Super Survey Monday + A New Home Tour

To everyone who took the time to fill out my second blogiversary survey on November 15th, thanks a mundo! I really enjoyed reviewing the hundreds of responses, and the fact is, it’s both awesome and completely unnerving to know that so many of you took this survey and presented me with such open feedback. You do know that unless you provided me with some specific detail in your open ended responses, I have no idea who you are, right? This is crazy town, and thank you for not leaving any responses that would require me to call on the BAU.

Because you’re all invested enough to help with my open source research, I thought it’d be fun to share some of the results of the survey with you. Think of it as your stock dividend for hanging with me for helping me gain significant traction in the world of blogging. Enjoy!

FUN FACT #1: It’s cool that more than half of you found me (and stuck with me!) after seeing me featured elsewhere. Huge thanks owed out to DIY Network, Apartment Therapy, Blogstar, Curbly, and all of the other places on the interwebs that I’ve landed. You can see just about all of those features here, if you’ve never browsed them before.

FUN FACT #2: Men. Maybe y’all are just shy out there, but I thought that I’d see more than just 8% male responders. Shy breed?

FUN FACT #3: Home tours, you say? I didn’t expected to hear almost half of you that you want MORE HOME TOURS (I say that with a similar emphasis as if I were saying MORE COWBELL). I guess that’s because I feel like there’s a phenomenal supply of home tours featured on other blogs (Apartment Therapy home tours are my personal fave), and there ain’t no way I’m ever going to show you a mass of homes cooler than what you see on other sites.

Let me start you out here by satisfying 44% of you who asked for an updated version of MY home tour. I filmed this video the day that photographers were here because it’s probably the cleanest our house has ever been. My original audio was pretty terrible (I talked fast, hiccuped, and felt way too rushed by trying to say everything about everything, so I went back and re-recorded a voiceover just last night to better present this little home. A few notes as you view:

• This is pretty raw. No music, no on-screen graphics, but a good home walk-through none the less.
• No way can I point out everything in my house in 4-minutes and 43-seconds, so let me know if you have any questions about specific items!
• Yes, I’m hiding a gigantic table in my living room and sunroom. Although hiding isn’t the right word, we just haven’t found a home for it yet. I am usually good about blogging about projects and purchases in real time, but this one, this one’s different. You’ll see it someday but there isn’t a lot to show yet.
• I sure wish that the Bloggie flip cam was quicker to focus. Dude’s slooowww.
• Oh, that wooden kitchen island is back in our kitchen. The photo crew thought it wanted to have something present for their shots, but we’re still on the lookout for a smaller replacement.
• About a second after I point out Cody I realize in my head that I’ve never in my life spoken for 3 straight minutes, and started to cough. Fact, I’ve been coughing for 14 hours. #wimpyvocals

FUN FACT #4: An astonishingly large percentage of you (39%) claim not to follow me anywhere else (i.e. no Facebook, no Twitter, Pinterest, RSS, Instagram). How is it that you remember to come to visit my blog? I ask, because I basically need to be slapped in the face my the bloggers I follow just to remember to pop by a few times a week. To the 39%, I’m amazed, enamored, and honored that I’ve made that much of an impression on you. As for the rest of you, 30% follow me via readers, and 26% of you are on the Facebook bandwagon. Smaller percentages elsewhere.

Even more interestingly, the three responders (barely a blip in my stats) who commented that yes, they would think less of me/forget about me/begrudge me if I were post fewer than 5 times a week also answered that they don’t read the blog every day, so how about that?

And can I just say, from the bottom of my heart, that I’m so happy that 81% of you were OK with me taking a weekday off? I want to invite each and every one of you over for a drink with a little umbrella. And we’ll talk about everything and anything that isn’t project- or blog-related to give my brain a mental break, because sometimes that’s just what you need. Margaritas. We’ll have margaritas.

Data is so curious, I freaking love you people.

FUN FACT #5: 23% of you want more product reviews, which should be an interesting stat for my 2% of readers who are marketing/product managers. I honestly expected a lower percentage of product review requests and assumed that reviews were the least popular content, but I hope this means that you’re finding them helpful, honest, and unbiased. And with that said, if you’re looking for a great gift this holiday season, consider the Black & Decker GYRO and make your man or woman or mom or dad a happy person. This motion activated screwdriver has been more useful to me than you’d ever know from this initial review. This shout-out is unsponsored, and, Girl Scout’s Honor, I totally try and sell the GYRO to anyone who I see looking at it while I’m in Lowe’s – it’s that handy a gadget, and I should be getting a commission.

FUN FACT #6: No one who responded to this survey claimed to have only found my blog that same day. #repeatoffenders

FUN FACT #7: I sort of expected this to be a low percentage, but would you have guessed that only 16% of responders are bloggers themselves?

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And to the rest of you who asked for more wedding updates, I hope that last week’s post on our DIY farmhouse tables and our November Wedding Update appeased you a little bit. I’ll leave you with this from yesterday at my wonderful wedding shower. (Dude, the cake matches our invites.)