Getting Personal : Update 3.0

It's funny, I'm such a private person... but I blog, so I feel compelled to share. I often dread writing personal posts, and then once they're live I feel the most cathartic freedom. It's almost as if you set the burdens free and they drift away creating a lightness on your shoulders.

People assume when you're a designer and blogger that your home must be like a magazine. After all what's shown in instagram is controlled and perfect. We selectively take pictures of the rooms that are put together and (in my case) ignore the four that aren't. Because realistically, who wants to see them?

The truth is I had a flood here not once, not twice, but three or even four times. I'm not sure anymore. One of those times was due to a water heater tank blowing. However the other times were from excessive rain water seeping down a lower level staircase (outside) and making it's way under the basement door.
The last time was quite a shock. I thought it had all been fixed. I'd had the outside basement stairs replaced and a deep hole dug out with drainage under the bottom landing.
I went ahead and made the lower level beautiful. Had hardwood installed, bought area rugs and furniture. We gathered and celebrated an amazing family christmas down there and a few short months later in the spring it happened again.
When we discovered the flooding everyone ran to get the furniture and other goods out of the space as fast as we could. There was no where to put them so things got thrown into the guest bedroom down there. When it was full everyone started to make their way upstairs and piled everything in my home office. Before I knew it this room that represents my creativity was waist high in bits and pieces and they had no where to go. You literally could not see the floor.
The mess has remained as such for over a year as I've been waiting to remedy the leak issue outside.
Fast forward to now and I've been having a roof structure built over my back deck that will effectively cover the staircase that enabled the flooding. As an extra precaution a waterproof membrane has been installed under the staircase as well and the hole at the bottom landing re dug and refilled with gravel. This should remedy the issue once and for all. I'm thrilled! AND I'll get a covered deck out of the ordeal too, which I had always wanted.

I thought I'd share because sometimes I think the social media that we all measure ourselves by and compare ourselves to can be unhealthy. I almost felt like if I shared the messes, and real life, people would think less of the perfect picture I had worked so hard to portray. But the reality is we all have messes and things happen in our homes and lives that are out of our control. I've kept quiet about this disaster of a basement, that spilled over and created a disaster of an office.
On the bright side, I can plan flooring for the lower level and start putting things back together down there soon. I have an amazing new covered outdoor living room to decorate as well ( garden party!!) AND I'm currently planning a mini office overhaul now that everything stored there will move down to the lower level.
I'll be posting about those spaces too, but I felt it was important for you all to understand the back story. That I wasn't just randomly buying new things for fun but rather that life is messy even when we don't show it.

Thanks as always to all of you who choose to join me. Your support and encouragement mean more than I can say. I can't wait to share these finished spaces and the garden party to celebrate too. xoxo