There are people looking for a house with no imagination and no sense. These are the people who go on HGTV’s House Hunters, tour a perfectly wonderful and cheap house and say, “Oh, I can’t live with a pink bedroom!” as if paint hasn’t been invented yet.
But last night I saw a woman look at a beautiful parquet floor and say, “What is this weirdness on the floor? It’s gonna cost a lot to pull that up, isn’t it?”
Also, House Hunters International has shown me that the New York housing market isn’t bad at all. Plastic walls in the Czech Republic, $200,000 American for about 500 square feet in Hong Kong. Washing machines in bathrooms in England-- strange!
If it weren’t for the occasional hottie host on those house porn shows, I would forbid my girlfriend from watching them in my house.
“What do you mean I have to take down the pictures of my precious snookums eating Spaghetti-Os when he was a baby if I want to sell my house? It’s still my house!”
Hey! I have a washer/dryer, (stacked), in my bathroom. What’s wrong with that?
I hated going down into the basement to do the laundry, this house was already like this because the woman who owned it previously was elderly and needed to live on just one floor.
But I really like it, I built a laundry chute from the upstairs bedroom to make it even better!
House Hunters International has put a damper on my backup option of retiring down south. I don’t think they’ve shown any house in the Caribbean, Central or South America that was under $200K, and that includes flats and rather ramshackle joints - and most of these aren’t on the beach, either.
My wife loves this show. I can’t stand it, and 90% of the reason why is the inane comments that the home-shoppers feel compelled to make.
“Ohhh, I don’t like this color.”
“Eeew, those drapes are ugly.”
“I don’t like the furniture.” (this is on still-occupied houses in which the furniture is not included in the sale)
“I don’t like this carpeting.”
I have a feeling that the show producers encourage the shoppers to say something in every room, so they have something that’ll make for passable TV, but it makes so many of these people come across as dumb as a post.
I think the furnished International homes are ones targeted at vacation or second homes for foreigners – people who are buying a home elsewhere but won’t be spending a lot of time there. (I’d think a time-share would be a better option, but, whatever.)
Either that, or it seems to be on an island where everything has to be imported, anyway. No IKEA nearby, after all.
I find the International show much more interesting. All the ones in the US seem to follow dippy yuppies through ginormous houses, that they complain of being too small despite marveling over chairrails or tray ceilings or other nonsense.
Same type of fuckwads who took a pristine Pasadena Craftsman, with beautiful original intricate woodwork and chainsaw a section of wall out so they could put in a widescreen av center. I about had a fucking heart attack when they did it. Who the fuck ruins the value of a house to out that monstrosity in just to try and flip it. Craftsman afficionados prefer to have it as original as possible. HUGE amounts of money are spent RESTORING craftsman homes that have been ‘remodeled’ back to original. Cant easily restore chainsaw leavings.
I went through a period when I was pretty much addicted to this show. Had to get my fix just about every night. It really does boggle the mind, how frequently people comment on the paint and carpet, as tho there is NO WAY you could change those things! And then they make major conscessions in terms of either the house’s structural flow or location . . .
And yeah, you’d think that if you wanted to sell your house, you’d HAVE to install granite and stainless in the kitchen.
What regularly astounds me is when folk of modest means walk through a perfectly adequate house, and comment on how “small” the kitchen/bedroom/bathroom/closets are. I’m not talking about an older house with an unconventional footprint or anything, but just an average house with a master bedroom 12x16 or so.
Really interesting to see what your dollar could buy in different parts of the country/world. Wish they wuld date the shows.
I toured a rental that had the bathroom sink on the living room wall, because it didn’t fit in the bathroom. Don’t add a jog to the living room wall to keep the sink in the bathroom. :rolleyes: I didn’t rent that place, even if it had a convenient bar attached less than a 30 second walk for the the truly alcoholic. The apartment rental being the same owner as the bar they probably saw this as easier access for the puking customer that rented from them.
Where was that HHI where the 2 guys wanted a place on some island, and one of the places they got shown was sort of shotgunned vertically [shotgun all the rooms go through each other in a line, so you could shoot a gun from the front door to the back] the entrance was on the ground, and every room after that was up a set of stairs, I think the kitchen and dining nook was the top level] If memory serves it was all whitewashed stonework. I think they settled on a very nice flat on a single level, that was tiny [like 500 sq feet and a small entrance yard and no back yard…]
Though HHI has shown some very nice places, I cant understand wanting to live where I dont have a flush toilet, and a good hot shower with plenty of water. I can do without a dishwasher, but need at least a clothing washing machine. At least there are some decent portable washers around!
My reaction exactly. There was an episode in Paris where one option was a sunken unit with no windows but basically an all-glass roof (good luck if there’s a fire). Another had been cobbled together out of closet spaces hacked out from two other units on two different levels in two separate (but adjoining) buildings. There were tiny rooms connected by twisty little passages, all different, with a half-staircase connecting the levels. The bathroom was so small that I think you almost had to slide yourself partly under the sink in order to sit on the toilet.
We’ve been looking at houses in Portland for the past month and I can tell you that few people have any concept of how to prepare their homes for sale. They also have a hugely inflated idea of the worth of their homes.
I agree with the comments about this program. People key on the most idiotic reasons to find a home unacceptable (paint color being the lamest reason), rather than seeing the potential of the place.
My fiancée are going to specifically look at houses that aren’t stage because we have imagination on what we want to do with the house. Like above, who cares if the paint sucks?
What irks me most is when a homebuyer starts sitting on the chairs or playing he piano. Bitch, that ain’t you house. Stop touching stuff.
I just love all the childless couples who complain that 2500 square feet, 3 bed/2 bath is just too small for two people and a pocket dog. The room arrangement may not work for them or the kitchen might be too small, but the over all square footage? really? They also like to insist on a fenced yard for their dog at the beginning of the show and then at the end choose the top of their price range monster number in a subdivision that doesn’t allow them to ever put up a fence.
People are weird and also not usually that good on camera.
Biggirl, I saw the one where the woman talked about replacing the parquet floor. Some people are too dumb to be allowed to live indoors.
I just turn off the sound when I hear the couples going by the script.
[ul]
[li]stainless[/li][li]granite[/li][li]open floor plan[/li][li]natural light (from windows! imagine that!)[/li][li]crown molding[/li][li]great for entertaining[/li][li]man cave/man room[/li][li]the closet’s big enough for all my shoes![/li][li]we have two children so we have to have at least five bedrooms[/li][/ul]
I like the International shows, especially the European ones – the Central America/Island ones, not so much, but that might be because I’m jealous.
My wife watches these shows all the time, and I’m constantly amazed at how spoiled and petty these people are. There was one episode where the husband refused to even consider any property that had popcorn ceilings. WTF is wrong with popcorn ceilinghs?
I wish they would show some more normal, working class couples and families with kids instead of only showing self-absorbed rich people walking through gorgeous homes and sneering at trivial details in window frames as if they’re smelling a turd.
That’s why I like Property Virgins when my wife watches it. The host/realtor will actually show houses that are within the people’s price ranges. She’ll also tell them like it is. “If you only have $X to spend and you want to live in this location, you’re going to have to male some sacrifices.”
And then they make major conscessions in terms of either the house’s structural flow or location . . .