Stone Carriage House Gym: Part 4, Pipes In Stone Walls
Our stone Carriage House was built in the late 1700s before indoor electricity and plumbing existed. Just think about that for a minute. If you had to do your business outside, that building is old. If you want to do your business inside this old building, some retrofitting is going to have to happen. Today, we are going to talk about the pipes in our Carriage House and how they clogged up the flow of our restoration progress as we’ve been repointing this building’s stone foundation. To plumb an all stone building, you’re going to have to bust through the 18-inch thick stone foundation or walls in order to insert…
Repurposed Wood Mortar as a Planter
The mortar portion of a wood mortar and pestle set came home with me from the thrift store recently. At least, I’m pretty sure that’s how it was originally intended to be used. It was either that or an oddly shaped bowl. It was made from several pieces of wood (presumably mahogany) laminated together and then hollowed out on a lathe to have sloping sides. I knew I wouldn’t use it for food preparation because, despite all my best intentions, I’ve never consistently used any of the mortar and pestle sets we’ve owned. I’m more of a food processor type of home cook. I’m also the type of person who…
Happy List: #389
Hi! Welcome to this week’s Happy List. I am over-the-moon to see you here. Happy early Mother’s Day to those of you celebrating this weekend. I am immensely grateful for the women in my life who have, in ways big and small, positively impacted my life. The photo at the top of the blog post is of me and my mom. This week on the blog I shared the fairy light mason jars I made for our deck. While I made mine just for fun, I realized they would make a fun, unique gift for someone in your life…a mother figure, perhaps. I also shared the next installment in the…
Stone Carriage House Gym: Part 3, Old Windows
Work on our stone Carriage House gym continues and today we’re going to discuss old windows. It is hard to explain the window situation on this half of the building. I think the short answer is someone thought windows were overrated. Natural light? Who needs it? Glass panes? Metal grates are stronger. The longer answer is that on the end of the building we are currently restoring, there are two small window openings with cast iron grates instead of glass panes. Were glass panes ever there? Maybe. There is no longer evidence of them if they were there. Poof. History erased. One of the grates on the west facing side…
Fairy Light Mason Jars (Solar and Battery Powered)
Today, it is my privilege to remind you of the simple joy of fairy light mason jars. It’s not a new concept, but it is one I had forgotten about until recently. In addition, there are not one, but TWO easy ways to light them up yourselves. First, how this reminder came about in case you don’t like DIY projects. (There’s something for everyone here.) I was killing time in the lighting aisle at Lowe’s recently because Handy Husband had parked himself in the electrical aisle and I’m pretty sure he was there long enough that folks started mistaking him for an employee. If they offer an employee discount, it…
Happy List: #388
Hello! Welcome to the first Happy List of May! I hope you are as excited to be here as I am to host you. This week on the blog, I shared the next installment of the Stone Gym series. That project, which is happening in our Carriage House, is a labor of love. Heavy emphasis on the labor part. Ha! I also dished on the “hidden treasure” we found buried in the ground next to the Carriage House. If you have any ideas on what I should do with the 35 tin tiles I found, let me know. The tricky part for me is making something that matches my style…
Did We Finally Find Buried Treasure?
If you’ve been reading this blog for five minutes, you’ll know that I am unabashedly on the hunt for buried treasure on our 250-year-old property. Surely, surely, there must be something hidden around here somewhere. Preferably, this something would be valuable enough to pay off our mortgage, but I’m not picky. We recently dug a trench alongside our Carriage House and that trench was full and I do mean FULL of buried treasure. I don’t mean the valuable sort of treasure. More like this was someone’s garbage pile. An actual garbage pile that had been buried over time, and now I’m donning my proverbial Indiana Jones hat and saying under…
Stone Carriage House Gym: Part 2, Demo
If you missed it, we are expanding our home gym. This space, that I affectionately refer to as the ‘little torture chamber,’ is located in our stone Carriage House. The part of the home gym we completed in 2024 looks like this now. The other half of the building, where we want to expand the home gym, looked like this (see photo below) last month. It was a tad bit creepy. When I say creepy, I mean that’s where the cave crickets lived. I think they are gone now. *fingers crossed* You can catch up on why we are doing this expansion and feast your eyes on all the creepy…
Our WILD Spring Break Plans
Spring break for our family is finally here! Our Spring Break in New Jersey always starts on Good Friday. It feels very late this year. Some schools on the West Coast had their Spring Break in March. Spring Break is a little funny for adults because we didn’t have one before kids, and we certainly won’t have one after our kids are done with school. All that to say, we are not taking a tropical vacation over Spring Break. *whomp, whomp* We had plans to repair our house trim, but that plan met a swift end due to a finicky lift and the slope of our yard. We’re back to…
Happy List: #387
Hello and happy Good Friday for those of you celebrating. I’m happy to see each and every one of you here. We start our Spring Break today. I know it seems late compared to many parts of the U.S., but along our part of the East Coast, Spring Break is always over Easter. This week on the blog felt like a busy one – in a good way! I shared the daffodil wall I’m creating along the front portion of our property. I know I could buy bulbs and finish this project in one go, but there’s something romantic about slowly adding to the wall over time. I also finally…
