truther

They totally knew going in that the window-less bedrooms weren't up to code. That's a basic thing and their realtor would have noticed it immediately, to say nothing of the home inspector or the lawyer who did the closing or anyone else involved. Especially for a place listed at $1.3 million. It looked like they just trashed the old kitchen even though it was all perfectly good stuff, just not to their tastes. I really hope they managed to reuse it or something. Otherwise they were nice.

I'm happy with the news, but worried about what Moffat might do to the show now that he knows he's leaving.

It's weird, though, because Martin is so objectively awful to people that turning this couples therapy into a thing about Louisa's problems is a bit hard to stomach. She's got her own faults, as do we all, but they're much more of a standard nature. Martin has issues. And so her whole reluctance to even get into a discussion with the therapist smacks false. Otherwise I thought it was a very solid ep. Though I cringed at the radio station surgery scene. Holy cow!

I thought that clip show was hilarious.

I grew up in Manhattan. I agree with this.

You couldn't pay me. I've played on courses like that and let's just say I know from first-hand experience that when a stray golf ball hits the roof of a house the resulting bang! is surprisingly loud. I also know, from first-hand experience, that it hurts like a mother to get hit by a stray golf ball. No way I'd ever let my kids out in a yard adjacent to a golf course. To say nothing of the noise, obscene comments, intrusion and general unpleasantness that would result from having people wheel through your back yard all day long. Awful. On another note, really liked the NC couple from last night. It was one of the few times where their complaints matched ours almost perfectly. On the house they ended up buying, for example, my wife took one look at the fireplace and said "ugh, that's bathroom tile!" and then the HH husband said the exact same thing 5 seconds later.

Thanks, CN42. Yeah that ending scene was what got me thinking. During the ep I'd just figured he liked his funny cowboy hat but then when I saw that all the men had the same ones and they all did the same thing with them I got to wondering whether there wasn't something a little more formal going on.

Agreed. The finished product was refreshingly distinctive. Looked good. I'm sorry if this sounds ignorant, but I really don't know anything about this stuff -- were the homeowners Mennonites? Some other such sect? All the men wore those big hats and shirts everywhere and it seemed a little unusual, even for Texas.

Loved the job interview scene, mostly for the reasons others have already noted. It was just such an interesting take on that particular moment in history and was the sort of thing Downton Abbey used to do so well. His dead sons, the ladies no longer using the stairs, the missing artwork . . . great stuff. The rest of the ep was utterly forgettable for me because it was mostly the sorts of things Downton Abbey now always does -- people making huge deals out of what are actually completely trivial and pointless squabbles. I don't really care to watch people arguing over the Hughes/Carson reception or Danker/Spratt's stuff or whatever else somebody said to somebody that thanks to a raised eyebrow or slight inflection in speech pattern can be misinterpreted in some way.

I don't remember the precise chronology on this ep, and what they show isn't going to be the full story regardless, but didn't they change their plans? I thought they were originally going to just reno the inside. Then once they got in there and started poking around they realized it would be better to just demo the whole thing and rebuild from scratch. What seems like an obvious response to changed conditions will, to the inspectors, seem like unauthorized new construction. So that's why some of us are skeptical about the homeowners being surprised about the plumbing, but not skeptical about the city coming in with these absurd demands about the third floor after the work had been done. It's also important to understand how opaque the whole communication process is. In our case -- and I'm speaking now as the condo board president, not simply a homeowner -- a city building inspector would come by, look things over, maybe say a few things verbally, but then submit a written report weeks or even months later. The report, not the verbal statements, were what was binding and it was just a couple sentences that referenced whatever code section was at issue with a terse statement about why it was being violated. "Construction must comply with submitted plans," or "railings must be made safe for intended use" or something. Usually it was really, really tough to figure out what exactly the inspector was actually talking about and of course they weren't available to answer questions.

Agreed. I've owned two homes in Chicago and I've had to deal with code enforcement issues more than I ever imagined. In fact this episode was a little painful to watch because it hit so close to home. Some of the stuff I've dealt with is simply insane. The whole enforcement system in Chicago exists to 1) make money for the city's coffers, 2) provide jobs for the bureaucracy, and 3) ensure good building practice. In that order. But they clearly knew going in that the building was virtually a gut rehab. They said so! We saw lots of problems, including off-limits bathrooms and extensive water damage, and the realtor stressed that there were many problems that were lowering the asking price. There's no doubt they knew going in that the plumbing was defective. Also, they'd need a whole slew of permits to combine units, rehab electrical and plumbing, and bring a rental unit up to code. They'd need an architect and building engineer and, obviously, a lawyer. And the architect/engineering plans would be submitted as part of the permit application. People sometimes try to avoid that painful process and instead do everything under the table, but if you're going on a popular TV show that's probably not a good idea. So having said that I'm not shocked if the 3d floor issue was a surprise to them, but the resolution almost certainly will involve them paying some kind of fine. A hefty fine, no doubt, which again is sort of the whole idea.

Liked it. Lots of funny stuff. I knew they were going to taser the B&B wife and still laughed when it happened. (I also can't believe I just wrote that I laughed at the sight of a woman being tasered but it was Hangover-esque stuff.) Martin's meeting with Dr. Timoney was probably the standout scene of the episode. We'd been told he was seeing her for his blood phobia, and when he went in and volunteered that whole synopsis of his life, beginning with "I was an unwanted child . . .", I was deeply impressed. The actress playing Dr. Timoney likewise did some great work simply through her facial expressions, especially when Martin stressed that he wanted Louisa to be happy. Speaking of, glad she's back. I'm a fan. Perhaps it's also always been obvious to everyone else, but this season really seems to revolve around Martin and the various women in his life -- Louisa, Morwenna, Dr. Timoney, the chemist with the neck brace (I can never remember her name) and his aunt. They all have good chemistry with him, IMO, and the encounters work well. I wasn't bothered about Penhale or the taser. To me, he's always been like that.

I'm really coming to appreciate why the show devotes so much air time to Chip's shenanigans and to the family stuff. Jo is such a one-note designer! Every single place they do ends up looking, for all intents and purposes, exactly the same. Plus we were incredulous that she brought her own kids in to do a lego barn design for the kids' room and then redid it herself. How can you erase your own kids' artwork?

Neighbor 1 (looking down from the balcony above): "Should we tell him we all took a leak on that grass last night?" Neighbor 2 (standing next to Neighbor 1): "No, not yet, I'm enjoying this too much."

Oh my goodness what was that shirt he was wearing at the end? He looked like an extra from a Tintin book. That's a good suggestion, because the place was gorgeous and I couldn't for the life of me understand why else he wouldn't want it. I was thinking maybe he had some personal backstory they left out that would have explained things. His need for a bathtub and a dog, for example, suggested perhaps some kind of chronic medical condition which a comfort animal might help. Likewise his focus on the stove -- as his friend noted, you're in France and there are cafes and restaurants everywhere. You don't move to France, to central Lyon of all places, and then stay home and cook big meals for yourself using food taken out of your giant refrigerator.

Huh, I liked it. The cabinets looked good -- much better than the "wrong color" ones that first showed up -- and the floor was fine. I actually thought the bathroom that the homeowner did herself, with only minimal advice from the decorator, was the least appealing part of the remodel. It's LA, after all. I've been noticing recently that every kitchen/dining area on HGTV looks the same. Everybody on all these shows does the same thing. (And did you notice how the "dated" kitchen was the de rigeur design from the 90s?) So it was nice to see something a little unusual.

Our station just showed it. I don't know, I liked it -- I laughed out loud several times and the stories were interesting enough. Louiser needs to be back stat. And the actress who plays Morwenna needs to (re)gain some weight. Otherwise I'm looking forward to the next episode.

Totally agree about the shoe closet. There was a huge buildup about this guy and his hundreds of pairs of shoes and then . . . a couple shelves with literally like 7 or 8 pairs of shoes placed here and there. Maybe his real shoe collection is all pornographic or something and they had to stage it with loafers they borrowed from the store? Disagree about Chip. I actually thought he was toning it down a bit. The antique store stuff was funny (IMO) and there was a decent amount of actual work being done. I also thought they were consciously self-deprecating. Chip's joke was great -- if Jo and french doors had a baby, it would be ship lap. Ba dum dum.

If this had been a Season 1 episode the show would never have caught on. Just the same old same old but now sped up, as if they're going through the motions. Why a blackmailer, for example, would happily trespass onto the estate, threaten Mary, and then sign an incriminating confession for 50 quid is beyond me. But it was wrapped up quickly and neatly and that's the end of that. Daisy should have been fired on the spot but instead it's just a thing. The Bateses should find something new to do with their lives but instead their backstory was neatly wrapped up. Everybody else has tension with somebody or another but none of it's particularly important. The lead actors know their characters very well and it's always nice to watch them do their thing. But for me, this felt like eye candy for the hard core fans. Nobody's going to be won over to this show watching this stuff.

Wilf was amazing. Those episodes had, in spades, what's been missing from the Twelve seasons. The way these secondary characters were fleshed out, and moving -- so that you were emotionally invested in them -- is lacking these days. It's a fleeting scene, but at the very end when Wilf and Donna's mom are at the wedding and Ten has just given them a lottery ticket and is now going back to his Tardis, and Wilf salutes him and then starts to cry for the Doctor, it's just such a fantastic way of conveying the emotion of what was going on.

I'll rise in Chip's defense. One reason I'll do so is precisely because I watched this episode -- so that tells me that no matter how juvenile Chip's shenanigans might be (and I have ZERO interest in watching people eat bugs), he and his wife still make for some good TV. I thought they addressed a bunch of things. "You guyses," ship lap, her devotion to only one style. There's just enough knowing self-deprecation on this show to keep it good. And as for Chip, well, I'm sure what we see is for the cameras. But he seems to be a very good builder with a successful business, he clearly loves his wife, he's got a lovely bunch of kids, and he's risen from prom king wannabe or whatever he was to an HGTV celebrity on a popular show. By any objective measure he's had a very successful life. If you take the glass half full approach, Jo could have done a LOT worse.

To be fair, it's a good thing the Tampa couple didn't buy that mid-century modern. She would have destroyed it. She would have blown out a wall or two, "opened it up," "updated" everything, and generally turned a beautiful, well-preserved home into some kind of hybrid HGTV monstrosity.

Whoa there, let's not go saying anything we might regret. :)

It was awful, because not only was she still awful but the show had much more of an infomercial feel to it with the new narration. You don't appreciate the things HH actually does well until you watch its cheap knockoffs.

Wasn't the whole point of the Tardis as police call box that it could essentially hide in plain sight? That it was the kind of thing that nobody took notice of because it just melted into the background, something the public might see and just instinctively assume they weren't supposed to go into? A 50s diner would seem to be the opposite of that.