Stone Carriage House Gym: Part 10, Reveal For Now
It’s the big TADA or, as most refer to it, Reveal Day for our stone Carriage House gym! We have been working on this phase of the Carriage House gym expansion for four months! I have documented almost fifty individual work sessions on social media. Truthfully, it was more than that, but I spared you a bit of the tedium. I have no good or bad value to place on the amount of time this project has taken. It is what it is when you’re DIYing your way through your evenings and weekends. I can’t tell you what tv series is good to watch, but I can tell you my…
Happy List: #396
Hello! Welcome to this week’s Happy List. I am so glad you are here. This week I shared an update on the ceiling of the Carriage House. I might have a reveal post for you soon! Then I shared pictures of how I’m using the vintage bottles we dug out of our backyard this spring. I had so much fun enjoying my house and delighting in these simple pleasures. I hope this Happy List leaves you feeling inspired and encouraged! In addition, I absolutely welcome the opportunity to connect with you and hear what you are doing and how you’re feeling. That’s a little bit selfish of me as I…
Vintage Bottle Bud Vases
A couple of months ago we dug up some vintage bottles from our backyard. Some folks have a garden in their backyard and dig up things like potatoes. We dig up vintage bottles. Perhaps we could trade? Anyway, it’s not that unusual to dig up “garbage” in the backyard of a really old home that existed before a person driving a big truck collected your bins of trash every Friday at 4 a.m. You can complain about a lot of things in modern society, but waste disposal ordinances seem like a good thing to me. The vintage bottles we found were in surprisingly good shape for having been buried for…
Stone Carriage House Gym: Part 9, The Ceiling
We’ve discussed floors, walls, and now it’s time to discuss the Carriage House gym ceiling. You wouldn’t think a ceiling would be very interesting, but the Carriage House has a gorgeous ceiling. Trust me when I say, when you are laying on your back staring straight up while trying to bench press your body weight and the only thing you have to distract you from the strain of your questionable choices is the ceiling above you, you’ll be glad you took the time to make it look gorgeous. When I say gorgeous, I mean that in a rustic sort of way that’s appropriate for this building’s age and style. We’re…
4th of July 2025 Break
Hi, Folks! This week I’m taking a blog break for the 4th of July holiday here in the U.S. We have some fun activities planned. We have some projects to start and maybe finish. Basically, the usual! However, we might get a little wild and not set our alarms in the morning. I’ll probably still wake up at the same time anyway because my brain is fun like that. If you’d like something to read this week, please try one of these goodies from the archives. For your architectural interest: In Praise of the Mansard Roof You might have seen these if you visited Paris or the New England area.…
Happy List: #395
Hello! Welcome to this week’s Happy List. It feels so good to have you here! This week on the ol’ blog I discussed our favorite new meal – savory s’mores. You must try this at least once this summer or fall. It’s one of those simple pleasures you can delight in. I also shared that we installed another time capsule on our property. This one is in the Carriage House. I have SO MUCH FUN with this sort of thing. I’d also like to remind those of you that live in new houses that your house will be old someday. That’s how time works. So, feel free to leave notes…
Stone Carriage House: Part 8, Time Capsule
I’m too excited to bury the lead. We hid a time capsule in our stone Carriage House! *In my best Oprah voice, “You get a time capsule, and YOU get a time capsule, but only if you find it!* It is not a secret that I am unabashedly on the hunt for buried treasure on our 250-year-old property. Surely, surely, there must be some cash, gold coins, or Prohibition-era liquor hidden somewhere, right? Unless someone already found it. Hmmm…nope! I refuse to believe it. Hope springs eternal around here. Plus, my treasure hunt is just good, silly fun. Renovating and restoring a property as old as ours is no easy…
Summer Must Do: Savory S’mores
Have you heard of savory s’mores? If regular s’mores are dessert, savory s’mores are dinner. Imagine if a grilled cheese sandwich, a campfire, and a gourmet charcuterie board had a baby. The divine result would be savory s’mores. Think melted cheese on a cracker or bread and topped with anything that strikes your fancy – meat, olives, fancy condiments – and you’ve got yourself savory s’mores. I saw someone making savory s’mores on social media and all I could think was, “How fast can I get one of these creations in my belly?” We’ve had savory s’mores a few times now and it’s not even July. Here’s what I’ve learned…
Happy List: #394
Hello! Happy Friday and welcome to this week’s Happy List. It’s makes me feel so good to have you here. This week on the blog I shared the American flag I made for the 4th of July. This was another one of my upcycled craft projects and they bring me so much fulfillment. I also wrote about the floor situation in the Carriage House. We’re glad that part of the project is finished, but it did cut into our restoration budget. These things happen, so we’ll probably end up pushing off some “nice to have” improvements until later. I hope this Happy List leaves you feeling inspired, encouraged, and maybe…
Stone Carriage House Gym: Part 7, The Floor Problem
The adventure continues on our stone Carriage House gym project. Today, we’re talking about the concrete floor problem. Or shall we call it an opportunity? Hmm. I’m not feeling that generous yet. It really was an issue. The worst part is we should have seen it coming. Here’s how we got in this predicament. We took down a non load-bearing stone wall in a very old building. I’m not casually or disrespectfully throwing out the old adjective. This building was originally a garage for a horse-drawn carriage and dates back to the late 1700s. Old is a compliment. We use it for a home gym now. I’m sure our forefathers…
