I deleted a three-thousand-word draft because it felt heavy, overthought, and awkward. Instead I decided to write what we’re actually feeling—plainly, honestly, and with a few things we’ve never said out loud or fully admitted to ourselves before.
The simple truth is that we love you. Truly. Even when our feedback has felt like tough love, we know it comes from a place of care, and we want you to know we feel that care right back. We want to do this well. We want to create with joy and excitement. We want to inspire you. We know this blog has been an incredible way to make a living, and we are deeply grateful for the chance to share the last seven years of our lives with you online.
We would never be here without you. Not a day goes by that we don’t remember that. That’s why we asked for your feedback last week and read every comment. We appreciate your honesty and the passion you bring to making this blog great. A lot of what you said resonated with us. Lately we’ve felt off—out of rhythm, missing the mark for ourselves and for you. We miss the days when we did this purely for the love of it, when posts felt spontaneous, joyful, and like somewhere we all hung out together. That vibe has faded, and we miss it.
Over the years, some amazing opportunities came our way—things we never imagined: a book deal, working with paint makers, products carried by a national retailer, a showhouse, and more. Those experiences were incredible and we remain grateful for them. But in hindsight, they also contributed to a sense that this had become more of a business than a personal space—not just to some of you, but to us as well. We’ve actually scaled back many of those outside projects: some collaborations ended, product lines ran their course, and certain commitments are complete. We didn’t make a big announcement about stepping back, so it’s understandable if some readers thought we’d moved on and left the blog behind. The truth is the blog still powers the success of any outside project, so we can’t simply turn our backs on it and expect everything else to continue without effort.
Beyond that shift from “John and Sherry” to “Young House Love: The Brand,” the entire blogging world has grown more commercial and sponsorship-driven. From a reader’s perspective—or even as fellow creators—it’s become harder to trust that posts are written purely from passion rather than a program or financial motive. A few of you assumed giveaways must be lucrative for us, which surprised us because we’ve never accepted payment to host giveaways; we enjoy sharing freebies with you as a thank-you for reading.
There are other things we wish we had handled differently. Looking back, we acknowledge times we were defensive, over-explained, let small worries change our tone, or struggled with where to draw the line between transparency and oversharing—like how we announced our third home. We know some of you felt let down by how we communicated about that, and for that we’re sorry.
It’s endlessly frustrating to feel like you’re doing a job you love poorly—especially when it’s something you built and nurtured for seven years. We know this is a dream job and a rare opportunity, and we haven’t lost our gratitude. What’s changed is that we feel out of groove. We feel like we’ve been letting you down. Eventually it got to where we braced ourselves every time we hit “publish.” That constant anxiety made it hard to create from a joyful place.
So we’re taking a break. We don’t yet know exactly how long, but our best guess is at least a month. During this time we’ll explore other ways to support our family and revisit how we balance this work with everything else in our lives. We remember how much creative spark we had when this began as a hobby alongside day jobs, and stepping back may help us find that energy again. We’ll also be pausing our activity on social platforms while keeping the blog archives public so you can access past content anytime.
We own the state of the blog and our own internal struggle. Please don’t blame the readers who offered honest feedback last week—that input was cathartic and clarifying. It helped us see that if we truly respect this site, our love for it, and what you want to see, we need to step away for a while to recover the fun, real, and spontaneous spirit it once had when this was done for love rather than as a high-stakes job.
In short: we love you, we’re grateful, and we hope you understand. Thank you for being here with us through the ups and downs.