• 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
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

No Widgets found in the Sidebar Alt!

  • building a curved fieldstone wall and fieldstone steps
    DIY

    Curved Fieldstone Wall: Part 7, The Stairs

    September 10, 2025 /

    Welcome back to our Curved Fieldstone Wall Series, where we attempt to rebuild the fieldstone walls in our front yard using historical masonry techniques. Today we are talking about the stairs between the two wall sections. The first wall section is already complete. The stairs were not a part of the original plan. We intended to leave them alone because we were going to exercise restraint, like the reasonable DIYers that we are. Hahahahahaha. The original stairs connecting the driveway to our sidewalk were concrete, which makes sense. The sidewalk and the stairs match. The stairs were a little wonky in size, and one looked newer than the other, but…

    read more
    annisa 6 Comments

    You May Also Like

    shellac on pumpkin pine wood floors gaps in original pumpkin pine floors from 1780s

    All About Our 240-Year-Old Pumpkin Pine Wood Floors

    March 30, 2020
    back porch shelves for drink storage

    Back Porch Shelves for Drink Storage

    August 31, 2020
    black sunporch bench new bench for the sunporch navy blue sunporch

    New Bench For The Sunporch

    January 11, 2023
  • DIY

    Curved Fieldstone Wall: Part 6, Demo Section 2

    September 8, 2025 /

    I’m back with part 6 of our Curved Fieldstone Wall Series. This time we’re discussing demo of the second wall section we’re working on. Here’s the thing about our DIY projects. They never go according to plan. Why do we bother planning? I don’t rightly know. We expected the demolition of the second wall section to go as quickly as the first section. While the second wall section is twice as long as the first, it was built the same way. In addition, a quarter of it had already demoed itself for us. THAT’S the kind of effort we like to see from inanimate objects. I guess the rest of…

    read more
    annisa 0 Comments

    You May Also Like

    Painting Ceilings is Super Fun

    Painting Ceilings is Super Fun

    March 18, 2020
    fieldstone porch made with fieldstone and lime mortar skimmed over concrete

    One Thing That Will Wreck Lime Mortar

    May 21, 2025

    How to Make Staining EASIER

    August 22, 2014
  • exposing a stone foundation wall and repointing it with lime mortar
    DIY

    Curved Fieldstone Wall: Part 5, Porch Wall

    September 1, 2025 /

    We’ve been working on rebuilding a curved fieldstone wall in front of our house. Part of that wall connects to our front porch, and a little oopsie occurred to the porch wall while doing demo. We didn’t intend to touch the porch while doing this curved fieldstone wall project. We know when our plates are full. Unfortunately for us, the unintended consequence of jackhammering three inches away from the porch was that the vibrations traveled, and we cracked a section of the skim coat covering the porch foundation. That was fine. We could probably fix it. Then, much to our horror, the cracked portion of skim coat FELL OFF the…

    read more
    annisa 4 Comments

    You May Also Like

    BEFORE DIY low curved fieldstone wall

    Curved Fieldstone Wall: Part 1, The Plan

    August 13, 2025

    Barstool Make Under

    March 21, 2016
    Over-the-Door Basketball Hoop with Wood Backboard

    Over-the-Door Basketball Hoop with Wood Backboard

    April 27, 2020
  • newly rebuilt curved fieldstone wall using lime mortar and natural fieldstone
    DIY

    Curved Fieldstone Wall: Part 4, REVEAL Section 1

    August 27, 2025 /

    It’s reveal day for section 1 of our curved fieldstone wall! Can I get a WOO to the HOO? I know some of you made a woohoo sound in your head, so thank you for that! We are fortunate to live on a property that is framed by low fieldstone walls. 250 years ago, our property was much larger than it is now and would have been farmed. We assume the stone walls or fences were built as a practical way of dealing with all of the stones that were pulled out of the soil to make it arable. Fast forward to the present, and there are multiple sections of…

    read more
    annisa 6 Comments

    You May Also Like

    diy leather pulls

    Easy DIY Leather Drawer Pulls

    September 19, 2018
    How To Remove The Engraving On Slate Coasters

    How To Remove The Engraving On Slate Coasters

    September 21, 2022
    copper wall tiles made by Vikon Tile hidden behind drywall in a new jersey house

    What We Found In Our Kitchen Wall – Copper Tiles

    January 27, 2025
  • diy curved fieldstone wall with lime mortar and natural fieldstone in progress
    DIY

    Curved Fieldstone Wall: Part 3, Progress Section 1

    August 25, 2025 /

    Progress feels good, and we have made significant progress on building Section One of our curved fieldstone wall. If you missed Part 1 and Part 2 of this series, those are a rockin’ good time. Here’s the section of wall that we are rebuilding. With all of the rocks out, that area looked kind of weird. Scratch that. There was no “kind of.” It looked flat out weird. Best we get to remedying that. I started by repointing a section of the front porch foundation that we exposed during the wall demolition. Not only does this foundation need repointing with lime mortar, but this way I’ll be able to secure…

    read more
    annisa 0 Comments

    You May Also Like

    Wood Planter with Leather Handles

    February 19, 2020
    Built-In Computer Desk in our colonial farmhouse

    Built-In Computer Desk Reveal

    January 27, 2020
    diu no sew privacy liner for woven shades

    No Sew DIY Privacy Liner for Woven Shades

    April 26, 2021
  • diy curved fieldstone wall demoing the old wall on a colonial era farmhouse
    DIY

    Curved Fieldstone Wall: Part 2, Demo Section 1

    August 18, 2025 /

    In case you missed Part 1, we are building a curved fieldstone wall. Or, perhaps, it is more accurate to say we are rebuilding a curved fieldstone wall. Today’s post is all about demoing the first section we are rebuilding. This section of wall connects to the front porch and serves as a retaining wall for a flowerbed. Demo is supposed to be the easy part of any project, right? Hahahahahaha. Easy might not apply to concrete. Or maybe easy just doesn’t apply to anything we do. Once again, the hammer drill with a chisel attachment was our MVP for taking down a stone wall, but we did use a hammer…

    read more
    annisa 0 Comments

    You May Also Like

    Burl Wood Table

    July 27, 2016

    Step Stool (from High School Shop Class) Makeover Part 2

    March 14, 2016
    DIY Copper Toe Kick For Built-In Desks to solve the problem of feet scuffing the trim using adhesive copper toe kick cut with metal snips farmhouse style desks

    Copper Toe Kick For Built-In Desks

    February 10, 2025
  • BEFORE DIY low curved fieldstone wall
    DIY

    Curved Fieldstone Wall: Part 1, The Plan

    August 13, 2025 /

    Drumroll, please! Our next masonry project will be to rebuild a curved fieldstone wall in our front yard. Who’s excited for this one? *raises my own hand* I am excited for this project mainly because this fieldstone wall has become a major curb appeal issue, and not in a good way. Remember the children’s rhyme about Humpty Dumpty? Now imagine Humpty Dumpty sitting on the wall, and the reason he fell off was because the wall collapsed under him. That’s the sketchy situation with the wall in front of our house. Most of it is a low, curved fieldstone wall that is only a couple of feet high. There is,…

    read more
    annisa 2 Comments

    You May Also Like

    entryway refresh with buffalo check curtains and new front door window insert

    Entryway Refresh and a New Front Door Window

    April 16, 2025
    DIY fieldstone stairs building fieldstone stairs outdoors

    Building Fieldstone Stairs: Part 3, The Reveal

    July 28, 2025
    fieldstone porch made with fieldstone and lime mortar skimmed over concrete

    Fieldstone Porch For Our Carriage House

    October 23, 2024
  • DIY fieldstone stairs building fieldstone stairs outdoors
    DIY

    Building Fieldstone Stairs: Part 3, The Reveal

    July 28, 2025 /

    Here’s the “tada” moment you’ve been waiting for, the reveal of our fieldstone stairs. If you’re just joining us, you can catch up on Part 1 and Part 2 of this series. It’s a rockin’ good time. The short story is we thought we’d see how hard it would be to build stairs out of natural fieldstone. This means using stones dug out of our backyard and used in their natural state. No clean edges. No uniform sizes. No idea how it will look when you’re done. Well, we had a vague idea. But it turned out even better than we imagined and, believe it or not, it wasn’t the…

    read more
    annisa 8 Comments

    You May Also Like

    tips for refinishing a door with dog scratches

    7 Tips for Refinishing a Door With Deep Scratches

    July 18, 2022
    DIY under a table pull out trash cabinet rustic farmhouse kitchen partially fitted kitchen

    Under-A-Table Pull-Out Trash Cabinet

    February 17, 2025

    DIY Wood Blocks

    March 9, 2016
  • building fieldstone stairs DIY fieldstone stairs
    DIY

    Building Fieldstone Stairs: Part 2

    July 23, 2025 /

    Welcome back! We are building fieldstone stairs. This is a DIY project we’ve never attempted before and may never attempt again. We have just enough confidence, competence, and delusions to approach new projects with an “everything is figure-out-able” attitude. Today I’m going to overshare our process for building fieldstone stairs. Please note when I say fieldstone I mean actual stone taken out of the ground (my backyard) and used in its natural form. This is not stone purchased on a pallet from the stone quarry that has even, predictable dimensions. That would make this project infinitely easier – a concept with which we are wholly unfamiliar. Let’s get into the…

    read more
    annisa 0 Comments

    You May Also Like

    Racing Trophy Display Door

    June 8, 2014
    Painted Chainlink Fence Hack

    Painted Chainlink Fence Hack

    June 22, 2022
    under the stairs closet shelves

    Under the Stairs Closet Shelves

    December 14, 2020
  • diy stone steps building fieldstone steps before
    DIY,  gardening and landscape

    Building Fieldstone Stairs: Part 1

    July 21, 2025 /

    My friends, it is time for our next project, building fieldstone stairs! Have we done this before? Nope. Is that going to get in the way of a good time? Maybe. This project needs a little context, so let’s step on up and get to it. Where will we be building fieldstone stairs? Outside, of course. There is a set of wood stairs in our backyard (4 steps) that we walk down to get to the first floor of the Carriage House. The stairs are set in the middle of a loosely stacked fieldstone wall and below a slightly out-of-level flagstone. Why we are replacing the old steps? For kicks.…

    read more
    annisa 2 Comments

    You May Also Like

    Herringbone Rolling Plant Caddy

    Herringbone Rolling Plant Caddy

    June 17, 2019

    Refinish Wood Chairs Without Power Tools

    December 6, 2017
    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

    Did We Finally Find Buried Treasure?

    April 30, 2025
 Older Posts
Hi! I'm Annisa.

Recent Posts

  • DIY Floral Witch’s Hat
  • Happy List: #404
  • Curved Fieldstone Wall: Part 7, The Stairs
  • Curved Fieldstone Wall: Part 6, Demo Section 2
  • Happy List: #403

Categories

Subscribe to blog
Loading

$2018 © A Pretty Happy Home
Ashe Theme by WP Royal.