You know who probably deserves some scorn but isn’t receiving it?
HGTV.
How many episodes of House Hunters or Property Virgins or whatever the show du jour was at the time did they have with twenty-somethings, just out of college, touring houses and turning them down because they only had two bathrooms or there was only one sink in the guest bathroom or because there was not enough light in the dining room or because the cabinets were not nice enough in the 400 square foot kitchen or, well, you get the point.
I would support congress passing a law requiring HGTV to go back and show us where all those idiots who had to have a $400k house right out of college are now. Here are Jim and Laura, who just out of undergrad had to have this $375k brownstone with sunlights and a second story porch. They now live in his mother’s basement. That would make for some great tv.
But only after they pass a law to do something about Moodys and the rest of the credit rating agencies.
/grumpy
Captain Haddock
How funny. I was just complaining to my wife about HGTV. My favorite show is Gardening by the Yard, but they play less and less of that show, and others like it, and still focus on flipping properties like its 2004.
Ivan Ivanovich Renko
Gah.
Its the flip-shows that should have their producers made fast to the gratings and flogged around the fleet.
How many suckers bought houses that they really thought they’d be able to "fix up cheap" and sell at a huge profit?
Comrade Mary, Would-Be Minion Of Bad Horse
I think House Hunters is almost pure real estate porn, but Property Virgins is usually pretty good about smacking people in the head about what they can reasonably afford. Most of the show is shot in Toronto, where you can get a nice little — and I mean LITTLE — house for between $250 and 350K, but it takes some effort.
But HGTV, A&E, and other "lifestyle" channels, with all their house porn and house flipping shows, are probably responsible for a lot more human misery and corruption than good old sexy porn.
gbear
Next season they’re planning a series of mother’s basement do-overs. It will be fabulous.
And also: Sunlights? We call them skylights in the heartland.
Evinfuilt
I blame HGTV for how my parents and in-laws acted with housing. Always hounding me and my partner to stop renting and get a house like those smart people on the tellie.
And anytime they came over to our place they’d turn it on, either watching a show about flipping a house or making your house super nice and selling it. Then they’d look at our house and tsk tsk…
HGTV is evil, I don’t even think they have more than 2 hours a day of television on how to maintain or improve a home you plan to live in, its all about buying and selling.
I’ve learned more about gardening by watching Jamie at Home on Food Network (and his excellent book.)
Cathy W
And I can’t help but think that the punctuation at the end of "My House Is Worth What?" needs to be extended to a good-sized interrobang (?!?!?!), for lack of any better symbolic representation of the gasp of startled horror that usually accompanies those words today.
Phaedrus
I’d like to add a rider –
Go back and cover all the people who took out second mortgages so they could redo the kitchen in slate and stainless, or build that "special nook" (1200 sq ft sun room).
They pissed me off.
/pissed off
Comrade Kevin
TLC have run a bunch of these types of shows as well.
What’s kind of weird is that pretty much every single example of this type of show on these channels is a direct rip-off of a similar show in the UK.
srv
I haven’t watched This Old House in over a decade or so, all granite countertops, zero frig, and what has to be a $1M budget. It always feels like an Enron documentary to me.
Start a show building 1200 sq ft houses, like these, that would get my attention.
Library Grape
Did you hear that Senators Kyl and Lincoln are finally tackling the most important threat to our country’s economy?
Yep, they’ve chosen the perfect moment to fight to holy fight against the ESTATE TAX! http://www.librarygrape.com/2009/04/most-important-thing-right-now-is-to.html
I can’t for the life of me imagine why so many people have this crazy notion that most politicians in Washington only spend their time and energy advocating for the powerful and wealthy. How could they come up with such a crazy idea?
WilliamC
First time caller, long time reader…
Funny enough, I was just having this exact same conversation with dinner companions at a birthday gathering last night. Apparently, the phrase that HGTV loves is "Perfect for Entertaining!". I had heard it a lot in my business as people decided to buy bigger houses.
I work in non-profit affordable housing; we sell houses (at formerly affordable prices, and now way too expensive in this market), and during a lot of house tours in the past couple years, our beautiful, inside-the-perimeter (very important here in ATLANTA), spacious homes for under 200k, were passed up because they weren’t "Perfect for Entertaining!".
I am 30, went to a major state University, most of my friends have bought homes based on the impressions they got of home buying from HGTV (and TLC, don’t forget the original, Trading Spaces), and for years derided me for not having equity as a renter. Now they are getting laid off and foreclosed on left and right.
I should be laughing and feeling smarter than thou, but I really feel like a banker somewhere has his foot up our a*sses…
me
Is there even talk about
how to punishwhat to do with the rating agencies? I have heard nothing.DFS
When did they stop calling it the "death tax"? That seemed to be a pretty successful gimmick for a while there.
Napoleon
@gbear:
LOL
Maybe even shows like how to outfit an appliance box to be a home, which will give you tips on the R value of old newspapers and how to turn barrels into clothing. Of course the Food Channel will run shows like Hobo Dinner and Road Kill Cafe.
libarbarian
My first visit with no Pajamas Media ads…….. lovely.
bobbo
HGTV has David Bromstad. You could handcuff me to the chair and make me watch a "My House is Worth What" marathon, if only you would allow me a half hour of Dreamy McDreamboat.
pharniel
we used to watch ‘buy me’ and then marvel about how people would get completely insane ideas about what the house was worth and doing insanely stupid things.
quite a few wound up totally fucked including one lady to up and ran off to france.
flip this hosue, house flippers, and wrost offender was a show about redoing the house, forget the name, but they constantly gave you ‘best return on money spent’ which was comepletely wrong.
Napoleon
@Library Grape:
Gee, I wonder it Lincoln is doing that because the Walden family is located in her state.
robertdsc
A bit to burst the crankiness:
Great Orange Satan Photo Diary
10th picture down: The President shaking the hand of a London Bobby. Cool fucking beans.
Panurge
I wonder if part of the problem is a certain subconscious need on a certain generation’s part to prove that they’re not going to be The First Generation To Live Worse Than Their Parents. (Remember when we all kept hearing that? What a solution, eh?) We tend not to think about how our parents lived before they were born, just how they lived when we were growing up with them, so maybe some of us think we’re somehow failures if we don’t live better then them right out the gate.
Besides, too many people don’t seem to realize that you don’t have to livebig to live well.
DanR2
No scorn, man. HGTV helped me survive the last eight years. Whenever the stupidity of the news channels got to be too much, I’d flip to HGTV to watch some happy people look for a house or knock a wall out between the kitchen and dining room. Too much Lou Dobbs isn’t healthy.
Just Some Fuckhead
I had the same thought a week or so ago about all the damn real estate shows on the "knowledge" networks. But isn’t the theory that they’re just showing what folks wanna see?
Comrade Mary, Would-Be Minion Of Bad Horse
Oh, "Buy Me" is another very Canadian, very depressing show. I haven’t watched it for a year or so, so I wonder what the new episodes look like.
A.Political
@Comrade Kevin:
Yeah TLC for me was the trailblazer in this type of show with Flip This House with that real estate company in South or North Carolina, Richard and that red haired girl who drove around in the Mercedes procuring properties for them to flip, Ginger was her name I think.
Joshua Norton
What’s even more schizo is the programming. First there will be a show about how to make your house worth tens of thousands of dollars more "above market" rates by painting your kitchen cupboards. Then the next show will be how to supposedly buy a house for tens of thousands of dollars less than the asking price.
These 24 hour one-theme stations just sort of start canceling themselves out after a while.
Douche Baggins
My wife is a huge fan of these shows. She even has kept an episode of House Hunters on Tivo for over a year — a 5/2 in Detroit for $68,000 ("Yes, dear, it’s a great deal — because you have to live in Detroit").
wasabi gasp
This is a slippery slope to stoning Norm with insulated high-density concrete foundation slabs.
Jon H
"I haven’t watched This Old House in over a decade or so, all granite countertops, zero frig, and what has to be a $1M budget. It always feels like an Enron documentary to me."
Oh no kidding. Should be called "This Rich House"
colleeniem
I actually made this argument to a conservative friend of mine about 9 months ago–I wished all proceeds from advertising during "Flip that house" and other shows like it need to be taxed retroactively. I know it’s impossible but…
I graduated in 2002, and I heard all the arguments about how not buying=giving your money away. You could make money on a house!! And you could for a while. It was crazy. Nuts. Stupid. And everywhere. I wasn’t going to live in one place for more than 2 years (and was going to be there even less time, deploying about half of that time again) and people were saying I should buy, buy, buy. I had no idea where I would be in seven years.
That is why I can’t be upset that some people are getting some government help right now. I know its moral hazard, but where is the punishment for the people who cheer-led everyone in madness? It’s not coming.
JenJen
I dunno. I watch HGTV from time to time mostly because it helps validate my home shopping strategy in 2004. I’ll never forget my realtor saying I was just absolutely bonkers to want a traditional 30 year fixed mortgage with a good chunk of money down.
"Your price range is too low! You can get so much more house! The money is practically free! You’re making a HUGE MISTAKE! Of course you can afford it! In three years you’ll either be making more money, or you can just refinance when your property value increases!" (Idiot realtors do not get as much of the blame for the subprime meltdown as they richly deserve. These people were the Chief Cheerleaders and Providers of Very Bad Financial Advice, and they seriously egged people on in a way that was predatory if you weren’t already a pretty smart person. "It’s an investment!" was their rally cry. Actually, uh, no, it isn’t. It’s a home.)
She drove me up a tree, and one day I finally just looked at her, said, "You’re fucking high," fired her, and went it alone, happily.
So watching HGTV makes me feel better. I don’t need the Update Show, because every time I watch these couples, I’m already thinking, "Well, I’ll bet that was really fun for the 18 months it lasted, or so." :-)
CT
HGTV totally deserves all the scorn they get, and then some. My wife used to watch it fairly regularly-Curb Appeal, House Hunters, Flip This House, etc.-mainly just to get decorating ideas. Didn’t take too long watching before you see that the bold wall colors that were a "must" one season were lame the next season and had to be covered with a "classic" eggshell-colored paint. Followed by a commercial for Glidden.
House porn is just the right phrase for it-even the show with the "budget" renovations (like for 2-3,000) neglected to mention the THOUSANDS OF $$ OF FREE LABOR contributed by the designer and small army of contractors.
Brian J
As someone who used to watch a lot of HGTV with his mother a few years ago (don’t say a word; it made her happy), I can understand what you’re saying. But I wonder if it’s really more of a reflection of the times than a cause of it.
Even if you end up being wrong using this as an example, you still make a good point. My brother and his wife, right before they were married or right after, lived in an apartment in the downstairs part of a house. Once they found a house they liked and could afford, they bought it. It’s a nice house, but it’s nothing special. They might be buying another one or expanding on the one they have now, since their family is about to get bigger. But before all of this, after they graduated college, they lived at home, as I am doing now. They’re older and have more money, so they can actually afford their lifestyles. What’s more, amongst the people I went to college with who don’t live at home, I can’t think of anyone who doesn’t have a roommate or even a few of them.
On the flip side, there are some young people who just have money. Most don’t, even if they aren’t poor, and even fewer have large sums of it, but some can afford what most others can’t. Every so often, you hear someone call up "The Suze Orman Show," and when she asks the details of their finances, she seems astonished that a 30-year-old woman would have about $375,000 stocked away, but it’s true.
ginatrout
I used to love that channel, when it used to play shows like design on a dime & designing cents on heavy rotention. When those flipping/real estate shows became norm I decided that it was time to get of cable (among other reasons).
HyperIon
@srv:
exactly.
i watch only "Ask This Old House" now.
They deal with regular folks who live in regular houses and have regular maintenance issues.
Rosali
I like watching HGTV and imagining wingnut heads exploding every time they show a normal, gay couple talking about wanting to spruce up the boring home they’ve lived in for the past 12 years.
gnomedad
The libruls want to take our houses away!
/Rush
OT, the response to the Tauntaun sleeping bag was so enthusiastic that ThinkGeek is looking into actually making one.
Laura W
John, if your sun sign is not Cancer I will ban myself for life.
wasabi gasp
I’m pretty sure we can work violent video games and the lyrics to a Judas Priest song in here as well.
SLKRR
It’s in times like these that I’m glad my wife and I paid cash for our house. And, no, we aren’t super-rich (we both have mid 5-figure salaries). We did save our money, however, and bought a house that was appropriately-sized and within our price range. Some people thought we were crazy for not making a big down payment and getting a McMansion, but now that my job is in imminent danger of evaporation, we don’t have to worry about being put out of our home.
I never figured out what the big deal was with Trading Spaces. It seemed like 4 times out of 5, the couples were competing to see who could stick the other one with the butt-ugliest room.
WereBear
Hardly watched them.
Which seems like a smart move at this point…
But I did watch a few episodes of "we have to move half the furniture out and paint every thing beige" show. What I learned is that most people apparently have no visual imagination whatsoever… they would refuse a house because the living room was painted the wrong color, or even if they didn’t like a bedspread; which would be in a UHaul the day of the sale… which is depressing in itself.
Carnacki
I remember the mortgage person trying to push us to buy a much larger house, saying with our incomes we could afford double what we were buying. We said we were happy with what we planned to buy. He looked at us like we were crazy.
Who’s crazy* now?
(* Full disclosure, we’re still crazy, but that’s for a different reason.)
Panurge
Oh, yeah…
I bought a 1-bedroom condo and I kept it. I re-financed once, when mortgate rates went down–30-year fixed, with the bi-weekly plan. I could afford more, but I don’t need it–I could renovate my place and have all the Kewl Stuf and keep my head decently above water.
OTOH, if I could do it all over again, I’d do the adjustable rate for my first place and commit myself to selling after the five years were up (which they are by now).
HyperIon
@Panurge:
most people in the US do not have a clue about what "living well" means. just look at the puny vacation leaves that are standard. time-off is a primary quality of life issue and yet most folks want more money….so they can buy crap. why?
i see 3 and 4 garage properties everywhere in the seattle environs. expensive and ugly. but somebody told the buyers they needed a 4 car garage. and the fools believed it.
new rule: can’t fit all your shit in your 2 car garage? time for a yard sale.
Corner Stone
@Rosali #34
That’s a good one.
Robert Johnston
Any Lou Dobbs is too much Lou Dobbs. There are lots of crazy blowhards with their own cable news shows, and, while some are crazier than Dobbs, none has less entertainment value than does Dobbs. You might as well watch paint dry while smashing your testicles with a hammer as watch Dobbs.
South of I-10
I enjoy watching these shows, but I think they made people a little crazy! When my brother sold his house a couple of years ago, two couples interested in buying tried to knock a lot of money off because the counters weren’t granite and the wallpaper was dated. Do you have to have granite counter tops now? My brother basically told them to update it themselves or move on. It sold for what they were asking. Don’t get me wrong, my house is in need of some upgrading, still have the 1950’s seafoam green and yellow tile in the bathrooms – makes me crazy!
b-psycho
Meh…never saw HGTV. But there was this one episode of Property Ladder (a show in a similar vein on TLC) my brother was telling me about. Some dude named Sergio was trying to flip a house in California at a 150k profit w/ as minimal improvements as possible.
Shit was hilarious. At one point dude’s contractor got arrested, he accused a friend of his that offered to fill in of trying to rip him off, and he worked some day laborers several hours straight then fired them all when they wanted a break.
Corner Stone
@JenJen
I agree with you. I still watch those shows sometimes and I’m like, "WTF? You’re 24 and you’re looking at a $320K house!?"
Maybe it’s just that pricing for suburbs in TX never really got outta whack, or the fact that I bought my house at a 1:1 income to price ratio, but I’m repeatedly stunned at the ranges these normal people are looking at. And by normal I mean they seem have normal middle class jobs and lives, no Masters of the Universe or anything.
Keith
Sounds like an SCHIP kid’s house to me.
Dennis-SGMM
America is the only place where you leave a $30,000 car out in the weather so that you can shelter $2000 worth of crap in the garage.
Calouste
@me:
(And Mr. Cole will also be glad to hear this)
According to the BBC "There will be greater regulation of hedge funds and credit ratings agencies"
No details, but it is good to see credit rating agencies explicitly mentioned.
Foxhunter
@ srv
I agree srv. Used to be an avid watcher and I am still a woodworking hobbyist of sorts. TOH lost me for good when they started their big budget renovations that average jack could never relate to. Kind of sad. And I’ve seen in passing that they now have an interior decorator on ‘staff’.
I’ll stick with re-runs of New Yankee Workshop to get my fill.
It was a great show before they split it into ‘Ask TOH’ and ‘TOH’ then turned it into the Robb Report for renovations.
Corner Stone
I also like it when they get a couple on there who are kind of pissy. They’ll bag a potential house for the smallest or stupidest of reasons, "Yeah, I really didn’t like that window pane in the kitchen."
Nothing wrong with being picky but sometimes the people are just Bachmannesque.
sbjules
I used to like hgtv when it was mainly decorating & gardening & auctions. Since they got into the realty business, and refinance business (is my house worth enough to pull out "equity" to add granite counters), not so much.
It’s a pity but they seem to have no shame, but A & E and TLC both had house flipping shows too. Didn’t you always hope those greedy folks would lose money?
harlana pepper
John, you got my vote. I HATE those fucking shows! People are living in fucking tents in San Francisco! ‘Nuff said.
Comrade Dread
Also…
GET OFF MY LAWN, YA DAMN KIDS!
roseyv
OMG I LOATHE those shows. I love HGTV and watch it incessantly, but I like the Decorating Cents/Design on a Dime/Design Remix genre, where they redecorate a room for fifty bucks using recycled crap or whatever. Those “twenty-somethings search for the perfect five-bedroom McMansion with docking facility” shows, along with the “flip-the-distressed-property” shows have always disgusted me.
Meanwhile, the newest show out of the HGTV gate? About rental apartment-hunters. Sign of the times, I guess.
FPN
I hate the host of "Property Virgins", but she is honest and realistic to the first time buyers-i.e.: "you really can’t afford all that, you’re better off buying cheaper and fixing up".
John Cole
@Laura W: Yes, I’m a Cancer. June 22nd.
Montysano (All Hail Marx & Lennon)
I thought the answer was always "Al Gore". The fucker is fat, and from what I gather, uses electricity.
D-Chance.
Forget that.
How about those "buy ’em, fix ’em, flip ’em, $$$!" programs HGTV pimps?
Why, ol’ Fred and Imogene bought this measly little 3000 square foot house for a rock bottom $350K (because it WAS a little natty). They worked night-and-day using their OWN labor (and a few contractors, and another $175K in cash). But they sold that sucker for over $600,000 in just weeks. AND YOU CAN, TOO! DO IT, AMERICA! BUY, BUY, BUY! And don’t worry about that little mortgage thing… these deals always result in HUGE PROFITS! BUY, BUY, BUY! If they can do it, YOU CAN, TOO.
FOOLS, FOOLS, FOOLS!BUY, BUY, BUY!A.Political
Cancer as well….feeling the same way today, took me back when I read Laura W’s comment….esp considering the astrology angle doesn’t really appeal my logical side.
reid
I rarely watch those kinds of shows anymore. (Used to watch Trading Spaces early on.) I happened to be watching one over the weekend where a couple was picking a house to buy out of three options. The slight twist is that they had a designer along with them who would factor in a suggested remodel and its costs. I found it disturbing that these people would turn their noses up at the (admittedly dated but perfectly fine) cabinets in the kitchen and think nothing of tearing them all out and installing new ones, at a huge cost of course. What a waste. We’ve turned into quite a finicky society.
John S.
In 2003, when my wife and I began looking for a house in South Florida, our real estate agent tried for months to convince us we could buy a swell house for $250k. The only trouble was, our target price was $150k.
As the months wore on, she kept trying to pressure us into going with a higher priced home. You can do a no-doc loan! You can do an ARM with no money down! Anything to convince us that our plan to buy a $150k home with 10% down and a 30 yr. fixed mortgage was a stupid idea.
Later that year (after 6 months of looking), we found a charming 3/2 villa with a nice backyard, split floorplan and large interior atrium. We bought it for $150,001 on a 30 yr. fixed mortgage at 5.75%. We currently owe $130k on the house, and despite the fact that the value has tumbled from the $300k the bank that gave us a HELOC in 2006 said it was worth, we’re not even close to being underwater – even including the debt we transferred to our HELOC (our own form of consolidation).
Sad to say, our real estate agent is no longer in the real estate business. Despite her terrible advice, she did manage to find us what we were looking for. Even sadder to say, that real estate agent was my mother.
roseyv
This must be the new "home office." Which I’ve noticed finally, finally seems to be becoming passe. I always wish (to no avail) that when homeowners on these shows insist they need a "home office" that someone would actually say to them, "oh, really? What sort of business do you run out of your home? Will you need to store stock/inventory? How many units? How large a staff do you employ? Will they all need computer stations?"
Dude, you need a place to plug in your laptop and pay your bills. This does not require an entire, separate 350 sqare foot room! Just spread your checkbook out on the goddamn kitchen table like your grandmother did for forty years. Sheesh.
Corner Stone
@Keith
Malkanize that fucker!
Dennis-SGMM
If those networks were sharp they’d start taping shows like "Add a breakfast nook to your Toyota," or "Drapes or blinds for a four-door sedan?"
dmcouch
Yeah, i stopped watching hgtv a while ago and turned to Survivorman on discovery instead.
Learning how to eat bugs and berries in the wilderness seems way more beneficial today than learning what kind of appliances you should have in the kitchen.
Mnemosyne
I blame TLC more, because they’re the ones who came up with Flip That House and convinced thousands of people that they could easily buy a house, do minimal upgrades, and re-sell it at an enormous profit.
I actually don’t mind Property Virgins, because 9 times out of 10 the discussion is, "You really can’t afford that. You need to be more realistic."
Adding: Oh, yeah, and TLC was also responsible for that Adam Carolla house-flipping reality show. TLC should be the first ones against the wall, not HGTV.
Egilsson
@Cathy W:
I have to echo Cathy about "My House Is Worth What?"
That show was ridiculous even then. It was all about people desperately hoping some real estate appraiser approved the incease in the value of their house so they could take more of the equity (or all of the "equity") out for spending on granite countertops or whatever.
That stuff has to be repaid. So… if you can afford the payment, why do you need the extra equity? If the interest is making it that close, then your budget is way too tight and you’re nuts to over-leverage.
Anyway, it’s obvious now, but I remember just shaking my head at the absurdity of that – which I thought was worse than "Flip This House!".
Are all those shows off the air now?
Like John, I’d love to see follow-ups about those spoiled 20-somethings sneering at houses that were x3 as nice and as big as mine.
Well, who’s laughing now bitches? I can pay my mortgage.
Laura W
@John Cole: One little white lie and you could’ve been rid of me forever.
22 is my luckiest number ever.
Yes, astrology and numerology. I’m a whack job.
Anyone want a tarot reading?
JL
@John Cole: Good, we’ll have a party.
Just Some Fuckhead
@Laura W: How about ice cream instead?
John Cole
@srv: How much do those houses cost to build? I am assuming the price listed is for the design.
Svensker
@bobbo:
He IS cute, no matter what your sexual persuasion is. He just gives off the NOM NOM NOM vibes, doesn’t he?
binzinerator
@srv:
I used to watch it back when Bob Vila was the host. I recall the homeowners themselves would help and Bob called this ‘sweat equity’.
It would be a joke now for a budget of a million that a couple of unskilled homeowners working a few hours on the weekend can make their home more affordable. No way when the home is a million bucks. The total value of their labor is far less than they blow now on the new stainless kitchen appliances.
The idea of sweat equity made sense when the 10 or 20 grand they saved in unskilled labor was 10 or 15 percent of the budget. But it’d be ludicrous when it’s one or two percent.
Dennis-SGMM
A witch! A witch! And what do we do with witches??!
harlana pepper
I’m just not much into consumerist porn
Karmakin
I have one thing to say.
Fucking *fist bumps* all the way around.
Just Some Fuckhead
@Dennis-SGMM:
Making Your Tent Stand Out In Tent City
gbear
different church-lady
Real estate pornography is a symptom, not a cause.
JL
IMO, there is only one good show on HGTV and that’s divine design. HGTV does come in handy for high stress days though. I can’t tell you how many times I watched the same couple buy the same home.
Mnemosyne
@srv:
There’s a series of books called The Not So Big House that champions small houses over McMansions. Sadly, out here in Los Angeles, even the 1-bedroom bungalows went over $1 million, especially if they were authentic Craftsman.
John S.
Wow, only 3 days before my son’s birthday (June 19th), although that was his original due date. He’s a Gemini, though, and good thing because the year he was born – 2007 – does not play nicely with Cancer.
We have this really fun book that mashes up Eastern/Western astrology, and is pretty scary in terms of accuracy. Gemini/Pig is a pretty cool sign, but Cancer/Pig is downright fucking scary. Some famous people listed under that sign are Henry VIII and Ernest Hemingway.
Dennis-SGMM
@Just Some Fuckhead:
"How to get a leaf bag look on a grocery bag budget."
JL
@Laura W: Under what sign are ATTAass and BOB born?
David
That show had an episode about people buying five or ten houses meant for first time buyers in order to flip them.
schrodinger's cat
@John Cole :
Hmm.. that explains the occasional bouts of crabiness!
Just Some Fuckhead
@Dennis-SGMM: Landscaping Your Underpass
MNPundit
You know what? Fuck you John Cole.
Those are great shows, and fun, because if you’re not a moron you know you would never want to be in their position but you still get to experience it at the cost of a cable subscription while living where you can afford.
So fuck you, Kirsten Kemp (nee Holmquist) is a hot drink of Scandinavian American.
Just Some Fuckhead
@MNPundit: John Cole is a cancer on fun.
SLKRR
@John S.:
What does it say for Leo/Tiger?
chopper
i just love how HGTV no longer cares at all about the G. the G is the only part i care about.
Gus
Shit, they could make a killing with that show on pay per view. I’d watch over and over.
Mike E
All my best friends are Cancers, oddly enough — what they see in this Libra, I don’t know.
I haven’t seen many postscripts updating the status of these recent flipped properties. They were pretty good about reporting if they were sold or still accruing carrying costs to the flipper.
Cathy W
@Egilsson: "My House Is Worth What?" – is still on. Actually, most of the real estate porn shows are. Hubby noted that they’re likely to stay on, because they’ve moved out of the realm of "how-to" into "pure escapist fantasy". We can watch them and remember the good times…
I still watch some of the design shows – I’m kind of there with Bobbo that if David Bromstad were reading the phone book, I’d watch him do it with the sound off. :) (Talk about "real estate porn"…) But mostly, I resent that HGTV shunted all their actual how-to programming onto the DIY Network, which is on a level of cable I’m not willing to pay for.
JenJen
@John Cole: John, I recall reading an interesting NYT article a summer ago about Resort Cottages, and how people were snapping them up, and senior citizens were considering them for retirement.
Found the article; it’s very interesting. It’s more about "Park Models" which are essentially pre-fab trailer homes, but they look rather quaint. They can’t be taxed as a residence, so something like that would make a terrific vacation home. The article (from 2007) says prices top out around $80,000.
While searching for the article in the awesome NYT archive, I came across an even more fascinating piece about cottages… in Newport. In 1887.
gbear
@gbear:
Wow did I screw up that formatting. I was replying to CT@31.
Laura, I’m a Cancer too. 6/25. Constantly moving sideways it seems…
This year I officially qualify for senior discounts. If I could get them at the vet’s office, auto shop or hardware store, I’d feel a lot more special about it.
gbear
Jeez, there’s an Ann Coulter ad at the top of the thread. I was hoping to never see her face or name again. Barf.
Karmakin
Well. At least in Canada HGTV the flipper madness is kinda sorta balanced by Mike Holmes. Think Gordon Ramsay but doing home renovations.
Just Some Fuckhead
Do me Laura. What’s my astrological sign?
AhabTDefenestrator
@JL:
Pie.
SATSQ.
JenJen
@Laura W: One of my favorite exes was a Cancer, and while adorable and very creative (he was a musician, go figure), Cancers can mostly be real pains-in the-ass. Present blogging company excluded, of course.
Fun game! How much of someone’s writing do you need to read before your magicks can deduce their astro-sign? Because I wanna play!
Comrade Mary, Would-Be Minion Of Bad Horse
Minus the swearing and the adultery, I think.
Rosali
HGTV lost me when it started showing all those house flipping programs. I used to watch FoodTv for hours back when they showed actual cooking. Now, it seems that half of the programs are stupid "reality" competitions.
Zoogz
This has to be the topic of the next HGTV show:
Urban Cooking – What You Catch
alhutch
@John S.:
Wow. Didn’t see that one coming, but I know what you mean.
harlana pepper
Leos Rewl
Karmakin
@Comrade Mary, Would-Be Minion Of Bad Horse:
I dunno about the adultery, but I think that his eyes swear more than Ramsay’s lips.
harlana pepper
House-flipping thing got a friend of mine in trouble. She thought was gonna end up working for herself, but she jumped in right before the bubble burst.
Jennifer
Agreed – HGTV was much more enjoyable back in the days when it featured mostly "crafty" shows, which lead me and my friends to refer to it as "the Gluing Channel". Odds were good that any time you tuned in, you’d see some woman with a hot glue gun in her hand, making something hideous. That was the fun of it all. Who can forget the decorating expertise of the hosts of "Room by Room". Back in those days, TLC and A&E were on the same trend path, showing Christopher Lowell’s "Interior Motive" (which we crudely rechristened "Interior Homo" – and by the way, what the fuck has that man done to his face? Google him – I dare you. That’s some really heinous plastic surgery).
What I’d most like to see is a show about that loud-mouthed dick who drove the Hummer in that house-flipping show from Texas losing everything and having to go to work for someone just like himself.
harlana pepper
I have a whole host of stories about people who have over-extended themselves, including home purchases, because they had good paying job at the time and they charged out the ass. I guess I just feel like there was a lot of popular cultural pressure for people to own big homes on postage stamp yards, have babies (note, plural, at least 2) and SUVS early in life. These types of programs are porn for the aforementioned folks and now they are, erhm, fucked.
DrDave
John:
People are stupid, especially young kids looking for a big house, and HGTV certainly stoked the fire.
But the primary responsibility for the mortgage mess stills goes back to the mortgage brokers and banks who underwrote loans to unqualified borrowers.
Joel
When the reality craze first took off about ten years ago, I thought a great idea would be a show called "Homeless".
Something like the Apprentice, except contestants would be forced to live on the street with no money, no marketable qualifications, and an extensive criminal record.
Svensker
@harlana pepper:
Spoken like a true Leo!
SLKRR
@Joel:
It could be called "Survivor: South Bronx."
HitlerWorshippingPuppyKicker
John to world: Get off my lawn!
This reminds me of my mother, who cancelled her cable tv because it didn’t have enough coverage of the OJ Simpson trial.
John S.
Damn, that’s a pretty strong combination.
You are considered the Nomadic Manager. Here’s an excerpt:
Just be thankful you are not a Leo/Dragon. That’s a REALLY fucking strong personality (I’ve known a few). I myself am a Virgo/Snake.
Anne Elk (Miss)
If she weighs the same as a duck…….
gex
OT: Meanwhile, Sullivan the Brit, finally fesses up that he would like the market to ration health care. I.E. fuck you, poor people, just crawl off in a corner and die, lest you become a taker to my maker
Link.
JoyceH
I don’t really think you can blame the network; blame the viewers. They used to have shows that were really economical and focused more on what the occupants of the space could do themselves. There was a show where the team would come in and redo a room using nothing but what the homeowners already had around the house. One where the designer focused entirely on small rental properties and everything seemed to be built with MDF. One that let people show their own decorating solutions, that always seemed to be funky, low-price, and reuse, rebuild and repurpose.
If those shows aren’t around any more (and they’re not) and the focus is now on expensive celebrity designers, big houses and house values, those must have been the shows that got the ratings.
There is a new show, though (haven’t see it yet) called Income Property, about how to turn unused space in your home into a rental unit. Seems like they’re trying to adjust to the times. But if the show doesn’t get the ratings, it’ll be axed too.
Montysano (All Hail Marx & Lennon)
A year ago the headline would have been "Insect flies into Bush’s mouth while he was observing spat".
Glad you’re around, Mr. O.
gex
@Napoleon: These shows will all be replaced by Pimp my Ride. Of course, said "Ride" is the "H" in HGTV.
Aaron
Two words: "Money Porn"
Its househunters, its Flip This House, its the Flipper who is like a real life Monk, its the show about young real estate salesmen in california, one of who rents a $28,000 a month beach front house.
But its also MTV Cribs, My crazy expensive wedding, Real Housewives (who all just ‘happen to be married to rich husbands’).
Its Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous- while it’s no longer on, I see all the above shows as being it’s ideological successors.
HitlerWorshippingPuppyKicker
@Montysano (All Hail Marx & Lennon):
Wow, one of the most heartening stories of interaction on the world stage I have read in a very long time.
Obama looks like a world leader, unlike the bra-snapping fool we sent overseas the last eight years.
SLKRR
@John S.:
That’s pretty wild… doesn’t really seem like me though, other than the "borderline" arrogance and haughtiness. ;-) Maybe the fact that the zodiacal signs are actually one month off means I’m really a Cancer?
Bobbob
If HGTV were smart they would change all of their programming with "how-to" programs about growing your own food and fixing shit that needs to be fixed around the house.
I would bet their ratings would go through the roof.
cmorenc
My wife and I, both professionals, bought a decent, but thoroughly unspectacular un-McMansion house in a middle-class suburban neighborhood in 1984 as our "starter" house from a realtor who had every expectation that within three or four years, we’d be trading up to an upscale house more suited to our growing station and income. It was to her profound repeated disappointment when she periodically called us to tempt us with a showing of some house she’d come across that would be "perfect" for us (at three times the price of our bungalow) – that we never did show much interest in pursuing anything. We paid off the 15-year mortgage early (like sometime about year eight), wound up staying there twenty years, before *finally* moving up to a "dream" house with a bona fide wrap-across front porch the way houses used to have them fifty to a hundred years ago that’s very nice yes, but is actually the least expensive house in our new neighborhood. We have absolutely no intention of leaving here unless we move to another city or get carried out on our way to the morgue. OH, and BTW…we wound up pissing off the mortgage company agent who offered us a rate based on thinking we’d finance most of the $450,000 price tag (2005) of our current house, but we only needed to borrow $150,000 cause we paid the rest in cash from our old house (cause we had no loan to pay off), and could have paid cash for the whole thing if we’d have taken some cap gains on stocks we had that were then flying high…little did we know…
ANYHOW
Our current neighborhood, nice though it is (though a level or two below the McMansion burbs)…was the sort that houses three years ago rarely stayed on the market more than two weeks to a month…very high in demand. Except for its sub-McMansion character, this is exactly the sort of neighborhood sought out by buyers following the "buy as much house as the banks will let you get away with" philosophy. NOW? I count seven "for sale" houses along just the short seven-tenths of a mile loop I walk my dog along, and doubtless some of these folks are up to their eyeballs in hock, nervously sweating the fact that NOTHING and I mean NOTHING has recently sold in the past four months here. ANOTHER DELICIOUS IRONY? Many of the most recent "up for sale" houses sported "McCain" and then "McCain-Palin" yard signs last summer and fall. Delicious.
Nancy Darling
I see gex at 121 is already on this, but this is the quote from Sullivan. I may have to swear off of him again.
"Yes, healthcare inequality would continue. But I’m not a believer that inequality is the worst of all social outcomes. "
Sorry, but I don’t know how to put the above in a block quote.
srv
@John Cole:
They aren’t going to be any cheaper per sqft. But the small house movements goal is quality over quantity. If you’re in a normal area, then $150-200 sq/ft is probably doable. They’re also small enough that it’s a project you could consider acting as the general contractor yourself.
With these types of architects, you get the full house plans, code checks/fixes, complete materials listings, etc. It’s all there, very little guess work.
My sister’s place was designed by a pair of very famous (now) architects in central texas. All green. They cost $20+K (for a 3200 sqft house), but they saved her way more than that because they hold the GC to the contract and have their own inspection schedule. Every other house in the neighborhood is a 4-6K McMansion, and her house is easily the nicest and most efficient in the area.
An older book here on the small house movement. Her website has links to many architects of the same flavor.
Corner Stone
I hate shows like that. Everything always looks cheap and funky. "Oooh! Let’s take the drapes in the guest bedroom, cut them in quarters and recover the dining room chairs!"
Um, no.
I like the shows where they remodel a kitchen or a bathroom, not for consumption sake but just to see how they’re going to do it. Yeah it costs some money but I’m not going to *do* it, just be entertained by it.
Same thing with the shows where they have someone looking for a house in a certain price range. I’m not spending $350K on something, just seeing what houses cost in parts of the country / continent I’ve never seen.
Indylib
My husband and I are currently looking to buy a house and every realtor I’ve talked to hates me because we are going to pay cash and won’t budge on the limit we’ve set for ourselves. I inherited some money that is sitting in an IRA that has to be withdrawn by 2012. It has lost almost 30% of it’s value in the last year. I’ve had it. I want to take it out, take the tax hit and use it to purchase something that should be worth a modest amount more, down the road and won’t disappear into the ether every time the market drops.
Corner Stone
I thought it was all ACORN’s fault? Or is "unqualified borrowers" code for minorities?
Corner Stone
Seeing as how the world’s gonna go boom boom in 2012 then I’d definitely recommend getting a little sumthing out of it now.
Shinobi
My favorite house remaking show had to be Monster House on the discovery channel. I wish there were episodes online, because nothing can beat the crazy shit they did on that show. And at no point were you all "This seems like a perfectly reasonable thing to do to my home, I should blah blah blah."
The stuff they did was crazy. I miss it.
harlana pepper
@John S.:
That pretty much hits the nail on the head, except for the very last part. I’m really not that hard to please. :)
schrodinger's cat
Jim Cramer is claiming on Hard Ball right now that the recession/depression is over, I guess the beat down he received on TDS was not enough.
Indylib
Republicans continue to suffer from victimization syndrome.
Montysano (All Hail Marx & Lennon)
@srv: Down here in Alabama, the Auburn School of Architecture has been way out front with its Rural Studio program, which builds small, affordable, but architecturally excellent housing for residents of the Black Belt. Seems like the times are catching up to them. In our climate, it makes all kind of sense to build a 1200 sq/ft house with an attached 400 sq/ft screened porch. During 2/3 of the year, the porch would be completely usable. My in-laws have such a place, with a "summer kitchen" on the porch. During the summer, they really only go inside to sleep.
HitlerWorshippingPuppyKicker
@Bobbob:
I dunno. HGTV seemed to be an outgrowth of the Better Homes and Gardens / House and Garden / House Beautiful magazine marketplace that got its start around the turn of the Twentieth Century and thrived for the better part of a hundred years. It seemed fueled by a mixture of wistful vanity and wistful dreams of bigger and prettier houses and the genre appears to be alive in the HGTV incarnation.
I really don’t get the idea of trying to blame the current recession on a market for dreams of nicer houses that has been around for generations, but hey, what do I know, I’m just a Hitler Worshipper. I mean, take me for example, I grew up in a world where people read those magazines in our house, and I live today in a 1400 square foot house in a modest neighborhood, built in 1953, still with its original wiring, door hardware, most of the plumbing, and its third roof. I don’t think the evil Pretty Home Magazine forces corrupted me too badly.
The Populist
I wish those stupid house flipping shows would just go away. I never understood the popularity of such nonsense.
Add to that the Housewives Of (insert city here) and Hell has frozen over many times.
John S.
Oh, all kinds of crazy shit can happen with those signs. If you’re on a cusp or have a particularly heavy influence from a rising sign, it can really throw a wrench into your ‘profile’. I love the book for its entertainment value and it is generally pretty accurate with people (although sometimes it is way off).
Try reading about Cancer/Tiger on the website and see if it makes more sense to you.
I would say overall, people find their profiles to be 90% accurate, with only a few minor quibbles here and there. But considering how in-depth the book profiles are (those excerpts are really condensed), that’s still pretty good.
All told, the book accounts for 144 possible general personality types.
Jenkins
Man I’m out of it. I had to gazoogle "HGTV". I never understood the popularity of those kinda shows. When I had cable it was pretty much baseball, Comedy Central, and the History Channel.
srv
@Montysano (All Hail Marx & Lennon): It is a fantasy of mine to get laid off and apply to Auburn to study Architecture.
Alternatively, do an annual vacation with the Timber Framers Guild on one of their projects.
As for porches, it is a sin against god and nature not to have a sleeping porch. Those who’ve never had one will never understand.
guest omen
ot: that was an amazing clip of michelle obama giving a speech to underprivileged girls. where can one see the long form of that appearance? anybody know? was it on cspan?
gex
Update to me at 121: It’s getting even better, as Andrew is trying to correct himself again. He believes in equality of opportunity, not equality of outcomes, you see.
So we all have the opportunity to have health care coverage, even though the outcome of our current system giving us the highest costs in the world results in TENS of MILLIONS of Americans not to have health care coverage. If you can’t afford $1500 out of pocket monthly, too freakin’ bad for you.
Montysano (All Hail Marx & Lennon)
@srv: I’ve got my name in with the director of Rural Studio; if our company (stage and theatrical lighting) can ever contribute to a Rural Studio project, I’m so there.
But if you ever get a chance, come to the area and take a few days to tour Rural Studio projects. Seeing them in their proper context is just a joy.
And ditto the sleeping porch.
Seanly
My wife & I watched a few of the shows on a regular basis. Even in the heady days of ’07 we thought a lot of the flippers & other folks were nuts. A couple of episodes of "Flip This House" and I could see that you have to be a very shrewd project manager to not loose your shirt. We’d started to notice more & more folks getting bad news on "My House Is Worth What?" and now that show seems to have vanished.
My favorite was folks in nice homes with babies or one in the oven looking to double their square footage. The kid isn’t even been born yet & you need another 1200 SF? Really? Junior still shitting his diapers but you have to be in the neighborhood with the best high school?
One question: who are all these people who entertain so much? Was that a pre-requisite to get on those shows?
Besides the real estate pr0n there was a show following rebuilds. Usually a decent little home was blown out to 3 times the size. Most of the episodes it was over-breeders whom my wife & I would hiss at…
Ash Can
I have to admit to being a big fan of HGTV. I’ve learned a lot from the gardening shows and gotten good decorating and organizing ideas from the other programs as well. Furthermore, HGTV has the best damn Rose Parade coverage on the planet. On top of everything, it’s one of the precious few networks that’s both kid-safe and grownup-sanity-safe.
I understand John’s (and others’) gripe about HGTV making entertainment out of an issue that has turned out problematic for many people. But anyone who uses the network’s shows as a reason or inspiration to engage in unsafe real-estate activities has no one to blame but themselves.
Tim C.
I think the pornography analogy is dead-on right. And like other forms of porno, the real problem is not watching. The problem is when people confuse the fiction with the reality.
harlana pepper
Our soft-spoken John Spratt is kicking butt on the House floor right now.
And he has charts! Real ones!
guest omen
i ran across an article once critical of hgtv for offering a dream fantasy home in a sweepstake that for an average couple would be impossible to keep because of taxes.
Bad Horse's Filly
@Laura W: Hmm, I knew we had more in common than jumpy boots.
sfbevster
I see that they’re starting a new show on fixing up apartments, which is a sure sign of which way the wind is blowing. More whole-house makeovers for $50!
binzinerator
@John S.:
Hey, I’m a Leo/Dragon. So fuck you and your thankfulness.
Paula
@ Montysano
Geez, the French are fucking CRANKY. (In addition to protesting bankers as the Brits have done they also kidnap them.)
Also, if this is how Sarko behaves among other politicos (what w/ threatening a walk-out) without Carla Bruni then we want her around, despite the proliferation of Carla-v.-Michelle fashion battle royale stories.
Krista
Exactly. But the Keeping Up With The Joneses effect is a powerful force. It was bad enough earlier, when people only had to see the bigger houses, nicer furnishings, or fancier cars of their immediate neighbours. Now we’re bombarded with these twenty-somethings from all over the country who are living lifestyles that are well beyond the reach of most of us.
I don’t think that most people are confusing fiction with reality, but that imagery is indeed very pervasive and very powerful, and it does take a lot of maturity to shrug and say "Well, good for them, but that’s just not in the cards for me."
Resentment and envy are powerful forces, and I’ve seen many, many people say things like, "Well, I deserve X as much as so-and-so does!" Sure you do. But if you can’t afford it, you can’t. That sucks, and life’s not fair. I’m prone to it on a smaller scale (new jeans and $60 haircuts as opposed to houses and cars), but the sentiment is there, and I can empathize.
binzinerator
@binzinerator:
Oooo, I love this part:
Gawd damn! I loves me being a Leo/Dragon! All that is just waiting for me! Now lemme find those caves full o’ passionate lovers…. Hmm. Gotta be some around here somewheres….
Oh, hey ladies by the way… I do look amazingly like David Bromstad. Just FYI.
Mike in NC
@ John Cole:
I’m June 23. Great minds think alike. Or something.
Josh Hueco
@The Populist:
I actually liked the old Trading Spaces because the focus was on making attractive improvements on a budget. That and Genevieve was teh hawt.
tammanycall
Okay, I read like 30 of these comments and stopped. Are you people serious? The "Flip This" programming didn’t start the frenzy of homebuying, it was a response to it. And anyone who must do what the tv machine tells him to do is an idiot. It’s not like you’re in the loan office and you could be fooled by tricky legal language or misleading doubletalk. You’re on your couch watching television. If you feel yourself being overcome by the desire to possess something you cannot afford, change the channel. If you are the type of person subject to fits of greed or avarice, HGTV is not for you. REMEMBER, YOU CAN ALWAYS CHANGE THE CHANNEL.
Take SOME responsibility, Jesus.
/cranky
bobbo
binzinerator:
Hate to break it to you, binz, but I don’t think it’s the ladies who do most of the digging on Hunky McHunkerson. Anyway, you may look like him, but love of David goes much, much deeper than his pure delicious physical perfection.
DrDave
@Corner Stone:
Not code for anything other than individuals who could not demonstrate by tax returns, pay stubs or bank records that they had the means to pay back the obligation they are taking on by signing the note.
John S.
LOL
Spoken like a true Leo/Dragon. Seriously, you guys are a mash up of the two most megalomaniacal signs in either zodiac. One in particular I crossed paths with when I was in my 20s, and she was about the most physically and intellectually breathtaking woman I have ever encountered in my entire life (aside from my wife who is a fellow Virgo/Snake). But she absolutely devoured men whole. Thank goodness our relationship was only platonic.
One of my best friends from childhood is a Leo/Dragon. Another is a Leo/Snake (they aren’t much better). And yes, I am a glutton for punishment.
Cat Lady
Every sign off on the HGTV "sell this house" type programs ends with "interest has picked up and they expect an offer any day now". OK, yeah, sure, you betcha.
vanya
This is why I surf the web – to discover odd niche cultures. Who are you people? Who watches HGTV? I’ve never even heard of it. Who watches cooking shows for that matter? Meanwhile the ratings for Friday Night Lights and 30 Rock are in the tank? Are there no baseball games for you to watch? Do none of you have TiVO? Not criticizing, just really amazed by how different other people’s tastes and priorities are.
Steeplejack
Weighing in as a fan of the "shelter shows" . . .
Some you watch for useful tips or ideas, some you watch for the porn/fantasy/dream.
In general, I don’t like the buying/selling/flipping shows; I like the ones that concentrate on actual design and décor. Although I disagree with a lot of what they actually do, I like Design on a Dime for its approach to making a big statement with not much money ($2,000). Ditto for Decorating Cents. This covers the issue someone mentioned upthread where a potential home buyer nixes a house because the master bedroom is painted the wrong color. What the f–?! On the fantasy side, I like a lot of what Candice Olson does on Divine Design, although I wouldn’t have it in my own house (if that makes any sense). But she gives you ideas. I just wish I would see one episode in which Chico the electrician doesn’t install some goddamned recessed lighting. Jee-sus. But I digress.
One show that was on a few years ago that I liked a lot was This Small Space. Dealt with realistic–okay, semi-realistic–issues in starter apartments, cramped urban units, etc. There were a few pull-out-all-the-stops show-stoppers, but even they were somewhat to human scale. Not like almost everything on Homes Across America, which has just dropped out of heavy rotation.
The over-the-top show that I really (guiltily) like is Ground Breakers, which is about landscaping. They never give a price, but every project they show has to be in the high five figures, at least. And attached to a McMansion, of course. But I have a weakness for the fantasy of the stunning, perfectly executed "grounds," complete with infinity-edge pool, etc.
As for This Old House, they jumped the shark–or nuked the fridge, or whatever it is that you hipster kids say these days–about 10 years ago when they went to England to redo some young investment banker’s big-ass apartment/condo in a historic building in London. They ran afoul of zoning regulations and couldn’t finish the project. They basically slunk back to America with their tails between their legs.
Compare that with the first This Old House I can remember seeing, in which Bob Vila undertook to weatherize the garage on a small Midwestern house and add it to the house proper, connecting it with either a protected walkway or a constructed hallway. The whole project was probably about $20,000, and it was a great example of "maximizing what you’ve got."
Adrienne
I’m a Pisces/Ox and we seem pretty freakin awesome!!!
Just Some Fuckhead
@vanya:
Oh god, I totally lurve cooking shows.
Steeplejack
@Just Some Fuckhead:
Amen to that, Fuckhead. My current favorite is Jacques Pépin’s Fast Food My Way. Just started getting him on some channel here, and in almost every episode I am gobsmacked by some very simple but genius thing he whips up in five minutes or so.
And I have a love jones for Nigella Lawson.
Adrienne
Me too! That damn Rachel Ray is such a cutie pie!!! Bobby Flay is SMOKIN, and Iron Chef (the original one with the horrible dubbing) is totally awesome viewing.
Just Some Fuckhead
I’m not as fond any more of the "stand in the fake kitchen and make something while chatting with the viewer" shows. I like the shows where they go on the road and check out cool places or "best of" local eateries, eat weird food and have throwdowns. And I can’t fucking stand Emeril.
JHinAZ
I was accidentally exposed to House Hunters last weekend when I walked out of the bedroom (where I had been cruising the blogs – this one at the top of the list). My wife was watching House Hunters. There was a twenty-something couple looking at houses in a small community in Colorado. They were looking at houses in the $500K range, and I asked my wife what they were going to do to make a living in such a small town. My wife answered me (rather disdainfully), "They’re both mechanical engineers, they’re looking for a vacation home." As you might be able to tell, my wife and I have (after 32 years) um….. grown apart??
Comrade Scrutinizer
I’m coming to this party way too late for anyone to read this, but Jim Sollischi wrote this in the 3 January WSJ:
@vanya 167:
Cooking shows rule, silly person.
LondonLee
The funny thing about these couples who just HAD to have all this extra space, the show would go back and show them a few months later in their grand new palace and the rooms would be virtually empty, they had no books, no music collections, no pictures on the walls, nothing that makes a home a home and shows the accumulated lives and interests of the people living there. Their living rooms were just massive empty spaces with nothing but a huge screen tv and a couch.
Comrade Nikolita
@Comrade Mary, Would-Be Minion Of Bad Horse:
I do like Property Virgins myself. My favourite show on that channel is Holmes on Homes, who is totally worth watching just for the knowledge, even if you never plan to renovate a house.
I watch House Hunters sometimes, but that show and other similar ones piss me off because the people are forever whining about how such and such "needs to be updated", when in fact it might be like 2 years old or a little tacky and is perfectly liveable.
Fuck I live in a rental basement suite and would give my right arm to get a bloody dishwasher, nevermind a whole goddamn house. I’d get into the housing market now, but I don’t have hundreds of thousands of dollars to borrow.
With A&E, I think I’m addicted to American Justice, Cold Case Files, and Paranormal State.
As for the whole astrological thing, I’m a Leo/Tiger (if I’m following it right), and my boyfriend is a Taurus/Rat.
Jameson
This is like blaming the Food Network for fat people or porn for teen pregnancy. Let’s not throw some sort of personal responsibility out the window quite yet.
binzinerator
@bobbo:
Which is why I addressed it to the ladies. Cause I do believe there were some who were expressing interest in that guy who looks like me. I know there are some even if they didn’t. I know it for a fact, because that guy looks like me. So of course there will be interest. It is natural and expected for some here to express some interest. (Probably all women do but I understand some woman are shy or unwilling to admit that up front.)
But hey no matter whether he looks like me or not, I am sure the ladies will dig on me because I am fully confident I can any woman’s personal Hunky McHunkerson. I don’t need to be some good looking schmuck’s double. It’s the other way around. I am nonpareil. I can be any woman’s hottie. I can be every woman’s toe-curling orgasm. I know what I got, and I know how. Why would a woman settle for ersatz? For I am the real deal.
I am a Leo/Dragon.