Apprentice Ilisidi

Does putting on a nice bathrobe count as dressing for dinner? I saw the walls of a stairway in a fancy London town house with that wallpaper in a magazine, and I felt like drooling.

I would like to formally register my opposition to accent walls. Of any color.

I can't say that I love wallpaper in general, but for 20 years I have had the urge to paper my dining room in antique-looking Chinese wallpaper with a yellow background and images of birds and flowers (if you've ever seen a picture of it you'll know what I mean). However, I have always suppressed this urge.

Yes! The big question in American life today is "what's coming after stainless steel?" It may be appliances of various colors, as you suggest. And/or, as I suspect, it may be European style appliances where they're hidden behind matching wood cabinetry, at least for those who can afford them.

On another note: I watched a show set in Cairo, Egypt, where the family was moving to expose the kids to Egyptian culture (also, the husband came from Cairo). The American wife walked into a kitchen which had apparently-functioning appliances and said, repeatedly, "This is so outdated." How would she know what's outdated in Cairo?

I remember reading a comment in a post above on the use of "ex-pats" as opposed to "immigrants" for Americans abroad on HHI. Have you ever noticed that in this country people from England and Ireland get called ex-pats, while people from Asia, Central America and South America get called immigrants? I have. Now just maybe the people from England and Ireland all intend to go back home someday, and all the people from Asia, Central America and South America don't. . . . But I'm not inclined to lay that flattering unction to American souls.

Thanks, I guess I just haven't seen any of those Canadian episodes on Netflix of Amazon Video. I don't watch HGTV live because I get too impatient with the commercials.

Your use of the phrase "bad boy" (innocently referring to an actual boy) reminds me of how irritating it is when HGTV participants refer to a counter or other object as "that bad boy".

Sorry if I hurt your feelings, Mojito. Actually, I quite liked the subway tiles the first 5,000 times I saw them on HGTV. I'm sure your subway tiles are like those in one of the cool new subway stations, such as the one at 59th and Broadway. (Although I've only seen pictures of it.) As for Shaker cabinets, I don't know any Shakers and don't have any negative associations. The London toilets are a great gift to the tourist. I've never been in any other city so well equipped. Wherever you are when walking around the city, there's almost always a toilet in easy reach. But you can't crawl under the doors - the doors and walls go all the way to the ground. Love the heather-colored toilet paper and the toilet paper that says it's the property of the crown.

How about Canada? We've seen lots of Toronto and (I understand) Vancouver on other shows, but I've never seen a show where non-Canadians move to Canada. There are lots of interesting places besides Toronto and Vancouver. I rather suspect that they can't do a HHI in Canada for some contractual reason.

My favorite flipper is the squirrel. There's at least one squirrel shot in every episode. I think he's appeared on other HGTV shows as well. Must be on contract.

DownTheShore, I absolutely agree. I don't like white subway tiles in kitchens or bathrooms. I live in New York City. We have many subways with subway tiles. Seeing them in houses makes me think of roars and stinks.

Hello everyone, I'm new to the HHI forum and relatively new to HH and the other HGTV forums (thanks again, DownTheShore, for the recommendation. Pretty much all my HHI-specific comments have already been made by you smart people here. I do have one quibble-comment. In one of the Paris episodes, Adrian showed the woman-buyer all three apartments in the Marais. And of course they were very pricey. In a previous episode, she had steered the buyer to the bordering 11th arrondissement, saying it was getting very hip and popular but was cheaper than the Marais. So why didn't she show the poor Marais-only woman any apartments in the 11th, where she would have gotten more for her money but still have been near cool restaurants, shops, etc.? The woman hadn't specified that she wanted the Marais.

Oh BearCat, I'm so sad to hear you say that "open concept" is here to stay (although of course you're right). It's not a concept. It's an open floor plan or an open layout or even an open design, but it's not a @#$$$% concept. I agree that the standardization of vocabulary is mostly up to the program crew, but enough people watch HGTV that its vocabulary - and tastes - must have become widespread. For example, from watching HGTV, I have learned that it is important to decorate with fruit. Depending on the accent color, the fruit can be lemons, limes, oranges or even apples. I want to make a strong design statement so I plan to put a bowl of grapefruit on the table. The beiges will really pop!

That seems to be true, txvoodoo but the reaction to a split-level house was that it was weird for Waco. Or maybe it was the big modern windows at the middle of the facade of the split-level? I wasn't sure.

I've been really enjoying this show, for the same reasons you-all cite above. I get so tired of the sour atmosphere of Love It or List It and the predictable structural problems in the Property Brothers. There's a freshness about these shows and the Gaines couple. It doesn't hurt that she's beautiful in an unusual way. The atmosphere of the show is so pleasant, for a change. All that warmth and civility. Cute kids. Adorable animals. What's not to like? OK, so I'm not crazy about her decorating (or Jonathan's or Hilary's). They each have stylistic tricks repeated over and over. But at least the Fixer Upper couple have been renovating houses that start out looking different from each other, unlike the Property Bros. and LIOLI, each of which feature the same houses decorated in exactly the same way over and over. I am very tired of semi-detached Craftsman houses.

Thanks, auntjess. I've noticed that it's very rare for any of the people viewing or even buying large homes to talk about how they're going to get them cleaned (by whom) or what the costs of heating and/or cooling will be. Every now and then there's a comment, but they're mostly rare. I saw a HH show last night on Amazon Instant Video where a newly-married couple wanted a large 4 bedroom house with a giant kitchen, etc. (It was somewhere in the midwest, maybe Indianapolis.) They had no children and expressed lack of interest in having any soon. They just wanted a big house! So who's going to clean it? And to change the topic, but not to go Off Topic, another prejudice: I hate mancaves, both the term and the idea. Any man who thinks he's entitled to a large room so he can watch sports on a 70 inch tv whle his wife cleans the house, cooks and looks after the kids should be nailed up in his cave. The Grammar Police forum is good, but they sometimes complain if people diverge from citing grammatical howlers encountered other than on television. I don't always know where I've heard or seen something, and don't watch enough tv to have a television source for most of my examples.

Thanks so much DowntheShore for pointing me to these forums. They're great. I'm going to check out the Property Brothers and Love it or List It forums soon. I may not have anything new to add, but I'll love reading everybody else's posts. BearCat - I haven't heard "to gift" on HH or its relatives - that's why I called it "off topic". I have read it many times on Amazon Forums, as In "My sister in law gifted me a Kindle Fire." No, no, no. I will not have it. Nor will I tolerate "disinterested" used to mean "uninterested" or "fortuitous" used to mean "fortunate". I have seen the last two used by otherwise quite literate authors, both English and American. And "all right" is not spelled "alright". All Off Topic, please forgive rant. A further HH language observation: Whenever a young woman sees a house whose "curb appeal" (ouch) she likes, she says that it is "cute". Many of these houses aren't cute at all. They may be pretty, or attractive, or some other adjective, but "cute" is frequently inappropriate. Especially for a ginormous McMansion. (I like "ginormous" - do me something.)

I've got a language comment too. I'm annoyed by Americans referring to a bathroom attached to a bedroom as an "en suite". I know the British do it, they're allowed because the term has become established there, although I still think it is grammatically weird. (En suite is not a noun, at least in French. "Ensuite" in French means something like "next" or "after".) And while we're on the subject of language peeves, this one is off topic but I must get it off my heaving chest: To "gift" is not a verb. "Gift" is a noun. But I am hearing "to gift" used as a transitive verb everywhere and I will not have it!

Hi, I'm new to this forum and I love it, having become mildly addicted to HGTV housing porn. Don't get me wrong, I hate all the things that you guys hate, and have been complaining loudly about them (it's a painful addiction). Some points that may not have been made yet: 1) There are no books. None of the people on these shows want bookcases and none own any books. Yes, there's the very occasional reference to reading, but it's rare. Now one of my first musts would have been lots of walls to put my bookcases on and still more bookcases, built in. 2) The reason they all talk about space for entertaining so much is that they're building up to the obligatory final scene in which 7,000 people are present - usually in the kitchen - to admire their new home. 3) And an observation: from viewing the restoration programs, as vs. House Hunters, I have learned that granite is almost out and quartz countertops are in. Most of the designers on those programs give the kitchen quartz. The only thing is that the House Hunters sheep have not yet learned this.