Sunday night’s ep was just the second one I’ve watched, but it bugged me too – constantly cutting away to a team member reminding us about the family’s tragedy. Unnecessary.
More time on the design and construction aspects would be nice.
Does Ty use that bullhorn in every show?
See my first two posts above.
Yep. And it’s insanely annoying. But often, he’s got a naked chest shot going when he’s using it, so I’m helpless to turn away.
I think Ty is a cutie-patootie. Annoying in a BIG way, but cute, nonetheless.
Interesting local article on the latest makeover: http://www.bakersfield.com/local/story/5093348p-5138926c.html
(You have to register to read it though. Damn Bakersfield Californian!)
Smackfu. That IS an interesting article. I’ve snipped a large-ish excerpt here:
Bottom line: the mother-in-law is making sure that it’s known that SHE owns that land her daughter-in-law lives on, even though her daughter in law was successful in getting the show to come out there and make the improvements. I think it’s pretty clear the elder Elcano will not pass on shares the property to her daughter-in-law, but her grandkids will probably inherit shares.
There are some interesting notes about how the elder Elcano’s house – which was right next door, and much more modest – was blocked off-camera by prducers by stacking bales of hay in front of it in establishing shots.
Not to diminish the importance of what’s happened here, but it does take the gloss off the fairy tale somewhat.
Askia, thanks for posting that snippet. I was in a hurry before and couldn’t post a quote like I should have, since it’s behind a registration link (that I used bugmenot to get around myself).
SmackFu. No problemo. I finally got around to seeing the episode in question and some things are becoming clear to me: like the fact that the mother-in-law, who actually owns the land that was improved on, is completely absent from the actual show, even though she apparently lives right next door! I wonder what she did to piss off the producers so much that they would so thoroughly leave her out? I mean, her inclusion should make the story all the more poignant – elderly mother, widow, young kids, lose only son/husband/father in tragic accident, might lose 100 year old family farm.
WAG: she bad-mouths her dead son for some reason, or blames the daughter-in-law. Since either would detract from this sympathetic story, they leave her out.
So there really was no danger of “losing the family farm”? I feel manipulated. Imagine that. A manipulative TV program. :dubious:
I’ve watched it just a few times and I also find the unending sappiness a little too much. I get it that these people have had it tough but instead of each person on the design team going on and on about that, maybe they could spend more time on explaining and showing the design and construction aspects and telling us some simple things we could do. This sort of thing might make the rest of us feel more included instead of actually feeling bad that are lives aren’t just a little more tragic so we could get an awesome home makeover, too.
We just had this crew in our area last week for a makeover (I think it’s airing in January). A $200,000 house, but the contractors say that when you add up everything that went into it (labor, materials, new top-of-the-line appliances, etc), it probably actually ran into the millions. The family in question lost there home in a fire, and have been living in a tent for the last few months. The neighbors started bitching about the moise and non-stop commotion in the local paper, but were smacked down by the rest of the community real fast (“Gee. You’re complaining about a week of noise. These people lived in a TENT for FOUR MONTHS. Get over yourself.”)
Still - constant trucks, 24 hours a day, thousands of spectators and volunteers(the local transit system set up special shuttles to the site) - what fun!
Here’s an article about the experience: Homemade Excitement
And another, about the noise
If ABC Extreme Makeover: Home Edition had never shown up and not done a thing to the property, no. There farm would not have been in any immediate danger, but you saw how run down the place was. I think the danger of “losing the farm” comes in once they do put in all the improvements— new house, two new cars, new huge barn, new irrigation systems, new farming equipment, etc. – because suddenly this old 100 year old farm has a lot of new taxes to worry about and is worth something. THAT’S why local farmers donated bales and bales of hay to sell, and a $60, 000 trust was set up, and 20 acres was planted for free, etc. – gives them a leg up and some capital to work with.
Wile E. This is a home makeover show that’s an outgrowth of a human fashion makeover show… not Trading Spaces or This Old House. You’re suppsed to watch the miracle unfold for some lucky family whose fortunes are being turned arund.
Well, I wasn’t the only one to express that sentiment and if I am supposed to just watch the miracle and sappiness unfold, then I just choose not to watch.
Wile E. Hey, wait. I apologize, OK? I don’t mean to pick on you or presume to tell you how to feel. Clearly I like the show, I like it a lot, and the sappiness and tears of happiness are generally a plus for me. When they showed how they helped complete the model airplane the son and his never finished, and the father’s boots by the fireplace, that made even cynical old me feel happy for the widow Elcano. Sometimes I think we live in a mean old world and it’s nice to see whole communities pull together to help someone out–even if the Hollywood picture we’re presented with is not the whole truth.
Kind of along the lines of “how can they do this in a week”…
How can the whole family head off to Disney World, a dude ranch, etc. on about 2 hours notice?? Wouldn’t you need to, I don’t know, tell your boss you’re gone for a week? Same with school for the kids. Do they have a week’s worth of clean undies, or does the limo have to wait for a couple loads of clothes?
So I’m wondering if there maybe is a couple of days between the “Good morning XXX Family!!!” from Ty’s bullhorn, and the family jetting off.
I imagine Ty Pennington and/or the show’s producers have a lot to do with facilitating an abrupt departure once they pull up to the house; making phone calls on their behalf, explaining things to schools and employers, etc. Also, when families are notified they’re finalists for the show they’re probably given instructions to let various people know a week-long absence is a distinct possibility.
As for packing, I’ve seen some families travel kind of light, so maybe a clothing allowance is provided while they’re on vacation.
Ok here’s some SD on the 11/21 EMHE epiosode. The farm and house were about 5 miles from my farm. I know the family. It is not like they were our best friends but I know who they are and have a lot of friends who were good friends with them and helped out with a lot of the stuff you saw on the show.
And then I get distacted and one of my girls plays with the mouse and clicks submit so I have a new post.
The house and barn were really built in 1 week. I didn’t think it was possible but they did it. It actually rained that week and slowed down some of the work but there were a ton of volunteers and they were working 24/7 on the stuff.
What I heard is they call you and tell you that you have made the final selection and you need to be ready to leave at such and such a time on this day. They also tell you that you are one of 5 or so finalists(I don’t know if there are any other “finalists” that are told to wait and nobody shows up but I doubt it). So it is possible that a family is ready to go to Disneyworld when the crew shows up.
The hay:15,000bales at 125 lbs a piece=1,875,000lbs of hay divided by 2000=937.5 tons of hay. At $150 a ton, I don’t know the quality of the hay donated but the number isn’t too far out of what is market price for the area. 937.5x$150=$140,625. So let’s say about $150,000 in hay to sell. There is a huge market for hay in the area. There is about 150,000 dairy cattle within 10 miles of the farm. That is where a lot of the hay came from in the first place.
deadeyesdad: Thanks for sharing that! BTW, is there anything to my speculations why the matriarch Elcano was left off this week’s episode? I think it must be that she comes off unsympathetic on camera. Do you know if thats true?
I think it is because the “story” doesn’t look as good when those silly little facts get in the way. “Hey let’s just hide gandmama and make it look all pretty”. I don’t really know. I can ask around and see what I come up with. I haven’t been home much since the show aired and a lot of other people have been gone so I really haven’t talked that much about the show as aired. I kind of watched it but since we were TIVOing it I didn’t really sit and watch it like I would like. Sometime this weekend I watch it for real.
Hey thanks. I know this isn’t terribly important in the grand scheme of things but I find it really odd that the mother-in-law wasn’'t included unless she was hospitalized that week or just isn’t, y’know, pleasant.
If you find out anything, post it and I’ll definitely read it!