The <hr> at the end of the page needs some padding at the top, otherwise I don't think there's anything wrong with your website. It's a little too minimalist for my taste.

There's also the classic "Tufte" solutions, here's one: https://jamstackthemes.dev/theme/tufte/

Have you seen https://gist.github.com/JoeyBurzynski/617fb6201335779f8424ad...

Most of the blogs I’ve seen on this site are using open source themes for common blogging frameworks.

Why not just… use one that you see and like?

That’s what I’ve been trying. Maybe I’m too picky and when I go to edit them I ruin them.

Where are people finding these open source themes? I found like five valid candidates for Eleventy. Tried Hugo for a while.

FWIW I agree with you. I spent a lot of time trying to make a very basic website for my company using the usual suspects, and I found they all look like crap. I think part of it is doing it yourself and so being acutely aware of the things you don't like, and part of it (at least for me) is just a genuine lack of any design sense, that gives off the overall effect of low production values. I plan to give in and pay someone. I think frameworks only really work if you know how to make a good design

If you know anything or learn anything about what it costs to pay someone for a personal site/blog of this scale, I’m all ears.

Good luck and thanks for the thoughts!

I'm not grokking this. You're saying that you see other people's blogs and they look nice. Why edit the theme? Just use the theme you like.

Basically every modern blog engine or CMS has a theme directory, either 1st party by the developers or run by the community.

Wordpress + built in 2020 theme, done!

Add a markdown plugin if you really need it.

really this is all you need http://bettermotherfuckingwebsite.com/

Html is the way to go. Markdown will only cause you pain.

Take a design course :-)