Ah, but in the Love It Or List It universe the renovations always have a greater than 100% ROI. My wife, annoyingly, watches this show a lot and of the times that I have watched I don’t think I have seen a renovation that increased the value of the house by at least 50% more than they spent. Sometimes the supposed value increases by more than double what they spent. You would be throwing away money not to renovate your old home before moving in that case. I suppose giving naive people unrealistic expectations for the payoff on a renovation might be another reason to hate the show.
Her voice still haunts me: “MAGENTA TAUPE MAGENTA TAUPE ALL AROUND THE ROOM.” And the look on Mindy Paige Davis-Page’s face when she said it was priceless.
I’ve only ever seen that woman in one episode of that decorative painting show, but all these years later I still hate her. HATE, I say. We are talking near-Hildi levels of hate.
She went into someone’s house with gorgeous, pristine hardwood floors…and painted a faux rug right in the middle. A sort of Southwestern design in eye-bleeding colors. With fringe. Did I mention these were pristine hardwood floors?
Some damned flip your house guys on back 5 or so years ago took a chain saw to pristine Pasadena Craftsman wood wall to install a freaking TV … :eek: Talk about wanting to use the chainsaw on them :mad: To be honest, if I were the person they showed the house to next, I would have dropped any offer by probably $50 000, because that is probably what it would cost me to have my cousin in law Roger hunt down the wood to reasonably match the original and repair the damned wall.
Yes. Fake arguments between the hosts, and often stunning stupidity - and arguments - between the couple. WAY too much drama for a frou frou subject.
Makes me want to slap everyone involved except the tradesmen. Them I want to take out for drinks, because they need one.
I have another one, that I believe was on TLC as well. It was a show about flipping houses. One guy ran a real estate venture, and I believe he lived in Atlanta. His wife was beautiful and he was a supreme jerk. Whenever he ran into an issue with one of the houses, such as the foundation needing to be re-poured, he’d make up his lost revenue by browbeating his subcontractors into working for less. I live in Cincinnati, and our cost of living is less than Atlanta, and some of the figures he threw out for things like landscaping and painting were eye-poppingly low. I suspected that the subs were illegal aliens.
For awhile I watched Color Splash, because I was fascinated with the host’s biceps. But criminy, “Color Splash” is right. The rooms he designed were like being smacked upside the head with a can of primary red or green paint. His rooms may have been perfect for a hipster ad agency front lobby, but I couldn’t bear to live in them.
He did paint nice original paintings, though.
I believe that show was “Flip this House” and the host’s name is Armando Montelongo and his beautiful wife, Veronica Montelongo. He is quite brusque and penny pinching but his wife keeps him in line. I’d be afraid to buy a house from him because I believe he cuts corners to keep his costs low. He also has infomercials running to show how you can make a fortune by flipping houses and hosts seminars around the country to drum up business.
The biggest cheat on that show was the friggin carpenter. If all I had to pay for was the cost of materials, I, too, could live in a custom palace.
You are right! He makes my skin crawl.
Okay, now I’m on a roll. Another HGTV show that I like, but that I believe spews out misleading information is Scott McGillivray’s “Income Property.” If you’re not familiar, he is a contractor who fixes up people’s (basements/second floors) so that they can rent them out and generate income.
On the one hand, I like the show. I think he does quality work. He’s diligent about getting Certificates of Occupancy, building permits and fire inspections. He identifies and addresses structural issues, even if it means taking a hit on his reno budget. He steers the homeowners towards upgrades that he knows will attract renters (e.g. washer/dryer). The renovations always end up looking really nice. And he’s soft on the eyes, which I appreciate.
However. When he presents his two renovation options to the homeowner, he uses fuzzy math! And it drives me insane.
This is an example of his typical spiel: “Your current mortgage is $1200. Renovation A, which costs $20,000, will convert your basement into a one-bedroom apartment. This will net you $800 per month, which brings your mortgage down to $400. Renovation B will convert the space into a 2 bedroom, and will cost you $30,000, but will net you more per month: $1100. Meaning your mortgage will be only $100 per month! How does that sound to you?”
Now, anyone with half a brain can see the HUGE, GLARING hole in this presentation. (If you don’t see it, he doesn’t include the cost of the renovation into his figures.) IMO, his presentation is disingenous at best and deliberately misleading at worst.
I rarely watch HGTV anymore and it used to be the default channel in the background on Saturday mornings. My main beef with them is that they seem to have abandoned the “G” in their name. I adored Paul James in** Gardening by the Yard**. Yes, he could be silly, but I enjoyed the occasional goofiness and he always gave sound, practical advice.
It’s still our default Saturday morning background noise. At least it’s always cheerful, constructive (ha!) noise. If it’s not that, my husband will get stuck into a Law & Order marathon, which is a gory and depressing way to start the weekend.