YHL kitchen budget revealed

Jhawks482

alicat32908:

Pumpkin30:

TheWop:

Jhawks482:

BrianaBones:

I'm just saying, there must be some way to deal with the kid and get more than 5 or 10 hours of work done a week. I have friends with toddlers, and they seem to manage getting some things done while their children are awake. Especially when both parents are around. 

They are just saying the spent 5-10 hours a week on the KITCHEN. They aren't saying "oh, we only work 5-10 hours a week! What a great life!" I think people forget they were also writing and publishing a book during this time. So in addition to the kitchen they had to come up with material and photograph 100's of other projects that no one has even seen yet. Aside from what I think about the kitchen, it's not really fair for people to pass judgment about them about where they spend their time. I don't read YHL on a regular basis at all, but even I know that they are workaholics and put in far more work (time wise) than most people that clock in from 8-5 (and for less pay). I think they said they are often up until midnight or 1 each night, working.

If they're working so hard, and for so long, why are people always complaining about their crappy blog content?  *note I do not follow YHL behond what is posted on this board. 

Sherry does spend hours a day nursing the comments. Their week in the life post made it seem like they work all day long on various projects. Some of that includes returning e-mails to sponsors, giveaway donors, their other writing gigs. I can see how it all adds up, but if they spent less time on the really fluffy filler posts, they could probably beef up the other posts just a bit.

This is a huge time waster IMO.  I get answering questions and addressing legitimate issues commenters might bring up, but so many of her replies are "haha, so funny", "haha, so cute", "haha, that's crazy", etc. It's like an all day junior high school gab session or something.

Agreed, 10000%.

HesitantBride

alicat32908:

Pumpkin30:

TheWop:

Jhawks482:

BrianaBones:

I'm just saying, there must be some way to deal with the kid and get more than 5 or 10 hours of work done a week. I have friends with toddlers, and they seem to manage getting some things done while their children are awake. Especially when both parents are around. 

They are just saying the spent 5-10 hours a week on the KITCHEN. They aren't saying "oh, we only work 5-10 hours a week! What a great life!" I think people forget they were also writing and publishing a book during this time. So in addition to the kitchen they had to come up with material and photograph 100's of other projects that no one has even seen yet. Aside from what I think about the kitchen, it's not really fair for people to pass judgment about them about where they spend their time. I don't read YHL on a regular basis at all, but even I know that they are workaholics and put in far more work (time wise) than most people that clock in from 8-5 (and for less pay). I think they said they are often up until midnight or 1 each night, working.

If they're working so hard, and for so long, why are people always complaining about their crappy blog content?  *note I do not follow YHL behond what is posted on this board. 

Sherry does spend hours a day nursing the comments. Their week in the life post made it seem like they work all day long on various projects. Some of that includes returning e-mails to sponsors, giveaway donors, their other writing gigs. I can see how it all adds up, but if they spent less time on the really fluffy filler posts, they could probably beef up the other posts just a bit.

This is a huge time waster IMO.  I get answering questions and addressing legitimate issues commenters might bring up, but so many of her replies are "haha, so funny", "haha, so cute", "haha, that's crazy", etc. It's like an all day junior high school gab session or something.

I agree about the time sink that is the comments, but I think this is them carefully cultivating their readership and audience.  By making some kind of conversation with their readers (even if it is juvenile), they seem accessible and people feel as if they "know them."  To me, this is part of the marketing side of their business.  And I am sure they like getting all of those positive comments. 

katie4253

I have not been following their blog at all, but I just have to say I HATE the bar stools.  I had a chair like that in my classroom.  It was terrible.  So uncomfortable.  And, there should only be 3 of whatever they use.  4 looks so scrunched. 

emjacobs13

cookiemonster03:

What the hell do they do all week? We have jobs and two babies and spend 5-10 hrs/week on our house renos.

They'll earn plenty more pennies for the posts about the improved range hood and replacing those awful hinges and stools. 

They are trying to make everyone believe that they ACTUALLY have been in progress on the kitchen since October.  That they totally didn't break it down in to 5 ba-jillion posts because there just simply aren't that many more things in this world that you can spray paint. 

I would be willing to bet that they worked 20-30 hours/week on this for 2 -2.5 months.  

Plus lets do some simple math, if they worked on this ONLY when Clara was napping, 5 days a week. You have 1 mid-day nap, we will estimate 1.5 hours, and then 2 hours every evening after Clara going to bed that is 3.5 hours per day and 17.5 hours per week.  

I'm not impressed. 

emisi

Okay, I am apparently in the minority here that I don't hate the kitchen.  Actually, I kind of like it.  It's cheerful, and it looks SO MUCH BETTER than the old one.  The stools are crap, but the rest of it I don't mind at all.  I like the tile, and I like how the floors provide a nice dark contrast to the white white white of the rest of the space.

Passanie

It's far and above what they started with. Sure, there's a few things I personally don't care for, and I'm sure they'll continue to tweak. But it's refreshing to see a budget renovation. People always say they should spend more money, but um, many of us in this world, including them, don't HAVE more money, folks! Money is not always the answer.

pinkeggs

Passanie:

It's far and above what they started with. Sure, there's a few things I personally don't care for, and I'm sure they'll continue to tweak. But it's refreshing to see a budget renovation. People always say they should spend more money, but um, many of us in this world, including them, don't HAVE more money, folks! Money is not always the answer.

I go back and forth between thinking this and then thinking the other opinion, that they should shell out more. 

I think where I land is that there are some things they were fine to do on a tight budget, i.e. DIY tiling and basic carpentry stuff, but if they had spent more on some of the big stuff, i.e. the floor, stools, counters, it would look MUCH better and would not have necessarily busted the budget. 

I definitely agree that it's an improvement over what they started with and I do like the brightness, but if I bought that house from them I wouldn't think twice about immediately ripping out the floor, repainting, and probably replacing the cabinet doors, if not the entire cabinet piece. I guess I just feel like a major KITCHEN makeover on such a popular blog would have been a little more impressive and climactic. *shrug*

P.S. One thing I cannot criticize them on is their work ethic, though. Even when they are on "vacation", they are always taking photos and collecting stuff for the blog. They never really take a break. 

AugustBrideCO

I'm with the ladies who said they're surprised they spent that much. It does not look like a 7-10k kitchen to me. I would have guessed maybe 4k. It does look better than the original but there's a lot I don't like. The stools need to be replaced ASAP, the penny tiles just look like a plain gray wall, and I am sure the cabinets look awful in person. The countertops were a big mistake IMO. They're incredibly boring. I don't mind the floors though. If it was me, I probably would have saved up another 5k before tackling the kitchen and used the entire budget so I could get new cabinets, better countertops, real bar stools etc.

NaturalBlond

There's a lot of weird YHL hate that goes beyond the blog around these parts...accusing them lying about time frames, accusing them of being lazy with their work week, accusing them of quiting their jobs inappropriately, accusing them of spending too much time joking around their comment section. I mean what strange accusations. I think some of you need to unclench a little. It's a blog. About decorating. From two generally nice and agreeable people. Sheesh. I hope you people get this passionate about the presidential race!

The kitchen is growing on me. They made some tweaks and it's looking better. I still don't think the paint color works, the cork is a strange choice, the corian is unfortunate, and the footprint is kinda odd, but you people are smoking copious amounts of crack if you don't recognize the VAST improvement they made to that kitchen, which was HEINOUS before. That they spent only $7k to go from a dated wood paneling monstrosity to something light and bright is pretty impressive and will NOT hurt them on resale.

Speaking of resale...how do you know that kicking in bigger dollars for the kitchen would be wise given the comps in their neighborhood? And didn't they say they over improved their last kitchen? That is they lost money on that kitchen reno? Maybe they got smarter this time.

Speaking of the last kitchen. Le sigh. Now that kitchen was pure perfection in my book.

Sweet Sadie Mae

They said they are going to get area rugs. Maybe they will splurge with that.

cookiemonster03

Passanie:

It's far and above what they started with. Sure, there's a few things I personally don't care for, and I'm sure they'll continue to tweak. But it's refreshing to see a budget renovation. People always say they should spend more money, but um, many of us in this world, including them, don't HAVE more money, folks! Money is not always the answer.

We don't have the money to do the reno we wanted either, so we did the reno we can afford. 

Doing  a full scale reno on a half scale budget isn't the best option.

I do applaud them for making a living on their blog, but since it is public, I have the right to criticize their choices (the hinges, ugh.). I do love the open wall though.

PartiallySunny

They have said they are going to stay in this home a long time. Resale isn't an issue IMO.

I do like the penny tile, the lighting, and how they opened the space up to the dinning room with the peninsula. I even like the open shelving now that it isn't so cluttered with the extra bracket. BUT:

All together it looks like a cheap kitchen. This wasn't suppose to be a good-enough-for-now or a doing-the-best-we-can-with-the-money-we-have type reno. Or at least, it's not how it is suppose to look. They look for those great bargains and cheap prices and are proud of being able to decorate and renovate on a budget but still have everything look great. But this reno doesn't look good. It has that we-had-a-tight-budget look, and IT'S NOT SUPPOSE TO. It's a disappointment.

I think they work really hard, but I don't think they always work smart.

 

Pumpkin30

Passanie:

It's far and above what they started with. Sure, there's a few things I personally don't care for, and I'm sure they'll continue to tweak. But it's refreshing to see a budget renovation. People always say they should spend more money, but um, many of us in this world, including them, don't HAVE more money, folks! Money is not always the answer.

You're absolutely correct about the budget, and it is a huge improvement. But I remember them saying they were going to do the renovation in phases when they got the money. If they'd waited on floors, cabinet doors, etc. until they could afford them, it would have looked a lot better, I think. But if they had waited I'd be b!tching about that, too.

Pumpkin30

NaturalBlond:

There's a lot of weird YHL hate that goes beyond the blog around these parts...accusing them lying about time frames, accusing them of being lazy with their work week, accusing them of quiting their jobs inappropriately, accusing them of spending too much time joking around their comment section. I mean what strange accusations. I think some of you need to unclench a little. It's a blog. About decorating. From two generally nice and agreeable people. Sheesh. I hope you people get this passionate about the presidential race!

It's the decorating board. We're going to be passionate about a decorating blog.

alecmiranda

Considering they bought new appliances, flooring, lighting, etc., I think the under $7,000 mark was pretty good.  When we moved into our new house, we spent almost $3400 on appliances alone [granted, that included a new washer and dryer] so to spend double of that on an entire kitchen is pretty impressive to me.  I also do like that they had a budget, stuck to it, and they made a kitchen that they love.

I know that they said it's finished but there are a few aspects that I hope they change/evolve on.  For me, that would be color - it just seems so white-washed!  And I usually love white kitchens but it definitely needs some more poppy, less neutral colors.  It could just not be translating well but it just looks kinda bland right now.

 All-in-all, it's not to shabby.  :0]