A House We Built

Custom House Designed by Husband & Wife Team | Modern Farmhouse Inspired

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Questions & Answers about Products & Sources

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Hey guys!

This is the place for you to ask us any questions you might have about any of the products or sources on our home page. We structured the home page so that it was a static page we could just keep adding sources to, unfortunately that means it won’t support comments so this is a place for you to ask us questions.

Note: You can also check the FAQ section towards the end of the home page (after the sources, but before the tutorial) in case your question is answered there.

We check this page about once a day so we will get back to you!

Recipe: Chocolate Chip Banana Bread

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We made our favorite chocolate chip banana bread today and I thought I’d share the recipe because even though it’s a pretty common recipe it took me a long time before I found one I loved enough to make over and over again and the best part is that if you mix the ingredients in the exact order that I share here, you can do all your mixing in ONE bowl with just a fork!!! Less cleanup, more win, much yum!

  1. Mash 3-4 ripe bananas with a fork in a medium mixing bowl.
  2. Add in 2 eggs (just blend ’em up with a fork in the middle of the bananas), 1/2 cup melted butter (or sunflower oil), 3/4 cup sugar, and a couple dashes of vanilla extract. Mix well
  3. Add in 1 1/2 cup flour, 1/2 tsp salt, 1 tsp baking soda and kinda mix them together with your fork right on top of the wet ingredients in the same bowl before fully mixing them into the whole mixture.
  4. Throw in a couple handfuls of chocolate chips and that’s it!

Bake in a greased 8×4 loaf pan at 350 for an hour (do the poke test around 55 mins to check).

Allow to cool for 20-30 mins and enjoy!!!

Sources:

Recipe: Blueberry Lemon Cake

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We made the most delicious glazed Blueberry Lemon Cake/Loaf last night and it’s one of my easiest dessert recipes so I thought I’d share it if you wanted to try it out. The trick is that you need fresh blueberries and a fresh lemon on hand. If you have those, then this cake takes only about a few minutes to throw together and it is soooo good!! Here’s how to make it

First zest the peel of one lemon and juice it.

Mix dry ingredients:

  • 1 1/2 cup flour
  • 1 1/4 tsp baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp salt

Mix wet ingredients:

  • 2 eggs
  • 3 tbsp lemon juice
  • 1/3 cup melted butter (or sunflower oil)
  • 3/4 cup sugar
  • 1/2 cup milk (or soy milk)
  • 2 dashes vanilla extract

Combine dry + wet ingredients.

Fold in 1/2 cup fresh blueberries & a big sprinkle of lemon zest (you can also add 1/2 cup chopped nuts if you want).

Bake in a greased 8×4 loaf pan at 350 for about an hour (do the poke test around 60 mins to check).

While it’s baking, make your glaze: 2 tbsp lemon juice + 2-3 tbsp sugar. Should be thick. Set aside.

As soon as it’s done baking, immediately brush the glaze over the cake while it’s HOT!!!

Allow to cool for 20-30 mins and enjoy!!!

Sources:

How to Stain and Paint Stairs

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I took on the huge task of staining and painting our staircase myself and thought I’d share my experience since I actually couldn’t find many resources on how to do this online and basically had to figure it out for myself along the way. NOTE: I’m not a professional so if you’re a pro, please don’t judge!!! Basically this is what I did:

For staining treads:

  1. Heavy sand (this product: Home Depot)
  2. Stain (ours is a custom grey color)
  3. Light sand (this product: Home Depot)
  4. Top coat (ours is Low Luster)
  5. Light sand
  6. Top coat
  7. Light sand
  8. Top coat

For painting risers and trim:

  1. Caulk corners (this product: Home Depot)
  2. Primer (this product: Home Depot)
  3. Top coat (I used the same paint as our walls so that it would make cutting the edges easier and faster)
  4. Top coat

Couple things I learned or experienced along the way:

Our staircase was challenging because it’s so big. Our house has 4 floors so we have 3.5 sets of switchback stairs. I broke them up into 3 sections. First: the basement-to-first floor switchback. I started with this because it’s our least used and least visible stair set. ALWAYS start with the least visible area because you will always have a learning curve and it’s better to learn where it won’t be seen. Second: the first-to-second floor switchback and landing stairs. This was the most challenging because it was the most high-traffic set of stairs. Third: the second-to-third floor switchback. This is the easiest because it’s just our master suite on the third floor.

This was the timing that worked best for me: I did the first sand during the day because it didn’t matter if people walked on it. Then I did the rest of the work after everyone had gone to bed so that it could dry overnight. And always start at the top and work your way down so you don’t have to worry about what you’re sitting on/touching as you work.

I debated over whether to paint or stain first and there are some pretty intense opinions out there but ultimately I determined that my best approach would be to stain first, then paint because a good primer covers any stain that gets on the risers but it would’ve been a nightmare to tape off the risers. Also the line I got with taping wasn’t straight enough for me so the answer I found was caulking the corners and that gave the paint a solid termination point which was easy to freehand.

Note: the trimwork in these pictures is still not fully complete.

The reason we didn’t get our stairs done before we moved in was that stain needs solid drying time before it properly sets especially when you’re not doing high gloss and I wanted to wait until we could ensure that nobody was going to stomp on them with shoes so I decided to do them myself.

I hope that helps!!

Be sure to follow us on Instagram (@ahousewebuilt) to keep up with our house projects and decor! And check out our Sources Page for more details on everything in our house!

Recipe: Veggie Lasagna

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This veggie lasagna is one of our family favorite go-to dishes so I thought I’d share the recipe for anyone interested. It’s SO easy to make and takes 10 mins of prep time. Note: I use fresh lasagna sheet noodles that I get at a local Italian deli. The ones I get come in big rectangular sheets (2 cover my lasagna pan).

PS: I love this lasagna pan. You can get it here if you want: Wayfair

  1. Sauce: First chop all your veg and throw it in a big pot. I do: 2 white onions, big handful chopped garlic, 1 diced green bell pepper, 2 big handfuls of sliced mushrooms, 2 stalks of sliced celery. Salt it and add 2 big glugs of olive oil and stir it on med-high for about 5 minutes until all the veggies soften and the volume shrinks by about half (the salt helps). Once the veg has softened down, season to taste. I do: red chili flakes, dried oregano & basil, and black pepper. Stir. Add in either about 16oz of crushed tomatos, or you can use a premade sauce. That’s it!
  2. Separately, slice one zucchini and set aside.
  3. Layer up your lasagna. This is how I do my layers: Sauce. Noodles. Sauce. Zucchini. Cheese. Noodles. Sauce. Cheese. (see pics below)
  4. Bake covered at 375 for 30 mins. Then 5 mins uncovered. Then broil 2-3 mins to get the top golden brown.

I serve it with salad. Tonight it was mixed baby greens, chopped kale, cucumber, avocado, roasted sunflower & pumpkin seeds. Dressing: 2 big glugs of olive oil, 2 dashes of balsamic vinegar, bit of garlic powder, couple drops of honey, salt & pepper to taste.

ENJOY!!!!!

Be sure to follow us on Instagram (@ahousewebuilt) to keep up with our house projects and decor! And check out our Sources Page for more details on everything in our house including our kitchen!