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A Pretty Happy Home

Life, DIY and Random Things That Make Me Smile

  • Home
  • About
    • About
    • Contact
  • Shop
    • Apparel and Shoes
    • Books
    • Crafts and Sewing
    • Decor
    • Furniture
    • Home Improvement
    • Kid Favorites
    • Kitchen
  • Projects
    • Cleaning
    • Clothing
    • Colonial Farmhouse
    • Crafts
    • Decorating
    • DIY Projects
    • Holidays
  • Adventure
    • Moving to Ireland
    • Living in Ireland
    • Visiting Ireland
    • Travel
    • Family and Parenting
    • Humor
    • Learning
  • Privacy Policy
  • Home
  • About
    • About
    • Contact
  • Shop
    • Apparel and Shoes
    • Books
    • Crafts and Sewing
    • Decor
    • Furniture
    • Home Improvement
    • Kid Favorites
    • Kitchen
  • Projects
    • Cleaning
    • Clothing
    • Colonial Farmhouse
    • Crafts
    • Decorating
    • DIY Projects
    • Holidays
  • Adventure
    • Moving to Ireland
    • Living in Ireland
    • Visiting Ireland
    • Travel
    • Family and Parenting
    • Humor
    • Learning
  • Privacy Policy

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  • colonial farmhouse may 2025 exterior sunporch with rhododendrons
    colonial farmhouse

    Colonial Farmhouse Six Year Anniversary

    July 16, 2025 /

    Time flies when you’re restoring, renovating, and generally making a home! We have been the stewards of this colonial farmhouse for 6 years now. The anniversary was actually in June, but I was ankle deep in mortar dust with the Carriage House renovation. Besides, it’s really a blip, as is our ownership, in the grand scheme of this old gal’s 250(ish) year history. If you’ve read this blog for any length of time, you know I enjoy poetry. It is so relatable because it often captures what we are feeling but don’t know how to express with our own words. There’s a poem called Old Houses by Robert Cording. It…

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    annisa 2 Comments

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    The Reason Why I Like Old Houses

    August 10, 2020
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    Back Porch Shelves for Drink Storage

    August 31, 2020
    colonial farmhouse dining room fireplace Searching for Hidden Treasure in Our Home

    Searching for Hidden Treasure in Our Home

    August 26, 2020
  • buried treasure searching for treasure on a 250 year old property but mainly finding old trash in the ground like tin tiles from vikon tile company in washington new jersey
    colonial farmhouse,  DIY

    Did We Finally Find Buried Treasure?

    April 30, 2025 /

    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…

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    annisa 2 Comments

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    Kitchen Mini Makeover Reveal

    February 17, 2020
    The Case of the Closet Mystery colonial farmhouse

    The Case of the Closet Mystery

    January 20, 2020
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    Kitchen Mini Makeover Progress

    February 10, 2020
  • carriage house gym expansion demo a fieldstone wall to prepare for repointing removing concrete from a stone foundation with a chisel attachment on a hammer drill
    colonial farmhouse,  DIY

    Stone Carriage House Gym: Part 2, Demo

    April 28, 2025 /

    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…

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    annisa 0 Comments

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    Carriage House Interior Before Photos

    Carriage House Interior Before Photos

    July 25, 2022
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    Music Room Before and After

    October 7, 2019
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    Check Out The Terracotta Floor We Found

    September 16, 2024
  • recreating historic trim on the exterior of an old house in new jersey from the 1780s
    DIY

    Recreating Historic Exterior House Trim – It’s A Process!

    October 21, 2024 /

    Recreating historic house trim on the exterior of a house. If ever there was a labor of love, this is it. We own a really old home. The oldest section dates back to the 1780s and it has been added onto since. Like many homes of that era, the exterior trim is ornate, beautiful, and rotten in spots. whomp, whomp Guess what most contractors want to do in this situation? Gold stars if you answered, “Take it down and replace it with something you can get off the shelf.” In essence, make it look like every other house on the block. I will also award gold stars if you answered,…

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    annisa 0 Comments

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    The Gift of Handmade

    July 17, 2017
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    In Praise of the Mansard Roof

    August 9, 2021
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    How To Add Copper Accent To Exterior Lighting

    September 11, 2024
  • fall front porch with paint blue ceiling and potted mums and pumpkins
    decorating,  gardening and landscape

    Fall Front Porch And The Funny Place I Buy Mums

    October 14, 2024 /

    Can we talk restraint? Restraint is experiencing the calendar flip from August to September and knowing you can’t decorate your fall front porch yet because Mother Nature didn’t get the “it’s fall y’all” memo and it is still 85 degrees Fahrenheit outside. So what do you do instead? You console yourself with an apple cider donut (or two, I won’t judge) while you wait for the weather to catch up to the commercialized hype of our existence. I waited 25 days. Twenty five! There are no prizes for this sort of restraint. I know. I checked. Some of you wise ones might say the prize is that the mums I…

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    annisa 0 Comments

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    in praise of oil lamps oil lamp

    In Praise of Oil Lamps

    July 28, 2021
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    In Praise Of: Ceiling Medallions

    May 3, 2023
    Restored wood Arched Mirror

    Restored Arched Mirror

    September 30, 2020
  • white colonial farmhouse exterior with sunporch
    colonial farmhouse

    Drone Photos of Our Home

    August 26, 2024 /

    When we had our siding redone, the siding company took drone photos of our home and sent them to me! Best. Thing. Ever. I’m not even kidding. This was like Christmas in August for me. But it was better because I didn’t have to pretend to be surprised by what Santa had brought me. These drone photos remind me of how far we’ve come in the last five years in reclaiming the property and restoring this home. The below photo of the side of our house shows what it used to look like in July of 2019. I don’t know much, but I do know that you shouldn’t “hide your…

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    annisa 0 Comments

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    Wood Chandelier in the Music Room

    August 3, 2020
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    Colonial Farmhouse Six Year Anniversary

    July 16, 2025
    Insight on Repairing a Slate Roof

    Insight on Repairing a Slate Roof

    July 15, 2019
  • saving historic window drip edge trim detail on a 250 year old colonial farmhouse
    colonial farmhouse,  DIY

    Saving a Historic Window Drip Edge Detail

    August 19, 2024 /

    When we had the rotten siding on our colonial farmhouse replaced, the window trim needed replacing too and I was adamant about saving the historic window drip edge detail. It was not a necessary component of the window trim but it was part of the home’s character. I just didn’t realize this decision would cause a bit of drama later. To be clear, we were not able to save the actual boards that made this historic window drip edge detail. They had served their purpose and helped direct water away from the house for decades. Decades! And it showed in how the wood had rotted. Some of our windows already…

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    annisa 0 Comments

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    Which Category of Kitchen Art Do You Have?

    April 19, 2021
    Built-In Computer Desks One Year Later

    Built-In Computer Desks One Year Later

    April 12, 2021
    Plan to Makeover Our Decks

    Plan to Makeover Our Decks

    June 10, 2020
  • colonial farmhouse with hardie fiber cement siding in arctic white how installing fiber cement siding changed our insurance premiums
    colonial farmhouse,  DIY

    How Much Our Insurance Changed With Hardie Fiber Cement Siding

    July 10, 2024 /

    When the wood siding on our very old house started to rot away, everyone told us to reinstall new wood siding because that’s what buyers of old houses on the East Coast expect. Clearly, “everyone” hasn’t had to maintain painted wood siding. We decided to have HardieĀ® fiber cement siding installed instead because our priority for protecting our almost 250-year-old home was to make it fire-resistant, deter wood-eating pests, protect it from severe storms, and add resistance to moisture-induced rot. If an owner of an old house isn’t sleeping well, you know why. We have a lot to worry about! Fiber cement siding protects our home from all of those…

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    annisa 2 Comments

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    Wood Chandelier in the Music Room

    August 3, 2020
    Plan to Makeover Our Decks

    Plan to Makeover Our Decks

    June 10, 2020
    Convert a Dining Table Into a Coffee Table

    My Dining Table Is Now a Coffee Table

    July 29, 2019
  • old house construction techniques timber framed home from 1800s mortise and tenon carpenter's marks
    colonial farmhouse,  DIY

    4 Old House Construction Techniques We Found When We Replaced Siding

    July 8, 2024 /

    While putting new siding on our very old house (circa 1780s with later additions), we had a first-hand view of 4 old house construction techniques that blew our minds. Not everyone has the opportunity to see the “guts” of their home, so we’ll use my home as an example so that you’re not shocked someday. Fasten your proverbial tool belt and come check out the 4 old house construction techniques we found. #1 Old House Construction Technique: Timber Framed Construction Our home was built before power tools existed. It was built before electricity was invented. It was built before modern nails and screws were invented. In fact, the frame of…

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    annisa 0 Comments

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    Colonial Farmhouse Two Year Anniversary

    June 14, 2021
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    Built-In Computer Desk Reveal

    January 27, 2020
    carriage house tongue and groove ceiling

    Why We Installed a Tongue and Groove Ceiling In Our Carriage House

    May 16, 2022
  • colonial farmhouse exterior september 2023
    colonial farmhouse

    Colonial Farmhouse 5 Year Anniversary

    June 12, 2024 /

    Pop the cork and put on your party hats! We are celebrating five years of living in, loving on, and fixing up this colonial farmhouse of ours. Time flies when your hands are covered in paint, caulk, and lime mortar, to name a few. Our house doesn’t have an official name like some old houses do. If she did have a name, the top contender would be Money Pit. It’s not stately but it does have a certain ring to it. Without an official name, we call it the colonial farmhouse as a descriptor of sorts. It doesn’t have any super distinct architectural markers that would easily identify its style,…

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    annisa 4 Comments

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    I Refinished Our Tongue and Groove Closet Doors and It Could Have Gone Worse

    January 19, 2022
    Built In Hallway Shelves

    Built In Hallway Shelves

    May 13, 2020
    white painted picket gate

    6 Month Progress on the Colonial Farmhouse

    March 2, 2020
 Older Posts
Hi! I'm Annisa.

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