We secured the 100+-year-old cast iron fountain over a year ago. Then we set out to design a sideyard patio area around it. We’ve designed it about a hundred times since then. But enough planning! We made our final tweaks, and now it is time to start moving some dirt. Prep = Done! Excavation = …
Category Archives: Old House
Dehumidifier Is Flooding My Crawlspace (This Old Dean House)
A small maintenance project turned into a bigger effort when I came down to find standing water in the crawlspace. I’d wanted to rework this entire dehumidifier “situation” for a while. When I came down and found my extension cords standing in water, that project immediately bumped up my list. My dehumidifier was flooding my …
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Organizing My Firewood For Our Fire Pit Area
During renovations, I had stuff everywhere (even outside). I decided I wanted a fire pit area in a spot, but the spot was “taken”. I needed to get to work organizing my firewood, so I’d have a place for our fire pit.
Moving Out Of The Farm (Part 3) Selling Everything and Moving The Bronco
Two things left: 1) Sell everything in the Wild West of Marketplace (the wildest place on earth). 2) Speaking of the Wild West, I then needed to load up the Bronco. The Bronco was being a little feisty in the wet weather and did not want to get on the trailer nicely! Bad Bronco! In …
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Moving Out Of The Farm (Part 2) – Moving The Tractor
The hard work SHOULD have been done. I’d already fought with the tractor to get it going again. Today is moving day, and she started right up. Good…Check! But then I, inexplicably, ran out of gas halfway onto the trailer?!? So what should have been an easy project turned into a debacle. Honestly, fairly typical, …
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Installing and Edging Landscape Beds – This Old Dean House
Last year, this bed was an emergency project (disaster). This year, it was only slightly better. So, this year I reshaped everything and installed a clean edge. I have it in good shape now and ready for fall planting. Next year, we will no longer be an embarrassment to our community! LOL
Surviving Tennessee’s Snowmageddon 2026
The 2026 Tennessee Winter Snowmageddon was wild! Lots of snow, sleet, ice (lots of ice), super low temperatures, trees down everywhere, power out everywhere, impassable roads…and all for a week…plus! Surviving it wasn’t as bad as it could have been for us, however. We never lost power. So Emily could spend all her time tracking …
Sideyard (Phase 2) – The Structure – This Old Dean House
The second phase of our sideyard project is now in place. The structure is built. My favorite part of this project is that I didn’t have to do any of it! I also had a birds-eye view of it as I got to watch it outside my office window. I was a lot warmer than …
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This Old Dean House – One Year Renovation Anniversary
As I finished up the steps in the foyer, I realized that it had been exactly one year since we closed on the house. I had ripped the carpet off those steps the very first day. Exactly one year later, I was reinstalling the last spindle on the completed steps. The past year has been …
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Refinishing The Staircase – This Old Dean House
The first thing we did when we bought the house was rip the carpet off the steps to see what we had. We had something, but it was under layers of paint. So, hard to know what. Refinishing the hardwood floors in the entire house took a lot out of us, and we abandoned refinishing …
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