<p>[en</a> suite](<a href=“http://public.wsu.edu/~brians/errors/ensuite.html]en”>en suite | Common Errors in English Usage and More | Washington State University)</p>
<p>ema</p>
<p>^^ You should come and buy my house…although you have to put in that butcher block…</p>
<p>My H’s favorite HGTV plot line is the couple with 3 -4 bedrooms who just have to move to a new house to get more space because they’re now expecting their first child…</p>
<p>He grew up in a house with 2 parents, 4 kids, and 3 bedrooms. And 1 bath.</p>
<p>And then there is “open plan.” That’s the phrase I’m tired of hearing. Granite, stainless steel, open plan. Ugh.</p>
<p>I am surprised the open concept thing is so popular. There are advantages, to be sure-- I always see the moms on these shows worried about being able to see their kids in the living room from the kitchen, for example, but I like my rooms to be… you know, rooms.</p>
<p>The house we looked at that I loved best had a main level that was split into four nearly equal parts. One part was the entryway, which had a closet, a bathroom, and three or four steps up into a hallway where the bedrooms were. Another part was the kitchen with a small eat-in space-- you could maybe seat two or three tops, but you had a lot of counter space and such to cook. Then there was a dining room in another quadrant, and a living room in the last. The dining room and living room had one of those shared fireplaces. It doesn’t sound like an ideal layout, at first I thought it was BIZARRE, but it was designed so perfectly that from the kitchen sink you could see into any of the four quadrants, out a window into the front yard, and out a window into the backyard. You could even see down the hall to the bedrooms. I so desperately wanted this house! But the subdivision didn’t allow fences, and my fiance didn’t like it. In hindsight the living space was a bit too limited, but I loved that layout.</p>
<p>The house we ended up with is sort of semi-open, and I suppose I like it. If it were less open we’d have lighting problems. I see why some people like to have an open kitchen for entertaining, but with the few parties we’ve had since we moved in I’ve come to discover those women must swear less when they cook than I do. :)</p>
<p>I used to watch HGTV much more than I do now for the same reasons many of you have stated. The just starting out couple that must have granite, new stainless appliances and a hugh en suite as well as a finished basement and large backyard on House Hunters.</p>
<p>And Love It or List It is exactly the same every show. He shows them terrible houses until the last one which is perfect but over budget and out of neighborhood. She always runs into problems and cannot give them everything on their “must have” list. </p>
<p>I always liked Selling NewYork. Will there be any new shows? Bravo now has a show called Million Dollar Listings that is similar to SNY. I’ve been watching it.</p>
<p>Became officially hooked on Flea Market Flip today - D found a bunch of them on our free “On Demand” and we caught a few episodes - anyone like it?</p>
<p>My favorite old HGTV show was Designed to Sell, where they came in with $1000 or so and updated and staged a home to get it ready to sell. I used to watch Trading Spaces, too, but felt everything they did was cheap and tacky. I would be appalled if someone did to my house what they did to some (feathers on the walls, etc.) I love everything Candace Olson does, but she nearly always uses blue. Must be her favorite color. I love blue, but had a blue house for 30 years so I’m a little sick of it.</p>
<p>Has anyone mentioned Property Brothers?? The show has gotten a bit formulaic but I love love love the brothers. They are real pros in front of the camera, and always very gracious even when their clients are being idiots.</p>
<p>I really like the newer property brothers show… There’s the one where they buy a fixer upper to renovate which I think is the older one, and I’ve been able to catch a few episodes of the one where they try to fix up and sell their old house and buy a new house within 30 days or something. I REALLY like that one.</p>
<p>For some reason whenever I turn on HGTV Love It or List It is all that is on! I never catch Property Brothers anymore. I rarely even catch House Hunters.</p>
<p>Small world! At church this morning, I saw one of my friends, who had moved away, but was back to visit. She told me that her daughter has a new t.v. show, Renovation Raiders. She is the designer, working in production, so is only seen occasionally, adding accessories and such. The show is filmed in Minneapolis, in case any of you want your home redone while you’re out shopping. Before this show, she worked on “a backyard makeover show.” I didn’t dare mention our concern over a “speedy” makeover.</p>
<p>I just cannot believe the Show Renovation Raiders is a reality. Lets say Dry Walls, in order to paint on it, you need to tape patch it several times, sanding in between, then texture it, that takes days, if not weeks. And the cleanup before and afterwards… oh my. How can they do it in hours is beyond me.</p>
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<p>You can download HGTV apps on iphone to watch any program on demand and there is no commercial interruptions, each show is around 20 min. with some exceptions. Like I was watching flip flop 4am in my bed this morning.</p>
<p>I’ve been meaning to watch the renovation show but haven’t found the time. </p>
<p>That being said, if you really know what you’re doing (or if you have enough hands on the project) you can do anything in a short period of time. I laughed a few years ago when my grandmother asked my grandfather to hammer down a few nails on her basement staircase - she left and went to bingo and came home to an entirely new staircase that he built while she was gone. </p>
<p>I’ve already put up an entire house from bottom to top in a week. It’s amazing what you can do with 120 hands on the project.</p>
<p>In regards to dry walling, patching, painting, etc… I did my bathroom in less then a day by myself, so I’m sure they can do it quicker then me.</p>
<p>It got wet (I didn’t realize my shower head was leaking out to the side - oops, and for some reason they used matte paint, then the tape below the paint bubbled up and ruined an entire wall.) I had to sand the whole thing down, remove the tape, dry the dry-wall with a heat gun, re-tape the dry wall (with the correct green moisture tape, not the stuff they had used…), used the quick dry joint compound (Dries in 10 min), sanded it, used the quick dry joint compound again, sanded it, used the quick dry compound again, sanded it, put down a coat of primer, waited for it to dry, put down 2 coats of non matte color and it was done.</p>
<p>I’m sure a professional is a much better joint compounder then me but I had the correct end result. I took before and after photos and you’d never know it was 26 year old me that did the repairs.</p>
<p>I love property brothers and income property.</p>
<p>and Ema, i agree with you on the rooms should be rooms thing. That being said, i’ve seen a few open concept houses where it really really works well and I’d love love love to live there!! I’ve always joked about taking down the wall between my living room and my kitchen since I’ve moved here. I don’t think it will ever get done… but I feel like it would make both of those rooms seem bigger. They are both on the small side as is.</p>
<p>No kidding, artlovers. And, after a stint in the kitchen biz (I used to be consumed by kitchen design,) it is virtually impossible to even demo a kitchen so fast, without destroying something. Even being hyper cautious. (I suspect the pre-production interviewers seriously look at the existing set-up, to qualify something in the stars is perfectly lined up.)</p>
<p>My new fav is the Meredith Baer show about staging. </p>
<p>Musicmom- you didn’t like the wallpapering with torn grocery bags? the feather family apparently pulled them down immediately. Yeeks.</p>
<p>fendergirl, were there any articles or videos or anything you looked at to learn how to do that drywall taping that you’d recommend? We need to re-tape every single seam in one of our bedrooms because they were all done incorrectly by previous homeowners. We had a guy out here (who offered to fix it for us for 2,000 dollars) and he said they sanded too much, which makes sense because you can see the edges of the tape popping out and now there are cracks in the wall along the edges. </p>
<p>This will be our first attempt at any drywall repair. My coworker said it would be easy enough but time consuming, and we’ll have to wait a while before we paint to make sure the repair holds since we don’t know what we’re doing. I figure we can’t make it look worse than it already does so it’s worth trying to save that 2k… I think I was told we have to pull all the tape up, smooth everything back out, and then retape it the correct way…</p>
<p>The property brothers are worth watching just for the eye candy factor. Has anyone watched rehab addict? I find that one pleasant once a week. Although I would probably hate it if it were on all night a few times a week like love it or list it.</p>
<p>[Casting</a> - Magnetic Productions](<a href=“http://www.magneticproductions.com/casting]Casting”>http://www.magneticproductions.com/casting)</p>
<p>Not a fan of that show, but some seem to care for such unreality.</p>
<p>Wonder what happened to that Trading Spaces feather designer…Hildy??? She was a beautiful woman.</p>
<p>There’s a TS “where are they now” web site. Hildi Santo-Tomas.</p>