<p>Because many of us mentioned Sarah Richardson on this thread, thought I’d let you all know that HGTV is doing a marathon of “Sarah’s House 4” on Saturday, September 8 in the afternoon I believe. They also ran this marathon last week and I caught snippets of it.</p>
<p>In this series she takes a “standard” (3000ish square feet - haha, in my world that’s pretty big!!) contractor’s house and turns it into a show house with upgrades. </p>
<p>Still trying to figure out if this was taped pre-last baby or post-last baby - I say post, but not sure. I know Canadians get the episodes quite a bit before the US (I believe, right??)</p>
<p>You can see some of the rooms in this episode on the Hooked On Houses blog today (one of my fav blogs!).</p>
<p>I watched a good bit of last weekend. I kept thinking “but why?” She put $100-150k of upgrades into a “standard” house, but financially that seems like a foolish thing to do. Just put the money into a more expensive neighborhood. </p>
<p>I enjoy her “helper”. He’s so totally “awkward”, but somehow I like him.</p>
<p>I hate how couples with really small budgets are so critical of every house in their price point and make it sound like the real estate agent has failed them for not finding their perfect dream house in their target neighborhood when they do not have sufficient funds to pay for that.</p>
<p>I’m hopeful the fall season will bring change and the non-stop showing of House Hunters was a summer issue. One can only dream!</p>
<p>I think they have launched a sister network of DIY, however my Comcast doesn’t carry it, so I don’t know if that’s where all the shows I like have gone. Anyone?</p>
<p>“I hate how couples with really small budgets are so critical of every house in their price point and make it sound like the real estate agent has failed them for not finding their perfect dream house in their target neighborhood when they do not have sufficient funds to pay for that.”</p>
<p>This drives me crazy, too. It took us 16 years before we could even start about turning our modest (and very dated even in 1991) 3 bedroom 1950’s ranch into what we wanted and 6 years later we are still not done!</p>
<p>Took us 14 years of marriage before we bought our first house. Saving 20% down plus day care and student loans was a non-trivial task.</p>
<p>I often wonder how some of these folks will ever get their money back on the renos – seems like they are overdeveloping for the neighborhood. A lot of the stuff they do on these shows would serve to price our house right out of the neighborhood!</p>
<p>S1 and his spouse are not in any hurry to buy. They’d rather live like college students, sock their paychecks away and pay off student loans. Makes sense to me, esp. as they are not sure they will want to stay in the same area for the long term.</p>
<p>I totally agree about the overentitled seeming couples who can’t grasp that granite countertops and double vanities are not part of their entry-level purchases. I do like HH and HHI, though, as background for doing the Times crossword puzzle or reading the paper.</p>
<p>The Food Network is going in similar direction as HGTV—all sorts of competitions and less of the actual cooking shows, though there’s still a good non-primetetime lineup of things like Barefoot Contessa. Seems as though much of the earlier style of programming has been moved to the Cooking Channel, which Cablevision, which “serves" my area, does not carry</p>
<p>I think these property search shows are all scripted. As far as the young couples, they are financing everything so most of it makes no financial sense. These shows are entertainment, period.</p>
<p>Yes, bring back the decorating shows. I wouldn’t even mind if they replayed some of the earlier ones. I remember be of the first shows I enjoyed watching was Decorating Cents. I could actually recreate some of their projects. ;)</p>
<p>Watched some of the “Sarah” episodes yesterday…liked the rooms but some of the costs just didn’t seem very doable for the “average” homeowner. Saw the craft room, the master bed and bath and just the very end of the boys room. Very fun to watch, great results but some of the individual purchases seemed outrageous to me!</p>
<p>I thought I’d seen everything, but no. Watching a House Hunters where the couple criticizes every house they see even though their budget is tiny, and the woman says “Oooh, all these hardwood floors makes it seem so old.” Then, in a house she likes, “Oh, good. Nice carpet floors.” Now, she is pregnant, so maybe she is considering the baby, but I just cannot imagine preferring carpet over hardwoods, particularly when you consider resale.</p>