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A Pretty Happy Home

Life, DIY and Random Things That Make Me Smile

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  • 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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  • connecting two decks with landscaping
    colonial farmhouse,  gardening and landscape

    How I’m Connecting Two Decks With Landscaping

    May 11, 2022 /

    This spring we’ve been working on connecting two decks on the back of our house with landscaping. We’d rather just connect the two decks and make one gigantic deck, but someone forgot to plant a money tree in the backyard. Decks are expensive to build and maintain and this house needs one hundred other things before it needs a bigger deck. Until that day comes we can try to visually connect the decks with landscaping instead. Think of it as a bridge between two islands. Here’s a picture from three years ago when we moved into the Colonial Farmhouse. You can hardly see the small deck on the right because…

    read more
    annisa 0 Comments

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    clearing the bushes

    The Surprising Way We Cleared 75 Feet of Bushes

    September 9, 2019
    Built-In Computer Desks One Year Later

    Built-In Computer Desks One Year Later

    April 12, 2021
    red barn with daffodils and rock wall

    The Great Barn Loft Clean Out

    May 3, 2021
  • built-in stone bench ideas
    colonial farmhouse

    Built-In Stone Bench Ideas for our Backyard

    October 4, 2021 /

    If I was going to rank backyard landscaping features on their coolness factor, a built-in stone bench around a firepit would be near the top of the list. Not to mention, it’s an introvert’s type of landscaping. I want you to be comfortable enough, feel welcomed, and have the best time, but I don’t want you to feel so comfortable that you stay forever. Hahahaha! But, seriously, I need my sleep. We have a spot in our backyard that would be the perfect place to add a built-in stone bench. In the below photo, it’s the spot to the right of the wood steps. There’s already a rock wall there.…

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    annisa 0 Comments

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    Built In Hallway Shelves

    Built In Hallway Shelves

    May 13, 2020
    music room before and after

    Music Room Before and After

    October 7, 2019
    saving historic window drip edge trim detail on a 250 year old colonial farmhouse

    Saving a Historic Window Drip Edge Detail

    August 19, 2024
  • The Colonial Farmhouse's Curb Appeal
    gardening and landscape

    The Colonial Farmhouse’s Curb Appeal

    August 24, 2020 /

    When we bought our Colonial Farmhouse I knew there was one thing that would instantly improve its curb appeal: actually being able to SEE the house. Funny how curb appeal works. If you can’t see past the curb there is no appeal. If you’ve been reading this blog for the past year (thank you), then you’ll know we’ve been working on that one facet of our Colonial Farmhouse’s curb appeal since the day we bought the place. Are we that slow or was the job just that large? Yes and yes. Yes, we are slow because we tackle things around here in spurts and starts. Yes, the job was just…

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    annisa 4 Comments

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    Plan to Makeover Our Decks

    Plan to Makeover Our Decks

    June 10, 2020
    colonial farmhouse deck summer ready with back and white umbrella and blue chairs black white and blue deck decor

    Our Deck Is Ready For Summer

    May 24, 2023

    Removing Rotten Trees and a Chainlink Fence

    August 12, 2019
  • colonial farmhouse front yard landscaping progress
    colonial farmhouse,  gardening and landscape

    Front Yard Landscaping Progress

    June 24, 2020 /

    Get ready to bust out your high fives because I have front yard landscaping progress to report. In fact, I’d say we are 80% done with the front yard landscaping. Give or take a few percentage points. In fact, let’s not get bogged down in numbers. Let’s celebrate the fact that front yard landscaping progress has been made. Hallelujah. (If you need a refresher on the landscaping plan, you can read about it here or I’ll just catch you up in this post.) I don’t have a true before picture, but here is more or less how our front yard started out: Now this same view looks like this: Much…

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    annisa 0 Comments

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    Kitchen Mini Makeover Reveal

    February 17, 2020
    farmhouse black kitchen mini makeover

    Colonial Farmhouse Kitchen Mini Makeover One Year Later

    March 29, 2021
    Five Old Books I Found in Our New Home

    5 Old Books I Found in Our New Home

    July 31, 2019
  • colonial farmhouse,  gardening and landscape

    Front Yard Landscaping Plan

    April 22, 2020 /

    Let’s talk about the front yard landscaping plan for our Colonial Farmhouse. Plan is actually a loose term. It’s more of an idea floating around in my head. Think big picture priorities, not a deep dive into the details. Honestly, that’s my modus operandi 99% of the time. I’m much better at wrapping my mind around the big picture than I am with flushing out the tedious details of a project. Here’s how the front yard looked when we were considering buying the Colonial Farmhouse in April 2019. I can’t imagine why no one had made an offer on the house yet. Here’s another view of the front of the…

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    annisa 3 Comments

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    Built-In Computer Desk in our colonial farmhouse

    Built-In Computer Desk Reveal

    January 27, 2020
    deck with black railing

    Finally, The Deck is Done

    October 7, 2020
    colonial farmhouse front yard landscaping progress

    Front Yard Landscaping Progress

    June 24, 2020
  • winter yard clean up with gorilla cart
    gardening and landscape

    Winter Yard Clean Up

    March 16, 2020 /

    Today I want to talk about something I’ve been avoiding for months – winter yard clean up. I’ve been avoiding this task for so long that in my part of the world it’s not really wintery, but it’s not full on spring either. It’s win-pring. Or maybe wint-ring. Let’s just call it early spring like a normal person would. We do have a few flowers poking their heads out of the ground, but the trees and shrubs have not budded or leafed out yet. That means I still have a narrow window of time to tackle winter yard clean up before things get really bushy. Oh, goodie. Our property was…

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    annisa 2 Comments

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    You Can Sell a Live Tree From Your Yard

    You Can Sell a Live Tree From Your Yard

    March 23, 2020
    farmhouse style plywood side table stained with paint dipped legs in black

    Plywood Side Table Makeover

    June 11, 2025

    Our Backyard in Winter

    January 28, 2019
  • white painted picket gate
    colonial farmhouse

    6 Month Progress on the Colonial Farmhouse

    March 2, 2020 /

    It’s time for a 6 month progress report on the Colonial Farmhouse. Sure, we’ve lived here longer than six months. 8 1/2 months, actually, but who’s counting? Let’s not get bogged down in the timing. The truth of the matter is I didn’t think about writing a 6 month progress report until now. While this progress report is almost three months late, I’m only sharing progress that was finished within our first six months of living here because that makes it better. Buckle up blog friends because it turns out we’ve made more progress on this Colonial Farmhouse than I thought! KITCHEN: June 2019 Ah, ambience. Just makes you want…

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    annisa 4 Comments

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    saving historic window drip edge trim detail on a 250 year old colonial farmhouse

    Saving a Historic Window Drip Edge Detail

    August 19, 2024
    colonial farmhouse exterior with carriage house in may 2023

    Colonial Farmhouse 4 Year Anniversary

    June 14, 2023

    All About Rim Locks (Vintage Door Hardware)

    September 14, 2020
  • colonial farmhouse,  gardening and landscape

    Removing Rotten Trees and a Chainlink Fence

    August 12, 2019 /

    Last week I shared how we cleared a sight line to the pool and in that post I mentioned another section of our property that we’ve also been working on clearing and cleaning up. This was the back of our house when we moved in. There was nothing wrong with the back of the house, but there were some areas we knew could be improved upon fairly easily. The chainlink fence is what really bothered me. It wasn’t the prettiest fence ever built. It also made that space unusable since we don’t have a dog and don’t have plans to get a dog. The trees are what really bothered Handy…

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    annisa 0 Comments

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    colonial farmhouse exterior september 2023

    Colonial Farmhouse 5 Year Anniversary

    June 12, 2024
    deck with black railing

    Finally, The Deck is Done

    October 7, 2020

    Kitchen Mini Makeover Reveal

    February 17, 2020
  • clearing a sight line to the pool
    gardening and landscape

    Clearing a Sight Line to the Pool

    August 5, 2019 /

    One of the perks of buying a really old home is that the landscaping is mature. But with every rule there’s always an exception, right? In the case of our colonial farmhouse, our landscaping had ventured into a realm past mature. I’m not sure how to say this delicately…so I won’t. Every single tree, bush, shrub, weed, flower, vine and blade of grass on the property was overgrown when we moved in. Not just overgrown, but out-of-control. Not just out-of-control, but rapidly taking over anything and everything in its path. It crossed my mind that if I stood still for more than a minute, the Virginia Creeper vine would probably…

    read more
    annisa 4 Comments

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    succulent in a shot glass

    3 Unexpected Succulent Planters

    June 10, 2019
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    September 19, 2022

    Bowling Ball Lawn Orb

    June 17, 2016
Hi! I'm Annisa.

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