<p>
</p>
<p>Tom, if your tv has a guide function, it will say what year each episode is from.</p>
<p>DW is a RE agent, and the various House Hunter shows drive her nuts for some reason. She won’t watch them.</p>
<p>Holmes on Homes and Holmes Inspection are pretty awesome though.</p>
<p>I like Income Properties a lot too, but the laws must be quite a bit different in Canada - virtually everything they do would be illegal where I live.</p>
<p>I’m an HGTV addict, too, but I really hate the scripted comments by the homeowners and/or the potential buyers. It seems like a requirement for someone to say “Gee, I can really see myself in this kitchen/backyard/master bedroom”. The delivery is so fakey, too, particularly the comments from folks viewing an open house after the makeover. I’d really prefer to hear the live, off-the-cuff remarks but I guess that’s not possible.</p>
<p>I was surprised to find out that the people shopping for a home on House Hunters have often already purchased their home when the filming happens. A friend of mine who had just bought a house in Poland said that she applied to be on House Hunters International because they were scouting for homeowners that had recently purchased a home abroad. They were planning to just have her look at two other listed houses (not ones she had actually considered during her house-hunting) so that they could make a show out of it. Now I watch the show with a more jaundiced eye, but I still enjoy it!</p>
<p>I’ve always been curious about who pays for these remodels and repairs? For example, on Holmes Inspection today, the homeowners needed a lot of structural repairs to their home that had to have cost thousands and thousands of bucks. The job got more complicated as they progressed and a lot more things needed to be done than were originally planned. Is all of this free to the homeowner? What about the room makeovers that Candice Olson does? She uses top of the line materials – no “Design On A Dime” stuff there! Is that free to the homeowner, or do they pay a portion of the cost, or what?</p>
<p>^. I can completely appreciate that if this is your profession it would be a major irritation. Some of the RE agents aren’t projected as the most professional, some clients are irrational (although I would think this is real life too), and the ‘quickie three property which one will it be scenario’ isn’t accurate most of the time. It’s a half hour TV show for entertainment that over simplifies a complicated process where a good agent can save you!</p>
<p>
That is an understatement.</p>
<p>DW had one deal blow up over curtains, and another almost blow up over grass clippings.</p>
<p>It kills me on the “first time buyer” shows when they reject a house because the walls are the wrong color and they don’t want to have to paint, or some other trivial thing. Yikes.</p>
<p>OP, I was watching this last night and before you know it, several families had purchased homes (not necessarily my choices) and it was almost 2 hours later!</p>
<p>I was also trying to figure out why it’s so addictive.<br>
- most of the commercials are related to the show. I just hate drug commercials and car commercials which permeate the national news shows I watch, but I didn’t mind these commercials.
- I wanted to watch till the end. I knew the timing and when to expect its conclusion. With the house hunter shows, I wanted to know which one they bought. With the fix-it-up shows, I wanted to see the “reveal”. In other shows, like sit coms, they keep stringing you along with layers of complications until the last 2 minutes when it’s tied up. With a news show, they add in one last story.
- they didn’t have any air time in between shows. That’s usually my hint to leave. Instead, the shows went one right into the next.</p>
<p>pat’smom: I think most of the renovations are paid for by the companies that advertise on these shows. If it gets more complicated, the clients probably pay some, but all this is totally worked out before a project starts.</p>
<p>You wouldn’t believe how these shows make the rooms look so wonderful when it’s done for television. Everything looks so good when it’s on your screen, but it’s what they’re not showing or the close-ups that you don’t see that makes a difference and yet you’d never do this yourself if you actually lived there. One example: Paint over wallpaper? of course!</p>
<p>Even some of the older buyers complain about paint color and other things that would be a one or two thousand dollar fix. I think Property Virgins is “must-see” for all, well, property virgins.</p>
<p>This was my favorite Super Bowl commercial–
[NFL</a> Videos: Bud Light kitchen remodel](<a href=“http://www.nfl.com/videos/nfl-super-bowl-commercials/09000d5d81e2b0ee/Bud-Light-kitchen-remodel]NFL”>NFL Football Highlights, Clips & Analysis | NFL.com)</p>
<p>I’ve been a fan of HGTV since the nineties (could that be right?), when my mom was featured on a show called “Modern Masters”.</p>
<p>
This was my biggest complaint with Trading Spaces. “Make a box out of plywood and paint it” might work when you are in college, but when the camera never rests on it for more than 2 seconds, it can look ok on TV.</p>
<p>Another peeve I have - on one of the shows (I forgot which one) the camera literally was never still for more than one second, and they constantly rotate the camera so that the room (or the people) are a 45 degree angle. Who thinks this is a good idea??? I had to turn it off, it was giving me a headache.</p>
<p>I used to watch it back in the 90’s, too. Remember this Matt and Shari’s Room By Room? I guess it was HGTV’s first show.</p>
<p>[Television</a> - Matt and Shari - do it yourself projects](<a href=“http://www.mattandshari.com/orginal-content-mstv/television.html]Television”>http://www.mattandshari.com/orginal-content-mstv/television.html)</p>
<p>Welcome to the club!</p>
<p>I could have written your post – a decade ago. My addiction continues. Instead of fighting it, I’ve decided to embrace it. Le’ts face it, it’s a benign vice. It’s cheaper than shopoholism, healthier than smoking/drinking/over-eating and less brain damaging than, say, Jersey Shore.</p>
<p>“It seems to be that younger people today all think they have to start at the top.” - True. And sadly the HGTV shows don’t help. I do like the ones that show price detail, so folks can see the need to prioritize and do trade-offs. I get a kick out of the fact that even couples with a million dollars or more have to compromise on something ;)</p>
<p>My husband asked me about this this morning! My answer: it is background while I am answering work emails or reading the paper. There is no plot, so I can tune in or out as I want to. So HGTV is dial tone. Except for when it captures my attention!</p>
<p>I’m glad to see that this HGTV ‘addiction’ is more common than I realized. I read all of these comments and agree with so many of you. Yes, this is cheaper than so many other things, although I do get some pretty good home re-model ideas that are waiting in the queue, which can really add up. I tell my H that at least I attempt to do more of the stuff myself, and only hire out the stuff that I could really mess up, like plumbing. I don’t sign up my H unless he is dying to do something (like put drywall on over top the popcorn ceiling in our current guest bathroom re-model). I was outside today either golfing or doing yardwork w/ my H, but don’t think I wasn’t thinking about curb appeal!</p>
<p>I’m a rising high school senior (sorry to intrude), and I am also an HGTV addict. My father has been watching it all the time for years, and I always used to wonder how someone can watch home makeovers, DIYs, and house hunting for hours on end. A couple of years ago, my father convinced my mother and me to watch House Hunters and Property Virgins with him, and we have been addicted ever since!! I always seem to convince myself that I am only going to watch one episode of Property Virgins and Curb Appeal before I change the channel, but then I can’t stop! I always comfort myself by saying that at least when I buy my first house, I won’t be as blind as some of the house hunters who scoff at white appliances and purple walls, and I will know how to repair some small projects (at least on paper).</p>
<p>wow, all the shows i’ve never heard of rapped up in a channel thats on CC’s thread.
this must be a HUGE PROBLEM for you snowflake.</p>
<p>Saturday and Sunday mornings we are tuned to HGTV or DIY channels. My favorites have always been the gardening shows. I loved both Alan Titchmarsh and Paul James the Gardener Guy.</p>
<p>When my dad was still physically able to do things he and my husband built a deck, a play structure and several other projects. We paint and do a few minor things, but major projects require more time than we have. </p>
<p>I get irritated with the couples that are so darn picky about everything. sometimes I have to turn the channel when they start griping about paint or carpet color. </p>
<p>I do remember Matt and Shari - even my kids enjoyed watching that one.</p>
<p>I have been watching HGTV for years! I love everything Candace Olson does and Designed to Sell is one of my favorites. A few months ago I tuned in to House Hunters International and the ‘buyers’ were a couple with whom I went to college more than 30 years ago! They looked good…and rich, too!</p>
<p>Ahh! Room BY Room with Matt and Shari! Yes, that was one of the first shows I remember! I remember being so excited to go to a local home show and be in the audience to see them do a question and answer and they answered one of my questions!</p>
<p>House Hunter addict here as well. And all 3 of my kids. We are currently enjoying House Hunter- Vacation Home - my youngest daughter wants us to apply. A family is picked each week to have the chance to tour and choose one of three vacation homes. Something a little different!</p>
<p>We also just finished watching Sarah’s Summer House. How cool is that location?! We were actually looking at the lot our cottage is on this week and talking about building a “bunky” - had never heard that term before but want one!!! Her decorating choices in her cottage were spot on for what I’d love to have!!!</p>
<p>abasket, did you know that you can Google search your way to Sarah’s shopping lists? She used some fabric on one project that I just had to have so I dug into the show’s website and was able to get the name and manufacturer. She has a great eye - wish I could get her to come rip my old house apart and put it back together.</p>