I'm watching HGTV (yeah, OK, it's a disease) and I'm getting pissed

[NMDemDist2]

a single woman just bought a house that has to 1800+ square feet of vaulted ceilings and lawn that goes on for days

all that energy for one person.......

:banghead:

[Warpy]

1. I get pissed off every time I get bored enough to tune in

because I see these young things whining if a kitchen doesn't have the fad granite countertops and stainless steel, restaurant grade appliances and then they invariably sniff that they never cook when they do find them. I get mad at these kids getting jumbo loans in their 20s when I remember jumping through multiple hoops on my first house, getting an agricultural loan at the age of 34--for the whopping price of $22,000. I also get mad when I realize these sweet young things are going to be foreclosed in 3 years as soon as the ARM resets or the interest only mortgage turns into a balloon mortgage that eats up 95% of their combined take home pay. I get pissed off when sellers are admonished to "update" everything in the house to the tune of thousands of dollars for stupid things like the damn finish on plumbing fixtures because styles have changed. I'm sick to death of clothes horses chirping that the closet that is big enough for a bed and dresser is never going to fit hubby's clothes, it's barely got room for her shoes and purses.

I'm sick to the point of nausea of house porn. I wish they'd go back to interior desecration shows that take ordinary slob housing and turn it into hilariously overdecorated places that will never be used, lest those newspapers and pizza boxes destroy the "feeling." At least those shows were entertaining more often than infuriating.

[NMDemDist2]

2. i still watch Design on a Dime (what's not to love about Barbara Scalatti?)

but I just had it on in the background for the episode of Real Estate Hunter

and I'm with you on the black granite :banghead: what a horror to maintain IMO especially with my HARD water

I gotta tell ya, I'm about sick of the tile I've got now... but I need new windows first......

[Le Taz Hot]

3. Can I add my two-cents worth on this one?

It KILLS me when they have perfectly good wood items -- cabnets, beams, 2-4's, etc., that they THROW AWAY when doing remodeling projects. It just kills me to watch perfectly good wood go into the landfill.

And the budgets! I was watching a landscaping program not too long ago and they actually uttered these words: "With a budget of ONLY $100,000. . . " No, give me a ranch house with 1200 square feet and a budget of $1,000 for a living room remodel. THAT would impress me.

And the "How to sell your house" shows. It's always the same advice: 1) Remove half the furniture, 2) paint all walls white, 3) light candles.

OK, OK. Rant over.

[NMDemDist2]

4. 1) Remove half the furniture, 2) paint all walls white, 3) light candles.

:rofl:

that's exactly how I sold my house!!

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=287&topic_id=2872&mesg_id=2872

[Le Taz Hot]

5. I never said it was bad advice,

I'm saying that they don't need 6 different shows with 13 episodes each season to communicate that. But you apparently missed that point. :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

[OnionPatch]

7. It is very wasteful.

There is definitely some sort of social faux pas in the home improvement world against just fixing something up. What a shame. Our real estate agent told us our home would need about $10,000 to repair the neglected landscaping. We did it ourselves for about $400. It looks great and we'll get a good return on that. (If the housing market doesn't collapse, that is.)

[OnionPatch]

6. House porn, that's exactly what it is!

Funny, I was just talking with my sister this morning and we were laughing but disgusted at so many of these shows where a couple is "starting out" and are on a "budget" and can only afford a $400,000-$500,000 home. Or else they're remodeling their kitchen on a "small budget" of only $25,000-$30,000. (Poor things!! :eyes:) Of course all the walls must be torn out and every appliance must be replaced and moved to a different spot. If the counter top isn't granite, oh my God, it MUST be replaced! (Neither of us can understand the attraction to granite. It's really kind of blah looking. Like a restroom in a nightclub.) We both noticed all these new subdivisions in our areas with the average square footage of the homes being around 3000! Her husband is a senior executive with a corner office in a really great company but even they can't afford a home like that....who ARE these gazillions of people who can afford this kind of stuff? What the heck do they do for a living? There can't be THAT many doctors and lawyers in town. These shows are aimed at causing people to think they need to keep up with the Joneses and have all these things. It's really pretty sick.

Then again, we both love shows like Flip That House and Design on a Dime, etc. Wish they had a whole lot more of those.

[MADem]

8. Yep. We have a jazzy 'new' stove, only a few years old, because the last one crapped out

after thirty years. We have a 'new' fridge, too, for the same reason, only a few years old, too, VERY jazzy, out in the back hall, super efficient with the french doors and the freezer in the bottom!!! But the kitchen? The floor is 'new,' only twenty years old (heh heh)--we got that because the last one was just trashed-- and the counters are the original, occasionally chipped and repaired, tile counters that were installed in the ....mid 1920s!!!!!

See, we like the original metal cabinets, and everyone tells us it's 'too hard' to redo the crappy counters and beat-to-shit sink without getting rid of our great metal cabinets with gigantic veggie bins that keep stuff nicely cool in the winter...we're not changing those out, even if they aren't fancy! Someday I will find someone who feels confident they can do the job, until then, we will stick with what we've got!

Use it up , wear it out, make it do...or do without!

The 'House Porn' expression is funny as hell!

[knitter4democracy]

10. Heck, Hubby's a doctor and we can't afford those houses.

We found a nice older home with a practical layout when we moved two years ago, and I love this house. We've been told a few times that we weren't in the "right" neighborhood or the "doctor" neighborhood, but with med school loans, credit card debt from residency and moving (and some stupid spending we regret now), car loans, and all, we can't afford those places. We're happy where we are with our $155K house and nice back deck.

[knitter4democracy]

9. I watched one show with a family complaining about their too-small house.

There were four of them, and they had the same square footage as we do (and we're a family of four). Too small? I think our house is just right and maybe even too big. They had two full bathrooms and said they "needed" another. The layout of the house was already nice, and they just weren't using it well.

I had to turn it off. Honestly. People are weird. I'd like to remodel our kitchen to make it more efficient and repaint and put down better carpet that cleans up better, but there's no way we need an addition or anything crazy like that.