House Rules finale - who are you voting for?

Cafe Society
1

So this weekend is the finale of House Rules, one of the more innovative and entertaining reality shows out there (surprising as it was on TBS and sponsored almost solely by Lowe’s).

The basic premise was that 3 couples (one was newleyweds, one an ‘older’ couple, and one couple that was a long distance relationship) each had a house in a somewhat state of disrepair. Over the course of 13 weeks, they renovated one room at a time with three judges awarding a prize (consisting of a trip one week, a car another, big screen tv, LOTS of tools, etc.) to the couple that did the best job of renovation, including completeness, originality of design, and quality of work.

For the final episodes, the couples will each give a tour of their homes (we have seen the rooms week by week, but this will be their last shot for the whole thing) and the viewers will vote on who will win not only the home they fixed up, but also $50,000.

For those who have watched it, who will you be voting for? The kids don’t deserve it… though they have had some great ideas (the secret closet I LOVE), they got pretty shiftless and lazy. Winning exactly zero weeks did not help.

The long distance couple did some good work, but I have to go against them because of their arrogance that went on throughout the entire series. A shame too as the house would make a nice wedding gift (they became engaged during the most recent episode… sorry for the spoiler).

I’m going to go with the older couple. They won about half of the time, were cool about the whole thing, and with rare exception, were always smiling and having a good time.

Regardless, I am hoping they do this again, though the money that was spent on creating the series really boggles my mind. In addition to the $15k-$50k per week budgeted between the three couples, there were also the prizes as well as the all of the little ‘escapes’ provided over time. Granted, some of the costs will be recouped from the sale of the houses of the losing couples, but that too is a shame. I would be PISSED having spent 13 weeks fixing up a dream house only to lose it all.

2

I haven’t decided who I’ll vote for yet…I think that Katie and Adam got pretty discouraged from the outset, since they had no experience and it seemed like nothing they could do pleased the judges. So, I can sort of understand their relative apathy, although I do think they had a pretty strong finish. IMO, their later rooms were just as good as the other couples, but they got shafted by the judges, who had already made up their mind that K&A were incompetent.

By the same token, I also think that Joey and Rebecca sort of got the shaft a few times as well…they got off to such a strong start, the judges held them to a higher standard and were nitpicking things that they didn’t address with the other couples. I think J&R could have won a few more judgements if they were actually all being scored fairly…so, I can sort of empathize with their complaining. I do think that they have done the best work overall, and their house is going to be the best in the final walk-through. Rebecca definitely has an eye for design, and I think with their final week to furnish, accessorize and tweak final projects, they’ll come out ahead of Bill and Cindy.

Bill and Cindy have done some really good work, but I just think that R&J have had more creative ideas and have worked harder overall. R&J have been a little more driven (and thus, have come across as a little less personable for the cameras), but I think they deserve their house the most.

Of course, I’m an eternal optimist and I’m hoping that House Rules will throw in a final twist that all of the couples will get to keep their houses, with the overall winner getting the extra $50k. That would make me happy…because no matter how you feel about each couple personally, they’ve all worked their asses off for the past 13 weeks. I think it would be entirely fitting for them all to “win”. :slight_smile:

3

I agree with this completely. On Survivor, they are on the island for at most 39 days. Granted, the conditions are much worse than on House Rules, but here couples have put aside over ** three months** of their lives working on their homes every single day. It looks like on the ‘bonus’ room Joey and Rebecca managed a little downtime, but that was about it.

My fear though is that it won’t happen again out of budget concerns. The show paid for three houses, living allowances for six people, all those prizes, and all of the little side adventures. If this was CBS, I could see them doing it, but can little old basic cable TBS that shows Crocodile Hunter 8 times a week afford to give away the three homes?

In any case, I do agree with what you said about Joey and Rebecca being judged unfairly towards the middle of the season, and they probably do deserve to win it, but Bill and Cindy’s improvements to the living room really stood out to me, as well as their kitchen. It more than made up for their bathroom from the first week. I think I may still vote for B&C, but I cannot be certain.

Again, I really would like to see a second season of this, but based on the limited replies, my guess is that very few people watched it.

4

I’m actually going to vote for Bill and Cindy as well. While I do think that Joey and Rebecca did great work, I disagree that she’s very creative. Most of the stuff that they did looks like it comes right out of Home and Garden magazine. I don’t see a lot of creativity, just a lot of projects that were done the way a zillion other rooms had been done.

Bill and Cindy on the other hand, really made an effort to do things the way they wanted them. They created rooms that fit them, not just whatever the popular decorating tip was for the week. I thought they did great work, and kept a good attitude most of the time, and still brought their own sense of style to the house.

The less said about Katie and Adam the better. I agree that they probably didn’t have as much expirience as the other couples in home remodeling, but their attitude was pretty poor on the past few episodes. I will say that I liked the secret room, and the bar pass through from the kitchen. Other than that, I thought the rooms at the end were ok, they just didn’t put the effort into decorating them that the other couples did. I would have thought that after a few weeks of seeing how much of a difference that made, they would have gotten a clue.

5

Probably Bill & Cindy–they’ve been the most consistent although I haven’t liked everything they’ve done. Rebecca & Joey have done some really, really good stuff but I hate the attitude and really disliked some of their rooms–the living room and the kitchen. Adam & Katie have improved dramatically but so what? They’ve also been a bit lazy and that striped room sucked.

Also, I’m suspicious about the engagement… And the freaking “men’s den” was just plain stupid.

6

I have to vote Bill & Cindy as well, if for no other reasons than their superior kitchen and backyard.

The phone line has been busy since the moment the number was announced, and the website is timing out. The response to this has apparently been overwhelming.

7

Maybe all of Joey’s Merchant Marine friends have been voting!

8

Never underestimate the Merchant Marines!

9

After watching a the final episode, I am confident now with going Bill and Cindy. Rebecca and Joey had some nice rooms, but B&C’s kitchen, yardwork (especially the front), and their bonus room swayed me over. R&J started off well, but I liked their work a lot less as the series went on, attitude nonwithstanding.

And as for the kids, I almost want to throw them a sympathy vote, but it really seems like they went half-ass, which is not necessarily a bad thing unless, you know, you are trying to win a house.

At this hour, I’ve been able to redial without interruption on my voting (and got a couple more in online while waiting for the pages here to load).

10

I don’t know how I feel about the way they did the voting. I mean, if it’s a toll free number, then it almost becomes which team has the biggest support structure. How many people could you get to vote for you over and over again if there’s no cost at all? That upsets me a little. I’m not sure how I’d do the voting so things couldn’t happen like that, but I just don’t think it will be a true representation of what the viewing audience really voted for.

And I lost a little respect for Katie and Adam when they repainted the master bedroom. I remember in catch up week, one of the designers asked about the paint color, and K&A were adamate that they loved the color…but right before the vote, they changed it…meh, should have stuck to your guns. I can respect someone that has different tastes than me…not someone that’s obviously trying to conform.

I also agree that they played up the engagement waaaayyy too much. Almost had a negative effect on me.

11

Personally I’m voting for Bill and Cindy.

Why, because I like them. Not their rooms but them. As a couple, as individuals I like Bill and Cindy. I could probably be friends with them but there is no way I could talk to J and R for more then five minutes with out a fist fight breaking out and Katie and Adam just seem like two dim bulbs.

I agree that the judging for the rooms was kind of screwy throughout the series but I’ve liked the series a lot.

12

I would really like to be on a second season of this! Couldn’t find any way to sign up for it, though.

We voted for Bill & Cindy’s house because of the kitchen and the yards. The family room was a really nice use of the space too (although I would have considered carpet instead of slate in the couch/TV area - we always seem to end up on the floor when we watch TV.) The layout of the kitchen/family room/backyard is really nice for entertaining.