The Most Important Lesson I Hope People Have Learned From Me After 17 Years Of Blogging About DIY & Decorating

I’ve been running a blog now for 17 years. That’s superb to me. On the identical time, these 17 years appear to have flown by, but additionally, our time in our little rental looks as if a lifetime in the past. However regardless of the place we’ve lived, or what tasks I used to be engaged on and running a blog about, I’ve at all times had two essential objectives with my weblog — two main classes I hoped to drill into individuals’s heads. The primary is that I need to encourage individuals (however my coronary heart has primarily been for ladies) to reallize that they’re succesful. You can use instruments. You can construct issues. You can do it your self. You don’t must depend on others to construct or restore that factor for you. You might be succesful and powerful, and you may learn to do arduous issues. My essential objective has been to display a lifetime of studying, trial and error, rising via failures, and getting issues accomplished on my own.

Did I like the after? I believed it was very good. It went from generic and builder-grade to wanting extra like one thing a designer had envisioned. It undoubtedly appeared like extra thought and care and a focus had gone into the “new” toilet than had gone into the somewhat plain and easy “earlier than” toilet. However no, I didn’t like it. It simply wasn’t my fashion, which is completely advantageous as a result of it’s not my toilet and it wasn’t adorned for me. She, the proprietor, loves her “new” toilet, and that’s the one factor that issues.

However, y’all. The feedback. THE COMMENTS had been brutal. Some had been scathing, and this quantity of vitriol was being expressed over a rest room in a stranger’s dwelling that these commenters won’t ever see in individual and that has no impression on their lives in any respect. I might have been in tears, fairly actually. Over 17 years of running a blog, I’ve developed fairly a thick pores and skin (undoubtedly a lot thicker than once I started), however I can solely take care of a lot negativity earlier than it actually impacts my temper and mindset. (Which is why I don’t let individuals run roughshod over me on my weblog or my social media. You come at me with rudeness and snark, you’ll both get a heaping dose proper again, or your remark shall be deleted. Individuals will deal with you ways you enable them to deal with you.)

However the imply and impolite feedback to her about her toilet appeared to be innumerable. I learn a variety of them, and I discovered myself getting upset on her behalf. I used to be reminded of that Mike Tyson quote (I don’t know if it’s actual or not as a result of I haven’t cared sufficient to reality examine it, however I see the meme usually and it makes me chuckle) that goes one thing like this: “Social media made y’all method too snug with disrespecting individuals and never getting punched within the face for it.” 😀 That cracks me up each time I see it, and I additionally agree 100%. It’s really easy to deal with individuals horribly on-line, and say issues that almost all of us would by no means have the heart to say to a flesh-and-blood individual standing proper in entrance of us. That’s actually an entire totally different matter, although.

However the feedback that drove me the craziest had been those about how she had “devalued” her dwelling due to how she adorned her toilet. To me, that’s simply such madness. Making a room she liked had clearly elevated its worth in her thoughts. She would now get a lot extra enjoyment out of it. She would love exhibiting it off to buddies. She would really feel a way of pleasure every time she walked by it and noticed what she had achieved together with her personal arms There’s great worth in that!

The remark that drove me the craziest was the one the place the individual mentioned, “Whoever will get the home after you goes to be cursing you to no finish.” What? The proprietor had already mentioned in that remark thread that she wasn’t planning on promoting, however all this commenter may take into consideration was what the following proprietor would give it some thought. Why? WHY? WHY??? Why are some individuals so unbelievably obsessive about what some potential unknown future proprietor might take into consideration the home?

Once more, I’ve mentioned this a thousand occasions, however clearly in the event you’ve purchased a home figuring out that your keep in that home is short-term (possibly you could have a short-term contract job and you then’re on to the following one in one other metropolis or state), then sure, you need to be aware of the modifications you make since you’re going to need to promote the home quickly and also you need it to enchantment to the overall market.

However for these of us who’ve completely no intention of promoting, it doesn’t make any sense to have to bear in mind some potential future purchaser. I’ll at all times, at all times, ALWAYS adorn my home for me. (And just for me, as a result of Matt typically doesn’t care, which makes my life simpler. 😀 ) Matt and I are those who paid for this home. We’re those who personal the home. We’re those who stay in the home. I’m the one who has poured my blood, sweat, and tears into the work to make this home our dwelling.

Anybody who thinks I’m going to present a care on the earth what some potential, unknown, future proprietor thinks about any of my choices is delusional. And I believe that’s how each long-term dwelling proprietor ought to really feel. When that unknown future proprietor will get their arms on this home and pays the mortgage for it, they’ll do what they need with it, however not a second earlier than. Till that point, that is my home, my dwelling, my refuge from a harsh and chaotic world, my playground, my canvas. I don’t ever count on or require weblog readers or actual life guests to my dwelling to like my dwelling like I do, however I do hope that folks respect the truth that I like what I’m doing and what I’ve accomplished, and to know that it completely fits me and my character. I additionally hope that folks can not less than be inspired by my processes and tasks, and to see my dedication and be motivated to make their dwelling precisely what they need it to be for them, and never for strangers.

Addicted 2 Adorning is the place I share my DIY and adorning journey as I transform and adorn the 1948 fixer higher that my husband, Matt, and I purchased in 2013. Matt has M.S. and is unable to do bodily work, so I do the vast majority of the work on the home on my own. You can learn more about me here.