A record of Journal Makeover

Yup, after months of working on a little behind the scenes journal makeover (not kidding, this stuff literally takes us months) we have AT LAST let ‘er rip. Like any project, there were unexpected delays: mysterious coding glitches, inexplicable site crashes (thanks for your patience on those, btw), an earthquake and even a hurricane to round things out. But before we let another excuse get in our way, we chose to simply go for it. It is not 100% done. It may crash the site again. There could be a blizzard next week. Who knows.

It is in fact surprising to us that we have not done this sooner. We have had the same exact journal look/background/layout since the spring of 2008 (if you can believe it). It seemed silly that we have been through so many room re-paintings, furniture re-arrangings, and even a move to a whole new house… but hadn’t so much as changed the background pattern for three whole years. So it was certainly time. It simply sort of felt like we were wearing old clothes that did not quite fit anymore. So although we know there are likely folks out there who will miss the old look (we are sentimental creatures too) we are excited to at last put on a fresh new outfit.

Here is a little bit of what we were hoping to accomplish with the new design:

• Update the look (colors/patterns/typefaces) to be more reflective of our design choices in the new house
• Make the header more inclusive of the things we journal about (folks kept saying it simply represented the “house” part of our name)
• Lighten up a bit, since the old color scheme was feeling a bit dull & heavy at moments
• Improve navigation and assist you folks discover content more easily
• Overall simply make the site feel fresher, more 2011 and less 2008

So this is what our amateur web designing skills came up with. So far we truly enjoy it, even though there are certainly things we are still trying to finesse. We have been tweaking it for the past several weeks, so we are kinda used to it by now – but we understand if some of you are still skeptical of the change. Think of it like rearranging a room or painting a wall – you might simply need to give it a few days to get used to it.

When it comes to the actual header, we photographed a collection of objects that had special meaning to us on white cardstock outside (you know we enjoy keeping things personal). In case you cannot figure it all out on your own, here is the meaning behind each item:

• Photostrips have consistently been something we have enjoyed, hence their appearance at our wedding
• Clara and Burger are as much a part of this journal as any Hands-on project, so their picture was a must
• A little wooden “C” block for Clara and a small bone-shaped dog treat (on the other side) were another way to tie them in
• Sherry and I met in 2004 when we lived in NYC, so the little wooden skyscraper and taxi cabs remind us of those early days
• We are low-cost. So we save our pennies. Hence the change, which in fact adds up to seven cents – which is a lucky number of ours (plus the dates on each of the pennies are 2007, which is when we began this little ol’ journal)
• We live in (and enjoy) Richmond. So we tossed in a little Richmond magnet. Represent.
• Paint swatches and fabric samples = our idea of a good time. So we picked a few that felt like our current house/style
• There is not a much more sentimental object than the key to our house (although we altered the pointer of it in Photoshop because we are paranoid)
• Of course we also squeezed in a photo of our current house (had to have that glad yellow door in there somewhere)
• A white ceramic rhino is kind of our mascot at this point (at least behind Burger and our dearly departed ceramic dog).

When it comes to the background, we in fact created that as an homage to our previous logo (you know that little YHL heart? the background is in fact simply a gazillion of those laid out at all distinct angles to make an abstract-ish pattern). And as for the actual functional changes that we made, here they are:

1. We brought in a new side-deal called the house Life (see the “Life” title under the header on the right?) to serve as sort of a “mundane everyday happenings area” where we mostly share Clara & Burger pics/videos along with behind the scenes journal stuff and other odds and ends that are not beefy sufficient for a dedicated YHL post over here (you know we enjoy to over-share). But do not worry, it does not mean Clara, Burger, and other life stuff (vacations, anniversaries, etc) will suddenly be gone from the main site. Those things have consistently been a large part of who we are, so they stay. Simply think of the house Life is a little “bonus footage” spot. Oh and it has a separate feed address for you to subscribe to as well (if you’d like to get those updates on your reader).

 

2. We at last made a paint color page about all of the ones we have used in this house and linked to it from our sidebar (like this one that we made for our first house).

3. We also made a dedicated source list for where we got nearly everything in this house (like this one that we made for our first house) and also linked that up on the sidebar.

4. We tossed in a Fav. Posts button, also on the sidebar (with little thumbnails and links). We intend to update it every month or so with new faves (since we are fickle folks and because we have also heard from a bunch of readers who’d enjoy to see more archive stuff, but are not sure what is worth digging around for).

5. We also brought in a Videos button on the sidebar, which shows thumbnails of a few of them. All of our videos used to be accessible from the bar under the header, but we moved some other stuff up there and thought videos could breathe better down below – so now you can access them all by clicking the link at the bottom of this button.

6. We brought in a Giving Back button to share the enjoy for three charities that we are thrilled to support, each of which were chosen because they represent stuff we enjoy (homes, kids, & dogs). We make an annual donation of $1,000 to the Richmond Habitat For Humanity along with $500 to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital and $500 to the Richmond SPCA (and we certainly encourage others to check them out – you can donate here, here, and here or find a local Habitat for Humanity or SPCA in your area here and here).

7. We retooled a lot of other buttons that have consistently been on our sidebar (like the House Crashing one) with some updated pics/type/colors. But that is more decorative slash lively than functional. As is the new Twitter button which now goes by the name of Tweetersiks. Oh yeah, we officially out-punned Mr. Tom Petersik (my dear old dad).

8. Oh and we were inspired (by Kate over at Centsational Girl) to add a pleasant thorough pagination capability (so you can click back to the quite first post in our archives, you know in case you have a year to spare reading 2,000+ of them).

So there it is. Of course we still have a bunch of stuff on our journal-to-do list, so here are simply a few things that we are hoping to roll out in the next few months (or years, you know how long these things can take us, haha):

• Fully “renovate” our Projects page so it has some images instead of simply a ton of crazy links (can you believe we have tackled over 500 projects?)
• Update the designs/header on the Mood Boards and Room Gallery pages (since they are still rocking the old tan stripes)
• Add about 100+ other makeovers to our Room Gallery (we have so many remarkable Reader Redesigns in our archives to toss in)

Should keep us busy for a while. And we do have our $6 cabinets to finish. Might switch back over to Hands-on for at least a little bit. Web stuff is kind of lively (when you are in the zone), but there is nothing like paint under your nails and sawdust flying. Hope you folks like the new look. Has anyone else done a little site tweaking lately? Any new color schemes or functionality that makes you giddy in that “it is 2:52 am and we are still working on this post way?” Not that we are. That would be irresponsible parenting.