our pellet stove does the bulk of our home heating. With that in mind though I always add an extra layer before turning it up! Read More »

Useful Guide to Preventative Maintenance To Save You Thousands

I remember reading a forum once about the craziest things auto shops had ever seen. Apparently there are way more people out there than you would think that have no idea that the oil in their car needs to be changed from time to time… Crazy. Maintenance on our homes is the same way. Want something to last? You have to take care of it and one of the biggest things I’ve found that most people skip are filters. Almost every appliance we’ve got in our homes has them and they NEED to be cleaned periodically! Read More »

9 Home Upgrades and Improvements That Pay Off

There are so many fun and incredible upgrades and improvements we can do to our homes and, oftentimes, for not a huge amount of money! Something we’re really looking forward to this winter / spring is replacing our countertops. We’re going to buy butcher block because its very inexpensive but, even better, it is exactly what we want in our home! Read More »

Exterior Tour: Ways To Make Your Home Stand Out

As the old saying goes that a home is never finished I absolutely feel that way for sure about the exterior lol. We’ve come a long way though what was an unfinished looking garage is not only finally complete now but is sporting a fancy third stall as well. I have to contribute the majority of it all to Lodi coming into my life though as I admit to often being a bit intimidated by ladder work which so often seems to be the only way to work on the outside of our house! Read More »

7 Things to Do When Planning Your Dream Home

Planning a dream home has got to be up there of the top ten most exciting things in our adult lives. After you’ve lived (and struggled with the flaws) of a few homes you start even unconsciously getting ideas right away. More closet space? Absolutely! Lights in all of the closets because there can never be enough light? For real! An almost stupid amount of extra outlets and not in the middle of rooms where most furniture goes? Heck right! It is amazing what even small details in our homes can improve our lives so much. Read More »