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My Grandparents' were wood workers so I guess the fact that I REALLY REALLY REALLY like to build things comes pretty naturally to me. Also the fact that no one in my family is happy unless they're working on something comes to me pretty naturally too. We all keep busy! My dad built log homes and my brother became a home inspector along with building several homes himself (with dad and his sons) along the way. So I didn't start with only Google when it came to working on my house, I had a lot of history helping my family with everything from electrical to plumbing and building furniture.

I don't even always realize it but I always seem to have at least one idea brewing on something I want to build, or make, or work on, or make better (at all times) in my head. I'm also super frugal I absolutely HATE buying anything - my favorite thing in the world is being able to use what I have or build what I need instead! Usually it works out ok! My attitude is always this: "Let's try it - see if it works - see how it looks. Maybe it'll be great!" When all else fails my end goal is simple: Better than it used to be. Not perfect. Nothing is ever perfect. Let's aim for better!

Planting 350 Tree Seedlings on my Back Acreage

On May 7th I got the news that I had been waiting for since February. It was time to pick up my 350 tree seedlings! I got the email on a Thursday night at 5:30 and immediately my heart plummeted. Their times for pickup were Mon-Fri 8:30-4:00 so I would have to get them early that very next morning or my little seedlings would be sitting in a box all weekend and I couldn’t let that happen! (Not that my awesome boss wouldn’t have let me leave work early I hate to do that because our Fridays are our crazy busy days.) Read the rest of the post »

Throwing back to my Beachy Fire Pit that I made for my Yard

Aw you guys look at the barn still standing so beautiful in the background! If you have a low budget, this is a great firepit that you can DIY yourself. I loved this fire pit for years until Lodi moved in and he hated it… Not sure why, maybe it just wasn’t nice or fancy enough for him. He also hated my idea of a blooming no-mow lawn. He got rid of it right away and then, over the years, we spent a lot of money putting in a weedless lawn over top of where it was. Yeah I’m going to be working really hard in replacing all that grass I helped pay for lol. A couple of years ago I did at least build myself a replacement firepit that I also love. Read the rest of the post »

Paint and Stain Makeover – Jewelry Box my Grandparents’ Made

This little jewelry box has been waiting for me for a long time. Like with so many things I have around here many of them I’ve been keeping for as long as I can remember. Whether using them, living with them or decorating with them because I love them. Or, in this case, because one day I wanted to finish them. My grandparents retired from owning a dairy farm and converted their barn into the wood workshop of their dreams. They were very talented wood workers. They built dressers, hutches, end tables, you name it. They were particular and careful and very good with molding and finishing. Read the rest of the post »

Throwback: Turning my Grandparents’ Milk Can into an End Table

My Mom and aunt grew up here together with my grandparents’ helping them farm and take care of the cows on their dairy farm. This was one of the last milk cans left from those long ago days. My Mom was needing an end table at the time and I had always planned to do something with it as well as give her this milk can anyway. Now, years later, my mom is using it as a planter but its still with her and I’m sure it always will be. I think it came out really cute! Read the rest of the post »

Thrift Store Lamps Makeover for my new Guest Bedroom

In my post about finishing my guest room closet you guys saw a mirror I picked up at the thrift store specifically for this room. In the same trip I spent only $30 (!!!) on two lamps to complete the space. Just like the mirror though at least one of the lamps was dying for a makeover so I decided to spray paint all three of them in a chrome by Ace hardware. I had it on hand and thought it would add a little bling to the space. Coincidentally the mirror and one of the lamps was already practically in that same shade. Read the rest of the post »

Hanging a TV, adding an Outlet and Building a Headboard

Hanging a TV and building a headboard in my guest bedroom. Early last year I relocated my TV to a different wall in my living room by hanging it and adding an outlet behind it. It totally changed the room for the better and, after ten years of fiddling with it, I finally love the layout in that room. It all went so well I figured I’d just repeat the process here in the guest bedroom. I had two TVs the smaller of the two I had hung in the living room and the other (bigger by quite a bit) TV was left without a place after the many changes I’ve made in the house lately. Read the rest of the post »

Throwing back to building a Granite Buffet for my Deck

I called this my grill station back in the day when I built it because I desperately needed a better place to put my little grill. I’ve upgraded to a full size grill since then and my “grill station” got to become the buffet on my deck I always planned for it to be. I set it right outside my kitchen door and use it constantly all summer long. It is SO convenient to be able to just reach outside and set everything out. Its not three steps from my refrigerator and kitchen counter. Read the rest of the post »

DIY How to Build a Bed Frame – a Queen for my Guest Bedroom

I’ve been planning in my head how I was going to build a bed frame for a long time now. I had no idea the bed frame I’d be building first would be a queen for here in my new guest bedroom. I had actually been making plans to build a king for the basement. Yes, a king is over kill for the basement (though there is plenty of room for it) but my king mattress upstairs is nearly ten years old so I figured if I was gonna buy a new mattress then shouldn’t it be for myself? So the basement will get my king and I’ll be getting a new mattress for upstairs. Meanwhile, I now have a guest bedroom and it needs a bed! Read the rest of the post »

A Pipe Rack I built for my grill that I still use today!

I really like it when I can do a throwback post and say its still with me and going strong to this day. At the time I added this rack to a buffet I built to set my little grill on. As planned I eventually got a full size grill and this buffet moved to right beside my back door to my kitchen. Its awesome to have right there. I’ve used it countless times over the years for food and drinks whenever I have people over. The fact I can just reach outside the kitchen door to set things on means I use it practically daily when the weather is nice. Read the rest of the post »

Tackling the Entryway Closet and Shoe Shelves

Somehow all of my main floor closets have now gotten involved… So you guys all know I’m taking the house back to how I designed it originally ten years ago. I’m now using the room I designed to be an office: as an office. And the room I designed to be a guest bedroom: as a guest bedroom. But before I could design my guest bedroom I had to empty it out entirely as I’d been using the closet in there as my tool bench complete with LOTS of shelving. (Fortunately I had an actual room for my tools.) Taking all that shelving down left me with leftover lumber and a lot of heavy duty shelf brackets which made me think of my entryway closet. Read the rest of the post »

Guest Bedroom Closet, designing something Different

When I renovated this home there were a few things I did that I still really appreciate. Every shower has a light above it, every closet has a light in it, I put in a lot of extra outlets (and I put them all in the corners of roms because I hate that outlets are often in the center of walls and under windows – places where furniture (and thus lamps) are rarely ever placed) and all of my closets are really big. This room got the biggest closet by far and though I don’t quite remember exactly why it worked out that way this closet ended up nearly three feet deep. Read the rest of the post »

Garden Update and putting up fresh tomatoes for the winter

Putting up my tomatoes for the winter. (I know its currently February but being surrounded by cold and snow made me want to post something to brighten my day!) It was so wonderful to finally have a garden again. I don’t even seem to care if I get any produce – just planting and growing things makes me happy. Eating out of the garden though is my excuse to have it lol. All in I got around 5 pounds of green beans, 3 pounds of peas and a few rather stunted beats, carrots and radishes. As usual I always regret growing radishes but they’re super easy to grow here. It’s just that… well I’m not a huge fan. One year I cooked with them, throwing them in with a beef roast along with potatoes etc. and they were… odd but edible. Read the rest of the post »

Throwback to when I painted outdoor furniture until my arm fell off

Turning indoor furniture outdoor. Oh yeah this is where I learned that a paint sprayer can sometimes be worth its weight in gold. I was really amazed by just how much work it was to hand paint this chair and sofa though I did love how they turned out. I still have the sofa (and the old cushions) out in my garage but, sadly, the chair broke last year. (Who would think that leaving indoor furniture outside might be hard on it? *sarcasm*) Our winters are fierce here in Minnesota and even after all that effort the paint on both the chair and the sofa only lasted a couple of years. Read the rest of the post »

Throwing back to using old Jars to make sweet Solar Lights!

My gosh I almost near forgot about these adorable little lights I made! They lasted for YEARS on my deck and I only needed to clean them a little from time to time to make sure they got enough sun. For as long as the solar lights held out, these little jars did too so I guess my glue choice was a solid one. Once the solar lights finally burned out unfortunately I wasn’t able to safely get them open to save the jars as the lids rusted badly so my design was not perfect. Looking at these cute little guys though kind of makes me want to make some more but with improvements! Read the rest of the post »

Returning to my Guest Bedroom… again

So I’m working on my guest bedroom… again. Most of you know that things have changed a lot for me around here and its been a very bad time. I had my nephew, his girlfriend and my dad over for dinner one night and we had a Marvel movie marathon. Unfortunately though my dad wasn’t able to stay for most of it because he really isn’t comfortable driving at night anymore. (I don’t want to drive at night anymore either!) At the time I had no place for him to sleep over because Lodi took my extra bed, trashed my old bedframe and emptied this room for his own plans. Of course those plans no longer exist and he no longer lives here… Read the rest of the post »

Bringing in the Dirt and Planting: My Garden Day 4

One last big day, bringing in the dirt and planting my new garden! (See day 3, day 2 and day 1) I keep reminding myself that all of this work I’m doing to get this built I’m only going to have to do once. And then I’ll have many years ahead of me where I get to just plant! This is day 4, the last day of work before I officially have the garden I’ve been dreaming about for years. Read the rest of the post »

Building my Island Raised Bed: My Garden Day 3

Moving on to day 3 of my garden building project with the center raised bed island. (See day 2 and day 1) Unlike day 2 when it rained on me ALL DAY it didn’t rain on me at all this time! In fact it was a really lovely day that wasn’t too hot for working outside. Just like with the raised beds on the outside I would be using the 3×4 foot black steel railings that I purchased from Menards. First thing was first though I needed to cut one of the panels in half. Read the rest of the post »

Building the Outside Raised Beds: My Garden Day 2

Starting on building the raised beds. So I’ve probably described our weird weather through May 2025 enough at this point so I’ll just sum up: This took me a lot longer to build then it should have almost purely due to the weather. I say almost because right before I built my raised beds (right after I put up the fence) I took a clumsy (so dumb) tumble and majorly sprained my left wrist. I am not one to go to the doctor unless I’m dying but I was in enough pain that I thought x-rays were probably not a bad idea so I drove myself to the emergency room. No broken bones and I, of course, regretted wasting an entire day on an ace bandage. Read the rest of the post »

Our Basement Kitchen plans, where to Start

Beginning to finally finish our basement into the studio apartment I designed it for so we actually have a place for guests. The biggest job down here is absolutely the basement kitchen. And I’m still on the fence about what exactly I want to do with everything. At some point the top of the kitchen faucet was broken so it absolutely needs to be replaced. Besides that I really don’t feel right about spending money down here that isn’t totally necessary. Unfortunately it sure would be awesome to replace that kitchen sink too! Read the rest of the post »

Putting up the Fence: My Garden Day 1

Getting up my garden fence. I’ve always hated the moniker of “weekend warrior” but we’ve all been there. A full time day job means I get only a couple of days a week to work on the house. Which is fine if its inside work but outside work means if the weather is crap then its just going to have to wait another week. Which is a real bummer when you need to plant your vegetable garden ASAP but you haven’t even built it yet! Such was my frustrations for the last couple of weeks of May into June. The weather was weird and WILD. Read the rest of the post »

Throw Back, my favorite project from 2016 Outdoor Sun Loungers!

Looking back at one of my favorite projects from May 2016. It wasn’t any fun during lol but I loved these sun loungers for years after I finished them. They were such a bright and happy spot in the yard that I almost ran to them after work if it was a nice day. They turned out surprisingly comfortable! However, they were already really old when I gave them a makeover and the extensive rust eventually meant they had to be fully retired. I wouldn’t live without a sun lounger thought and went on to build the loungers we still use now. Still though, I loved how these turned out, aren’t they fun? Read the rest of the post »

Starting work on our Basement Guest Suite

Beginning our basement transformation. Turning our unfinished studio apartment, turned speak easy living room, into the guest suite it always should have been. Or really just finally finishing the studio apartment that will then obviously give us a guest suite. However I want to phrase it, I spent a lot of time and money down here during the renovation that I’ve regretted in the ten years since because I’ve never needed a studio apartment but not finishing this space is out of the question for me. Read the rest of the post »

New Light Fixture and Window shade for our Den

A new light fixture and shade for our den. The last post I shared about our den was the real heavy lifting post, starting to transform this space from a guest bedroom. Back when I renovated the house ten years ago I opted for recessed lighting throughout but in four places there wasn’t enough depth between the joists so I had to use “regular” light fixtures instead. The ceiling light in this room was one of those cases. And that old light fixture was definitely looking tired. Read the rest of the post »

My Grandma’s House – Ten years going by in a Blink

I started working on my Grandma’s house in May of 2014 and moved in August of 2015. So, in celebration of the last decade I set out writing my ten years blog posts every second Sunday of the last several months. Its been quite the slide down memory lane for me. How things have improved and how things have changed. (Sometimes whether we like it or not.) It is impossible to talk about any part of this place in the face of ten years and not think about how I have changed too. Read the rest of the post »

Throwing back to when I Built Floating Bookshelves

How I built floating bookshelves. Of the six shelves I built nearly ten years ago two still remain in our guest bedroom that we’re currently redesigning into a den for Lodi. I had asked him if he wanted to take the remaining shelves out and he said he liked them so much he was wondering if we could add more. They are pretty cool looking! The oak I used was straight out of the barn and Lodi is a big fan of rustic /raw wood while my tastes generally lean toward darker stains. When I put up these “floating” shelves I was really doing a bit of experimenting and was super happy with how they turned out. Read the rest of the post »

Throwing back to when we Painted out Mom’s Kitchen

Looking back to April of 2016 and the huge job my mom and I tackled together over a holiday Easter weekend. The change in her little house was really dramatic! I’d never painted out kitchen cabinets before this and I know not everyone would have agreed to painting out her particular kitchen as the cabinets weren’t very old and would have been pretty nice in a different space. Her little house was so DARK and small and cramped feeling. We painted the entire first floor and that helped a lot but painting her kitchen white did incredible things for the home. Read the rest of the post »

Beginning the Transformation of our Guest Bedroom into a Den

Transforming our guest bedroom into a den. The continuing saga of the snowball effect that is now messing with three main rooms of our house and causing us quite a bit of manual labor. The space to blame is this totally innocent little guest bedroom. I loved how this room turned out and you guys might even say I’ve lost my mind for changing it at all. (We finished it together a few years back.) So why on earth am I picking on this space when I don’t even use it? Why on earth has this space bothered me silently for years? Read the rest of the post »

Motion Sensor Lights in our Stairwell

Adding motion sensor lights to our stairwell. So WAY back when I posted about my plan for this stairwell it also included adding an outlet that would face into our home so when we stepped toward it we could “set off” anything we plugged in to it. (I didn’t want to have to mess with batteries or have to charge anything.) I was going to plug-in LED strips and run them all the way up and down the stairwell. The reason for all of this is because we have to step down into the area before we can reach the switch. Its not good. I don’t want to fall down the stairs cause I can’t see! Read the rest of the post »

Homemade dishwasher detergent, how to beat hardwater!

Over the years I’ve turned myself completely over to living and cleaning as naturally as possible in my home. For one it has saved us a ton of money and, for the other, I feel I am healthier for it. I went through several recipes I found online for homemade dishwasher detergent and settled on one that I just loved and use daily. The following recipe I picked up at Wellness Mama so I can’t take total credit for this one. Read the rest of the post »

DIY Galvanized Pipe Handrail for our Basement Stairwell

How I built a galvanized pipe handrail for our basement stairwell. Its been a long time coming but here we finally are, the last stop to finally completing this stairwell down to our basement. I made most of the hardware in the basement out of black galvanized pipe so it was a no-brainer for me to do the same with the handrail. Also, galvanized pipe is really sturdy stuff so I knew it would be a good material to use for safety. It is definitely not the first time its been used like this! Read the rest of the post »

Staircase, Steps and Stairwell, Finishing all of the Painting

Painting out a staircase is generally not a terrible job but that’s normally because you can start at the top lol. In this case though if I had painted my way from the top to the bottom I would have been stuck in the basement for a couple of days waiting for the paint to dry. Rustoleum is an oil based paint so it takes a LONG time to dry. I went back and forth in my head about the concrete walls of this stairwell. Initially I was leaning toward covering them with sheetrock but after awhile that just seemed over board. Read the rest of the post »

Our Basement Door, a conflict between privacy and light

With the walls and trim finally done in here I was really excited to tackle the exterior basement door. I never would have picked a full glass door for here and I also never would have had it swing in from the left. But the door was brand new and free and natural light is always a good thing so, of course, I used it! The story is that it was an accidental order that I canceled that I got a full refund from Menards for. I went to pick up all of the new doors and windows for this house and guess who still got the door I was refunded for? Read the rest of the post »

Throwing back to how I installed Barn Door Hardware

I thought this door was just gorgeous after I hung it up and I still do! This was back in the days when rolling barn doors in homes was all the rage. I think that has probably cooled since then as there is definitely a time and place for a door like this and it is NOT everywhere. In other situations you would be sacrificing the wall the door rolls on for storage etc. But we would never be able to put anything on this wall anyway as its basically a glorified hallway through my closet. And a hinged door here would be so much in the way all of the time. Read the rest of the post »

Paint and Trim, Continuing on in the Stairwell

Paint and trim in the stairwell. Back in the 1950s a large portion of the screened in porch was enclosed to create a back entry, a bedroom and this interior staircase. Before that the only access to the basement was an outside stairwell on the north side of the home. That was pretty typical back then but I’m willing to bet everyone got sick of that pretty quickly. “I gotta fill the wood furnace so just let me put on all of my winter gear, trudge around the house outside to get down to the basement…” Read the rest of the post »

Throwing back to building a Barn Door Closet

I’ve thought about taking out this barn door closet for years but we actually really use it! Lodi keeps all of our boot dryers in the bottom of it. On the back of the door, I hung some basic hanging shelves that we use for odds and ends etc. At the time I built it I was not a happy camper (as you’ll read going on lol) but I think I did the best I could with the situation at the time. We also, obviously, use it to hang coats whish is incredibly convenient right by the front door. Read the rest of the post »

A Few Shed Updates as we Move into Fall

Some shed updates. One beautiful weekend this fall we got our butts in gear a little bit and hauled all of our “outdoor stuff” down to the old horse shed. It was my grandpa’s machine shed for his farm when it was first built, then a machine shed for our golf course before I made it my horse shed years ago. My old horses were thrilled when I gave them this place with its South facing layout and North wind break. But I was still stunned because they already had a lean-to off the back of the barn that they refused to use. After several days of work, cleaning this place out, moving their red corral fencing and expanding their main fence I really thought it would all be for naught because, ya know: HORSES. Read the rest of the post »

Throwing back to how I built a Jewelry Cabinet

I built this little jewelry cabinet for my mom for Xmas 2015. My gosh that was literally my first Xmas living in this house! Wow, how things change over the years. My mom lived in a very small home at the time where storage was always a problem. She was also living with just one bathroom so, getting a mirror and storage somewhere else was great for her when she was getting ready in the mornings before work. It was always her dream someday to sell that little place and build her dream home which she accomplished just last year! Read the rest of the post »

I got the hole patched (my stubbornness will be the death of me)

I got the hole patched. It’s funny how some things manage to come all the way around to bite you in the butt years later. If I had known when I was running the vent pipe in the tiny attic above this stairwell that my one little slip up (literally my butt) falling through the ceiling here would be such a horrible hole to fix so many years later… Would I have been a bit more careful to keep my butt on the rafters? Yes. Yes I would have. In my defense though I could barely SEE the rafters through the decades old blown-in insulation, dirt and squirrel poop that I was working in… Read the rest of the post »

Throwing back to the last piece of my Hollywood bedroom set!

This old beauty is still with us after I came out with this blog post from back in December of 2015. She now stores all of our extra blankets, sheets etc. for the master bedroom. Both this dresser and the other one we still use every day and are a couple of my favorite before and afters. You guys know I am a hardcore wood person. I rarely ever paint anything and am far more likely to strip a piece of furniture and refinish it. But these pieces were not solid wood actually so I took a leap and I still just adore how it turned out! Read the rest of the post »

Choosing a Paint Color – My Choices and why I still Love them

I know everyone says its the, “Easiest thing to change!” and, “You can always paint over it!” Well, just because its easier than tearing down a wall doesn’t mean you want to keep repainting a room over and over again. Ideally you manage to pick the right paint color the first time but choosing a paint color off of a swatch is basically impossible. I never would have chosen our paint colors just from their swatches. Painting a room WELL takes time, generally at least a couple of coats and a lot of taping and prep. Read the rest of the post »

Throwing back to how I Utilized an old Ladder for storage

I used this ladder in my closet for years hanging all of my high heals and scarves and such. It made such a lovely sight and was convenient as well. But everything on it ended up collecting a lot of dust and with my closet makeover it made a lot more sense for me to store them differently. That left the ladder though in limbo. Because of our chimney location in the master bedroom there has always been an awkward space beside Lodi’s closet and it turned out to fit this ladder perfectly! Read the rest of the post »

What we feed our dogs – Homemade Dog Food Recipe

Our homemade dog food recipe all started with Annie of course. My husband’s little lab mix who moved out here even before he did. Annie was utterly thrilled to become a farm dog after serving for years in the city as a service dog. She got her name (little orphan Annie) as she was found on the side of the road at just a few weeks old. She was rescued and then trained by the Wounded Warrior Project as a service dog for Lodi specifically. When she got out here she pretty much just threw herself into retirement with utter abandon lol. But despite my best efforts (Frontline) she also immediately got Lymes disease and broke two teeth on only God knows what. Read the rest of the post »

Stairwell plans: a new outlet, lights and new handrail

With the sheetrock and patches complete in the stairwell I can finally move on to taping, mudding, trim and painting. However summer is also upon us so much of my time will be outside tackling our outdoor projects. Getting this stairwell completed is going to take me some time as I’m, “Working on it a little here and there, mostly on rainy days, for now!” So, in the interim, I thought I’d share my stairwell plans with you guys. Read the rest of the post »

Skid Steer, Moving our little Shed and Some Major Yard Work

The yard work that’s been going on around here is just nuts. We had expected the guys to come tackle our lawn sometime in early to mid June. We got a call on Thursday May 9th that they were coming the following Monday *facepalm* Its not that I’m unhappy to get everything done ASAP its just that we really thought we were going to have some more time to prepare! But we managed to rent a skid steer that weekend and Lodi worked at it with all that he had. Read the rest of the post »

Sheetrocking our Stairwell, calling in some Help

Its hard for me to believe but Grandma’s house has been mine for ten years now – I started the renovation in April of 2014 and moved in in August of 2015. In all that time you guys know I’ve been slowly finishing this place and I’ve amazingly (finally) come down to the last spot. This wall of this stairwell has never been finished since I moved in. I don’t know why they finished the other wall and not this one… One of the hundreds of times I wish I could ask my grandparents a question. Read the rest of the post »

Throwing back to when I refinished my Grandma’s Gorgeous Buffet

With these throw back posts every month I am confronted (every. single. time.) with how I never took enough pictures back then. Its such a shame! I guess my brain just hadn’t fully switched over to digital yet and I was still trying to “save film” every time I took a picture?! Who only takes ONE picture?! I so wish I had more before I started work on this piece because it was quite a bit of work and the result was pretty dramatic. I love those claw feet! SO, I may not have taken enough “before” picture but I at least have some pictures now that do this beautiful piece justice! Read the rest of the post »

Organizing one very ugly corner

Have we all got at least one disorganized spot that drives us nuts? Well, after all this work I’ve been doing in our former workshop I was still left frowning at my special corner of ugly in the closet. It was time for me to figure out a decent way to organize pipe clamps, paint roll extenders (mostly broom handles because they screw right into paint rollers…) pretty much tall round rods of every capacity… there’s even a flag poll in there somewhere and yep that’s a big roll of brown paper. Read the rest of the post »

Throwing back to how I built our Closet Doors!

Our next throwback comes from November of 2015. I was pretty proud of these closet doors when I first built them and they’re still serving us in the house. Its time to replace the fabric though as, after almost ten years, the once “white” curtains have become considerably grimy. I’m still very weird and picky when it comes to closet doors and, though these have worked for us, I’m still constantly wondering if I can’t come up with something better. Read the rest of the post »

Bookshelf build for our new Office space

Building a bookshelf. I wrote a whole post about our furniture choices in here because I wasn’t planning on doing anything else for awhile but, once I got to this point (new light fixture, closet curtains, new sofa etc.) I mentioned to Lodi my future plans for a TV on the wall across from the sofa. I told him I was certainly not buying an unneeded TV for this space now though and Lodi said, “Hon, why don’t you just use Grandma’s TV?” I had completely forgot we already had an extra TV just hanging out in storage. Read the rest of the post »

Curtains – What to do when you HATE closet doors…

Curtains, the painful only option that I’ve found for closet doors. I’ve had a love / hate relationship with closet doors starting all the way back when I was a kid watching my mom having a fight with a set of bifold doors. Over the years I’ve lived with just about every option there is available: Bifolds, sliders, barn doors and hinged. Every one of them has failed me in some way and annoyed me in others. Read the rest of the post »

Throwing back to when I first tackled my Laundry Room

These throwback posts every month are WILD. This comes from back in November of 2015 and I was so proud and so excited for this little makeover of my laundry room. Looking back it really wasn’t much lol but, like with everything around here I’m always just working toward better and never expect perfect. This was certainly better than it WAS but it was a long way (and lots more work) from the lovely room it is now! Read the rest of the post »

Installing a New Light Fixture in our Office

New directional light fixture for the office. A few years back my mom hired me to update her little guest house and it was a big job. It was dated and ROUGH but we both really loved how it turned out in the end. I’m very happy with my choice in Grandma’s house to do mostly recessed lights throughout – I much prefer them to just one big light in the middle of a room. However, I wasn’t able to do that in every room of the house and this room is a good example. Read the rest of the post »

Furniture for our new Office – Bringing in the Old and New

Figuring out the office furniture we want in our new space. With the rug layering / floor situation figured out this room is starting to feel much cozier. It was time to start thinking about what I would be bringing back and, also, what we may have to purchase. Of course the two tables never left that I’ll be using for my desks. (I painted them both out in black Rustoleum last year.) So they are in position where they will remain along with the rugs. Read the rest of the post »

Layering Rugs to Create Interest and Warmth

Overlapping and layering rugs in my new office. Whenever I think of rug layering I think of my Grandma Eleonora (my Dad’s mom) as she took it to a whole new level. I spent hours in her home with her throughout years and years… and never realized it was carpeted. After she passed and the house was cleared out to sell I walked in and was stunned. I even asked if they had put in new carpeting for the sale. No, it was just covered for so many years by so many rugs that it was in practically perfect condition. Read the rest of the post »

Throwing back to when I had to Fix my kitchen countertops

Wow we really have come a long way since this post came out all the way back in November of 2015. Those counter tops I made were never “perfect” by any means BUT they did get the job done for me for many years. It was Lodi who decided I deserved brand new this spring and gifted me some beautiful butcher block for our kitchen! Read the rest of the post »

Patching and Painting the Former Workshop

Patching walls with spray foam and sheetrock mud. With the decision to tear out all the wood “wainscoting” in the workshop I knew the walls were going to be in awful shape. The extra outlets I pulled in here from Lodi’s room (for this space as a workshop) were no longer necessary so I snaked that line back out. Choosing to do that was me also being a little lazy because making them up to code (with the wainscoting now gone) would have been more work then just taking them out and patching the sheetrock. Read the rest of the post »

Workshop Tear Down – Ready for a Change!

A total tear down in the workshop… So at this point I feel like we need to take a little step back to appreciate the amount of work yours truly did that yours truly just destroyed lol. At one point this room really worked for me and I was really happy with it. I put a ton of work into lining the walls with barn wood, making shelves and even more hours of work painting out all the wood, trim and ceilings in black paint. I’m not going back on that black… I still like the color scheme fortunately because it would take ALOT to cover it up. Read the rest of the post »

An old cabinet gets new life as an entertainment center!

Oh now this is a fun throwback! I had darned near forgot about this cabinet I painted years ago! I posted this back in November of 2015 and it served my mom as an entertainment center for years. It has just awesome storage and its not too stupid big or heavy that it can’t be used just about everywhere. It is no longer her entertainment center but it traveled with Mom all the way to her new house and is now her entry storage table! Read the rest of the post »

Workshop Closet Revamp with some new Tool Hangers

Tool hangers in our workshop closet… In my last post I think I got you guys up to date on the situation of my workshop (or I bored you to death) either way a lot of the workshop moved out to the garage finally giving this room some space. I covered the move out in my last post but I didn’t cover how I dealt with everything we still wanted to keep. My goal was an empty room so I had to figure something out! Read the rest of the post »

Workshop Move Out to the Garage – So much more space!

How many times can I work on this poor room!? When we took the barn down this summer one of the things that helped me cope with the loss was the idea that we would be replacing it with something better. Something I have always dreamed about and wanted: A REAL WORKSHOP… Not just trying to make it work in a bedroom in our house anymore lol. At the same time I had managed to squeeze myself an office into said workshop / bedroom and frankly, I really haven’t been happy with it. Besides that I also wasn’t building anything or working on anything as I had no place to do so. Read the rest of the post »

Throwing back to when I Refinished my Grandparents’ Washstand

Aw this lovely little washstand I remember from my Grandparents’ entryway for literally my entire life. I painted it out with our two dressers for the bedroom to act as my bedside table way back but ended up changing the entire bedroom around several times since then. It worked fine as an end table but it was a bit big and I managed to find matching bedside tables since then that I even added power strips and USB plugins to for our master. I had no idea this little stand would actually end up working perfectly for me in my closet and now I use ever day! Read the rest of the post »

Installing Upper Cabinets with new hardware in our Garage

There is one sure way to install upper cabinets that not only makes it a breeze but even makes it a doable one person job. I finished getting these cabinets (and the work bench) painted out a bit ago and was super excited to get them off the floor of our garage. It was mid October at this point and Lodi and I were more than ready to park our cars in the garage again to not have to defrost them every morning. (The literal reason we have a garage lol.) We were quite glad it hadn’t snowed yet as that isn’t exactly unheard of for a northern Minnesota October… Read the rest of the post »

Spray painting our Bench and Cabinets the Wrong Way

Spray painting out our garage bench and cabinets the way you’re NOT supposed to do it. Ok well I guess painting is painting and a wrong or right way just depends on what kind of results you’re looking for. But there is definitely a BETTER way when it comes to cabinets that guarantees the best possible result. I did not do that here lol but I still think they turned out great so it’ll just be our little secret that I didn’t do it the “right” way. Read the rest of the post »

Installing our new Garage Lumber Storage

A decidedly easy DIY because we decided to purchase lumber storage racks instead of building them. You guys know I always fight with myself between building something and buying. The kicker for me was price ($100 for two sets of two racks – see them here on Amazon) and space savings. If I had built this it would have had floor to rafter support posts as I’m just real nervous about “hanging” this kind of weight in lumber off of the wall. These are made of steel and, with their reviews, I am about 98% confidant I won’t be coming out here one morning to find all of our lumber on top of my car… Read the rest of the post »

Throwing back to when I went Hollywood Glam on some Dressers

This dresser (and its matching companion) are my two favorites of the pieces I’ve inherited over the years. This dresser is totally lovely but the way it looks is not actually why I like it so much. I love it because its LIGHT. Its not solid wood which means that from a purely usability aspect the drawers work perfectly and that I cannot say is true for our other HEAVY, old, solid wood pieces. I also didn’t feel at all bad for painting it out because it isn’t solid wood and I just love this piece in black! (See it here in our updated master too!) Read the rest of the post »

Building a Home from Scratch – Start to Finish

As some of you know my mom started building a home last year and now just moved in! I am so excited for her and I’m also thrilled to have been a part of the design process. Designing homes, literally just for the fun of it (I know I’m a bit of a dork) has been a hobby of mine for the last twenty or so years. But when we started work on the design and site plan drawings of Mom’s house, seeing it go from my architectural program to actual reality, was beyond my expectations. After designing so many homes to actually be able to WALK through one of them. OMG!? Read the rest of the post »

Plans starting with taking out the Garage Bar

Taking out our garage bar. I think a lot of people struggle figuring out how to store lumber properly and still accessibly. Lodi built a quick solution in our garage addition a year or so ago and yeah it works great as long as we never want to access any of it. In fact Lodi has a real Tetris talent for storing stuff in the least amount of space possible. In this case though we need a different solution if I’m ever going to build anything again. Read the rest of the post »

Throwing back to when I Refinished Cabinets for my Kitchen

Moving on in our Throwback series from October 2015! I always loved these cabinets in my Grandparents’ entryway so you guys know immediately that I had to save them. Unfortunately the only thing I could salvage off of the top cabinet was the doors as the cabinet itself had been built in place. The lower cabinet though was a stand alone piece and I’ve always wondered where it came from! Read the rest of the post »

Sink Protector to Save our Dishes

I ran into an image of a kitchen sink with a sink protector in the bottom of it years ago and had a light bulb moment. I had no idea it was a thing! Their main purpose is to the protect the bottom of sinks (notably stainless steel sinks) from scratches etc. But, in our case, we have a sink protector in ours to protect our dishes. Our antique cast enamel sink is HARD. Like, beyond concrete, kind of HARD. I can’t tell you how many times its happened over the years that I would go to set a glass in it, accidentally drop it a couple of inches and BOOM, it would literally explode. Read the rest of the post »

Our Upcycle of Grandma’s Shepherds hook Carousel

This upcycle started back when I first moved in to Grandma’s house. This shepherds hook carousel resided over by the barn for about as long as I can remember. My Grandma hung tin cans from the hooks and grew flowers in them. For years it just sat there kind of sad with its little empty, rusting, tin cups. It was always on my list to do something with it. First I moved it into the front yard but really needed it to be taller. At three feet it was nice and easy to add anything to its hangers but a pain in the butt to mow under so I improvised at the time and used what I had which was some extra conduit from a different project. Read the rest of the post »

Steel Walled Garden Update – A Sweet Upcycle

Steel Walled Garden Update – A sweet surprise from Lodi. I’m really proud of our L shaped garden that wraps around the North and West sides of our home beside our front step. Unfortunately it is slowly rotting away and collapsing. I’ve transplanted many of my Grandma’s perennials here and been so thrilled that they’ve been doing well. Case and point: the stunning tiger lilies and her hydrangea bush. The lilies of the valley have finally filled the North side of the bed and my adorable little Virginia blue bell just gets bigger every year and I would be pretty damned devastated if I lost any of them. Read the rest of the post »

Throwing back to when I Built my own Rolling Pantry

Man this throwback every month has sure been giving me some strange and cool memories. This one came out back in October of 2015 and I just remembered when I was in the middle of building it my dad stopped by for a visit and was just staring for a minute at all the power tools, wood, saw dust and me in the middle of the kitchen. He was like, “What are doing?” LOL “Oh just your daughter building a rolling pantry, making a total mess!” He helped me finish it and get it all stood up and rolled into place. Read the rest of the post »

Fighting my Frugal side with Small Joys and Replacements

As most of you guys know I’m a pretty hard core penny pincher and frugal chicka. I can’t help it… I just hate waste. I come from a long line of women on BOTH sides of my family who would live with something working horribly forever… as long as it was still technically working. I’m not quite that bad. For example, the faucet we have in our master bathroom works great but it also splashes the heck out of the wall. After seven years I was ok with finally replacing it even though, technically, it worked fine. Sometimes even if something works AWESOME, it doesn’t work great for us and that’s where I really have to fight my frugal side. Read the rest of the post »

Throwing back to how I Built all of my Kitchen Cabinets

This was one of the biggest “I don’t have any idea what I’m doing” moments I had during the renovation. A kitchen cabinet is really just a box with doors on it… right?…. right? Well I set out to build our kitchen one cabinet (and 2×4) at a time and I am still pretty happy with how it turned out to this day. Wish I had a LOT more pictures of myself during the process but back in 2015 I had a crappy cell phone and a rather nice camera that I also didn’t want anywhere near construction work… So I will always lament how many more pictures I always wish I had taken! See the kitchen today by going here. Read the rest of the post »

New Faucet Install in our Master Bathroom

New Faucet Install in our Master Bathroom. I’ve got a whole post coming out in awhile devoted to me having to fight my frugal self. This is a perfect example of just how long I will put up with something as long as it “technically” works. Our master bathroom faucet was pretty and I liked it… However, it splashed the heck out of the wall behind it. I tried different little filters etc. and nothing helped. I have no doubt the fact that we have a vessel sink also contributed to this situation… Its been seven years lol. Read the rest of the post »

Throwing back to how I gave an old Cabinet a little Face Lift

I just can’t get over how amazing it is for me revisiting these old posts. I guess this blog really is a diary of sorts but I totally forgot how long I lived with a REALLY crappy laundry room lol. It had no storage and it was just plain UGLY. Even after this “update” it went through many over hauls and took me a lot of time and work to get it into something that actually worked for us. It all started with this cabinet that my Grandparents’ made and, of course, its still there and going strong. Read the rest of the post »

Throwing back to how I built our kitchen sink base!

Our throw back post this month came out all the way back in October, 2015! A lot has changed in my life since then, to say the least lol. I updated this post back in 2018 when I was still a single gal and had just finished giving our kitchen a giant makeover. Since then you guys know Lodi has joined me and we got married in June of 2022. But even with all that living and all those changes this kitchen sink base is still going strong I still love that old sink! Read the rest of the post »

Little stained table gets a makeover for our Workshop Office

You guys may not recognize this little stained table even though it was in our entryway for years because I had it covered up. Unfortunately the coverings didn’t entirely protect it from the fact that it was my “plant stand” and inevitably it did end up water stained. When I did the big tackle of moving my office out of the entryway I also redesigned our entire entryway and this little table had to move out too. Read the rest of the post »

Throwing back to How I Killed myself Refinishing an old Dresser

Continuing on our throwback series this post about this dresser first came out all the way back in September of 2015. This was one of the first pieces of furniture I ever refinished so I learned a lot here at the expensive of myself lol. Instead of stripping I decided to just sand the whole thing down and stubbornly stuck with that silly plan. It took me a LONG time and A LOT of sand paper but, eventually, I did get down to the wood grain. I chose a black stain and new silver knobs and I really still love how it turned out. We still use it every day in our entryway! Read the rest of the post »

Container Gardening and New Garden Building Plans

My first time container gardening! With our plans now to do something about the barn my gardening plans also had to change. Our vegetable garden is all of ten feet from the front of the barn so the likely hood of it coming out of this unscathed are very low and trying to protect it would just be inconvenient and silly. But this actually works for us as I had planned to tear out the garden and rebuild it at some point anyway. Well, no time like the present to tear it out I guess! Read the rest of the post »

Eye-Caring Lamp and other new additions to our Workshop Office

A couple of fun purchases for my “new” office including an eye-caring lamp. So, I’m a reader (I use a kindle), a pc gamer, an editor, a print layout designer, a graphic designer, an IT specialist at my day job, a blogger and a website designer. So, as you might imagine, I spend the majority of my life in front of one screen or another. Its pretty much all of the time if you include watching TV or even just browsing the internet on my phone. I WORRY ABOUT MY EYES! Read the rest of the post »

Throwing back to the first time I ever Reupholstered Anything

Moving on with our throwback posts this one published back in September of 2015 and was my first time reupholstering anything. Its funny looking back I didn’t remember how much I hated the fabric on this rocking chair after I got it done. I totally love it now! What I do remember though was what a long-fought job this was to get the old fabric off and finally refinish the whole chair. It was pretty icky actually. This little rocker is still with us up in our master bedroom closet where I use it every day! Read the rest of the post »

Workshop Office Tables Makeover

Over 20 years ago my mom gave me the coolest Xmas present ever: Two office tables and two filing cabinets – officially giving me my very own L-shaped office space to go opposite her desks in our home office. Back then I was an avid PC gamer, writing my first novel and learning website design code. Honestly nothing really feels like settling in to “home” for me like sitting down at my desktop. My office was just always my safe place, a real extension of me and who I am. Read the rest of the post »

New Butcher Block Counter tops!

So back over the last few months Lodi mentioned that he wanted to get us new butcherblock counter tops for in the kitchen. I believe my response was, “Why? What counter tops?” See I’ve been living with the old counters for so long I had literally become just blind to how terrible they are… Kind of like living with a bad knee LOL you just live with it! The counter tops were totally replaceable though so I don’t know why I put them out of my head so completely. Read the rest of the post »

Workshop Office Shelves – some much needed storage

Workshop Office Shelves. Normally I would build something like this from scratch but with the current cost of building materials (and that its cold outside) I went looking on Amazon for a deal instead. (Here’s the link to the shelf I purchased – At only $100 and literally only four minutes to assemble it was absolutely worth not building from scratch IMO.) I’m currently in the middle of integrating my office into my workshop and so far I’m very pleased! The space isn’t pretty yet but it is so much more functional as an office than the tiny little desk I was using in our entryway. Read the rest of the post »

Throwing back to how I Built a Butcher block top for my Island

Moving on to the fourth post ever at Grandma’s house DIY from back in September of 2015. How I built the butcher block for my radio stand kitchen island. I was pretty excited to tackle this project actually. I was fortunate to have all the lovely oak I needed and I really felt like I had a good plan. My red kitchen island needed a top and butcher block was absolutely the only thing I wanted. It turned out to be VERY doable and a fun project. I was really proud with how it turned out! Read the rest of the post »

Throwing back to how I Transformed a Radio Stand into my Kitchen Island

Continuing on in our throwback series to our third post from September of 2015. This red kitchen island that I built out of my great grandpa’s radio stand will probably always be one of the most popular posts here on Grandma’s house DIY. I just loved how it turned out! It was my favorite place to perch every morning before work and every night when I came home for many years. Initially it was a little too tall so I fixed that, then the top needed some adjusting, so I fixed that too. The most recent addition was a lace doily to replace the old fabric and I think it turned out so pretty. Read the rest of the post »

Throwing back to how I Built my Mom a tall Garden Planter

A few years back I built my mom a a tall planter to make gardening easier for her. She did use it for veggies for a couple of years but she ended up filling it every year with what she really wanted instead: FLOWERS! This was one of my first stand alone wood working projects I ever built and I’m really proud that its still holding up eight years later. This throwback series has been a trip and we’re only on the second post. When this post came out in August of 2015 I had just moved into Grandma’s house! Read the rest of the post »

Throwing back to how I laid down and Finished my own Wood Floors

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 the rest of the post »

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 the rest of the post »

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 the rest of the post »

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 the rest of the post »

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 the rest of the post »

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 the rest of the post »

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 the rest of the post »

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 the rest of the post »

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 the rest of the post »

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 the rest of the post »

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 the rest of the post »

Motion Sensor Solar Lights – Tackling our Fall Project List

We haven’t had the best track record when it comes to motion sensor solar lights. Lodi purchased a large $40 light right when he moved in and he put it down in our horse barn. It was nice because the actual solar panel was separate so we could put the panel on the roof and the light inside as far as the fifteen foot cord would reach. It seemed perfect but the sensor almost NEVER worked. We would test it – it would work. Next day, when we wanted it to work, it didn’t work lol. It was SO annoying. Read the rest of the post »

Deck End Tables Upgrade because we have Chipmunks…

Back in 2017 I tackled building a whole bunch of furniture for our deck including three deck end tables with a built in cooler in the center of each of them. It was such a fun and cool idea! I ended up using the “coolers” as planters over the years and loved planting annual flowers and herbs ever since… Or at least I TRIED to keep lovely blooming flowers and herbs in these planters every year… the end result however was just me being totally annoyed to the point of my deciding to just GIVE UP! Read the rest of the post »

Wedding Keepsake Bin – Storing Memories Safely Long Term

Creating a wedding keepsake bin. Over the past several months you guys know I’ve been working on purging our entire home and just nearly completed the task. One gift I gave myself (which I absolutely love) is the right for me to keep some things that have no use in my life whatsoever. Because keeping something just because we love it is absolutely a legitimate reason as long as we have the storage space! Which, Lodi and I finally really do now that we got our long term storage closet on our second floor cleared out. Read the rest of the post »

Antique Insulators Upcycle into a Table Centerpiece

These old insulators are pretty cool honestly so I don’t blame my grandparents one bit for keeping them years ago. I found them in a big box out in the barn when I took over the farm here back in 2015. All in there were at least 30 of them – some clear and some blue glass. Initially I did look into their worth and I could sell them for maybe $10 a piece. (More rare types of insulators go for thousands!) At that price though it felt like more bother trying to sell them than they were worth and, besides, I didn’t want to sell them! Read the rest of the post »

Tree Cutting – The loss of one of our great grandfather Oaks

Tree cutting, finally biting the bullet and getting a “real” chain saw. One of the things I’ve always loved about this home and property are all the ancient trees we have. Being Minnesota the majority of our trees are pines but right beside our deck were three oaks that had to have been upwards of 150 years old. Thinking about how they were here even before the house was built just amazes me. Those trees saw all of our wars and hard times throughout this country and stood watch over this home since it was first built in 1905. Unfortunately though a major storm took one of them out this spring. Read the rest of the post »

Storage Organization – long overdue cleaning out in our attic space

Doing some major storage organization and a big clean out. I know a lot of people would be thrilled to have extra storage space in any capacity. Fortunately for us we’ve got plenty! But I do find that the more storage space we have the more things we store and the less things we purge and deal with like we actually SHOULD… I am convinced that the more space humans have the more crap they immediately start acquiring to fill said space… Read the rest of the post »

Table Centerpieces doubling as Wedding Favor Gift Baskets

Table Centerpieces that doubled as DIY gift baskets / wedding favors. Many of you know that Lodi and I got married on June 11th. It was an outdoor wedding with kind of a casual theme and only about 20 of us on a beautiful paddle boat. It was just wonderful and I’m so glad we chose to have a small wedding and then a big shindig later in the year for the reception. It took so much stress off and really let us focus on each other, the whole day and spending time with the people we love the most. For the ceremony we wanted to dress up the tables on the boat and racked our brains for months looking for ideas. Read the rest of the post »

Bathroom Shelf, New Corbels and Decor!

The bathroom shelf above our tub was one of those projects that I just immediately loved and wondered why the heck I hadn’t put a shelf there sooner. However, something has ALWAYS bugged me about it. So, when I planned to tackle this space and the adjoining closet I knew it would be the right opportunity to fix it. I took the shelf down first to repaint the rooms and then got to work. Read the rest of the post »

Sleeping Aids – How to actually Sleep Well in the SAME Room Together

Sleeping aids. Lodi and I are not exactly polar opposites when it comes to our needs in our sleep environments but we’re pretty darned close! I am a light and very cranky sleeper (DO NOT WAKE ME UP) though I wake up at the littlest of noises etc. Lodi on the other hand could sleep through a bomb going off. We both have night terrors and nightmares. Me for my entire life… Lodi after returning from his last tour in Iraq. Its not that I’m not a morning person I’m just not a “waking up” person. It takes me a solid hour in the morning with coffee before my brain is capable of any kind of actual functioning. And then there’s Lodi who, as far as I can tell, is functioning at practically 100% the minute he wakes. Read the rest of the post »

Book Shelf in the Master Bedroom above the Headboard

We’ve been working on our master bedroom for weeks now and finally have wound down to what might have been the one project I was looking forward to the most. A book shelf above our headboard! Long before the rest of my ideas for this space came together I was hoping to add a shelf here all the way back in 2019. But, like with everything, other projects needed to come first.

Read the rest of the post »

Outdoor builds – Revisiting our most popular and personal favorites

I think its a common theme for any DIYer with absolutely no experience to run into projects that just turn out SO much better than we expected. That’s been true of me a few times here at Grandma’s house. I generally go into things I’ve never done before on a wing and a prayer just hoping they turn out all right. Outdoor builds for us have been one of my most surprising with how well some of them turned out and many, even years later, we’re still using and appreciating all summer long! Read the rest of the post »

Tufted Headboard DIY – Build it Yourself using Peg Board

How to build a custom tufted headboard! I’ve had lots of questions over the years about how I built the tufted headboard in our master bedroom. Unfortunately I built it years before I even had the blog so I had no pictures of the process. Its really lasted a long time considering its not only white but has been through two moves with me and spent over a year in storage. Its well past its prime though and no amount of scrubbing is going to get it back to what it once was. Not to mention it has several tears from the moves and getting beat up in storage. Read the rest of the post »

Creating a Charging Station – Adding Power Strips to End Tables

Charging Station End Tables. If there was ever a project I became totally obsessed with it was the little sofa table charging station I built for our living room years ago. A couple of hours of easy work, a USB/outlet port and BOOM we suddenly had the most used piece of furniture in our whole house. I added another charging station to our Guest Bedroom desk and then it dawned on me, why the heck wasn’t I doing this everywhere I could? I immediately thought of the ugly mess of cords I have under my end table in the master bedroom… Read the rest of the post »

New Window Treatments and Design in the Master Bedroom

New window treatments up here in the master bedroom! As most of you know I’ve been excitedly hacking away at our second floor for awhile now. It all started with a game plan that had us first painting out the whole room and then adding a door for the first time too. The door gave me a great place to hang our floor length mirror giving us even more floor space. So far, all of the changes have really brightened this whole room up and though I did love our old flower boxes in the windows it was time for new window treatments and a design change. Read the rest of the post »

Closet and Bathroom Repainting, finishing out our Master Suite

I AM SO SICK OF PAINTING. I started repainting this entire house back in 2018 and I almost can’t believe it but THIS IS IT! The last space is the closet and bathroom repainting on our second floor. One LAST job. After nearly five years there isn’t just a light at the end of the tunnel anymore. Seriously, I might not want to paint another wall again in my life, but I’m going to thoroughly enjoy this. Read the rest of the post »

Silicone Pot lids- Tips for Purging and Organizing Kitchen Cabinets

Silicone pot lids because they take up almost no space. You all may have noticed I’ve been on a bit of a war path lately when it comes to purging crap we don’t need / use. It started in our workshop and has moved right on to the entire second floor master suite. In the meantime I’ve been getting more and more annoyed with the two lower cabinets in our kitchen. We only have two (though they are HUGE) one is to the left of the stove and the other is right across from it. Read the rest of the post »

Light Fixture Installation – New for the Master Bedroom

Choosing a New Light Fixture for the Master Bedroom was pretty fun for me. Frankly the old one was absolutely beautiful but I’m really moving away from such “fancy” feelings up here and wanting something more farmhouse casual and even a little boho. This space was just not feeling like us at all and I was simply just SICK of the old light fixture. So, with us moving into redesigning our entire second floor master suite the very first thing I did before painting was taking out the old one. It headed to our local thrift store and I headed to Amazon to find something new! Read the rest of the post »

Spring Cleaning – Purging, Organizing, Keeping and LETTING GO

Spring cleaning here at Grandma’s house always comes with purging for us. Unfortunately I find that purging oftentimes conflicts with us living the most frugal and green lives that we can. How can I justify letting go of something that’s perfectly good and replacing it with new? The answer, of course, is balance. Yes, we should be allowed new things and I think for each one of us the amount of time we “use” the old before we feel good about replacing it with new is probably different. Read the rest of the post »

Adding a Second Closet Rod and Hacks for Purging Clothes!

Adding a second closet rod can literally double the hanging capacity in just about any normal closet space. Ever since Lodi moved in I’ve been meaning to lower the rod in his master closet and hang another one above it. Unfortunately, because of the slanted ceilings we have in the master, we won’t get double the extra space but it will still help out considerably! Lodi has been hanging a lot of his clothes down in the guest bedroom closet for lack of room up here. Read the rest of the post »

Workshop Light Fixture Upcycle – Better Light in our Workshop Closet

Since I completed the workshop reorganization and closet tackle it immediately became apparent that I needed a MUCH better workshop light in there. From previous photos I’ve shared it doesn’t look near as bad as it actually is because I had the overhead light in the room on as well. But, because the little wall light is overhead in the closet, right above the door opening, the minute you lean into the closet your shadow casts over everything. What we needed was a workshop light in here that armed out away from the wall and centered on the new workbench. My brain immediately lit on a very old yard light that’s been stubbornly hanging off the side of the barn for decades. Read the rest of the post »

Bedroom Door Makeover and Hanging a Mirror in the Master

Hanging a bedroom door on our master and attaching a mirror. Well, its finally happened guys, for the first time EVER our master bedroom is getting a door! To be fair our bedroom is at the top of an L shaped, enclosed, staircase so its very private. Regardless though, not having a door, has made me really uncomfortable whenever we’ve had company – which I think is pretty fair lol. This was one of the many very old doors here that I either pulled out of the house during the renovation or found in an out building. The crystal knob on this one pegged it immediately as the door absolutely meant for the master. Read the rest of the post »

Workshop Shelves – Finishing up the Closet Reorganization

Workshop shelves and finishing up the reorganization and purge of our workshop. One thing I learned (that I should have known and yet it surprised me) during the purge was that my bin system actually hadn’t been very efficient. Half of the bins were over half empty so they were taking up a ton of room considering what they were storing. During the purge I had already emptied three of them and knew I would be emptying at least one more once I got to my shelves. That’s almost half of the bins! Not to mention the previous shelves were also taking up WAY more space than they were worth. Read the rest of the post »

Painting The Master Bedroom and Chimney

Painting the master bedroom and the chimney too. (See the whole bedroom design plan here) I am so excited to finally tackle our second floor! First thing is first though (before I can do any kind of fun projects or décor or design up here) I’ve got to repaint. And, because I’ve already got the paint out, I’m also going to go ahead and paint out that stone on the chimney too just like I did down in the living room. Its not my favorite for many reasons… the stone is not real, it wasn’t my idea and, at least to me, it doesn’t belong in a 100 year old farmhouse. Painting it out in the living room made me hate it a lot less so I’ll be doing that up here too. Read the rest of the post »

Closet Shelves – Custom in our Basement!

Building custom closet shelves in the basement to accommodate our storage requirements and a new chest freezer! Way, way, WAY back when I first designed this basement on the idea of renting it out I built this closet to accommodate a washer and drier and then planned on putting rods above them for hanging clothes. Fast forward many years later this empty closet was in desperate need of some order and custom shelves besides. We recently purchased a little chest freezer (yay for Menards rebates – our garage addition literally paid for it) and it just made all of the sense for it to go in our basement closet. Read the rest of the post »

Master Closet & Bathroom Design – Making a Plan of Attack!

Moving on to the plan of the other side of our second story master and the closet and bathroom design! As I mentioned in my plan of attack with the bedroom I’ve been just DYING to tackle our second floor for years now. There were a couple of certainties in my head when I knew this home would be mine back in 2013. One of them was that this entire 500 square foot floor would make a wonderful master suite. The space is divided in half by the stairwell that comes up the center of the home. Read the rest of the post »

Work Bench and Painting out the Closet in the Workshop

Making a work bench out of an old barn door. Aw is there anything more adult than finding true joy in the sight of a big empty closet? I think not! I got to this point by the end of one long Saturday that I called “The Purge” when our workshop finally drove me to madness because of how disorganized it had become. Most of the problem was that a lot of things just needed to be put away but I took it much farther than that. The fact is when a room gets to that point its a sign it isn’t working and I knew it would go back to disarray eventually if I didn’t do something about it… so, I tackled it. Read the rest of the post »

LED Light Bulbs for our garage that I am Infatuated with!

LED Light bulbs for our garage that I am infatuated with! Honestly I never thought I would feel justified in devoting an entire blog post to LED light bulbs but times apparently change. This is almost one of those “you know you’re an adult when…” moments but, NO, these are actually so cool I think I would have thought they were awesome even when I was a kid and suddenly had these spider things on my ceiling providing me with incredible light to build Legos with. I’m not kidding. These lights are life changing and they install just by screwing them in like any “normal” light bulb. Read the rest of the post »

Garage door Installation, Electrical and Siding the Front Wall

Garage door installation and lights for our new addition! The final stage of our garage is here! OMG this one just felt like the endless project. First we poured the slab and then we poured the apron. Then we framed in the building. Then Lodi finished the roof. Then we did the side and back wall with plywood and steel siding. And now, finally, we framed in the front of the garage and ran electrical and then finished it with trim and vinyl siding. I’m embarrassed to admit that this project kicked our butts so hard it ran us from June to November! Read the rest of the post »

The Purge – Workshop Reorganization is in Order!

Telling a frugal gal like me to purge something will absolutely not work until it finally drives me crazy. There’s simply a limit to how many times I can move something, without using it, without it also paying rent, until I will finally give it away or throw away a perfectly-good-whatever-it-is. I finally got there with my workshop this fall and I was ruthless in my purge. It has a lot to do with the fact that we did so much this summer it didn’t always get “put away” like it was supposed to. And it also has to do with Lodi and I combining households. Read the rest of the post »

Plywood, Walls and Siding our Garage Addition

Adding plywood and siding to the side wall and back of our garage addition. In the last post about our garage addition I recapped Lodi’s amazing job getting the roof completed by himself one weekend. We had help coming to finally get this dang building buttoned up before winter and his thinking was totally fair – the more we could have done before help arrived the farther help could get us along. With the insane cost of building materials this year Lodi and I got desperately creative in every way we possibly could on this building. Read the rest of the post »

Master Bedroom Design – Making a Plan of Attack!

Planning a new bedroom design for our entire second floor master suite. I made two mistakes when I renovated this home and then moved in back in 2015. The first was I chose satin for all of my paints throughout the house and the second was I agreed to my ex putting a giant wood stove in the middle of the kitchen – selling the cute little one I had previously purchased and installed. The combination of a poorly vented stove and satin paint meant that every single surface in my home (especially the main floor) ended up covered and stained with soot. Read the rest of the post »

The Roof, Plywood and Steel, Buttoning up our Garage Addition

Covering the roof with plywood and steel. Stage three of our garage addition is entirely brought to you by Lodi who tackled the roof one afternoon without me. He’s a beast and I’m very proud to say that he’s my beast! After getting the framing done our stick building hung out waiting for us for a couple of months over this summer. You guys who have been following along know that the drought and shocking heat really kicked our butts and literally slowed us to a crawl. We did a favor for my brother and his family so we negotiated a trade that he would pop over with his oldest boys one weekend and help us finally get this building buttoned up. Read the rest of the post »

Hanging K Cup Storage – Simple DIY Eliminating Countertop Clutter

Hidden K Cup Storage in a Hanging Basket. Most of you guys know that I am really into non cluttered spaces. I’ve joked before that one day I’ll be sitting on the floor of my empty living room with nothing left but only what is hanging on the walls. I am similarly horrified by literally anything that sits on our countertops. Initially, for our K cup storage, I fought like heck to keep them stored up in the cupboard but it just was not going to happen. It was too inconvenient for two people who drink coffee every day. Read the rest of the post »

New Swivel Grill for our Lower Deck Fire Pit!

New Swivel Grill for our stone fire pit! When I came home for good MANY years ago one thing I did just for newly single me was buy some camping gear. I’ve always LOVED camping and when I was going back and forth working and living in two different states I just never got the chance. So, home for good, I spent a little bit of money on myself and it was SO MUCH FUN. I bought a tent, a blow up mattress, a camping chair, a cast iron pan, a coffee pot and a few other essentials and I totally took myself camping. It was a tradition of mine for many years to go out alone and I’ll never forget how fun and liberating that was for twenty-something me. Read the rest of the post »

Adding String Lights to our New Lower Deck

Adding String Lights to our new pea gravel deck and fire pit. Wow did this break my brain… Here was our situation: The tall posts on the upper deck are not evenly spaced for two reasons. One, because of the staircase / gate and Two, because instead of cutting them evenly when I built it I started at the side of the gate and worked my way down the deck with as many full size boards as possible. It makes sense: Less cuts – Less waste. However, now with the lower deck and evenly spaced posts adding string lights connecting them all meant nothing would be even… Read the rest of the post »

Framing our Garage, Stage Two of Adding Another Stall

Framing out our new garage stall. In my last post about our new garage addition Lodi prepped with a skid steer and then levelled it, framed it out, set the rebar and got the slab poured. With our slab set we are moving on to the first step of framing out the new stall! Being a little army of one for so long I always plan things in stages and, fortunately, Lodi is on board with me. It sure does help us out mentally and physically than putting pressure on us to do GIANT projects in only one weekend. Read the rest of the post »

Deck Staircase Makeover, covering up some ugly with lattice!

Our deck staircase was NOT the prettiest thing ever. To be fair to myself though its not like I had built very many steps or staircases in my life when I put these in so they might look a little rough but they’re very sturdy! I had already flipped the step boards over, cleaned them thoroughly and put in new outdoor screws when I took the before pics. That helped a lot but I really needed to come up with a riser solution to cover up the ugly under the deck staircase. Read the rest of the post »

Apron Prep and Pour – Adding a larger Apron to the front of our Garage

We ended up doing our concrete in three separate pours in three back to back Saturdays this spring. We started by pouring the slab for our additional garage stall. And then we decided to do our apron in two separate pours to just make it easier for us. Three pours came with the added benefit of “extra” concrete needing a home at the end of each pour. So, that gave us a nice platform in the front of the barn, an additional larger lower step at our front door and a nice big step off of our deck over in our new lower pea gravel deck for us. Just like with the slab Lodi got to work with a hammer drill and A LOT of rebar. Read the rest of the post »

Stone Fire Pit, How to Inexpensively Build a Safe and Cozy Fire Ring

An inexpensive stone fire pit set in our new pea gravel lower deck. Our previous fire pit was totally surrounded by sand so it gave us a lot of piece of mind, HOWEVER, it was sunk entirely into the ground so it wasn’t exactly safe to dance around! One wrong step and BOOM you were literally in it! That, obviously, always bothered me so I’ve been working on a plan in my head for awhile now for a much safer stone pit that wasn’t quite so easy to fall into. In fact, I decided to take it a bit further and designed the top of it to make a nice spot for a foot rest or even to sit on. Read the rest of the post »

Lower Deck, Prepping, Posts, Frames and Pea Gravel

Cutting out the Sod, Framing and Pea Gravel. Honestly, we were going to put off this project for next year but when you have a bob cat rented for two days you might as well utilize it! I’ve had my heart set on this lower deck for a couple of years now. First I thought I could make it out of wood but with my wanting to build a stone fire pit in the middle of it that was a no-go for me. The wonderful thing about our old sand fire pit was that we could practically light it and forget about it and I didn’t want to lose that peace of mind. Read the rest of the post »

Concrete Forms and Rebar – Our Garage Addition, Slab & Pour

Concrete Forms and Rebar – Prepping for our Garage Slab and Pour. If you haven’t read my post about the absolute hellishly first weekend in June when we prepped for this (and several other projects) it was a truly horrible weekend for yard work. It hadn’t rained in weeks, we hit heat records, our deck thermometer (in the sun) hit over 110 degrees… It was just terrible. The next weekend, fortunately, wasn’t quite so terrible as that was when we scheduled the concrete pour for our slab on Saturday morning! Read the rest of the post »

Quick Plastic Canister Update!

Quick plastic canister update! I think just about everyone has some of these clear plastic cannisters lying around. When Lodi moved in and we combined households we ended up with nearly a dozen all together! We use them in all of the usual ways: flour, sugar, rice, etc. But we also use them for Annie’s dog treats. Unfortunately dog treats aren’t exactly that pretty so I’ve been trying to figure out something quick, cheap and easy that would look nice but keep her dog treats out and within easy reach. Read the rest of the post »

Privacy Fence – Expanding the Dog Kennel

Privacy Fence – Expanding the Dog Kennel. When it came to why I didn’t do this years ago it simply came down to cost. As far as fences go privacy fence panels are not terribly expensive but when it came to the distance I wanted to go it added up fast! So, because it wasn’t NECESSARY, it got sent to my back burner for more important projects to spend my money on. Read the rest of the post »

Painting Bathroom Cabinets and New Hardware for a Major Facelift!

My Grandpa built these bathroom cabinets for their main floor bathroom back in the 1950s when they first got REAL indoor plumbing. (Yes I even have a picture of their old bathroom!) He really built furniture to last! I was only able to save about half of the kitchen he and my Grandma built and cussed the entire time… Those kitchen cabinets would have HELD this house up during a tornado lol. Lucky for me though I was able to save some of them for the kitchen down here and these bathroom cabinets too. I installed them a few years back and built an oak countertop too. Read the rest of the post »

Rocking Chairs – My two favorites and how I updated them!

Many years back one of my very first blog posts I ever wrote I called “a story of two rocking chairs” – it was all about a big oak rocker and a little cedar rocker I found here on the farm. I immediately thought of them as the farmer and his little wife. That blog post is long gone but I do still have the picture of it! They were one of the very first pieces of furniture I ever refinished and they’re still with us but have been retired to deck duty holding flower pots. Besides those two my absolute favorite rockers have to be my first ever upholstery project and a large rocker that became absolutely stunning with just a coat of black paint! Read the rest of the post »

Upgrading the Basement Bathroom Lighting – a Black Pendant

Continuing with our basement by upgrading the bathroom lighting! We’re getting pretty close to finishing up this room with the lighting now upgraded and only the cabinets left to paint. Its not exactly a large space so there was only SO much I could do in here with the lighting. The recessed can light above the shower was staying so I simply purchased the water proof can light cover for it. But the bare bulb above the sink was a great place for a major upgrade! Read the rest of the post »

Can rack dispensers, freezer baskets and organizers that changed my life!

Can rack dispensers, refrigerator and cabinet organizers and wire baskets for our freezer! You know you’re an adult when organizing makes your whole year better… It turns out Lodi and I drink a lot of liquids in our household – he jokes that when he first met me all I had in my refrigerator was pickles, condiments and beer and, honestly, that’s not that far from the truth! To be fair though, when I was single, there was just no reason to keep perishable food around. I don’t eat a lot and preparing a big meal just for myself felt redundant… Read the rest of the post »

Upcycled Mailbox – A Storage Cubby for our Vegetable Garden!

This old mailbox was my grandparents for many, many, many years before I came along and used it as long as I could before it was finally time to retire it. I didn’t have the heart to toss it though and its been literally sitting in our flower garden, by our front step, for all the years since. I thought about bringing it in and hanging it on the wall or placing it above one of our hutches as decoration but it was just too big for either of those things. It finally dawned on me where it would be perfect this spring when we started working on the vegetable garden! Read the rest of the post »

Pallet Walls, sanding and sealing them in the Basement Bathroom

Returning to work on the Basement Bathroom by tackling the pallet walls. This Basement has been a LONG, slow process but, to be fair, its not where we live so its not on our “urgent” to-do list. Though we do hang out down here on the weekends especially it wasn’t until I upcycled an old toolbox in the bathroom here that I finally got motivated. We installed the commode and rolling doors for this space and finished up the living room. After that I realized there wasn’t a ton to do to finally have a completed bathroom for the first time ever so I got to work! Read the rest of the post »

Working Basement Bathroom and our VERY ODD hot water problems…

We officially, for the first time EVER, have a working basement bathroom! If you had told me that a major highlight in my life would be a toilet a few years back I would not have believed you. Once I started working on this house though stranger and stranger things delight me. To be fair I’m sure I’m not the only one who has bounced up and down with excitement over a working toilet! Six years, hundreds of hours and thousands of dollars spent down here to finally, for the first time ever in this house’s history, have a real bathroom in the basement! Read the rest of the post »

Thrift Store Basket Makeover for Mother’s Day

I’ve had this little basket that I picked up at a thrift store floating around the house for a few months now with my plan to give it a milk glass makeover. It was a little grungy but I thought if I went full white it could become quite pretty. I can’t continue with this post though until I tell you the story of my monster aloe plant. A while back my mom stopped by our place to drop some things off when we weren’t home. Read the rest of the post »

DIY Rolling Barn Door Hardware – Inexpensive using steel plumbing pipe

How to inexpensively create rolling barn door hardware with plumbing pipe. Total cost of hardware was around $60 and the doors were $50. Tip I learned the hard way after this project: My town doesn’t sell very much pipe or hardware and almost NONE of it is black. So I finally just started ordering it all from Amazon. It is a little more expensive but once I factored in how many times my local stores didn’t have in stock what I needed… It just made more sense. Moving back to completing our basement: the bathroom and storage closet down here needed doors! As most everyone knows nowadays rolling barn door hardware isn’t cheap and the very old school look I wanted was the most expensive of all. I had already seen black pipe used just like this so I knew it would work! Read the rest of the post »

Hickory Workbench and Shelves, a DIY Custom Build for Lodi’s Room

Building Lodi a Custom Hickory Workbench and Shelves. The “closet” in Lodi’s new room was the obvious place for his workbench, peg board and the majority of his storage. We built this new room and completed several steps to finally getting here including Lodi spray painting his peg board in chrome. The closet is particularly deeper to the far left side of it, leaving a 12″ deep “pocket” that seemed the perfect placement for shelves. That gave me the idea that instead of just spanning the entire width of the closet with his workbench, we could cut the bench in an L shape and include one of the “shelves” right in it. Which, admittedly, left me with a bit of anxiety on getting the cuts right! Read the rest of the post »

Washer and Dryer Combo Unit – One Machine that does BOTH!

The history of how I ended up with a washer and dryer combo unit goes all the way back to when I first moved in here in 2015. I went with a budget to our scratch and dent LG store on a wing and prayer hoping to purchase everything: a microwave, dishwasher, refrigerator, stove and washer and dryer for under $4,000. And though, six years later, I have nothing good to say about LG dishwashers I’m still thrilled with the rest of our appliances – I was even able to get them all in stainless steel! I had every intention of having the traditional two units in our laundry room and had already run the electrical for the washer and the dryer along with the plumbing. What I had not done yet though was squeeze into the crawl space to run the dryer vent. Read the rest of the post »

Old Gardener’s Toolbox Upcycle – Bathroom Storage and a Towel Bar!

Old Gardener’s Toolbox Upcycle. I’ve been hanging on to this old gardener’s toolbox that my Grandparents’ built for several years now. I wanted to do something DIFFERENT with it but I just struggled for ideas. The first idea I had was a pretty obvious one: A table centerpiece to hold cutlery, napkins etc. But here’s the truth: We’re not table centerpiece people lol. The majority of the time our dining room table is not used for eating and that’s just the honest truth of it all. Read the rest of the post »

Lodi’s room, Final Paint Choices, the Floors and the Door!

Finishing Lodi’s room! There were quite a few steps to finally getting here: First we scored the jackpot of the perfect door for this space. Then we put a new exterior door (and new doggie door) in the workshop and removed the old exterior door here and replaced it with a window. Finally we built the new wall, hung the “new” door, trimmed everything out and officially, made this a REAL room. Moving on now to finishing it all up with paint! Read the rest of the post »

Lodi’s Small Room – Building a Hallway and Closet into a Storage Room

Making a large hallway and closet into a small room for Lodi. There were quite a few steps to finally getting to the point of truly enclosing this space and giving it four walls. First we scored the jackpot at the salvage yard getting all four doors we needed in a single trip. Then we put a new exterior door (and new doggie door) in the workshop and removed the door here and replaced it with a window on the back wall. Finally its time to make this into a real space! Read the rest of the post »

Doggie Door – How to Build an Almost indestructible DIY Dog Door

How to make your own almost indestructible doggie door. It was over a decade ago now (aw to be 23 again) when I finally, totally and completely, lost my mind with the expensive, absolute junk, pet doors that are on the market. We live in northern MN and we generally went through two of the the most expensive pet doors every winter. That’s nearly $400 a winter because our winters get so cold the plastic those doors were made of would literally just shatter. We had three 100 pound dogs at the time and I was at my wit’s end. I just could NOT believe there wasn’t another option out there so, obviously, I set out to make my own. Read the rest of the post »

New Window – Replacing a door, starting on Lodi’s Space

Replacing a door with a new window. If you read my doors post than you know this is one of many posts coming up that all started with the jackpot of four PERFECT doors we found at the salvage yard. It started with taking out a window in the workshop and replacing it with one of those new doors. With the window in hand it was now time to finally get rid of the crappy door on the back of the house. Its needed to be replaced for years… literally since I installed it. Read the rest of the post »

Exterior Door – Replacing a Window with a Door in the Workshop

Exterior door installation, replacing a window in the workshop. Moving an outside door to a different room to save on heating costs. You’ve heard me mention my back hallway “dog spot” and its numerous problems many times. Its been on my “to do” list for over two years now and replacing its door has been on my list literally since I put that old crappy door in five years ago. I’m glad now though, looking back, that I hadn’t messed with it at all because its new plan now is completely different. That old door will be replaced but not with another door anymore. Read the rest of the post »

How to Remove Paint, Scuffs and Scratches from Wood Furniture

How to Remove Paint from Wood Furniture – fixing a whoopsie on our table… Literally DECADES ago my Mom promised me this beautiful table that her parents (my grandparents) built for her. She had stumbled upon the base, or someone had it given to her… or something that memory does not serve anymore and her parents built the top for it. Its gorgeous. I’ve always loved it. We generally only use the table for actual dining when we have company over. After that this table is our SERIOUS anything goes zone. Read the rest of the post »

Doors – Hitting the Jackpot at the Salvage Yard

Gorgeous Doors – Winning big at the salvage yard. As you all know I am a bit obsessed with anything that’s old. Anything that’s new, plastic, not-solid-wood, made-in-china, total-crap-that-will-fall-apart-in-two-years, does not impress me no matter how high the price tag might be. But REAL wood and OLD pieces of furniture and yes, that includes doors, make my heart skip a beat. We needed four doors and I would not be moved unless I got exactly what I was looking for… and it didn’t matter to me how long it might take! Remarkably, it only took one trip and ten minutes! JACKPOT! Read the rest of the post »

Basement Lighting – Creating a Moody Speak Easy with Light!

I really wracked my brain when it came to figuring out our basement lighting. I didn’t want to replace all the work I had already done down here running wire etc. (Its basically poor man’s “recessed” lighting even though its just bare bulbs.) I also, certainly, didn’t want to spend a lot more money down here. After the ceilings, the walls and the floors we were already a good $2,500 into this project and I am fully aware how we could easily spend that entire amount on just one chandelier. I am also aware that that isn’t a lot to finish 500 square feet of living space I’m just VERY frugal and wanted to come up with something creative and inexpensive… Read the rest of the post »

Basement Walls – Putting up Plyboard and Trim

Putting up plyboard and trim – finishing out our basement walls. Also painting the whole place out and making some changes in the kitchen! When Lodi and I planned the material we were going to use we agreed that neither one of us wanted to deal with drywall. Lodi in quarantine early this year meant he headed to Menards without me with this as the only thing I had to say about it, “Focus on inexpensive and light weight… I trust you.” To be fair I knew there wouldn’t be a ton of options – I was really just encouraging him to get something (anything) easier to deal with than sheet rock. I wouldn’t have been unhappy with plain old wood paneling on the basement walls – everything is paintable! Read the rest of the post »

Small Office Tips to Keep Clutter Down – Carving Space out of an Entryway

Small office tips using not one single piece of actual “office” furniture! Carving out a space in our mudroom/entryway/dining room for my office was not the easiest of tasks. Over the years my office has moved all over this house. It went from a dedicated room in the back of the house (which I hated – its now our awesome guest bedroom), to on a table in the living room (which was great but not sustainable) to finally finding its home here. Read the rest of the post »

Rust-Oleum RockSolid Flooring Kit – Doing our Basement Floors

How we completed our Basement floors using a Rust-Oleum RockSolid Flooring Kit. The last major basement project (the spray painting job from hell to complete the ceilings) I couldn’t take any credit for, Lodi was tackling this space without me. But once he moved to the floors (and I finished a few of my own projects) we combined forces. This floor is over 100 years old so we went into this figuring whatever the result it would at least be better than what we started with. Read the rest of the post »

Tiny Bathroom Paint – So long overdue that its Embarrassing!

Tiny Bathroom Paint choices and cheating a little… The main floor bathroom has so many issues that I’ve just been ignoring it since I finished the renovation and moved in in 2015. Ok to be fair “issues” is an over statement. Basically this little space works totally fine its just so tiny its hard for me to take it that seriously. It doesn’t have any natural light either so that also makes it a nightmare to photograph. One thing it needed beyond all else though was a fresh coat of paint! Read the rest of the post »

Creating Hidden Storage in our Entryway

Creating some much needed hidden storage for boots and our boot dryers in our entryway. One thing that is an absolute certainty in northern MN in serious mud and snow on our boots ALL winter long. We have a long rug in front of the door and last winter I added a rubber (hardcore) rug for a landing place for us when we come in wet from outside. Conveniently its right in front of our bench too. That’s all great but we were still seriously lacking a place for our boot dryers and boot storage. Read the rest of the post »

Deck Coffee Table out of Treated Lumber – Replacing a Rotting Spool

A simple deck coffee table build! I had grown to totally despise the spool that was sitting in this corner. There are a lot of reasons why but the most practical reason is because it was literally rotting the deck out beneath it. I had plenty of lumber on hand from when I replaced the table top out here so I quickly grabbed what I needed to make a simple deck coffee table. Read the rest of the post »

Master Bathroom Organization, small space ideas that helped a lot!

Some small space organization for our bathroom essentials! A LOT Has changed in our master bathroom since I last tackled it for a new reveal here on the blog. I find it amazing how everything is always just such an evolution! Most particularly the changes we’ve made have given us a lot more bathroom organization and storage that were simple, easy to do and REALLY improved how the space worked. Starting with changing the furniture in here! Read the rest of the post »

Outdoor Table Top – Replacing Our Demolished Barn Door Table

Building a lasting outdoor table top. Last winter we had an unprecedented amount of ice on our roof, I have NEVER seen icicles like that before either on my home or on any of the homes in my neighborhood. (Normally it would be a sign of heat loss but not last year, last year it was EVERYONE’S house.) A combination of a lot of moisture and just enough (but not enough) melting created one crazy amount of ice. I’m adding a pic of the front of the house for reference because it was just unbelievable. Read the rest of the post »

Tiny Bathroom Floors – Starting from the Ground up in this Little Space

Starting in on our tiny main floor bathroom floors after a thorough cleaning. This is the one and only space in this house that I have not worked on, nor taken pictures of, nor shared at all here on the blog since I moved in in 2015. You can see from the before pic that it looks grungy and neglected because, obviously, I’ve been neglecting it. I’ve mentioned working on this room a couple of times in my to do lists over the past years and I always said that it would be on hold for awhile… Read the rest of the post »

Basement Ceilings Painted BLACK – A Spray Painting Job from Hell…

First thing was first with the basement: tape anything off that needs to be covered and spray paint the ceilings black. If you read the Basement Planning post than you know we were considering a drop ceiling. In the end this just made more sense. It was a lot less costly and its a look we each like about a thousand times more. Drop ceilings only had one thing going for them: we could have insulated between the floors but it just wasn’t worth it for us. Read the rest of the post »

Bar Top Deck Railing with the Last Piece of Grandpa’s Oak

Bar top deck railing. Teaming up in our DIY Blog Hop this month with backyard projects! (We’d love for you to join us – click here for more info!) I’ve been seeing this idea all over the internet the past year and it occurred to me that its definitely something we would get a ton of use out of! Since I started the renovation in 2014 I’ve been hacking away at using all of the wood leftover in the barn from when my Grandparents’ were wood workers. Besides random stashed wood there was one very special, very hidden, pile that I spotted right away: VERY old, rough cut oak and pine that was simply gorgeous. Read the rest of the post »

Tiny Bathroom – Getting a Plan together for this little Neglected space

Getting a bathroom plan together… When I started the renovation in 2014 one of the biggest conundrums I had was what to do about the main floor bathroom. If it stayed where it was (behind the kitchen) I would either have to continue accessing it through the living room and keep a VERY dangerous VERY steep staircase OR rebuild the staircase and access the bathroom through the kitchen. The staircase was typical in a farmhouse this age, it was literally like climbing a mountain and not something I wanted to do on a daily basis to the second floor master suit… Read the rest of the post »

Cable Rails – a DIY Inexpensive Upgrade for our Deck!

Putting new cable wire deck rails in! Teaming up in our DIY Blog Hop this month with deck projects! (We’d love for you to join us by linking up below or click here for more info!) I made the conduit railings for the deck a few years ago even though I knew I would need to replace them eventually because: DOGS! The new cable rails moved to the top of the list this spring because Annie is now a permanent resident and she was very good at sneaking off to the treasure trove of a pasture full of horse poop. I can’t even express how annoyed we became of yelling at (and bathing) the damn dog. Not that I really blamed her… But having all of our doors to the deck open is mandatory for my happiness as long as the weather makes it possible! So, it was time for a solution that Annie could not get through… Read the rest of the post »

Basement Before Pics – Planning the renovation of my forgotten space!

When I wrote my Winter To-Do-List last fall my poor basement was literally the LAST thing on my mind. However, considering Basement Finishing could transform this forgotten space into a functional area. In fact I had totally put my basement out of my head! But that certainly was not always the case: After I threw my ex out two years ago I moved my workshop out of here with the plan to put in a rental suite ASAP for the extra income. Read the rest of the post »

Furniture Layout – Continuing the Guest Bedroom Redesign

In my last post about redesigning the guest bedroom to be more unisex we got the room painted out and ready for furniture. This room has some real problems when it comes to being a bedroom. What makes it unique is also what makes the layout so challenging. There is no wall to put the bed on. Every single wall has a window. Every time I’ve moved furniture around in here I get annoyed. My OCD goes crazy because nothing balances! Read the rest of the post »

Spring Tablescape and some Updates to the Dining Room

Some updates in our dining room and a simple spring tablescape. Teaming up in our DIY Blog Hop this month with dining room projects! (We’d love for you to join us by linking up below or click here for more info!) One of my favorite parts about spring here in MN is how the local grocery stores all stock up on flowers as soon as the weather turns. Lodi has learned that my coming home with an armful is no longer a unique or strange sight. Until my own flowers show their faces I simply can’t help myself! Read the rest of the post »

Windows: Upcycling to make Farmhouse artwork for the living room!

I just knew some day keeping all of those old windows would pay off! After painting out the room and getting some things complete one glaring issue was my one totally empty wall above my sofa. I have a confession to make, I literally STOLE the prints out of almost every single room in my entire house to complete the gallery walls of my new entryway when I redid it last year. No regrets at all but it literally left me with nothing on the walls of my living room! Read the rest of the post »

Unisex Guest Bedroom – Picking out a Grown up Paint Color

Teaming up with Chas in our DIY blog hop this month with projects for bedrooms! (Make sure and check out all of our bedroom projects following this post and feel free to join in!) Redesigning my guest bedroom in a more unisex design aesthetic. I was so totally in love with my guest bedroom when I redid it after throwing my ex out three years ago. (It was the beginning of the reclaiming of all of my spaces after my divorce.) It looked like me when I was a tom boy, country girl because that’s exactly how I designed it to be! One room that said ME and absolutely NO ONE else. Read the rest of the post »

Serving Tray – Old Window Upcycle for the Living Room!

How to create a serving tray out of an old window! With the living room remodel under way one thing I knew we would ABSOLUTELY NEED was a tray for the newly upholstered coffee table to set drinks on etc. Fortunately I still have a stash of old windows in the garage that I pulled out of the house during the renovation. I was concerned they would all be too big but when I brought the smallest one in and checked it out it actually seemed about perfect. Read the rest of the post »

Living Room Area Rug – Picking One Out: My Total Nightmare

My trying to pick a living room area rug seems logistically like it should not be the worst job in my entire living room remodel. It is though. It is my nightmare. I am a fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants, using-what-I-have-to-make-it-work, do-it-your-selfer that just hopes for the best. When people ask me how I feel about how any of my rooms turn out my general reply is: “Well its WAY better than it was!” I am not an interior designer! Read the rest of the post »

Adding a Drying and Hanging Rack to my Laundry Room!

Teaming up with Chas in our DIY blog hop this month with projects for our laundry rooms! (Make sure and check out all of our laundry room projects following this post and feel free to join in!) I have a super small Laundry “room” that is really just a closet. I gave it a makeover around a year ago and have been totally loving it because it is at least SO much better than it used to be! And its such a pretty and happy space too! I have a unique situation (at least for an American) because I own a washer/dryer combo machine that both washes and dries my clothes in one 2 1/2 hour cycle. I totally love it but it does have a couple of draw backs… Read the rest of the post »

Quilt Wall Hanging – Retiring an Heirloom while Adding Color and a Shelf

Quilt wall hanging including a shelf! I have quite a bit of trouble when it comes to adding “art” to my rooms. I just get kind of stuck creatively, its just not my thing! My living room needed a makeover REALLY BADLY and also lost all of its previous artwork to the gallery walls in my entryway. With the room nearly complete I was left with two big blank walls and absolutely NO idea what I was going to put on them. Read the rest of the post »

Making the BIG Material and Color Choices – My Top Tips!

Besides the “How do you know how to do it?” and the “How do you get motivated and accomplish it?” The other question I get asked very often is how I make the BIG design choices in my home. I always say everything is fixable and though that is TRUE, not everything is cheap or easy to change or fix. (Certainly not everything is just a different color of paint on the wall when that mauve turned out to be a terrible decision.) So, how do I make my own design choices here at Grandma’s House DIY? Read the rest of the post »

Blanket Storage Shelves out of my Grandpa’s Old Wooden Ladder

This is not my first rodeo when it comes to turning ladders into blanket racks. My first attempt was my Grandpa’s HUGE old ladder that hung off the side of the old garage for decades. I’m using that one in my master closet holding all my high heals, throws and scarves. I have just a silly amount of blankets in my living room and I won’t give up a single one of them so just a hanging rack wasn’t going to do, in fact, I needed storage shelves! Read the rest of the post »

Projects – How I get them DONE – My Top Tips!

How I get the small and even the giant sized home projects completed from beginning to end. One of my most asked questions here at Grandma’s House DIY is not how I know how to do the things I do (google is my very good friend) but how I motivate myself and get moving. House projects can be paralyzing and intimidating and leave all of us totally stuck. In the end you either get on it or it won’t get done. Its that simple and that really helps me. But that’s not the key to my motivation. Read the rest of the post »

Adding a Skirt to my Sofa Table Charging Station

Teaming up with Chas in our DIY blog hop this month with projects for our living rooms! (Make sure and check out all of the living room projects following this post and feel free to join in!) The sofa table/charging station I built years ago remains one of my most used pieces of furniture. Seriously, I charge my laptop, my blue tooth ear bud and my phone here practically daily. It is the handiest, easiest, most life changing build I’ve ever made! However, with my new sofa the way I built my little table was no longer going to work exactly. It would no longer be sandwiched so now it had to not only stand on its own but also not look quite so dang ugly because EVERYONE is going to see it! Read the rest of the post »

Chimney Makeover – Painting Faux Stone, My Living Room & Stairwell

Making fake stone look better with paint! So begins my entire living room redesign! There are about a million things I hate about this fake rock that my ex slapped on my chimney in my living room. (Not the least of which is the fact that my ex slapped it on my chimney in my living room.) I had planned to either cover my block chimney with sheet rock or just paint it but he had this stone so I let him have this one. Read the rest of the post »

Open Shelves Decorating, Organizing and Rethinking in my Kitchen

This week I’m teaming up with my link party partner Chas from Chas’ Crazy Creations with a kitchen project! (Don’t miss her Under the Sink Organization!) When I completed my kitchen renovation a few months ago I decorated my new open shelves above my kitchen sink but I’ve been thinking about changing things up a little bit. Read the rest of the post »

A Gift of Body Butter for the Ladies! Easy Luxurious Recipe!

One of my all time favorite recipes (and one I use daily) is my homemade body butter. It whips up with only TWO ingredients in just a couple of minutes! What is technically happening here is an emulsion so it needs a fat and a liquid just like a salad dressing. This does work using water and coconut oil but I always choose to use almond or castor oil instead of water for an even more luxurious butter. Read the rest of the post »

Green, Hypoallergenic, Recipe for Laundry Detergent – Easy and Cheap!

Here is my simple recipe for hypoallergenic homemade laundry detergent! I’ve always had very sensitive skin and, over the years as I totally removed chemical and commercial cleaning products from my home, I’ve also developed a super sensitive nose. Laundry detergent was my first real green plunge into homemade household products (back in 2013) and my liquid laundry soap recipe still works great but, honestly, I’ve gotten a lot more lazy over the years lol. Read the rest of the post »

Mulch, Improving the Grade & a New Outlet and Spigot!

Improving the grade, covering my flashing, adding mulch, an outlet and a new faucet too. With all the rock and stucco finally gone and the job of finally fixing my house and finishing all of my siding behind me I was excited to do a couple last things just for me! (Cheers to the sweetest boyfriend on the planet for cleaning up the incredible stucco and rock mess I made in my yard so I could literally just move on to the fun stuff!) Read the rest of the post »

New Siding and Learning to Accept REAL Help *panics*

I may be more excited then anyone has ever been to put up vinyl siding lol. This job has been a weight on me for YEARS. My ex husband’s lousy stone job meant my house was literally MOLTING fake rock. He didn’t fix the house or remove the old stucco like he should have which meant I had multiple mice (and squirrel and chipmunk) highways into my home. Not to mention water damage etc… So this job was just a whole boat of suckage and rage for me. I used all of the swear words ripping the stone and stucco off, making an enormous mess, fixing my house and then putting on flashing and wrapping my house up with Tyveck. From there I tacked J-Channel to the top and bottom and sides and FINALLY I was ready for new siding! Read the rest of the post »

Tearing off the Fake Rock and Stucco – Finally Fixing my Home!

Tearing off the incorrectly installed rock and 100 year old stucco. I have to fix my house and put up new siding. I’ve reached a defcon level 18 emergency – Its not just the rock that’s falling off that’s making me so stressed that this HAD TO BE DONE THIS SUMMER ASAP. Its not even the fact that I know I’m probably getting water damage too. There is actually one other thing that made it absolutely paramount that I get this done as soon as possible. My ex didn’t fix the stucco behind the rock or the rotting old wood behind that. He just slapped the fake stone up, no flashing, no prep – NOTHING. So mice have made a highway into my house. Read the rest of the post »

Old Rusty Bird Feeder Given new Life with Paint!

Giving an old rusty bird feeder new life with some spray paint. A few years back I remodeled my mom’s guest house (we all call it the little house, you can see the transformation here) and have been meaning to grab the bird feeders and houses from the yard over there ever since. This feeder was the one I had my eye on and, to my surprise, the post was free standing! Read the rest of the post »

My Garage: Screen door, solar lit path and Insulating my stock tank

Outside my garage there is actually quite a bit to do so this is just the tip of the ice berg but getting this done really made me feel like I was getting somewhere! This old screen door of mine was here when I moved in. I made it a little bigger and painted it red for my deck a couple years ago but once I purchased the magnetic screen doors for the rest of my deck doors it was time for this old door to get replaced too! That left it for me to use on my garage so it all worked out! Read the rest of the post »

Livestock Mats – An incredibly overqualified area rug for my garage!

(Adding the most overqualified area rug ever to my garage using eight livestock mats.) Disorder, things not being in their place or unfinished or disorganized clutter will eventually drive me totally and completely NUTS. My garage being the disaster its been for five years now has slowly been chipping away at my sanity. This spring I tackled it long before our snow was gone, making a giant pile in the center of it of all of my furniture and hauling another dozen bags of trash to the dump. Getting everything off of my walls took SIX DIFFERENT BITS on my impact driver oh and there were nails too! The sheer ridiculous randomness of it all left me just FURIOUS. Read the rest of the post »

Covering my Garage Walls with Plastic and Bubble Wrap Insulation

With lights up, power run and the walls insulated my friend Rachie asked if she could come help me. The last job for “completing” my walls was first to cover them in thick plastic and then to cover them with the big rolls of bubble wrap insulation I found to use instead of foam board and steel. Its a long story: I couldn’t get 4×8 foot sheets of anything in my mom’s SUV and the steel I wanted to use for wainscoting was a loss. SO, after fully despairing and walking around Menards for two hours, this stuff was the alternative I found. Read the rest of the post »

Paper Pom Pom Wreath – A Keepsake for a Friend!

Making a birthday keepsake wreath out of paper flower pom poms for my friend Rachel. I threw her birthday party at my place earlier this summer and bought a pink happy birthday kit from Amazon that included 18 flower pom poms. One night before the party I “created” them over the course of a couple of hours. I love how they turned out! They reminded me of a peony crossed with a luffa! Read the rest of the post »

Fiberglass Insulation + Me + 90 Degree Heat = What was I thinking?!

Fiberglass insulation is no joke! I’m sorry this post does not include a selfie of what I looked like at the end of insulating my garage. (Actually it includes some pretty crappy pictures to be honest and I’m sorry about that too.) I didn’t even want to touch anything out of fear that I may somehow infect it with the fire ants that were covering my entire body. It was GORGEOUS outside and NO ONE was allowed to complain about the heat because we just had winter for like nine months. It was 90+ in my garage, it was a Friday, I was stoked to tackle it, to sweat, to work in the heat, to work outside, to insulate my garage, I couldn’t wait! Read the rest of the post »

My Garage Plan, Updates, What’s Left and Balancing the Budget

My Garage Plan: rolling with the punches! As most of you know from my 2019 summer post I’ve been working on my garage for LITERALLY months now. When I was growing up our family home had a three car garage that was just awesome. (Seriously, I spent one winter rollerblading in part of it!) Having a large garage was an absolute must for me. So, back when I tackled this renovation, my brother and I went to Menards and I ordered myself a BIG garage. Read the rest of the post »

Dog Space, a Safe and Comfy Spot just for My Grand Doggos

Making a safe, cool dog space in the summer time for over July 4th weekend and many years to come. Most of you on the blog know that I am a Fairy Dog Mother. I love my best friend Rachie to death but I admit I stop over there from time to time to visit my Grand Doggos too. Anyone with pets knows how hard it can be to find someone they trust to take care of their animals while they’re gone. I love that I help them by dog sitting but, really, all we do is eat, cuddle, nap and dance in my kitchen! I love having them to spoil and cuddle with! Read the rest of the post »

Applying Window Film to my Glass Kitchen Cabinet Doors

How to apply window film to glass kitchen cabinet doors. I’m finally coming to the end of my my mini kitchen remodel and just finished tackling my lower cabinets and the shelf above my sink. Leaving me with a pile of stuff that now belonged in my upper cabinets. The issue was: NONE OF IT WAS PRETTY. Apparently, I just don’t have many pretty things… Which is a problem because the windows I used for cabinet doors you can see through… because they’re windows! Read the rest of the post »

Replacing My Barnwood Shelf with Two Open Shelves Above my Kitchen Sink

Replacing my barnwood shelf with open shelves in my kitchen. I mentioned a while back that I was moving away from the rustic look entirely. I sanded down and stained my beams before I started most of my other renovations. Also, when I refinished the floors here in the kitchen I sanded down and stained my kitchen sink base as well. With that complete my attention turned to the big barn wood shelf and I knew I wanted something totally different and far more delicate. Read the rest of the post »

Drink Station Decoration with Silk Daisies and My Old Kitchen Table!

Decorating my drink station with daisies and fun accessories. I’ve found that when hosting summer parties on my deck that my designated “drink station” needs to be well away from the buffet of food. Turns out people like to “hang around” where the drinks are and tend to stall a whole line of people behind them lol. Or maybe that’s just us Minnesotans?! The “watering hole” at my parties always seems to be the first place my friends and family congregates. Read the rest of the post »

Adding Side Out Storage Solutions to My Lower Kitchen Cabinets

Adding slide out storage and built in solutions to my lower cabinets. Have I mentioned before that I don’t really consider myself a real “wood worker”? I can build a wall, a really solid bench and would love to build a house one day. But when it comes to more delicate and refined work I am a novice AT BEST. Case and point: the two drawers I built for my kitchen. I HATE THEM. So, I’ve been in the middle of my mini kitchen remodel for a while now and I’m taking my time to get it right. Read the rest of the post »

DIY Irrigation for My Gardens – Leaky Hose Upcycling!

DIY “Irrigation” made from old leaky hoses for my vegetable garden and perennial flower bed. As anyone who has ever watered anything outside knows it can be a real (and literal) drag moving hoses around. I had a little sprinkler thing for my vegetable garden but its arc was WAY too big for it and now that I built my raised beds it was basically worthless and (even before I built them) it mostly just watered the lawn. My L-shaped flower bed by my house was probably my biggest drag though when it came to all in pain in the butt to water. Read the rest of the post »

Raised Beds in My Garden – Building with Oak and Barn Wood

Building raised beds in my garden using up wood from my barn stash. I made the HUGE mistake of using hay in my garden the year before last to help keep the weeds down. I really really really researched it too and everywhere online said that hay would work just as well as straw. Well now we all know that to be very very very wrong and you can easily find that to be true online now too! I should’ve known better! Hay is a perennial and I was growing it four feet tall in my garden last year. So, this is how my garden looked when I started lol Read the rest of the post »

How to Spot Stain a 100 year old Hardwood Floor

How to spot stain a wood floor. With that hideous wood stove finally gone there was no missing the big glaring spot of unfinished floor in the middle of my kitchen! Years ago, when I was in the middle of one VERY cold winter and in the middle of gutting and renovating this entire house, I chose to get my wood stove installed ASAP. I needed the heat! So, when the time came back in 2015 to refinish the floors I didn’t move the several hundred pound stove to stain the floor beneath it. Read the rest of the post »

Small Remodel – Making my Kitchen Closet Bigger

A small remodel: making my kitchen closet bigger and still getting a bigger kitchen! Back when I first considered getting a pellet stove a thought occurred to me that made me EXTREMELY excited. I realized that I may not need to put my pellet stove where my wood stove was! And, it turned out, I was right! I was able to abandon my chimney and put my pellet stove exactly where I wanted it instead of dead center in my kitchen where my hideous wood stove was. Read the rest of the post »

Booze & Bedding, A simple Gift Basket for Mother’s Day

I have my own set of sheets from the California Design den and I absolutely LOVE them. Like most folks around Mother’s Day I always want do something sweet for my incredible Mom. She is literally my very best friend, she and I have been through A LOT together and she remains my absolute rock. For Mother’s Day this year she has the wonderful opportunity to go on cruise with her guy! So, sadly, I won’t get to be with her on the actual holiday but I could not be happier for her! I’m so glad she gets to get away for a few days. Meanwhile I got her booze and bedding! Read the rest of the post »

Peony Table Centerpiece with my Grandma’s Buttons

A Peony Table Centerpiece with all of my Grandma’s buttons. This is the first time I’ve actually set out to create a table centerpiece for my dining room table. To be fair this is also the very FIRST time that my dining room has actually been complete! It was so much fun to finally finish it and have a place to be proud of especially because its also the entryway to my home. Read the rest of the post »

Smoke Damage – Fixing and Painting the Front Entryway of My Home

Painting away smoke damage and smoke stains because there is no other way to fix it. This is not the first (and nor will it be my last) rant about what a wood stove did to my ceilings and walls throughout my home. Prepare yourselves, I am about to reveal the MOST horrible pictures I could possibly share of my house. I have reached a level of hate when it comes to my wood stove that has gone WAY beyond all reason. Read the rest of the post »

Inexpensive wood floor that looks like a million dollars – Four years later!

One of the most popular posts on my blog has been (and will probably always be) my DIY inexpensive wood floor. With budget waning back during the renovation in 2014 I needed a solution to cover the 250 square foot front entry of my home. I wanted it flush with my 100 year old kitchen floor and also the very same look. I knew I could never afford to actually match my original hardwoods (if that was even possible!) so I had to get creative! Read the rest of the post »

Sanding down and Refinishing the Beams Throughout my Home

With my workshop complete and my final finishing of my laundry room remodel it was time to expand out into my entryway and kitchen… And that meant my attention turned to the beams in my home. If they were the ACTUAL 100 year old beams that were here originally I would feel totally different… But, they’re not. Read the rest of the post »

Designing a Fun and Functional Laundry Room with Fabric and Paint

Moving on to room design and paint in my laundry. It’s technically a closet but now with my changes its beginning to feel like a REAL room! OMG I can literally come in here and even shut the door behind me! There’s still a lot to do in this space but I have finally moved on to the fun stuff. The colors and room design that have my heart just giddy and painting it all out. Read the rest of the post »

Building Custom Shelves in my Laundry Room with the Farmhouse Hens

So I have this Rolling Pantry that I built for my kitchen that totally beat up my 100 year old hardwood floor in there because it was really heavy. I replaced my pantry with a (much lighter) one from Amazon leaving me my old pantry to do something with. When my Laundry room remodel came around I knew exactly how I was going to recycle it! Read the rest of the post »

Rearranging my Awkward Closet into a Real Laundry Room!

By rearranging a few things I am determined to make an awkward closet into a real room. My laundry room ended up like this just like the majority of the house: I was not only on a shoe string budget but also felt like I was in a total rush. It was over a year ago, just after my divorce, when I started to slow down and realize something: I have NO deadlines. Read the rest of the post »

Hanging Pendants – Rustic Custom Workshop Lighting with 2x4s

Moving on to lighting up my new workshop! With the painting finally complete (omg it took forever) there was one major element I had to tackle to make this a truly functional space. Lighting! I chose 2x4s for a slightly more rugged look which I stained in dark walnut to match my wood floors. Read the rest of the post »

Workshop Window Film with the Farmhouse Hens Decorate

Unique “window treatments” with inexpensive window film. I literally spent an hour sitting on the floor of this workshop with my back against the wall just staring at the east window trying to figure out what the heck I was going to do. Curtains were totally out of the question – I would be cleaning them constantly or they would have a permanent fuzzy look from saw dust. I had almost resigned myself to some kind of “washable” blind but that sounded like a terrible idea too. Read the rest of the post »

Painting my Workshop BLACK – Joining the Darkside

Before deciding on paint colors I had a few steps to take to prep my workshop before hand. First, I did what I’ve been planning on doing since the beginning of this project. I put up a barn/pallet wood wainscoting along one wall and around my work tables. And I also got all my tools organized and put away which was kinda imperative because I couldn’t even walk in here before I got that done! Read the rest of the post »

Workshop Wainscoting with Barn & Pallet Wood

How I added Wainscoting to my workshop with the help of my new level! Like I’ve mentioned in past posts I was going to do this entire series about my work shop in “Day” Increments. Such as my first post “My new workshop relocation: Day ONE” and that would have worked fine if only actual days (or even only weeks) had passed since my first post came out… So that was in May…. NINE MONTHS AGO! Read the rest of the post »

Painted Bins for a Cohesive Look with the Farmhouse Hens Decorate!

Getting some order amid the chaos of my workshop. Last week’s post about protecting my modem brought me to this point – a clean floor after nine months of basically not being able to walk in here! With my modem safe I could finally put everything “away” but just because I can walk in here now doesn’t mean I can FIND anything. It was time to go through all of my tools and figure out a home for them. Read the rest of the post »

Protecting my New Modem in my Workshop – A Creative Solution

I was going to do this entire series about my work shop in “Day” Increments. Such as my first post “My new workshop relocation: Day ONE” and that would have worked fine if only actual days (or even only weeks) had passed since my first post came out… So that was in May…. NINE MONTHS AGO! Read the rest of the post »

Why, How and What – Essential oils I use and LOVE!

How and why I use the essential oils that I love. Essential oils have become a staple in many households these days – If you don’t use them, you’ve certainly heard of them! There’s also tons of talk about what essential oils are “good” and the “highest quality” etc. At this point I really can’t recommend a brand name so I’m not going to lol. But I use essential oils in literally every part of my home every single day! Read the rest of the post »

Farmhouse Tree and a Holiday Living Room – Christmas Blog Hop

It’s Day 10 – Our Christmas Tree! The last day of the 12 Days of Christmas Blog Hop for me: A farmhouse tree all ready for Christmas! With the decision that I was actually going to put up a tree this year there were purchases to make and a whole bunch of things to make! I wanted my xmas tree to be all about farmhouse and all DIY because it just wouldn’t be right for Grandma’s House otherwise. Read the rest of the post »

Personalize gift wrap with a Red Bow – Christmas Blog Hop

It’s Day 9 – Pretty Gift Wrapping Ideas! My favorite money saving trick when it comes to gift wrap is, whenever I see a sale, to always purchase solid colors or stripes. That way, I always have wrapping paper on hand that can work with any occasion! I found this lovely striped silver and white paper over a year ago and it has worked for me through a baby shower, two birthdays and now I’m using the last of it for this christmas! Read the rest of the post »

Apple cider in a Jar with a Sweater Koozie – Christmas Blog Hop

It’s Day 8 – Christmas In A Jar Ideas! I think we all have different smells and things we relate to specifically for holidays. For me absolutely nothing says Christmas more than hot apple cider. So, when it was time to make “Christmas in a jar” for the 12 Days of Christmas Blog Hop it was obvious what I was gonna do! Read the rest of the post »

Holiday Decor, a Farmhouse Mantel – Christmas Blog Hop

It’s Day 7 – Holiday Decor Ideas! Decorating my mantel and entertainment center for Christmas! I already confessed in my last post about my homemade Farmhouse ornaments that I had not intended to put up a tree this year… Well that lasted about ten minutes lol I’m definitely having a tree this year! Besides that the rest of my living room was just crying out for some holiday decor. Read the rest of the post »

Four Home Made DIY Farmhouse Ornaments – Christmas Blog Hop

It’s Day 6 – DIY Ornament Ideas! Four easy home made DIY farmhouse ornaments – pine cones, mason jar lids, Red bows and burlap angels with clothes pins! Welcome to day Six of the 12 days of Christmas Blog Hop! Today we are making ornaments and I am so excited with how mine turned out. I ended up making four different ornaments because, this year, I was totally starting from scratch with a brand new tree. Read the rest of the post »

Relaxing Homemade Foot Soak – Christmas Blog Hop

It’s Day 2 – DIY Gift Ideas! As often as I can I prefer to make a gift as opposed to buying it. So day 2 of the Christmas blog hop was right up my ally! Today I’m making something for my five co-workers that I know they’ll love. Every year I make and giveaway foot scrubs, homemade lotions and body butters and every year I get requests for the recipes. This one is SO simple and this year I made it especially for the holidays by adding essential oils of cinnamon, eucalyptus and clove! Read the rest of the post »

Small DIY Pine Cone Wreath – 12 Days of Christmas Blog Hop

It is day ONE of the 12 days of Christmas blog hop I mentioned in yesterday’s post. First up: Wreaths! I wanted to make a wreath that anyone could make practically with what they had on hand. For me that was lots and lots of pine cones! I’ve seen pine cone wreath tutorials before and wanted to do something that would hold up a little better and not require a hot glue gun. Scroll down to see my tutorial and keep on going for the rest of the amazing wreaths this year! Read the rest of the post »

12 Days of Christmas Blog Hop – 50 Best DIY Holiday Ideas

I am so excited to announce that I am joining the 12 Days of Christmas blog hop this year! Over four weeks time (starting tomorrow!) 50 bloggers will be producing some amazing DIY Holiday recipes, ornaments, wreaths, trees, you name it, if it can be DIYed for Christmas than we’re doing it! I’ll be joining them for seven of the twelve days and can’t wait to share with you guys some of the ideas I came up with. Tomorrow is wreath day! For now, check out the 50 most popular Christmas posts from all of us! Read the rest of the post »

DIY Build Cornhole Boards – My first Experience with Unicorn Spit!

How I built cornhole boards and stained them with unicorn spit. I’ve been meaning to build some yard games for family gatherings, parties and birthdays held at my place. My best friend’s husband was turning 40 in November and we threw him a surprise birthday party in October. Why a month before his birthday? Because this is Minnesota and we didn’t want to be outside standing in a foot of snow and freezing to death lol And I don’t have a house big enough to really accommodate 100 people! Read the rest of the post »

Solar Light Basket using Insulators for Hanging or Table Setting!

An easy solar light basket! I purchased several of these baskets last year for Xmas and made gift baskets for my guy relatives. I filled them with homemade chapstick, hand scrub, cuticle cream and coffee. They were a hit! I had one basket leftover which I started using as a caddy for dinner parties outside. I would put in utensils, ketchup, mustard, extra napkins etc. and that got me wondering if I couldn’t improve on the idea. Read the rest of the post »

How I added a Country Fresh Produce stencil to my old bench

Just a couple of weeks ago I fixed this old bench using wood putty and Dark Walnut stain. Of the three benches my grandparents made that I have this one had taken the biggest beating. But, with just a little elbow grease I had her looking almost like new again. After that I made a no-sew cushion for it complete with tufting and buttons! Check out the post all about it here. Read the rest of the post »

Refinishing an old Storage Bench – How to make a No-sew Tufted Cushion

My grandparents’ built this bench YEARS ago along with two others that I have. (Check out the cedar-lined beauty I keep at the end of my bed.) This one has taken the biggest beating over the years and has needed to be fixed and refinished for awhile now. Every month the group I’m a part of (the Farmhouse Hens Decorate) has a theme. This month’s theme turned out to be for benches so I knew exactly the piece I would be using! Read the rest of the post »

The Death of BoardBooster – 5 million views in one month with Tailwind!

So, I don’t know about any of you other bloggers out there but when BoardBooster bit the dust at the end of June this year I literally lost days off my life in total panic. (Pinterest is a HUGE part of this blog’s world – I get over 50% of my traffic from Pinterest!) It all started with a great peak I had to over 2 million views a month on Pinterest back in April to a constant, ridiculous, steady decline that I could not stop no matter what I did. Read the rest of the post »

When Someone We Love is in Heaven sign – Wood and a Vinyl Decal

How to build a sign, distressed in gray and yellow paint, to remember someone we’ve lost. Building a sign is such an easy and simple project. For anyone just starting out in wood working this would be a perfect project to start with. It required just a few cuts, six screws, wood putty, paint and a wall decal to create something beautiful that holds a ton meaning! Read the rest of the post »

Broken clock goes Country with twine and rope

I absolutely loved this clock when I spotted it on Amazon. It hung on my wall for years until, one day, it just took a dive for the floor. So my beloved clock was now a broken clock. I’ve kept it for months now planning on doing something with it but hadn’t quite figured out one the creative angle how to make it great again. I wanted to frame it out with wood but, honestly, I can build a bench no problem because its square lol not ROUND. Read the rest of the post »

How to make a Two Tiered Stand out of Thrift Store Items

Ever since I began work on the refresh of the master floor of my house I’ve been considering something different for on my master bathroom sink. My little tooth brush holder had seen better days and then I saw this lovely project by Chas (one of my To Grandma’s house we go link party gals) and thought: I can make a two tiered stand for my master bathroom! Read the rest of the post »

My New Outhouse is built – How I did it myself entirely with scrap wood!

My new outhouse is finally complete! After himming and hawwing and changing the location of my outhouse about thirty times… a weekend in mid June finally decided its location. My best friend Rachie and my mom and I did a walk about of my property so I could show them all the cleaning up and fixing I had been doing. We also talked about the new outhouse and how I couldn’t figure out exactly where I wanted it. Read the rest of the post »

How to Make an Outdoor planter using Chicken Wire & Landscape Fabric

Custom outdoor planter made with chicken wire and landscape fabric over a shepherds hook hummingbird feeder carousal. When I moved and then spray painted my grandma’s shepherds hook plant hanger it just screamed for me to add a plant to the middle of it. But no pots would work in this instance so I set out to make my own! Read the rest of the post »

Hummingbird feeder planter shepherds hook extravaganza!

Hummingbird feeder made out of an old shepherds hook carousal of my Grandma’s. For as long as I can remember this carousal has been between the road and the garage and was always full of my Grandma’s flowers. A couple of years back my ex and I moved it between the house and the barn and ever since I’ve wanted to move it again. Read the rest of the post »

Post solar lights using glass chandelier bowls and dollar store lights!

How I made post solar lights on either side of my back gate on my deck by upcycling chandelier glass bowls. Awhile back I posted on how I made hanging solar lights out of four glass chandelier bowls and some dollar store items. I only had room for four hanging solar lights but I had six of these glass bowl shades so immediately I got to work figuring out how I could put them at the top of my posts! Read the rest of the post »

A DIY sign just for Mom – Bestest mom in all of the land stencil!

A DIY sign out of barnwood just for my Mom on mother’s day – The Bestest Mom in All of the Land! Is it just me are the most incredible women in our lives the hardest people to buy for? I saw a Facebook meme once that said, “My Mom deserves a tropical island all to herself and spa treatments forever and all I have in my bank account is $3.27” lol – that about sums it up! How on earth could we ever get someone so amazing anything that could begin to show us how important they are? Read the rest of the post »

Hanging solar light using glass chandelier bowls and dollar store items!

How to make a DIY hanging solar light by upcycling glass bowl light shades off of a chandelier and a couple of dollar store items. So when my mom and I gave her house a makeover it also included replacing several of the light fixtures. She has a small, quaint little place and the light fixture in her dining room was just way too big for the space so it was the first one that we replaced. I didn’t keep the actual fixture (Ah hindsight and regret!) however, I did keep all of the glass bowl light shades because it just seemed like I could use them somewhere… Read the rest of the post »

Attempting to get rid of my endless lawn: An annihilation plan using clover!

My grandma Charlotte spent YEARS with nothing but a hatchet and straight up will power to create the 2+ acres of nothing but grass and giant trees that you see here today. One of her favorite things in the whole world was picking up sticks and mowing. One of my least favorite things in the whole world? Picking up sticks and mowing! Read the rest of the post »

My new workshop relocation: Day ONE – Where is everything going to go!?

Tackling my new workshop relocation, day one: making a plan and figuring out where my entire workshop is going to get relocated. So, as most of you already know I am officially a single gal and I am currently in the process of totally rethinking my entire home. It started with my new guest bedroom and library converted from my old office by moving my “office” to my entry way. That left my previous guest bedroom totally empty so, with the commencing of operation BLISSFULLY HAPPY I am returning to the plan of putting a rental suite in my basement which means my workshop needed to move out of there… Read the rest of the post »

Farmhouse Picture Frame – Easy Wood Working DIY Using Barnwood

Unique, easy to build, Farmhouse picture frame. I’ve been thinking about a different way of creating a picture frame ever since I built a “typical” frame for my aunt for her birthday. (See that project here.) I wanted something easier to build that didn’t require mitered corners etc. I got to looking online and saw several gallery ideas using big pieces of wood, some out of pallets, some using barn wood and some using purchased wood that they built big backs out of. Read the rest of the post »

Custom canvas prints with wall decals. Don’t throw away those old prints!

Don’t throw away those prints that you hate, you can make your own custom canvas prints! With the divorce well behind me I still have a pile of shiiii…. stuff in my closet I have every intention of burning in my fire pit this summer. HOWEVER, I happen to be in a family of several artists and know full well what a pain in the butt building and stretching your own canvas is and how expensive it is to buy it…. DANGIT… *throws up hands in defeat* so I couldn’t just burn them! Read the rest of the post »

Shelf in my Master Bathroom using galvanized pipe hardware!

About a hundred years ago (February of 2016) my best friend Rachie and her husband Shane gave me this hardware and a shelf for my birthday. They finally gave up asking me if I was ever going to put it up because I just kept telling them, “I have a plan! I will use it soon!” And then a whole bunch of stuff happened (including my divorce) and FINALLY I got to the project I had been planning on for two years! A shelf for my Master Bathroom above my very very very favorite double slipper bathtub! Read the rest of the post »

Two thrift store lamps, a glamorous makeover creating cohesion!

Two thrift store lamps get a glamorous makeover for my master bedroom! I found these lamps on two different weekends in two different stores and just knew I could make it look like they belonged together. Ever since I started working on my latest Master Bedroom Refresh (that you guys saw last week) it felt like I really needed taller and larger lamps to help balance out the headboard and the bed. After finding one of these lamps I knew I could find another that was similar and then I spotted it and it was only $3! Read the rest of the post »

My top 10 Home design tips for functionality and beauty for years to come!

Deciding on your floors, your trim, your paint colors and your finishes can be very daunting! These are my top ten home design tips to help you along the way. I concluded the renovation of my Grandparents’ 100 year old farm house over two years ago and I really spent a lot of time agonizing over my paint choices etc. I learned a lot along the way on how to not only make a home last in functionality but also how to make a home I could love for years to come. All of my tips are based on a place that will be your forever home. Read the rest of the post »

The splurges after the divorce that helped me find my happy again!

My splurges just for me after the divorce – how they helped me find my happy again! It’s easy in times such as divorce (and after that REALLY rough winter) to basically do nothing but wallow in your own black cloud. (Don’t get me wrong, I did that too!) But, thanks to my Mom, I’ve always had the attitude that being miserable is pretty damned miserable and, generally, we don’t have to choose misery and the ONLY person who can ruin your life is YOU. Read the rest of the post »

Making a new sign out of a bad memory using vinyl letters!

Making a sign for the front of my home with paint and vinyl lettering – creating something good out of a bad memory. One day I came home and noticed how bare the front of the house looked. Once upon a time my Grandparents’ made a sign with their last name on it which my ex had replaced with one that had his last name on it too. (You can see the shadow left behind from my grandparents’ sign, it was in the shape of a loon and I just haven’t had the heart to paint it gone yet.) It was very clear that I absolutely needed my own sign ASAP! Read the rest of the post »

Blog Cost and Income Report – how I made over $900 in January 2018

Nothing held back: my blog cost and monthly income report – how I made over $900 in January 2018! Over the last 2 1/2 years at Grandma’s House DIY (since I started the blog) I have been fully introduced to what I have come to think of as the “Blogger Hustle” which, if it were a dictionary term, would be described as, “A blogger trying every conceivable thing that they can possibly think of times a million and a half and then some more in an attempt to figure out what works for their blog to increase their traffic and then, by some kind of miracle, also maybe make a little bit of money.” Read the rest of the post »

Island centerpiece using milk glass with Farmhouse Hens Decorate!

Today with the Farmhouse Hens Decorate the project is milk glass! I had to call my mom in for this one because I knew she had several lovely dishes from my grandma that would be just perfect. With my guest bedroom reveal coming out earlier this week my thoughts turned to, “What could I setup to greet my guests in the morning?” Read the rest of the post »

Refinishing an old door for my new guest bedroom and library!

How I refinished a 100 year old door for my guest bedroom. I have a confession to make – I’m actually a pretty terrible procrastinator… I’ve had two doors in my workshop literally since before I even moved in here waiting for me to cut them to fit and refinish them for my house. My master bedroom has never had a door on it (its on its own floor so its never been weird) and the other room that still needed a door was my old office which is now becoming my new guest bedroom and library which, ya know, REALLY DOES NEED A DOOR. Read the rest of the post »

No-sew curtains, sheers for my guest bedroom and library!

Easy, no-sew curtains! With the completion of my old steel bed with a brand new makeover (and several pieces yet to come) I made an easy no-sew bed skirt out of canvas drop cloth and, at first, I considered using the same material here. But canvas over this gorgeous old stained glass window just felt too heavy and harsh to me. I wanted something light and I really did NEED something because that big stained glass window lies directly between my new guest bedroom and my living room! Read the rest of the post »

Country Girl Desk Furniture Makeover with Farmhouse Hens Decorate!

This little desk was built for me by my grandparents MANY years ago, I painted it black to match up with my old guest bedroom scheme that was a compromise for my ex. Now that I’m a single gal I’m taking back all of my furniture and making it mine again so everything is getting a full on country girl furniture makeover and moving to my whole new guest bedroom and library! I already painted the little end table (makeover coming next week) and the steel bed frame so it was high time to finish this little desk too. Read the rest of the post »

Making a country girl no-sew bed skirt with canvas drop cloths!

Now, more then ever, budget is an issue in my new life as a single gal so when it came to putting the finishing touches on my new guest bedroom I knew I was going to have to get really creative. Once I completed the old steel bed frame (check out that transformation here) I really really really wanted some ruffles for a bed skirt. But not like really girly ruffles, they still needed to be farmhouse and country ruffles, nothing too feminine because that just wouldn’t be my style. Read the rest of the post »

30 things I stopped buying and started making, growing or harvesting!

A post all about the 30 things I stopped buying and started making, growing or harvesting! I was having a conversation at work the other day, chatting about what I did the past weekend etc. I mentioned I had finished making seven quarts of chicken stock and I had several pairs of eyes blink at me, “You did what?” Oh, I just broke down two organic hens, freezing five meals worth of meat and then I proceeded to make seven big jars of chicken stock out of the carcasses and leftover veggie scraps… not weird at all, right? At this point there aifre many things that I stopped buying and do very differently when most people would simply add it to their grocery list. Read the rest of the post »

Workshop stool: DIY recycling scrap wood and using galvanized pipe!

How I built a simple workshop stool using almost only materials that I had on hand. So, we’ve had several of these “bases” sitting out in the barn since the beginning of time. Honestly I really don’t know why my grandparents’ had several of them or what they were used for but I kept them in a safe spot anyway. When I started looking into building some stools for my deck I ran into stools built using galvanized pipe that I really liked. At first I started thinking about how to build a base to attach my pipe to and then, of course, I remembered these just sitting out in the barn. I grabbed three of them and got to work! Read the rest of the post »

Farmhouse decorating – a winter vignette with inherited objects and keepsakes!

A winter vignette inspired by both of my grandma’s, farmhouse decorating using some of my very favorite keepsakes. Every time I reach to decorate my home I want to include the old oil lamp I found in the basement. Cleaned up, I couldn’t believe how beautiful it was! So, when it was time to put another vignette together with the Farmhouse Hens, I just had to include it like I did last time with my Fall Vignette! Read the rest of the post »

How to clean hardwood floors without losing your mind! My tips & tricks!

A post about how to naturally clean hardwood floors using vinegar, water, essential oils and the perfect mop that saved my life! I dreamed of it, truly, it was my biggest fantasy when it came to a home: endless dark hardwood floors that were AT LEAST 100 years old. It was all I ever wanted… Until, of course, it was a reality. Don’t get me wrong, I would never go back! I love my hardwood floors: however managing to keep them clean is another story entirely… Read the rest of the post »

Homemade salt and sugar body scrub recipe without using oil!

Hey guys, so I was racking my brain on some homemade gifts I could make for both the ladies and the guys in my life. You just saw my cinnamon hand balm here on the blog last week and the men’s hand scrub and gift basket too. But I wanted something geared for the gals and, seriously, who doesn’t love a good salt and sugar body scrub?! When I went looking online, however, I was really disappointed to find that many of the recipes called for coconut oil. Coconut oil and drain pipes just DO NOT mix so, unless its going to be used in tiny quantities, I needed to come up with another idea! Read the rest of the post »

Hand Balm for Working Hands, Cinnamon salve recipe for dry, cracked skin.

Hand balm for working hands and dry, winter-cracked skin. The majority of the men in my life have notoriously dry skin. My dad’s hands are so dry they literally crack and bleed in the winter time. My cousin is a mechanic and with all of the constant washing and scrubbing etc. it really leaves his hands desperate for any kind of moisture. This hand balm would be wonderful for winter dry and cracked skin too! Read the rest of the post »

Homemade Men’s gift basket – for the guys in our lives!

Christmas (or any occasion!) homemade men’s gift basket, a few treats I made myself just for the men in my life! I don’t know about you but I find shopping for men a whole heck of a lot harder then shopping for women. They tend to just run out and buy whatever they want and though I know a bunch of men who would be quite happy getting chocolate for Christmas I still find them darned hard to shop for. So, this year, I tackled a gift basket that I could easily put together just for the guys! Read the rest of the post »

Homemade men’s hand scrub for a gift or for seriously stinky fingers!

Homemade men’s hand scrub recipe as a gift or for every day. Ever since I started making my own homemade foaming hand soap it continues to be the one recipe that everyone raves about the most. Without any shadow of a doubt it works better then ANY hand soap I have ever tried and it even takes off the fishy smell after I’ve been cleaning fish for hours! With Christmas here it dawned on me I might be able to take what I learned from my foaming hand soap and make something even more geared for our guys that know how to get dirty and stinky! (And us gals too of course!) Read the rest of the post »

Farmhouse Christmas Tree Ornament using Mod Podge

How to make a simple Christmas ornament with mod podge! And a Free Printable! When I saw that our next theme for the Farmhouse Hens was going to be a DIY Christmas ornmanet I have to admit that, initially, I hit a total wall and couldn’t think of anything! Then, finally (at the very last minute!) it came to me that I could make something using the mod podge photo transfer method. I used it a few weeks ago on a sign for our Fall Vignette and learned a lot on how to do it. So, I got to work! Read the rest of the post »

How I use my Amazon wishlist to stop impulse purchases!

A post about how I’m using my Amazon wishlist to stop impulse purchases. I think we all know somebody (or many somebodies…) that when they “need” something they just go and buy it, which is all fine and dandy until you want to buy them a gift for their birthday or for Xmas! I’ve finally converted the majority of my family to the awesomeness of the Amazon wishlist but sometimes it feels like a job to get them to keep it updated. On the other hand I’ve become the easiest person on the planet to buy for because my wishlist is ALWAYS up to date and it has saved me from a ton of impulse purchases! Read the rest of the post »

Deck gates: a simple wood working project how to!

How to build a simple outdoor deck gate! With our deck railings finally complete it was time to figure out how I was going to build the gates across the two entrances I have on our deck. My first issue was pretty obvious to me, I wanted them to swing entirely out of the way and remain open year around if I wanted them to be. I also wanted them to “match” the deck rails I had already made. So, I built my gate frames out of wood first! Read the rest of the post »

DIY Inexpensive deck rails out of steel conduit, easy to do!

A post on how I built inexpensive deck rails out of steel conduit. Have you seen the gorgeous steel wire railings that have been populating Pinterest the last couple of years and gaining huge popularity? Well I sure have and I’ve been drooling over them for months and months… at least until I saw the price tag. It was an absolute no go for me, on top of that they do require tightening over time and that kinda bugged me too. I was leaning toward just wire fencing (yes like hog panels) but that felt a little rough even for me and I would have wanted to frame them out in wood and that would have been labor intensive and costly. Read the rest of the post »

Wall Art – Build a frame out of barn wood!

A post about my farmhouse wall art in collaboration with six other DIY bloggers: Farmhouse Hens Decorate! This post is all about how to build a picture frame out of barn wood. My aunt’s birthday was fast approaching this last August and my mom purchased a print for her of a gorgeous old barn painted by a local artist (D.L. Housman). It only seemed natural then for me to take some barn wood and build her a frame to produce some really pretty wall art. The barn on our property is really my aunt and mom’s barn just as much (if not more) then my barn – my aunt and mom grew up here when it was still in its prime and helped their folks (my grandparents) milk cows, bring in hay and garden their entire childhoods. So we really didn’t even discuss who was going to frame her print out and what wood I was going to use to build it! Read the rest of the post »

Outdoor stool: Simple, modern wood working project for my deck!

How to build a simple outdoor stool for your deck or backyard! With the completion of my barn door table for my deck I’ve been needing to build something to sit on for the table ends. The sides easily sit three at a time on the workshop benches my grandparents’ left me but this summer I was hauling out my dining room chairs to use besides. With my deck build projects done (my bench, sun loungers and end tables) I had just enough green treated lumber to address my seating problem too. Read the rest of the post »

Outdoor end table with built in cooler or flower planter! Wood working DIY

An outdooor end table build project tutorial with built in cooler or flower planter. When I built my sun loungers it was only natural to build a table to sit between them because, seriously, sun lounging is thirsty work! I was going to build the most basic of little tables with little regard for anything except a sturdy surface for my beer. But then I remembered seeing the most fabulous end table with a cooler built right in on Pinterst… Well, yeah, I’m definitely going to have to do something like that lol! So, I got to work! Read the rest of the post »

Outdoor sun loungers, chaise lounges, wood working project for my deck!

How I built simple outdoor sun loungers with changeable back rests for my deck. Way, way, WAAAAY back I was a little girl who spent the majority of every summer outside. I pretended I was Pocahontas! Now I am well away from those days lol I look more like Snow White these days but I remember my child hood in the sun very fondly and am always the last person to complain about any kind of summer heat. So, as you might imagine, I have had my heart set on an outdoor sun lounger project for my deck for a long time! Read the rest of the post »

Outdoor bench for my deck: DIY wood working project tutorial!

A wood working tutorial on how to build a corner built-in outdoor bench. This corner has always been a little bit of a “dead man’s land” tucked all the way back behind my home. I had considered a little seating area and even thought about building a tall pub table here but it didn’t feel like that was utilizing the space as well as it could be. A friend of mine has an outdoor bench running literally around her entire deck in place of a railing and the amount of seating offered is just amazing. However, I have way more deck then she does and certainly don’t need that much bench! But this corner spoke to me as being the perfect place for an L-shaped outdoor bench! Read the rest of the post »

Kitchen Project Organizing Spices with the Farmhouse Hens Decorate

A post about my kitchen project in collaboration with four other AMAZING DIY bloggers: Farmhouse Hens Decorate! When I found out that our next post was to be a farmhouse kitchen project my mind turned immediately to my dreaded spice cabinet. Some of those plastic shakers have literally been with me for YEARS! Once I started buying bulk organic herbs and spices off of Amazon I kept refilling my old shakers until they gave out on me. So, one by one, I’ve been replacing them so my spice cabinet was becoming one very strange collection of pickle jars, olive jars, pepper jars and plastic shakers lol. Read the rest of the post »

When, where & why to start living a more self sufficient life

In the following post I address why living a self sufficient life should be something we are all striving toward as well as when and where to start! If you’re like me you follow DIY bloggers that are true, full on, homesteaders. They’ve “got it all” the farm, the house, the solar panels, the garden, they have come full circle to the point that they can feed their entire family well on what they raise and grow. They are truly what I strive to become someday but, honestly, the whole “homestead” and “self sufficient” movement can be a little intimidating so, where do you start? Read the rest of the post »

A “Faux” Mantel to hide those ugly cords – Woodworking Tutorial How-to!

This is a wood working tutorial on how I built a “faux” mantel and floating shelf beneath my flat screen television to hide those ugly cords. When I ran the electrical for this house I almost put two holes in the wall so I could run the cords behind the sheet rock however, I didn’t own this television at the time and I really didn’t want to put them in the wrong place! And it turned out to be a good thing that I didn’t because this tv would have required two separate holes – one for the power cord and one a mile away where the majority of my electronics get plugged in. Which means that for the past two years of living here those cords have been driving me crazy! Read the rest of the post »

Console table charging station for behind my sofa: DIY Build project!

How to build a simple console table for behind your sofa, with plugin added for easy phone charging! I am probably a lot like most people right now where I admittedly spend a certain amount of time on my phone, on the couch, after work, every day. So I’m currently limping along a 3 year old Motorola whose battery life leaves a lot to be desired. So, inevitably, I have to run upstairs, get my phone charger and plug it in wherever I’m sitting which usually means having to move the sofa or an end table out so I can reach an outlet. I’ve been thinking a console table would be the ticket to make for easier charging but also to create a little area for display as well so I got to work! Read the rest of the post »

Farmhouse Hens Decorate: Farmhouse Fall Vignette

A post about my fall vignette in collaboration with six other DIY bloggers: Farmhouse Hens Decorate! I will admit when our first project was announced as a Fall Vignette my immediate thought was, “What’s a vignette?” then I looked it up and my next thought was that I wanted really badly to make a lovely sign just for this project! My mod podge image transfer project did not, admittedly, come out exactly like I had hoped, however, I think it is still quite cool and adds some character to the whole display. I also knew immediately where I wanted my Vignette to be: in our entry way beneath my grandparents’ old mirror! After that it was just a case of getting creative! Read the rest of the post »

Using Mod Podge to image transfer to wood – my first craft

How to use mod podge to transfer a laserjet printed image on to wood. Some folks would say that I’m crafty and I do crafty things all of the time and that this is a “craft” blog… but that’s just not true. I am so far from crafty it isn’t even funny, I’m terribly UN-crafty, totally “craft-inhibited” actually. Give me a power tool and let me build something but please don’t ask me to make something small and cute that requires a glue gun or free hand painting or any kind of creative dexterity at all. I will fail totally. In fact, I do believe that I am craft-impaired… But when the dead line for my Farmhouse Hen’s Fall Vignette started looming into view it was time to put on my big girl panties and order some mod podge… Read the rest of the post »

Lip Balm: Peppermint and vanilla recipe for homemade chap stick

A post about how I am now making my own homemade lip balm! I used to put on some kind of chap stick or lip balm every night before bed but managed to break myself of the habit when I realized the commercial (chemical laden) products I was using were actually making my lips more chapped! Since then I keep a product called Mela-Gel on my night stand for really bad chapped lips (winters here in northern MN can be brutal) and it also works incredible on bug bites, burns and pretty much anything you can put it on that needs healing… But I wanted regular chap stick of my own to carry with me. Read the rest of the post »

Barn door table, simple DIY wood working base for my deck!

A post on how I built a base for a barn door table for outdoor entertaining on my deck! Many times I’ve gone out to my old barn (my grandparents’ old wood working shop) and grabbed something and stashed it somewhere safe for a future project. This barn door was one of those stashes! At first, I had planned on building a base that included shelves, storage and castors for my workshop in the basement. But, the more I worked down there (now that its finally semi-complete!) the more I realized that this big old barn door was just too big for that space! Read the rest of the post »

My favorite kitchen appliances and my new favorite adult drink recipe!

I’m rather surprised at myself for being able to write a post even mentioning kitchen appliances because, honestly, I’m not that big of a fan. Seems to me that most (if not all of us!) have at least one or two random gadgets collecting dust in a closet somewhere! Just about every time I’ve either asked (for xmas etc) or purchased an appliance for myself I’ve always brought them home crossing my fingers that it will be something worth the price and the space it takes up on my counter top! So, these are the four I never regretted for a moment that work hard for me almost every single day I’ve had them! Read the rest of the post »

Liquid Dish Soap Recipe, grease-fighting and easy to make!

This is a post all about my homemade recipe for grease-fighting liquid dish soap! I have a confession to make, even though I said I had replaced all of my household cleaners with my own homemade there was one I just hadn’t tackled yet: Liquid Dish Soap. So, what have I been using to wash my dishes by hand with in the meanwhile? Well, I’ve literally just been dumping some of my homemade dry Dishwasher Detergent in the sink and scrubbing with everything I’ve got. It was actually working all right but I really wanted something for “real” that would have some “soapiness” to it etc. So, I got to searching and experimenting and FINALLY I landed on one that works great for us! Read the rest of the post »

Tall Garden Planter on wheels: How to build, wood working, DIY

After building my mom a tall garden planter for vegetables and strawberries my aunt asked if I could build her one too. Seriously though I can’t blame her: this is a really great idea and everyone should have at least one of these! My mom’s garden only needed to be weeded once or twice all summer lol I’m wondering why I thought I needed to put in a big “normal” garden and didn’t just build myself three of these… Anyway, my aunt had a couple of requests: It needed to be a little smaller then my mom’s so it would fit nice in a specific place on her deck and she also wanted it to be on wheels so she could move it under her house eaves in the winter time or during bad weather. So, I got to the drawing board! Read the rest of the post »

Rain gutters out of 3″ PVC pipe, DIY How to!

This is a post on how I created gutters for my house using PVC pipe! So, quite awhile ago, I stumbled on to the coolest thing online: Rain gutters made out of 3″ PVC pipe. Since then I cannot find it online ANYWHERE! The only thing I can find online about it is forums of people like me who want to try it and other people telling them to just hire a crew like TIG Roofing to put up seamless gutters because apparently: we’re all rich. Not that I wouldn’t love to be able to afford seamless gutters! Read the rest of the post »

On demand hot water heater, the good, the bad and th- WHY IS THE WATER COLD!?

Now that its been a couple of years of living with an on demand hot water heater (also called a tankless hot water heater), I wanted to put in my two cents. When I renovated the house I really didn’t want anything to do with a regular hot water heater. A: they take up a ton of room and B: They run out! Seriously, it just seemed to me that common sense would say that heating the water ONLY when you need it would be a lot more economic then paying to keep a huge amount of water hot all of the time. Renovating the bathroom takes a lot of work and there are so many things that you can do to ensure that you keep the bathroom as the place that you want to be. From using the floors to walls guide for wet walls to stop the walls from becoming moldy, to ensuring that you have the right water temperature and pressure, you have a lot to consider. The fact you have the right heater is important, too. So, how’s that been working out for us? Well, there’s a lot that goes into that answer! Read the rest of the post »

Kitchen tips: How I’m making meals out of what most people would throw away!

This post is all about my favorite frugal kitchen tips! I save every single glass jar that comes with a decent lid. I can’t help it! Here’s the thing though, I use them CONSTANTLY. A big batch of stock to freeze? I fill up a bunch of jars and stick them in the freezer. Leftover soup? Yup it all goes in jars and gets frozen. One of my old plastic herb shakers finally breaks? Dump that garlic salt in a jar! (My entire seasoning cabinet will eventually be nothing but jars with green Parmesan container lids screwed on them.) Leftover bacon grease? Yup, it goes in a jar so I can use it later. Leftover every other kind of grease? That also goes in a jar and when the jar is full, it gets thrown away. So handy. I’ve also managed to collect 6 glass drinking “bottles” from my favorite organic tea that I spoil myself with from time to time now I always have one full of our water in my car at all times, which helps me avoid the impulse purchase of buying something to drink when I’m in town. Read the rest of the post »

Flower boxes: Wood working DIY hanging flower boxes in my master!

This post is about how I built hanging flower boxes for my master bedroom! So this past winter I kinda went stir crazy with cabin fever. There really isn’t any explanation for it as we had an actually VERY short winter for us. But that doesn’t change the fact that I really did have a tough time personally. I just got so tired of the daily grind and the gray and the white and the never-seeing-the-sun and the every day being the same. Ugh. So, it occurred to me that maybe something green and growing in my master bedroom might just help brighten my winter days a little bit. So, I got to planning my flower boxes! Read the rest of the post »

Counter Tops for The Little House with Mahogany Plywood!

This is a tutorial on how I built the mahogany counter tops in the little house out of plywood. I was in a real pickle when it came to what I wanted to do with the counters in the little house. Normally I probably would have just run to Menards (or Lowes or Home Depot) and purchased stock laminate counter tops that they have on hand. But because I chose to put cabinets back to back I had a span of 48×60 inches to cover so if we wanted laminate counter tops they would have to be custom ordered and thus: too much a splurge for this little house. A big part of me wanted to just use barnwood like I did for the kitchen backsplash but I knew my mom would hate that and if she ever lived here she deserves the flattest smoothest counter that she could ever want. So, I was in a pickle. Read the rest of the post »

The Little House: Covering up a very ugly ceiling with Styrofoam ceiling tiles

After you got past the horrific glare of the very pink foam insulation covered walls (and that EVERY THING was covered in spray foam) the next worst was probably the ceiling in the main room. This old place at one point was sheetrocked and professionally taped and mudded – the problem is they did not sheet rock the ceiling. Nope, that’s not sheet rock, its some kind of very old particle wood. After it was taped and mudded then acoustic ceiling tiles were stapled to the ceiling. I will never forget my sister-in-law telling me the story of how they went to the basement one night (to go to bed when they lived here over a decade ago) when a tremendous crash and insanity happened above them. Was it a break in? Did a tornado come through? What on earth could have made so much noise?! Read the rest of the post »

The Little House: When a remodel timeline meets with reality

On April 10th I got up and, for the the first time in a VERY long time, I did not put on my “nice” clothes and head to my day job. Instead, I dug out my “work” clothes (torn up and stained jeans etc.) and, after a cup of coffee, I didn’t even have to get in my car to go to “work” that day, I just walked over to The Little House to begin the remodel. To quote my last post about this (to bring you up to speed on the place): “On the lot beside us this little place (all of 500 square feet) has gone through many “renovations” since my Grandpa built it. It was built for my Grandpa’s dad and then it also housed my Grandma’s dad for awhile. Way back then it didn’t have running water and was as simple as you can imagine: just a 300 square foot box with a dirt floor basement beneath it. Literally decades later my dad and brother dug a septic, a well and added a bathroom, a closet and a bedroom, insulated it, sheet rocked it and gave it new siding and shingles and added a little kitchen. They also poured concrete in the basement and carpeted the floor down there to increase the living space. Read the rest of the post »

The Little House: A remodel plan and timeline, getting organized

If you’ve been hanging out here over the last couple of weeks then you know that my mom hired me to tackle the remodel of “the little house”. On the lot beside us this little place (all of 500 square feet) has gone through many “renovations” since my Grandpa built it. It was built for my Grandpa’s dad and then it also housed my Grandma’s dad for awhile. Way back then it didn’t have running water and was as simple as you can imagine: just a 300 square foot box with a dirt floor basement beneath it. Literally decades later my dad and brother dug a septic, a well and added a bathroom, a closet and a bedroom, insulated it, sheet rocked it and gave it new siding and shingles and added a little kitchen. They also poured concrete in the basement and carpeted the floor down there to increase the living space. I remember several friends and family living here on and off over the years (including my brother when he was first married) and then my dad lived here for the last ten years after my folks’ divorced. Read the rest of the post »

Small garden with railroad ties & the dangers of creosote.

I’m going to jump right in here and talk about creosote and the dangers of railroad ties immediately because I know that’s going to be the center of the conversation because just about everyone has heard that railroad ties are toxic. But how toxic? And at what extent is what we’re hearing fear mongering and panic? And why, on earth, if there is any question at all, did I choose to use them around my vegetable garden? You all know me and know that I ere on the side of caution when it comes to my health. Read the rest of the post »

DIY Fabulous Face Scrub recipe for incredibly smooth skin!

So, a few years back, I was your average girl. I washed my face at least once a day (like everyone told me to) and I struggled with my share of acne and even used ProActive when I couldn’t stand it any more. I had a whole bunch of special products from face wash to moisturizer etc. I even visited Acne.org and started purchasing the same ingredients for way less money on Amazon instead of dealing with the ProActive subscription headache. I still have those bottles and, on the rare instance when I do break out, use them maybe once or twice a year. So, what changed? Why do I no longer need my hard core acne cream, lotions and such? Read the rest of the post »

How I organize my blog and why you need Dropbox right now

This post is in answer to the many questions I received about how I organize my blog after publishing my post: 15,000 Pageviews a month: How I did it in 1 year & how I do it every day! In that post I detailed my nitty gritty day to day schedule on how I promote this blog. But, like all schedules, mine keeps evolving with me, my time and what works best for me. For example: in that post I talked about how I was putting together posts that would then literally publish that very day. I don’t do that anymore. Now I am finishing posts and scheduling them at least two weeks before they go live on the blog. This has lessened my stress level considerably! I am no longer frantically putting posts together the day I want them to go live! Read the rest of the post »

No green house? No problem! My unconventional solution that worked great!

It occurred to me last year when I purchased a few bell pepper plants at a local green house that if I was going to give this gardening thing a real shot then I was going to need to start my own seeds. (The cost of buying plants being a little too high for my frugal self.) However, I had two major obstacles in my way, firstly I don’t have a green house so I had to start my seedlings indoors and secondly I don’t have a good south facing area in my home for decent sunlight. I tackled the first problem by going to my drawing board because the second problem isn’t going to be changing anytime soon. It came to me when I was at Walmart and I stumbled upon the perfect mini green houses. “Disposable” roaster pans with clear plastic lids! Read the rest of the post »

The five things in January that made my life a whole lot better!

I think I’ve said this 1,000 times since I started this blog: Sometimes the smallest things can make our lives dramatically better. It surprises me how the big projects can make as much of a difference as some of the smaller changes I make. I moved our living room around a tad the other day and BAM, no cost and now I literally love the room again! Sometimes it does cost a little, or require just a small change (or the purchase of a product) and it truly can change your life for the better. Here are the five things that happened in January that absolutely made my life incredibly better! Read the rest of the post »

Build your own platform bed frame DIY

I knew this one was going to be a big project for one main reason: A very narrow stairwell. Which meant I knew I would have to take every individual piece of the bed frame upstairs and put it together there. Not to mention I had to haul the old bed frame out of there all while trying real hard not to put holes in every wall on the way down. Read the rest of the post »

Kitchen organizing – a hanging basket that has changed my life!

After building my kitchen sink base to fit my antique cast enamel sink I thought I had all of my storage needs well in hand. Well, it just goes to show that you really never know until you live in it for awhile! As for general storage the shelves and wicker baskets I put beneath the sink do a great job for us. In the bottom basket I keep my onions and garlic, in the top basket I keep all of my kitchen soaps, extra sponges etc. However, no matter how many times I tried it, there was just NO keeping my day to day foaming hand soap down there (check out my recipe here), it was just way too inconvenient! I also never wanted to drop my wet sponge or potato scrubber down there either because seriously wet + wicker + a wood shelf = just not a good combination. Read the rest of the post »

DIY All purpose and surface spray recipe!

I finally got tired of dumping vinegar on any of my countertops or surfaces I wanted to clean and decided to finally break down and buy a spray bottle. (I found this lovely little glass bottle on Amazon here.) Honestly I am a little embarrassed that I hadn’t made this sooner! The recipe is so very simple!
Read the rest of the post »

An old frame and chicken wire upcycled into a jewelry hanger!

I’ve been holding on to this frame since 2013. It used to be attached to this old dresser, though it was clear that it did NOT belong there and literally fell off into my hands. It used to hold a spectacular old mirror that was in tremendously bad shape and though I tried very hard to save it the shattering was just too deep so I donated it to my wonderful aunt for her mosaics. I’ve seen many jewelry hangers online made out chicken wire and it didn’t take me long to put two and two together. I have a jewelry box (like most girls) but like with any box everything in it gets all tangled up together and I’ve been wanting a jewelry hanger ever since I made my mom hers out of a mirror. So, I got to work! Read the rest of the post »

How to: braid your own large rag area rug!

Did you hear about that insane winter storm we got hit by a couple of Fridays ago? Well, it meant I was basically stranded at home for three days straight and I thought, “I know, I’ll make that rug I’ve been planning on working on!” So, while the snow piled up outside, I grabbed two $5 blankets and a big drop cloth I had purchased just for this project and I started cutting them all into strips so I could braid them. And I cut and I cut and I cut. In the end this project translated into two things. 1: Rugs are worth every penny we pay for them and then some and 2: I never want to do anything like this again. I foolishly thought this project really wasn’t going to be all that big of a deal and, in the end, it would be worth the $100 or so dollars I saved doing it. Honestly, I’m on the fence on whether or not the 40+ hours I spent on this rug was actually worth it. Do I love the rug? Of course. Do I love that I made it? Of course. But this was A LOT of work! Read the rest of the post »

How to clean and remove stains from an old cast iron sink

So, as you all know, I have been working diligently in my basement for the past couple of months. For the bathroom I had set aside my grandparents’ old bathroom cabinet and this gorgeous, ancient, American Standard, cast iron sink! It was in one of the sheds and though I don’t know exactly how old it is my guess is between 40-50 years. When I posted about our kitchen sink base, I had lots of questions on how to clean cast iron because, like this one, it was SO GROSS. So I rolled up my sleeves and took lots of pictures of the process this time! So, this is how I removed stains from and clean cast iron sinks that are covered in total nasty! But first, check out this amazing sink! (If you’re looking to upgrade your workspace with a sink that stands up to heavy-duty use, explore the range of high-quality options at 247 Catering Supplies – designed to meet the demands of a busy commercial kitchen while ensuring durability and style.) Read the rest of the post »

Covering walls with pallet wood: The basement bathroom renovation

Hey guys! I’m so excited to show you the finished walls of my basement bathroom today! I covered them entirely with pallet wood and barn wood from my barn. As many of you know I have been working down in my basement to get it finished as a wood workshop for me and my number one goal was to spend the least amount of money possible. In an exchange we were given a pile of old pallet wood that my husband and I hauled down to the basement for me to start work with. I had a little extra sheet rock leftover and a ton of old closet doors I had no use for so this whole basement ended up covered with basically everything but the kitchen sink lol! During it all I saved the best wood I had for the bathroom, here’s my pile of wood and all of the before photos. Read the rest of the post »

How to DIY a florescent light box cover out of an old window

As you guys know from my previous posts over the last few weeks I have been spending the majority of my days in the basement. When the plan had been initially to build a rental suite down here (because the basement conveniently has a separate entrance) I had built a wall separating the main room into two living spaces. Since then the plan has changed considerably and this basement will now be my wood workshop so, one of the first things I did, was take down the wall that chopped the main room into two rooms. With the room wide open I started working on lighting because nothing takes a creepy basement into a real living space like light! I started by running a whole bunch of bulbs around the room (8 all together!) and covering them with mason jars like I showed you in my last tutorial. Then, I grabbed a florescent light I had replaced in my mom’s house and brought home because: it was free. It was missing its steel cover plate as well as a whole florescent light cover but I figured: light is light! So, I put it up right smack dab in the middle of the room where the wall used to be. Read the rest of the post »

Jar light bulb covers for my basement!

If you’ve been following along lately you know that I am slowly hacking away at finishing my basement into my workshop. Two things you need to know about this situation before I proceed with this tutorial: #1 I am doing everything as inexpensively as possible with little to no regard for how things might “look” and #2 There is little to nothing here that I am doing conventionally and I know well that some people might think it looks “weird” and I’m ok with that! 🙂 Anyway, my basement needed one thing first and foremost before I could start work on it at all. LIGHT! Up until I started in on this job I had three bare bulbs wired up down there because we had to have something but they were really adding to the creepiness factor. It was time to light this basement up like a Christmas tree! Problem was though – I had no budget to do it! So, I went to the drawing board to make my own jar lights. Read the rest of the post »

DIY foaming hand soap recipe – my newest favorite money saver!

Many of you reading this are going to be wondering why the heck I hadn’t figured this one out a lot sooner. I’ve been looking around Amazon for the right foaming hand soap dispenser and finally ended up on the one you see in the pictures. It is not the least expensive (by far) but I’m a firm believer in quality when I’m going to be purchasing anything new and I also thought it looked nice. Besides, the reviews on it are very good and this foaming hand soap pump really needs to last to pay for itself. It also has a cool little suction cup on the bottom that keeps it in place. Read the rest of the post »

Herb drying rack utilizing an old sign and office binder clips!

I mentioned in one of my last blog posts that I put in a little kitchen garden right by my front step this spring. I loved it! I was able to transplant just about every type of perennial flower of my grandma’s into it so they won’t be lost and will keep on blooming for years. Besides the flowers though I finally got some fresh herbs! I’ve been dabbling in just about every type of herb storing since they started growing. I’ve frozen them as is and I tried freezing them in oil as well. But I really just wanted to dry them because that’s how I use herbs the most. So, I needed an herb drying rack! At work I have these medium sized binder clips that I bought a box of. Read the rest of the post »

A privacy fence room divider: Covering up an Outdoor Eyesore

Hey guys, well you’ve already heard me rant and rave about the terrible place my electrician put my electric panel: Right by my front door! To see what I did about that ugliness on the inside of the house check this out: Covering up an incredible eye sore in my entry way. After seeing that post many of you asked what I did on the outside of my house because it was all just as ugly on the outside as it was on the inside! I had been at the drawing board about this problem all last winter before I finally had a light bulb moment! I had one extra fence panel leftover from my privacy fence so I thought I could make something like a room divider out of it… I got to work. Read the rest of the post »

Beachy low maintenance backyard fire pit tutorial you can do yourself!

Fire pit tutorial you can do yourself! First thing I thought of was function: I hated having to move all of my yard furniture every time I mowed so I wanted something my furniture could sit on. Second thing was safety, I wanted a fire pit I didn’t have to worry about leaving while it was still smoldering. Also, I didn’t want a fire pit that (if not used) would fill full of grass and weeds. Everything pointed to the fact that my dad had a leftover pile of beach sand on his property that he wanted to get rid of. Well, that basically did it: I were gonna make me a beach and it was going to be a totally awesome totally free backyard transformation! Read the rest of the post »

An old milk can recycle into an outdoor end table!

My mom recently has been working on her beautiful new deck, adding seating and flowers etc. She picked up four red Adirondack chairs and then commented, “I really need just one little end table!” My brain immediately started turning and it didn’t take it long to land on this old milk can. My mom had mentioned a couple of years ago that she really wanted one of the old milk cans she was sure were lying about the farm. I found one out in the woods one day but it was in such bad shape I didn’t even haul it back to the house. Read the rest of the post »

Grill Station – Tutorial build with granite and 4×4 posts

First thing is first, I just have to show you the amazing grill station I had for my grill BEFORE I built this new grill station. Feast your eyes on this awesomeness! I know stop drooling over my chippy old fabulous little kitchen table with the rotted feet that I pulled out of a shed. My brother had scored an enormous selection of granite remnants on K-bid for a song and he gave me one for a gift! Everyone encouraged me to consider picking from the selection for my kitchen counter tops but… no… I’m sorry…. granite in a 100 year old farm house?…. no… I just, COULD NOT DO IT. Read the rest of the post »

Galvanized pipe rack for my grill – so cool and so simple!

A tutorial on how to build a galvanized pipe rack for towels and utensils. I finished up my new grill station just this last weekend and a lot of the awesomeness of it comes from the project that was the easiest and took me the least amount of time! My pipe rack! Check out the grill station by clicking here! First, you need to gather your tools/pipe pieces. Read the rest of the post »

Mason Jar Solar lights for my back deck!

First things first I have to admit that I actually ended up NOT using my Grandma’s old mason jars for this project. Instead, I used some of her other jars that were much smaller and easier to get my hand in. You’ve probably already seen this project floating around the internet and pinterest, solar mason jar lights is definitely not a new idea. However, I had a bit of a problem with the mason jar solar lights tutorials I’ve seen online. Every tutorial I’ve read had you cut a square out of the lid and attach the solar light to the lid. This always bothered me, it seemed like then wouldn’t the jar fill with water and become all nastiness? So, I got to work on my own design. Why not flip the jars over and glue the top of the light to the bottom of the jar instead? Read the rest of the post »

How to convert old chairs into fun end tables and extra seating – Eat Drink and Be Merry!

When I was cleaning out the old play house and converting it to my new Tack Shack I ran into these three old chairs and a light bulb went off in my head. What I needed most on my deck was not extra seating (I was already working on that) but Ireally needed some end tables. I’ve just been putting my glasses down on the deck and, quite frankly, it was a tad inconvenient so I brought the old chairs down to the garage and got to work taking them a part. The backs and the seats look so much less gross in the picture then they actually were because they were NASTY. Read the rest of the post »

Homemade luxurious recipe for Body Butter

I got to experimenting a couple of years ago, attempting to create my own homemade recipe for body butter. I knew I wanted to use coconut oil but I wanted to use the LEAST amount of ingredients as possible. I went looking online and many of the recipes I saw for body butter (or even just homemade DIY lotion) called for ingredients I did not have on hand and then what if I didn’t like how it turned out? Then I would have a bunch of money sitting in a cabinet in ingredients I might not use again! So, after some research I grabbed my tub of coconut oil, my lavender oil and I also happened to have some organic castor oil on hand. I wanted a literal “butter” consistency so I knew I had to “whip” it up. I honestly had no idea if this was going to turn out so I dropped a couple of cups of coconut oil in my mixer, included a dozen or so drops of lavender oil and started it up. As it whipped the coconut oil I slowly started drizzling in the castor oil and OH. MY. GOSH. Read the rest of the post »

Outdoor sun loungers DIY out of old goose hunting chairs using table cloths!

Hey guys I can’t wait to share this sun lounger project with you! Minnesota has FINALLY had itself a weekend that almost felt like summer here! I’ve been chomping at the bit to work outside. I’ve always been more of the construction type then desk jockey type and though I really needed a break after the house renovation my body has been itching in frustration to get out and do something with it! So, this weekend I had plans! My old barn became a relative’s dumping ground for many years (decades ago) so I inherited some very strange leftovers. Especially old hunting gear and what-not. And, you know me, I’m trying to find projects and usability every where I can! These chairs my dad proclaimed to be old goose hunting chairs that once came with a blind over top of them. I nodded thinking, Well, that’s cool but now they’re mine! Mahahahahaha! I don’t know about you but my idea of the perfect thing would be a place in the sun after work for a couple of hours, good company (or just myself would be fine too…) and a bottle of wine. I had been working on sun loungers in my head for months when I had stumbled upon these old goose hunting chairs and immediately, I got excited! I pulled them out of the barn Saturday morning and I got to work. Read the rest of the post »

Laundry detergent – Homemade and only $3.50 for four gallons!

I can’t wait to share my laundry detergent recipe with you guys but, first, we’re going to do a bit of a rewind to the exact moment I figured out that “normal” laundry detergents and fabric softeners do NOT agree with my skin at all! Over ten years ago a family friend offered to do some of our laundry when our washing machine was getting fixed. Great – very thoughtful – nice woman. Then we got our clothes back and I could not believe how badly they stunk (of course I never told her that) my clothes absolutely wreaked in the worst flowery synthetic way that I could hardly believe it! Not only must she have used an incredible amount of laundry detergent and fabric softener she also went on to starch (and only the universe knows what else) and iron every shirt, pair of jeans and even my little sleep nighties. At first I just plugged my nose and figured I would get used to it until my back broke out and I started itching in my sleep. I was blotchy, covered in bumps, it was like chicken pox all over my back kind of not-pretty. I rewashed EVERYTHING and went on the hunt for the gentlest laundry detergent I could find. (I used soap that was safe for kids and babies for a long time but it seemed SO expensive – so on to my homemade laundry detergent recipe!) Read the rest of the post »

How to build easy barn wood book shelves!

I have not professed my struggle about my office to you guys out here on the blog yet. Well, its been a doozy! First, I had it all done, complete, looking good . . . and I hated it. When I moved in here last August my mom sent one of her big book cases along with me which I managed to somehow fit every last book I had in it . . . but NO room for more and that just wasn’t going to work! And that poor book case was so jammed packed that it just looked awful. (NO, I could not give up more books I had already forced myself to purge two full bins which I gave to the library!) Read the rest of the post »

Hanging Barn Door, How to install with hardware

I’ve had my hanging barn door hardware for nearly a year now (I’m ashamed to say) so this project has been on my “to do” list for WAY too long! Being as this is an old farm I have the perk of having several old barn doors that I stashed in a safe place and have been drooling over for months. A door on my master bathroom is totally required, it is on the other side of the stairwell to the bedroom but, regardless, it was time to get this hung! Read the rest of the post »

Covering up an incredible eye sore in my entry way with a barn door closet!

Building a barn door closet. So I’ve had this incredible eye sore in my entryway since the very beginning of my house renovation. We can blame me and the epic lack of communication with my electrician remains a VERY sore spot for me because it apparently never occurred to anyone that we needed to discuss the location of the new panels SO they ended up right here, right by my front door. Ugly. Ugly. Ugly. Read the rest of the post »

How to build a jewelry cabinet out of a $9 mirror

I always have such a hard time coming up with something special to get my incredible Mom for Christmas. I think we all want to get something useful and memorable and just amazing, especially for the people that are the most important to us. But that is a very tall order! I had come across a mirrored jewelry cabinet on Pinterest many times when it finally dawned on me that I could make one for Mom! She and I went to Walmart and picked up a nice black mirror. Read the rest of the post »

An old ladder gets retired to my closet as a ladder shoe rack!

I’m sure I’m not the only one who has seen the amazing things done with old ladders on pinterest! My favorite of all time was an old ladder shoe rack and I just happened to have an old ladder myself! It was Grandpa’s and was used out here on the farm for many decades before being hung up on the side of the old garage where it hung for years upon years, just waiting for retirement. Read the rest of the post »

How to: Build your own inexpensive closet doors!

I’m very picky when it comes to closet doors, I don’t really like any of the options out there. First you have the rolling closet doors that, always, cover half the closet half the time and are a bit of a nightmare to install, hate em. Then you have the old fashioned kind of closet doors where its basically just two interior doors side by side that open out, I like this idea but they’re usually really heavy. Bi-fold closet doors are probably my favorite kind (if I had the choice) but they’re also rather a pain to install and complicated to make. Read the rest of the post »

My laundry room gets spruced up with some paint and inexpensive storage!

These throwback posts every month are WILD. This comes from back in November of 2015 and I was so proud and so excited for this little makeover. Looking back it really wasn’t much lol but, like with everything around here I’m always just working toward better and never perfect. This was certainly better than it WAS but it was a long way (and lots more work) from the lovely room it is now! Read the rest of the post »

Counter tops DIY, fixing my oak kitchen counters

DIY wood kitchen counter tops! It seemed the perfect choice for my little country kitchen. I’d made everything else so, it was only natural that I would be making my counter tops as well. Initially, when I thought this renovation wasn’t going to absolutely and totally drain my bank accounts, I had been holding out the hope of being able to afford slate… Read the rest of the post »

How to: Build your own rolling pantry! Wood working DIY How to!

I knew from the very beginning with Grandma’s house that the kitchen would end up being a bit of a galley. At first I leaned to using the closet under our stairs for our pantry but it worked out too well for that to be our wood storage. I also knew that we would probably have enough storage to make it work without a pantry but upon running into several, narrow, rolling pantrys on Pinterest (Check out this one, isn’t it gorgeous!?) I knew exactly what I would be building! Read the rest of the post »

How to build your own kitchen cabinets

Welcome to the final wind down to my full kitchen reveal! You’ve seen my kitchen island (and how I built the butcher block on top of it) and my kitchen sink base that I also built. Today we’ll be moving on to the big post about how to build your own kitchen cabinets. Read the rest of the post »

How to: Build your own kitchen sink base! Do it yourself, wood working

Our throw back post this month came out all the way back in October, 2015! A lot has changed in my life since then, to say the least lol. I updated this post back in 2018 when I was still a single gal and had just finished giving our kitchen a giant makeover. Since then you guys know Lodi has joined me and we got married in June of 2022. This kitchen sink base is till going strong for us and we still love our old sink! Read the rest of the post »

How to: Build your own butcher block!

I found that to build your own butcher block is not all that complicated! With the wonderful resource of our barn to pull from (my grandparents’ old wood working shop) I just keep finding more and more material to work with. In this case I knew several years ago exactly what I planned on using for the butcher block on my island – I didn’t yet have an island in mind but that wasn’t the point! To see the finished island check it out here: A radio stand converted into a red kitchen island. Read the rest of the post »

Build a diy garden planter because: weeding sucks

I took an afternoon to build my wonderful mom a tall planter so she could have a vegetable garden on her deck! Gardens are known for endless hoeing and countless hours day in and day out bent over in back breaking work in the constant battle against weeds. Because we started with organic soil that we brought in we were already way ahead of any weeds or grasses that might try to take over our plants. Read the rest of the post »

Inexpensive wood floor that looks like a million dollars!

How to lay down your own inexpensive wood floor and make it look gorgeous! In a past life I had thought of the idea of buying solid oak plywood or particle board, cutting it into strips and using it as inexpensive solid oak flooring and I was told that I was an idiot and carpet was chosen instead (a far more expensive option when I had already exhausted my budget). As it turns out I was very right and cutting plywood into strips for a wood floor has been done and it is gorgeous! Read the rest of the post »