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 apartment looks as if a lifetime in the past. However regardless of the place we’ve lived, or what initiatives I used to be engaged on and running a blog about, I’ve at all times had two predominant targets with my weblog — two main classes I hoped to drill into folks’s heads. The primary is that I wish to encourage folks (however my coronary heart has primarily been for girls) to reallize that they’re succesful. You should use instruments. You may construct issues. You are able to do it your self. You don’t should depend on others to construct or restore that factor for you. You might be succesful and powerful, and you’ll discover ways to do laborious issues. My predominant purpose has been to display a lifetime of studying, trial and error, rising by failures, and getting issues completed on my own.

Did I like the after? I believed it was very good. It went from generic and builder-grade to trying extra like one thing a designer had envisioned. It positively appeared like extra thought and care and a spotlight had gone into the “new” toilet than had gone into the slightly plain and easy “earlier than” toilet. However no, I didn’t like it. It simply wasn’t my model, which is completely superb 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 have been brutal. Some have 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 (positively 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 folks 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 will likely be deleted. Individuals will deal with you the way you permit them to deal with you.)

However the imply and impolite feedback to her about her toilet gave the impression to be innumerable. I learn a number 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 verify it, however I see the meme usually and it makes me snigger) that goes one thing like this: “Social media made y’all manner too snug with disrespecting folks 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 folks horribly on-line, and say issues that the majority 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 completely different matter, although.

However the feedback that drove me the craziest have 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 displaying it off to buddies. She would really feel a way of pleasure every time she walked by it and noticed what she had completed along with her personal palms There’s large 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 subsequent proprietor would give it some thought. Why? WHY? WHY??? Why are some folks so unbelievably obsessive about what some potential unknown future proprietor could take into consideration the home?

Once more, I’ve mentioned this a thousand instances, however clearly if you happen to’ve purchased a home figuring out that your keep in that home is short-term (perhaps you’ve gotten a short-term contract job and then you definately’re on to the subsequent one in one other metropolis or state), then sure, you wish to be aware of the modifications you make since you’re going to wish to promote the home quickly and also you need it to attraction 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 remember 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 usually 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 reside 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 provide a care on this planet what some potential, unknown, future proprietor thinks about any of my selections 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 palms on this home and pays the mortgage for it, they will 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 completed, and to know that it completely fits me and my persona. I additionally hope that folks can no less than be inspired by my processes and initiatives, and to see my willpower 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 nearly all of the work on the home on my own. You may be taught extra about me right here.