txvoodoo
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Posts posted by txvoodoo
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I have spent the weekend just feeling so relentlessly SAD about all of this. I can't shake it.
It brought back emotions I thought I dealt with decades ago. 40 years ago, something similar happened to me. My heart's breaking for the victims.
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It's what she's quoted as saying that clinches it: "There are people that may hurt us, there are people who may have done things to us, and it is our responsibility to forgive them."
With JB & Michelle sitting there gloating, watching her conform. I am so nauseous.
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Rodney is insufferable. He's just what people in Texas think of easterners. He'thinks he is better than people who live in Texas and yet he knows absolutely nothing about the state. Texans like to play stupid just to dupe people like him.
Listening to his accent is like nails on the blackboard.
It's weird. I'm an easterner living in Texas for 15+ years now, & Rodney is the worst caricature of a Guido type. He made me cringe.
Dear Rodney,
I grew up in Connecticut and I liked it well enough at the time, and then 20+ years ago I moved to Texas, Now wouldn't live back east if you paid me. There goes your theory that no one wants to live here. Also last time I looked, my neck wasn't red unless I've got a sunburn from all that nice sunshine we get here.
What an asshole! Rodney (and Dan) have no redeeming qualities for me. I hope never to see either of them again.
Yes! I endorse this. :D
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Aside from Woo and Vytas(?), I barely remember any of them.
I said tonight on twitter that I apparently don't recognize any of these people when they're cleaned up. Once they get a little dirty again, I'll remember who they are!
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I'm confused. I thought she was moving back to Detroit, why does she need a little shack for when she's in Michigan? Why are Ethan & his cousin moving in there?
Well, her episodes aren't necessarily chronological, not even within 1 episode. In this one, she's not showing yet at all. And they're talking about finishing it before summer, so no pregnancy + before summer = last spring. She didn't start on the Tudor until last fall, and just finished it up now. So maybe she thought she'd stay here while waiting for the Tudor to be finished? Also, I think Ethan's 17 now, not 16?
In any case, it obviously wasn't going to be up to her own standards so was relegated to Ethan.
And I think that's why he didn't have to be prodded: he knew he'd get his own "pad" out of the deal.
I'm glad she took off the cobwebs before painting. ;)
Why didn't they put down a transition strip at the edge of the linoleum?
That bathroom wasn't just *ugly* - it was moldy and gross.
For a shack, for a couple of teens, it's fine. It does not, however, look "very expensive."
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Pursuant to some previous discussion.... http://www.detroithomemag.com/Detroit-Home/Party-Pictures/Detroit-Home-Design-Awards-2015/
:D
Congrats to her.
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I wonder if the slander of title was her repeated facebook posts about how she'd get "her house" back, and the other posts alluding to how she'd been cheated, etc. While she didn't call him out by name, she surely mentioned Minnehaha.
This is really quite fascinating.
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The comments about servants and the "lady of the house" were ridiculous, Nicole suffers from delusions of grandeur, about her houses and herself. She acts like this is Downton Abbey and there would have been "staff" to run such a huge mansion. It's a great house, but hardly a mansion.
(snip)
The ranch she does next might be her grandparents', but I guess another set from the ones whose older home she visited and got the workbench from. Nicole used to make comments about the homes she deems old and worth saving were from pre-1950, but then all the MCM fans got upset and she has changed it to pre-1960, I suspect it will be pre-1970 soon. Seeing as she is pretty clueless about styles and trends from different periods, it might be funny to see what she makes up about a newer era of home.
The pick up truck she had shipped to Detroit (another indicator of her leaving Mpls, yeah!) was a birthday gift from the ex who owned the Summit Ave. house (that perhaps could be considered a small mansion). What a great truck, it obviously makes her feel very empowered and special!
Does anyone remember how many square feet the Tudor has? Because it has what, 2 bedrooms on the 2nd floor, and then the attic that she's modded into a master? That's not exactly grand, or a mansion, and sure as heck doesn't indicate a big staff of servants.
A *lot* of older homes had front & back stairs, and it didn't have to do with servants, but more about the ease of access for the lady of the house, who wasn't so much doing garden club stuff as preparing meals, cooking, and cleaning. And it wasn't so much "ease" as "well, I don't want to literally cart my dirty laundry down the front stairs." (yes, this house has a laundry chute, but y'all know what I mean.)
Unless there were servants' quarters in the house, the stairs were for the family - including kids, etc.
Man, save me from breaking my TV if she ever tries to do actual MCM. You're right - her knowledge of design is spotty at best. I probably have more books & references to historical styles from Victorian, Edwardian, pre- and post-war, and MCM than she does. She pretty much acts like anything from 1880 to 1920 is Victorian, and then seems to glop 30s-60s into mid-century. She refers to art deco without demonstrating that she knows what it is, and ignores art nouveau entirely. She knows gingerbread and stained glass and wood floors.
What she's done with this Tudor is sad. I mean, it's a US Tudor-style, but it had its own look and feel when it was so popular. It wasn't Ye Olde England, but it was nice.
I can see that a carriage house might be drive-thru, because you couldn't back out a horse-drawn carriage, or so I would think, and also you might have access to a street and an alley.
Yeah, but NC was talking about bad drivers backing through walls, not alley-access doors. :D
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I thought she was placing a sale sign too, but then I saw it was a Detroit Land Bank sign, the seller Nicole purchased the house from. I guess that was a montage of out of sequence clips, sort of a wrap up of the whole project. This was a particularly disjointed and poorly edited episode, like they put bits together but didn't have enough, so there was a lot of filler shots. hiw many times did Nicole try to rationalize the two doors in the basement bathroom? I suspect there used to be walls that were removed, but it was just easier to leave the two doors, it was a basement WC after all. The master and servant use didn't really make sense to me, they couldn't use the same door but could use the same toilet? She was talking about lining up on different sides? Really?
It looks like she's working on a ranch next, so I'm probably not going to watch that, no interest in that style of house. You all sucked me back into watching this show with comments about the Tudor, and it was a nice house, I fully believe Nicole will live there.
Is the ranch her grandparents' house that she bought? I'm guessing she is doing that on TV to pay for it, premise of the show be damned.
That 2 door thing is such BS. Basement bathrooms were stuck in wherever.
Yeah, that tile couldn't have been cheap. Also lots of not-cheap millwork on this house. Girlfriend isn't selling this house. (and she's put decks on old houses that look like modern ones, just because she used whatever material she had at hand).
I honestly think she's overestimating the number of "servants" the residents of this house had. It isn't a mansion, it isn't an estate home, it isn't any of those things. Upper middle class, yeah. Maybe a cook.
"I didn't want to use some new material to make the garage doors look modern, but heck, let's use it anyway because I'm gonna live in here and I don't want to have to lift my own garage door, right?" <--not an exact quote ;)
"I'm sure the lady of the house was a member of a garden club, because that's what's ladies did." OK then.
Empowered by stick shift? OK then.
(stop driving with your dog on your lap. it's dangerous for you, and more importantly, the dog)
Wait, what, people drove THROUGH their garages? Jebus, she's an ijjit.
She really wants to paint this as the grandest house of all grand houses because she wants to be a princess in it. In a related note, can someone remove the word "grand" from her vocabulary?
Whoever said she's pregnant, I agree. It seems silly if she's hiding it. The houses may be from the turn of the 19th century, but this is the 21st century.
Edited to add: maybe she has Lucy on her lap to hide the pregnancy. Still dangerous!
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She is SO doing this house for herself. That master bath cost a bundle, and she never does that for other peoples' house.
ETA - in last week's episode, it's TuDOR, not TuTOR. Yeah, I'm a history geek.
Also, in this week's episode, 2 things I noticed: the knobs on the drawers on the vanity had "C" on them - for Curtis. The C shower curtain can go with her, but is she swapping out knobs, too?
The other thing - when they showed the bathroom, they blurred the bedroom beyond it. (see below) I just thought that was odd!
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Rodney is the most annoying asshat there is. So annoying!
I dunno, Dan sure gives him a run for his money. He really seems to think that the way to woo someone to your side is to insult them.
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Merica, Lol, God bless them. I couldn't understand what Blue was offering Tyler or Will to vote with them, I could see no benefit to them. At least they all agreed with the title, lines were drawn tonight. Loved the vote and so glad Jenn played the HII. So long Kelly, the rest of Blue can follow.
I face-palmed when they decided on Merica. That will go down in the annals of Survivor as the most stupid tribe name ever.
Jenn played that perfectly.
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There's nothing wrong with that technique. What I've seen Nicole do which has provided less than optimal results is:
1) Lack of surface prep. You have to sand correctly (with the grain always), and clean correctly. Remember the one window Nicole repaired? She gave a very quick rough sand on the sash but did not remove the saw dust. So when she painted, it went right over it.
2) Good surface. Subfloor is not meant to be a finished floor.
3) Not all floors can be saved. If there are stains, warps, worn patches etc, you will get uneven results. My own living room floor had about a 2 foot area that was almost black and the rest of the floor was a golden oak. I hand sanded that myself and used a wood bleach on it to lighten it. Then picked a medium to dark stain for the entire floor (I had pros do that). Luckily for me, that spot is off towards the window and is mostly covered by the area rug. If it was in the entry or main area, I probably would have had to have new boards spliced in.
Emphasis mine, for agreement. :D For all that she says "every floor can be saved", she sure manages to do it wrong.
My husband always tell me when I'm working on old furniture, prep is 90% of perfection. And yes, cleaning off the dust, keeping your work area clean, etc. It's all important. You can see when she's painted cabinets or furniture, she does a crap job - on HD tv it really shows up. Bubbles and bumpy painting.
And oh, yes, WORD: subfloor is not flooring. It's there for support, to reinforce structure, and to keep floors stable, quiet, etc. Pine is great subflooring, but in general it's far too soft a wood for walking surface. Whenever she calls pine "hardwood" I cringe. A year of high heels on pine will make it look like a hail-damaged car hood.
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WRT the driving, IMHO the couples know (or should know) what they're signing up for when they agree to do the show. And, they're receiving at least 30K towards their reno, less the tax bill based on the actual retail value of all goods and services received. Don't know the details but HGTV's fixed fee 30K contract may be discounted in exchange for promotional consideration.
Given the benefits received and the couple's contractual choice, I have a hard time feeling sorry for them about the drive to the farmhouse or Jo's shop. OTOH, the promotional aspect and product placement? Now that annoys me! JMHO
I'm curious about the 30K figure - where'd you hear that?
As far as it goes about the driving, I'm not put off by the distance. People are used to big distances down here. Just getting across the DFW or Houston metroplex is 2 or more hours of driving, so 30 or 45 minutes for a one-off appointment isn't offputting.
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So, wait, if she moves to Detroit, she won't be able to drive by and stalk, I mean, check on her deed restricted properties to see if the new owners are living in the house like she wants them to, right?
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I caught a few minutes of a rerun yesterday that had me laughing. I'm pretty sure it was the monster mansion, but I'm not sure - but she was talking about how she was using "chemicals - yes, chemicals" to clean something up.
I just love how in the course of one season she can contradict herself so many times!
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That makes sense - I wonder if she'll move into the Tudor. We've said how it seems she's been doing it for herself.
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I was sort of sad to see the green glass towel bar used on a live-edge island. A Very unsuccessful mashup, and those towel bars *are* nice pieces to use when you're doing a period style kitchen or bath! Which, she actually doesn't do. It would've been really nice in a 20s or 30s kitchen, with some pastel tiles & thinner black trim. A counter of manmade surface with chrome trim, and some appliances like Smeg reproductions, or old gas ranges that still are out there.
Yup, that'd be nice. And as I think about this, I realize I just recreated my nana's kitchen in my mind. :D
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Here's a link to the GFCI project. It's an extremely simple job and should only require, literally, a few minutes per outlet. IIRC, this came up when Chip quoted $2-3K to do someone's home. Chip's quoting for someone who would know how to do this. If you use an electrician for this, you're throwing $$$ away, IMHO. http://www.diynetwork.com/how-to/how-to-install-a-gfci-outlet/index.html
OTOH, if you don't want to deal with it, an electrician might need only a minute per outlet! I can just imagine some reno show setting up a race. When the diy network indicates 30 minutes, it's either their minimum time or they're practically talking about an entire home, lol!
I was curious about this, so I talked to my husband. He used to work with his dad building custom houses and renoing old ones, had his GC license, etc. So he said there are different levels of upgrading to GFCIs, and would depend on what's in the house to start with, what you're doing, and building codes. If it's an older house, the whole thing might have to be rewired because it doesn't even have the 3rd wire to use as your link stated. Or you might have to redo multiple outlets because of the way they're set up on the circuit - if one tripped, they'd all trip. Or, depending on how much you're doing, code might require you to rewire everything, including adding tied-in smoke and carbon dioxide monitors.
Interesting stuff! But I can see how it could add up quickly. I'd want an electrician, or at the least, someone knowledgeable to do this in an old house.
I know in the first season, there were a couple of episodes where Chip alluded in the reveal that the homeowner's weren't necessarily going to keep the house as their primary residence. I would guess that Chip & Joanna really don't care what happens to the homes afterwards unlike Nicole Curtis. They aren't in it for any kind of historical preservation.
I agree, they're not in it to "save houses." On the other hand, they actually are, even if they're not doing period accurate restorations. A lot of the houses they've done were "red tagged", i.e. if not bought, slated for demo.
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Their language seemed slightly better these past couple of new episodes. HGTV does typically send their new hosts to training. Perhaps that occurred.
It definitely did - they tweeted about it. Apparently the trainers had a good time with Chip. Chip and Joanna actually seemed to enjoy it.
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I too question keeping the original backsplash tile. It would be different if they had a neat design, but these did not. I know her whole thing is "restoring" the house, and not gutting it, but still.
And those weren't original tiles, no way. Anywhere from 40s to 70s.
Tonight: more of her exceptions to the rules: roof tiles. Old is always better, unless it's new and improved and made by the same company because obviously companies' quality standards never change!
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I posted this in the wrong thread last night! Moving over here.
I like this kitchen, but it would've been hard to screw up. Things I find funny/odd: the hardware on the upper cabinets - why put something you have to unlock? The floors - she said "if these hadn't been covered, they'd have been trashed in 10 years (because pine's a very soft wood)." Well, duh. That's why it was subflooring, not floor. And it will be trashed in 10 years.
The island. I really like it - I have a similar table my husband made. But it has no stylistic relationship to the rest of the room or the house. Adding the old school towel bar was just weird.
I got a kick out of her dissing her dad for wanting to use chemicals. Um, what do you think baking soda + vinegar is?
I quote from another site:
...baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) plus vinegar (acetic acid) yields carbon dioxide plus water plus sodium ion plus acetate ion.
The chemical equation for the overall reaction is:
NaHCO3(s) + CH3COOH(l) → CO2(g) + H2O(l) + Na+(aq) + CH3COO-(aq)
with s = solid, l = liquid, g = gas, aq = aqueous or in water solutionAnother common way to write this reaction is:
NaHCO3 + HC2H3O2 → NaC2H3O2 + H2O + CO2Yes. Chemicals. :D (Like when people say "eww, I wouldn't drink chemicals!" and you say "what about that dihydrogen monoxide?" :D)
The whole remodel was under $5k? With that stove, custom cabinets, and the marble? The stove is at least $1500. Oh, dishwasher, too. And a fridge.
Which brings me to the last point: where the hell is the fridge? I rewound a few times and never saw it. How good can her vaunted triangle be if the fridge isn't in the room? And that'd be the 2nd time she's done that, at least.
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I posted this in the wrong thread last night! Moving over there. :D
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Yes, the irony and contradictions were thick in last nights episode! I think Nicole lacks real knowledge so she makes it up as she goes along, then when it's edited later it makes no sense. I think her average viewer, anyone who thinks they're "learning" from her, don't see the contradictions, but to someone with any knowledge it's glaring. How about when Nicole was mocking the people who painted previously, while she was messily glopping on thick paint, and we saw what a great paint job she did in the cave like powder room! Why go dumpster diving when you can get new for free, or at least heavily discounted from Art Van!? At least she's supporting a small local business, except Art Van apparently has 48 stores around the Midwest! Wait, reusing and recycling is her mantra, or is it? So far this house is looking like a Pottery Barn display, not terribly original. What was she bringing back in those 6 empty suitcases in her daily commute? Apparently not wall sconces, but old photos! Why has no one else ever thought of putting old pictures in frames, oh but every one does that already! I'm sorry, but this show is almost like a sitcom, but you couldn't make this stuff up!
That floor did look great, I would love to have that guy do my floors! We did have a few flooring pros look at our floors, we have some noticable gaps in areas, but all of them said if you were to put in a filler it would just pop out over time, I would like to see how Nicole's hold up, but we never will.
My husband finally saw the powder room episode and yeah, he couldn't believe her painting. I was really less than impressed with the furniture. Despite her repeated use of "grand" to describe this house, there's nothing grand about the furniture. Also nothing mock Tudor! It doesn't fit at all.
I love the house, but again, I think the rooms should have a rich color.
Yes. Again, Tudors, mock or not, need more color.
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Rehab Addict - General Discussion
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And then she didn't buy it. Now she's going to be in a "supportive" role. Why do I think that doesn't include financial support?