For our first blogiversary we announced a few of our goals going into year two and we’re back to see how we did and set some new ones as we move towards year three.
Check out my calves. Anyway, last year we decided to publicly declare our goals because while writing them down in a notepad could work, we figured publishing them for all to see would really light a fire under our rumps (what can we say, we work best under pressure). Miraculously, we did pretty well….
Last Year’s Goal: Get Your Read – We wanna write more fun and interactive posts like this (which resulted in this). How We Did: Not bad. We realized how fun it was to ask for your opinions and ideas, so from ending almost every post in a question to starting interactive “Let’s Tackle It Together” projects and reoccurring Burning Question posts, we regularly ask for your thoughts. It’s just more fun to blog when it feels like a conversation (what fun is talking if nobody talks back?) so thanks for taking the time to weight in!
Last Year’s Goal: Change The Scenery- I’ll take over John’s role as “video guy” so he can grace you with his presence in one of our upcoming video tours (as opposed to my overexposed mug). How We Did: Pretty good. John has selflessly decided to grace us with his presence in an abundance of videos, so from garage cleaning and rhino assembling to road tripping and stripe painting, he’s not just the man behind the camera anymore.
Last Year’s Goal: Listen Up- We’re hearing that you guys would love regular features like $0 room makeovers and a deal of the week write-up so stay tuned for more of what you want in the next 12 months. How We Did: From writing about our favorite steals and deals (like this paint brush, this soap dispenser, and this vacuum) to whipping up the zero dollar same-day room makeover below (and sharing tons of super affordable Reader Redesigns) we’re feeling pretty good. And we have even more affordable ideas in the pipeline for year three.
Last Year’s Goal: Seriously Detox- We vow to further embrace eco-friendly products and practices- and solicit lots of help along the way (we’re loving all the comments you guys left us here). How We Did: Not too shabby. We’re psyched to have greened up our home with everything from a homemade backyard compost container and an edible garden to a DIY rain barrel. And we even shared how we upgraded to eco friendly pans and an organic mattress. We also learned about natural ways to do everything from getting rid of ants to dying Easter eggs… and teaming up with Envirosax to offer up a slew of chic little reusable shopping bags was one of our favorite fab freebies to date.
Last Year’s Goal: Kid Around- We’re dying to do a quickie same-day children’s room makeover (like we did to Carrie’s Philly apartment except for a delightful & deserving kid) so stick around for that in the coming months. How We Did: Well, we haven’t done a same-day kids room makeover (although we did do another affordable same-day makeover for Carrie, pictured below) but we’re super excited to not only have shared some pretty great reader submitted kids’ rooms, but also to have helped John’s older sister transform an extra bedroom into a nursery over the course of a few weeks (and on a serious budget). Stay tuned for the final nursery reveal coming soon… along with the baby!
Last Year’s Goal: Get The Goods- We’d love to expand our shop offerings beyond prints and portraits and hope to someday supply home accessories and accents to swankify the world one room at a time. How We Did: Here’s where we fell short. We did look into offering up some pretty amazing decor stuff, but with blogging our little hearts out and all the other makeover projects that we take on we just haven’t found the time to research buying in bulk and shipping those objects safely enough to jump in with both feet. Yet. But we’re suuuuper excited to introduce YHL tees as a wearable addition to our shop, and we’re overjoyed at the warm reception you guys have given them (we already had to have more made to keep up with your orders!).
Last Year’s Goal: Tech Things Up- Young House Love in 3-D? Smell-o-vision? Ok maybe not, but we’d love to become more technologically savvy so nothing stands in our way when it comes to bringing you fresh and fabulous content in the coming year. How We Did: We feel pretty good on this front. We’ve shared weekly videos for the past few months and have even started a video page to keep everything in one spot (you know we’re suckers for a little organization).
Last Year’s Goal: Be More Social- We’d love to make better use of Twitter, Facebook, and all that other fun social media that we’re already using (but not as well as we could). How We Did: Done and done. We have been actively using Twitter and Facebook to share breaking news and tell everyone what we’re up to (from mundane daily life tidbits to major makeover-related sneak peeks). We’ve even used them to share some video outtakes and bloopers and leak exclusive clues leading up to this big reveal in December (and no, I wasn’t pregnant).
Last Year’s Goal: Get Around- We’d really like to house crash more homes outside the bounds of our delightful hometown. So cross your fingers that we wiggle our way into abodes far and wide for the inside scoop on how people live from coast to coast. How We Did: Oh happy day. We were fortunate enough to house crash people beyond state lines, like the two amazing homes seen below (here’s one, here’s the other). We also shared our insane 40 hour road trip, crashed a wedding in Texas, and have even more travel-related content planned for this year.
Last Year’s Goal: Enjoy The Ride- Sure blogging is a lot of typing, uploading, editing, and photoshopping, but we love every minute of it (well, almost every minute). So when we’re having one of those days when our server is taunting us or our latest post somehow deleted itself, we want to remember how lucky we are to do what we love every single day. How We Did: We survived! While running Young House Love is definitely not the easiest job we’ve ever had, it’s truly our passion and we love what we do. Sure we’re still working nights, weekends and even vacations, but we’re still quick to remind ourselves that the best things in life don’t just fall into your lap but are things that you work hard to accomplish.
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So that’s the rundown of last year’s goals. Here’s hoping we do as well this year with these:
Hit The Road- We’d love to travel more and house crash even more amazing homes around the country (and beyond?).
Get Cracking At Home- We’ve slowly been saving our pennies and planning our attack when it comes to finishing our basement and completely gutting our bathroom. And we’re psyched to announce that we’re pretty close to picking up our sledgehammers and paint brushes. This year’s definitely the year for both of these projects and then some…
Share The Process- Many people have requested info far beyond the step by step process of painting a brick fireplace or making bedside built-ins. They want the pre-planning breakdown and all the dirty details about why we choose what we choose (from colors to materials and even room layouts and beyond). So when it comes to our impending basement and bathroom projects, we won’t only share the before and afters, but we’ll detail the planning process to better demonstrate how we evaluate a space and determine which functions and materials are a priority to us- and why.
Do More With Less Moolah- From totally free easy upgrades to super cheap ways to spiff up a room, we’re obsessed with sharing more tips for living large on less.
Put Faces To Screen Names- We want to get out in the community (and even motor around the country) to meet you guys in the flesh. We’d love to arrange anything from a casual local gathering to on-the-road meet ups, so stay tuned. And how much fun would it be to shop together? Anyone up for meeting at Targets, Ikeas and TJ Maxx stores around the country? Sounds like a good time to us.
Sling The Swag- We’d love to keep giving you guys cool stuff every single week, and even up the ante with bigger and better prizes whenever possible. Last year we vowed to do our best to sniff out some great freebies (after countless requests from you guys on last year’s survey) and 365 days later we’re thrilled that we’ve kept that ball rolling and hosted over 40 super fun giveaways to date (where we doled out over $6000 worth of stuff!).
Expand The Clan?- This coming year just miiiight be the year of the baby. We’re definitely not making any promises, but we’ll see how things go and may actually end up with a nursery makeover at the end of year three (or the beginning of year four- kids do take a while to bake…).
So that’s what we have in mind for the future of Young House Love. And of course we’re still tabulating your feedback from Tuesday’s reader questionnaire so we’ll see if any other ideas float to the surface. In the meantime, what about you guys? Any goals for the next 365 days that you wanna share with the world? It really does seem to help get ‘er done when you declare them on the internet for all to see. So do tell.
Slightly altered image found here.
Lisa says
I am loving the idea of meet-and-greets, or group shopping tours! You need to come to the Baltimore area. :) Congrats on two years!
Amanda L says
I am looking forward to my first full year of reading your blog. I think the goals are great and can’t wait to see all of your projects mentioned. Happy Blogiversary and best of luck for another year!
Julie says
Excited about the possibility of a Richmond meet-up! You could do one at a local spot like La Diff. Or Target would do the trick too.
Tiffany says
Okay, I would most definitely pay for you guys to meet my husband and I at IKEA and Pier 1 for a wonderful decorating soiree. That would be fabulous. And I can’t wait for you guys to have your first baby. You’re just so stinkin’ cute to begin with…it’ll be so fun to see you guys enter that next season off life. Great post! :)
wanderluster says
I highly recommend checking everything else off your goal list before “expanding the clan” because all the renos come to a slooooow crawl once baby arrives on the scene. Trust me, I know, lol.
Great work in Year 2, young ones! I thoroughly enjoyed being along for the ride. Hope Year 3 is even bigger and better.
Connie says
I swear I have your basement in my house. My basement is unfinished too. I hardly ever go down there, and when I do, I’m running to my destination and back up the steps. I give the dusting cob webs job to my hubbie, since its a manly job to fight the spiders. :>’) So YHL advice is desperately needed to direct the blind in a budget friendly, DIY project for unfinished basements. And…..best wishes on new addition.
Congratulations on you Blogaversary!
MaryB says
BABY BABY BABY BABY BABY!!!!!!!!
Oh, how fun is that!
Hally says
BASEMENT BASEMENT BASEMENT BASEMENT!! Just joking MaryB at @ 10:50 pm! But seriously, can we get cracking on that room? I’m stoked to see what you do with it!
You guys are great!
YoungHouseLove says
Hey Hally,
We’re already cracking in the basement brainstorming department… we just have to save our pennies to actually break ground! But I promise it’s at the top of our list and we’ll get to it as soon as we can. Definitely before babies!
xo,
s
Briel K. says
Can’t wait to see the basement remodel!
And yes, come to LA! We have Target, Ikea, CB2…lots of places to shop and meet up! :)
Elida Rodriguez says
Hello! YES! Please come shopping with me! I live in the Tampa Bay area, and we just opened a new IKEA in Tampa! Of course we have the fabulous Target, TJ Max, Crate&Barrel, and how about an edition on thrift shopping? I LOVE to go thrift shopping and yard selling and snag up some good finds for our home. Please let me know you’ll come…and also take a quick look at the house we just bought. Free room and board :).
Carol S. says
Congrats on setting goals and hitting so many of them. Ambitious people, for sure! Can you say when you might be heading to the basement??? I’m getting ready to embark on mine, but may have to hold off a bit if I thought you were going to reveal plans before November 1? I love to be a copycat of good design! Great job guys.
YoungHouseLove says
Hey Carol S.
We do plan to start the basement makeover before November 1st (barring any major house catastrophe that bumps the project!) but we’ll mostly be working on waterproofing and finishing the walls and the floors first (we won’t get to the actual design & function of the space for a little while). Those things can take some time since we’re big fans of room that evolve over time with some thought put into them (which is nothing we could throw together in a weekend). Hope it helps!
xo,
s
ChaChi says
I like lookin at your house without the toys, baby clothes, and fingerprints on everything. YOu know if I wanted to see that… I’d just look around my own house. I would tell you to wait on the baby, but I totally trust you guys will do it when the time is right. You guys are amazing and an inspiration! But you know what I want to see more of…GOOOF UPS! Like when the Twine-Balloon project went all wrong, that made me laugh so hard and reminded me a that not all projects go perfectly, but to stick with it. So Congrats on another year!
Audrey says
Thanks again for linking to my sister’s nursery makeover! We did accomplish it in one day, so that goes towards meeting your goal, right? :) You can live vicariously through us!
Laurie Jones says
I have been following your blog from the beginning and have enjoyed watching it progress! You have great style! Good luck with year number 3!!!
April Oliver says
Just wanted to tell you both that this blog is such a joy and inspiration! I’m sure you hear that all the time…but it’s true!! I appreciate all the hard work you put into it – you make a difference!
Jennifer says
YAY for year three! You really accomplished a lot last year! Congratulations on all of your success on the blog and EVERYTHING else you do as well! You are an inspiration to so many! Myself included, as in the next 365 days, my goal is to start my own in home organization business, a life long dream! Wish me luck!!! Seeing your success has given me some extra needed courage to pursue my dream! So thank you!
Best wishes to you both with all you do this year! And P.S. Although little munchkins don’t always assist in speedy renovations or projects, and it’s a little harder to have both a kid friendly and cute/clean home all at once (if you can keep all your light neutral rooms looking fabulous after kids, I would LOVE to know the secret!), nothing makes a home feel warmer than the sound of little giggles! So again, I am sending well wishes for all that comes your way this next year!
Lauryn says
YAYYYYY i love your new goals! Your baby(ies) (whenever you decide to have them) are going to be so beautiful. I cant wait to see the basement though! Good luck with everything :-)
Evan says
I noticed one of your goals is more eco-friendly housekeeping. I give presentations on this very subject! I’d be happy to send you my 3 page list of homemade cleaners (mostly relying on vinegar and baking soda). Let me know how to send it to you if you want it.
Thanks for your hard work!
YoungHouseLove says
OOOooooh yes Evan! Please send it our way (see the “contact us” button on the sidebar?). Thanks so much! Can’t wait to check it out.
xo,
s
Allison Harris says
I love the idea for meeting readers! I would love a Sherry guided shopping trip and maybe John could talk my hubby out of the dark overstuffed sofa he wants to buy! haha
All your new goals sound terrific! Keep up the good work!
Susan says
I just have to comment, because the top picture of you two totally cracks me up. I seriously laughed out loud when I first saw it :O) Thanks!
Letty says
Yaaaay! I’ve enjoyed every second of your blog so far, and I’m looking forward to the coming YHL-year. I’m most excited about your plans for the basement and bathroom re-do and your trips to meet us! Make sure you don’t leave Miami off your list!! All the best!
Johanna says
You are officially invited to house crash us in Chicago anytime! (although, if you are invited, is it considered “crashing”? hmmmm…) Anyway… we are renovating from top to bottom in every single room- from paint to lighting to flooring- Ever-y-thing… a 100 year old home in our town’s historic district. Consider yourself welcome, er, whatever. :)
jessica says
okay so the photos where yall photoshop your heads onto randsom soccer players, dancers, titanicers, and so on…these make me crack up and I always need a good laugh…especially in the middle of a workday!
carrie says
holy cow- I can NOT STOP LAUGHING at the soccer picture!!! Can I add a note to my survey answer comment and request that you add more “photoshopped” pictures…I needed a hardy chuckle tonight!
Carol S. says
Thanks for the reply on the basement plans getting underway by Nov. 1. No pressure now, lol. But, can I say, the internet is sorely lacking in inspirational photos before and after of basements! You can see some at Rate My Space…but other than that…not much, and the ones you do see, have full patio doors and large windows, and things I bet most of us have. I’d love to see more with low drop ceilings, no windows, etc. Hmmmm…any chance you’d collect some befores and afters of readers’s basements? I know I sure would love to see them! Thanks guys!
YoungHouseLove says
Hey Carol,
So sorry about the shortage of basement makeover pictures. Here’s hoping our project will help and that people will send us their basement Reader Redesigns along the way!
xo,
s
Richa says
LOVE the top picture and your style of writing.
I wish I could have a blog like yours…but I wouldn’t know where to start!
All the best for year 3…and accomplishing your final goal.
Bailey says
Love it!! Are you kidding, I would be so psyched to go to Target with you, and you could put cute things in my cart because I have no talent with picking things out at the store that look good in my house.
And I have plans for my basement too!
It will become the boyfriend’s Mancave, which I am swankifying with a wet bar, flat screen, keyboard/guitar area, and framed Wilco concert posters as art. There is a decent series on DIY network called Mancaves that has a lot of great inspiration for manly rooms!
Laurie says
You owe me a new keyboard, I just spit coffee all over it when I saw that photo!!!
Amelia says
It would be FANTASTIC if you came up to the D.C. area (specifically Silver Spring, MD). You’re welcome to crash our home any time…and there would be nothing better than going out for a day of shopping (we’ve got Ikea, Marshall’s, T.J. Maxx, HomeGoods, you name it!). Travel to Maryland!
Mizden says
Hey J&S!
I’m wondering…what happened to this goal?:
Put Faces To Screen Names- We want to get out in the community (and even motor around the country) to meet you guys in the flesh. We’d love to arrange anything from a casual local gathering to on-the-road meet ups, so stay tuned. And how much fun would it be to shop together? Anyone up for meeting at Targets, Ikeas and TJ Maxx stores around the country? Sounds like a good time to us.
You are always welcome to Mexico…maybe mexican decor will give you more fantastic ideas? :D haha I would love to cook you a 100% mexican dish and some of those salsas I was mentioning yesterday :)
And I loved that you said you just might expand the clan although Clara was already baking….hope next blogiversary you’ll give us another hint like that :D
YoungHouseLove says
Aw, we’d still love to do that! Thankfully our tour is making it possible, and we have actually done lots of out-of-state house crashing since sharing this goal a while back!
xo
s