#therealstoryathome
The headline is a hashtag I started with my friend Cassie Bustamante on Instagram and it’s supposed to show the real truthful side of our home decor blogs. There are all these pretty staged photos all the time which are of course necessary so they get pinned and I get traffic so I can make a little money to keep this blog running. It’s such a stressful part about blogging. The comparison to all the other blogs, especially when people can grow fast because they also have a nice budget. But that’s not the case here and I’m not here to complain. It’s just hard at times. This gal here doesn’t make a lot of money with this blog. A lot of bloggers who make a nice chunk of change sell blogging advice about how they make the money and how they can teach others which is where most of their money comes from. That isn’t happening here.
Well I’m not here to rant… but this post is about the truth sooooo… it costs money to run a blog, lots of monthly subscriptions and fees and services to pay for. Which is in the end the reason why I don’t share many of the ugly photos. Nobody pins this stuff or shares it which means it definitely won’t get any traffic.
Everyone enjoys pretty photos and inspiration! But there is always another side to the story and even though I cringed, I’m ready to share and hope it will make everyone feel better and you’ll get reassurance that not everything is perfect all the time.
Lets get started:
Our bathroom
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(see the entire bathroom HERE)
This is the shot I usually share because I love it and it looks pretty. Originally I had planned to have two pendants on each side of the mirror but I couldn’t find another affordable and reliable electrician after the one I used before stopped doing side jobs.
That is the reason for us still having an off-centered light above the mirror. It annoys the crap out of me and I have to do something about it. Hopefully soon. {Insert eye roll}
Another issue in the bathroom aren’t the stickers on the tile. They are holding up great. It’s the grout. I had dremeled out part of the grout but not everything before filling the patched tiles with grout. So now some of it is coming off and the yucky old grout shows in some spots. I hate it and am unsure what is the best way to fix it. Ugh who knows!
Moving on to the next room:
My daughters bedroom
(see the entire bedroom HERE)
You guys know it as a clean and bright room which it is but it’s of course not always that clean.
Her desk usually looks like this while she does keep the rest pretty clean I have to admit.
But she also sometimes happens to climb the bookshelves and then things go south and break. Like you can see in the below photo. This unit has been looking like this for almost a year and I can’t fix it, I’ll have to buy a new entire Ikea unit which hasn’t been in the budget lately. I just hide it with a whiteboard that she plays with all the time.
And her window needs to get replaced asap because it doesn’t close right anymore. But I need to save up for that first and after booking our flights to Germany it’s not looking too swell in the $department.
Next annoying issue:
Our flooring
Hello there ugly floor gaps. I had it all put in beautifully with the required perimeter gaps for the floor to expand and contract. Yeah!!!!! And then it got cold in the house and the floor does some shrinking! It gets me sooooo fired up, let me tell you. Our house is insulated so shitty and in the winter the flooring has gaps everywhere. Not small ones nope, it’s big finger swallowing gaps.
Then summer times rolls around and the floor expands again and the gaps will slowly close and make the floor look pretty again.
I think I should have maybe put the flooring in in the winter not the summer. But too late now and you should be allowed to install the floor whenever you have time not when the season is right.
And guess what? There is no way of fixing this. Non, as of now. {insert really angry red face emoji}
And since we are keeping it real, I didn’t even clean before taking the photo. Hello dirt!
Next on the list:
Our stairs
(see the first part of the stair makeover HERE)
Once upon a time I had it all pretty and clean.
Fast forward a year and crap isn’t looking like this. Lets call it “banged up from dirty shoes”. Well it was always only primer and I had never painted a good coat of paint on it. So now we adopted the baby cat and things on the stairs don’t look like they will get done any time soon. Lets see!
Speaking of baby cat. I had to put in an ugly temporary screen door to separate her from the others but let her have full access to the entire upstairs. She still gets kept upstairs at night with us and if we go away for long periods of time during the day. I don’t want her to bother my old loves when we are gone. Things can get ugly very fast.
I attached the $26 door with some eye hooks and command hooks so I can remove it without hurting the walls. The door isn’t hanging just sliding on the floor guided by the hooks. It’s kind of genius I think but certainly ugly as hell.
And “no” the little one does not climb up the screen and over.
Junky paint
And our pantry door in the beautiful white kitchen is shedding it’s paint again for the millionth time because it gets used so much. I can’t even count anymore how many times I have painted it already. Well add it to my to-do list.
Phew….! I’m glad I got it all off my chest. And I think I can find some more stuff but I’ll keep that for next time my friends.
Feel free to share your own #realstoryathome with us on Instagram and peace out.
Tschüß,
(Youleeya)
i should put together a post like this, too! it’s so refreshing to keep it real…and lily’s desk looks tame compared to emmy’s! 😉
Yes , you definitely should. It’ only liberating 😉
I always love posts like this! That’s frustrating about the floors! We have a million places in our bathroom where the tile is less than perfect; it drives Dave crazier than it does me, but it’s still annoying.
Ugh I can totally understand that it drives him crazy
LOVE this post! I do an “Ugly Truths” post every quarter or so and people really seem to love it. We live in our homes and they definitely aren’t perfect! Thanks for sharing!
Nope definitely aren’t perfect! And we need to show that too
This is so refreshing! I think you just inspired me to do a similar post. Our house is only totally clean when 1) I’m taking blog photos or 2) the cleaning people are coming. Ha! Thanks for the look behind the scenes. Love this hashtag!
Oh how I wish I’d have cleaning help! That’s a total nice bonus
Bless, you’ll get there! Hugs
Thanks Catherine
I love sincere posts like this one! Congratulations for your efforts to keep this blog running! We all have some small fixes to do or complain about, but this is what it takes and motivates us to be or to do better. Next fix or next painting job will be better! Keep going!
Thanks Miranda. I have to spend some hours painting for sure!
Now you love you even more for showing your “not-so-perfect” parts of your beautiful home!! How comforting it is knowing that our design heros have normal home issues too! Thank you!! ????❤️
Thanks Debbie, we definitely have issues. It’s just such a vicious cycle if we want to succeed blogging in any way. I have to find a balance of showing both sides.
You can fix the flooring gaps around the doorway with caulk. Find a colored caulk that matches your floor color. The caulk is flexible, so works great for expansion joints.
Another option is to use a flexible, stainable wood filler (Elmer’s) and paint it to match with acrylic artist paints. If this is in a heavy traffic area, you may need to put a clear coat over your acrylic artist paint, or just touch up periodically. If the area to fill is small and not in heavy traffic, I use Liquitex heavy body acrylic paint alone, for the fill in. I also use this paint to touch up scratches, from moving furniture, in the flooring.
Caulk is my absolute best friend and I have tried it many times. I think of these areas are just way too big though but thanks so much for all the tips
Have you tried “grout renew” it’s tedious but you basically paint it on and it will change the color of your grout. YHL used it and did a whole post on it. http://www.younghouselove.com/2014/01/how-you-like-me-now-grout/
Hey there Sarah! Thanks so much I am going to try that. I just bought it! I tried the grout pen and it’s not my favorite. So trying this now 😉
These post are the best. Sometimes reading blogs I think well if my house was perfect like theirs it could look that way too, and then the grandma in me thinks their poor children are they allowed to play. Refreshing to see all is not perfect and your kids do make messes. XO
My kids are definitely allowed to play and so are my furry kids and there are plenty of messes every single day 😉
Yeahp: ecoing all the people above – thanks for sharing the imperfections. Sometimes it is tough to see all these beautiful, fully organized homes. I get so frustrated with my own *imperfect* home. And to get traffic I am pinning several photos from this post! hey, let’s put some traffic here!
Haha well thanks so much! I appreciate it.