It’s been the most bizarre week over here. If you follow me on Instagram Stories then you know that yesterday I had to have an emergency surgery for a hernia that popped up …or out..on Wednesday night. My stomach had been hurting the better part of the day, but it wasn’t until we were having a full blown birthday party at our house for Chris’s 96 year old grandpa that I the pain intensified. I snuck away into our bedroom and sure enough, there was a hard bulge coming out of my stomach. Luckily, my brother in law is dating a doctor and she was able to diagnose me on the spot and get me in to see a surgeon right away. For such a terrible situation, it was really the best possible scenario. I am in a lot of pain from the surgery, but the forced slow down has helped me get a lot of rest in. And I have grand plans to catch up on my email in the coming days.
Other things of note this week:
• There’s an interesting discussion happening in the comments of this post about one reader’s thoughts on us sharing “too much” of our bathroom renovation before the big reveal and how that can feel unexciting for a reader. Others disagree. I’m sure there are some that agree, too. Would love to hear your thoughts on the matter. I’ve been trying to gather my thoughts on the subject before responding. In the end, we’ve always said, this isn’t a before and after blog. This is a process blog. This is real life. Real time.  And the reality is our bathroom renovation just hit the 8 week mark! If I was holding all of that from you for the last 8 weeks in order to have a big reveal, I think that would be a disservice to the reality of renovating a home. To me, the progress and renovation journey is just as exciting as the after. Okay, maybe not just as exciting but definitely just as important! We’ve also learned so much along the way from you, from mistakes that we have troubleshooted–I don’t know, I could never imagine sharing our renovation story any differently. But I’m open to hearing your thoughts!
• Made me laugh out loud. (so true!)
• I got our older girls some Plus-Plus tiles this week and they are so fun! Have you heard of them? They played for a solid 3 hours the first day and woke up the next morning and started playing again. They are kind of like Legos, but it’s all simple one shaped pieces that can be fit together to make anything!
• I love this quote from Nate Berkus. Love what you love.
• We spent Memorial Day weekend at our cabin and it really felt like home. Despite barely putting our touch on the home, we have our go-to restaurant. We started exploring the nearby trails. We’ve had our friends and family up on numerous occasions. And we have concrete plans for nearly every room in the house. To be honest, it was a rough winter with our A-frame and there were times where we thought, maybe we made a mistake. The fireplaces took hours to warm the place up and the driveway was so steep, it was impossible to get up with all the snow. But then the snow broke and we realized, this place SHINES in the summer. We never knew! There’s swimming and boating and hiking and four-wheeling and camp fires to be had.
• While I’ve been down with this hernia, I’ve had some time to look through the Nordstrom Half Yearly Sale. There wasn’t as much home stuff as in past years, but I was pleasantly surprised by the clothing I was able to find. Almost everything below is 30-40% off (the sale price should appear when you scroll over it, and if you click on a photo it will bring you straight to the product) and the sale goes through Sunday!
Hope you’re doin ok! Did you have slight pain all along? Like a tear in your abdominal wall? Wondering if that’s what I have from pregnancy two years ago. But no bluging.
No, I don’t think you share too much. We are currently starting another renovation and the little things you share are important to me because thats part of the process and those little things are sometimes what make a space seamless. So no, keep sharing all of it please!
Apparently I had a small tear, but it came on quickly and the bulge and everything was REALLY painful.
I really love seeing the process! Count my vote for more real life and more sneak peek of progress – I love that about you guys.
I really love all the progress pics and that you’re documenting it all in real time. I wish there had been blogs like yours and Manhattan Nest and Yellow Brick Home around when I bought my house, because HGTV had given me completely unrealistic expectations about how much things would cost and how long they would take!
I hope you’re healing up fast and all is well.
Sending fast healing vibes your way Julia.
I am a fan of the progress pics/posts because they lend just another example of authenticity of your content. I agree that before/afters can be great but they really don’t *tell me* anything. I think it’s great that you’re in a position to hire out to contractors, but I’d be lying if I said a part of me doesn’t miss when you two did the work yourselves simply because it made it all just more real, if you know what I mean. Big congrats on the beautiful bathroom — I’m especially loving the Fireclay Tile which I’m determined to use somewhere in my house one day.
Also — if you’re still reading this — I signed up for EMAIL notifications of your posts but I’m not getting them?
I hope you are healing well! I just wanted to pop in to say I LOVE all the in-progress content. TBH, if I want “finished” rooms, there’s tons of that on IG. Don’t get me wrong, I love seeing the end room, but for me, I love the process even more.