WildPlum

Given the choice between this show and Flip or Flop - this show please, goofy Chip and blatant sponsorship and all. I have at least gotten a design idea or two from this show and Property Brothers. Flip of Flop turns my stomach with Tarek and his "we could make a killing!" Such a greedy sob. Neither of them has much taste, either, everything looks "blah tract house modern." I think you are supposed to watch for the schadenfreude aspect of "Hey, maybe THIS time they will lose their shirts!" And I don't think Fixer Upper is any more fake than any other HGTV show. Sure, the house has already been picked, most of the "after" is staging and not permanent and there are the same issues every episode - the dramatic phone call, the goofy stunts, the family out at the ranch. People, that is what the FF button on your remote is for, just like dealing with all the commercials.

We've had, what, 20 episodes so far? Waco has an msa population of about 230,000 (or so Wiki says). Although there is at least one LGBT ministry in Waco that I found on a quick google search, I am guessing that the % of the population in the Waco msa that is same-sex is pretty low, particularly given that Baylor is a Baptist university. I'd PREFER to think that a small % of the population just hasn't been represented rather than the equally likely possibility that people don't care to have their orientation broadcast on TV in the area and try for a lower profile.

WRT to the cable railings - they are still allowed via the ICC and most local building codes for new construction and remodels (I'd say ALL local building codes, but I am sure there is one somewhere that disallows them). There is some talk of changes in the ICC that horizontal railngs, cable, stringers, whatever may be banned because of the potential climbing hazard. We already have the "4 inch baby head" rule, which is that stair railings can't be more than 4" apart to reduce the hazard of children getting their heads stuck. Trust me, I have had a baby (albeit a couple of decades ago) - their heads are bigger than that at birth. I could see why someone with small children might not want horizontal railings/cables, but I'd hate to see them not allowed by code. I am always amused when some of the reno shows run into code problems - I think it was LIOLI where they wanted to do a single change to the stairs and because of some other code issues, they couldn't make the single change without bringing the entire staircase up to code, which wasn't possible without completely ripping the staircase out and changing the structure of the second floor. The contractor was guessing $8,000-$12,000 for the change. One of the things Chip is really terrible about (although they did talk about it on one show and then seem to have forgotten it) is that instead of just smashing things, they could be removed and reused elsewhere. The unsupported brick walls could have been taken down (believe me, with that much flex, they'd have come down easily) and then put back up selectively to give the house a little more curb appeal. I don;t think that (relatively) it would have added huge cost.

I LIKE open concept, but that was too much for even me (although the MCM a few weeks back wasn't). Imagine how noisy all those hard surfaces will make that one gigantic room with a bunch of kids downstairs playing ping pong! More color in the kitchen backsplash, that was good, but, by my standards, that wasn't a great tile job. When you get those tiles mounted on a sheet, you have to lay the sheets down and look at how all the pieces have been glued on and fix the one or two per sheet that are really outsized or laid crooked or wavy. Part of the charm of the glass tiles is their handblown look, and you accept that it won't line up in perfectly straight rows, but you do what you can to tone down waviness. On 12x12 pebbles tiles, you also need to pull off a couple piece on the boundaries of the tile so that when you put two sheets together, it isn't so obvious where the edge of each12x12 was (saw that one on House Hunters). I did like the steel railings with stainless cable, but then I've put those in my house and on my deck before. Also, the Home Goods sponsorship thing was painful.

Was it a new episode or a repeat this week? Dear Chip: the last El Nino was in 2009/2010. The snow there was not from El Nino at all. This episode had more color, which is a plus. Not sure I like the brick backsplash - not a fan of that yellow brick that seems to be so common there - but at least it wasn't white subway tile. As I was asking for previously, this one seemed a little out of the "100% Joanna" look. Still a lot of the (temporary set design) elements, but the base house had a bit more color. I've never seen a house with shiplap, so I find it fascinating. I liked the painted shiplap, I like it in the natural color, but it is just too dark. If I could pick two things to ditch in this show, it would be when the couple comes out to the farmhouse (I want to see the Sketch-up model, I just think it is nuts to make the couple drive all the way out there to do it. For the price they are paying, she should go the them) and the inevitable phone call about something being an extra expense. I can't comment on the "appropriate jobs for boys vs girls" things without getting semi-political, so I'll just leave it be, as my mother would have said.

If there was a budget issue, the FIRST thing I would have ditched was that "rainforest brown" marble feature wall (it's not really a marble OR a granite, but often gets called both). That stuff is extremely expensive particularly in full slabs. Also, a couple episodes back (actually might have been last season, I am watching 2 seasons at the same time), we saw what happens when marble slabs fall and crack (and, oh boy, was Jonathan defensive about that when the homeowners clearly expected HIM to pay for it).

Re: New Chip from Dallas - when he brought the piece into the house, I thought - "huh, it's interesting but what the heck is it FOR?" I guess it is a casual end table, except it is too small to be functional. Wasn't wild about the lamp, either. I've repurposed many things - the den downstairs has an old copper fire extinguisher turned into a lamp - but the first rule of repurposing something is that it has to be functional in its new life. There was a little more color on this show, again to the good. I'd like to see less "100% JoJo" and more "this is the client's taste filtered thru JoJo's eyes" The thing I would like to steal from this show is whoever does Jo-Jo's Google Sketch-Up layouts. I find that program difficult to operate and I am not as fast as one of her design assistants must be.

It was certainly a fascinating house and the minimalist look worked well. Like others, I wasn't wild about the brass drawer hardware and the brass columns in the kitchen. The huge display area didn't bother me because the rooms also had a HUGE amount of cabinet space. The long concrete ledge in front of the fireplace worked well, although I think I would have liked a "leathered" stain on it.

The mural wasn't even one of those complicated trompe l'oeil murals - just a stone arch with potted olive plants on either side. I have a couple structural issues with the fixer we bought last year that I'd love to see someone like Mike Holmes come in and spend more than the house is worth fixing, although I'd have to be the one picking the finishes and colors, because this trend toward painting things black I see on his recent series is just awful.

There is no way on earth most of those pieces were made in 2 days, not even by squads of skilled woodworkers working in 24 hour shifts. I don't understand the point of the artificial 2 day deadline, except from a dramatic standpoint - but it was never dramatioc because everyone always finished. And the ending was just odd.

The only problem with the furniture staging is that the house are really all starting to look exactly alike, particularly after you've seen several episodes. White cabinets, white or black counters, dark flooring, gray walls, white trim. Also, for the record - I hate those exterior non-working shutters. Adding them does not help the house. And using books as decor items by turning the spines to the wall makes me want to go in there and turn every one of them back around so I can see the titles.

One of the things that drives me batty - and this is really ALL of the home shows, except I think Mike Holmes has done a few - is the lack of grab bars in showers or barrier-free entrances. The show with the huge basement columns, they mentioned that her mother was going to be staying in the basement suite. The layout of the room meant that the bathroom entry wasn't barrier-free and there were zero grab bars in the shower. I know that grab bars aren't exactly sexy appliances, but they have to be put in during the remodel or you get to rip all the tile down to put in the reinforcement blocks for them. Also - marble floor tile in bathrooms is VERY slippery, What I do like about the PB show compared to most of the home shows is that the houses aren't identical after they are done. I like Joanna Gains' taste on Fixer Upper, but the white-on-white farmhouse industrial shabby chic thing in EVERY house is getting old. Sure, the PB designer (I really doubt it is entirely Jonathan) leans heavily toward modern, but they use a lot more color. The last couple shows have had a muralist who has done two children's rooms - an apple tree in a nursery and a space theme in a little boy's room Fabulous stuff, but my neighbor's "wine cellar" mural was something like $7,500.