txvoodoo

From tonight's ep: "You can't just put any color with dark stain, and people think that you have to go a dark color because you have a dark stain, and that just makes your room seem smaller, darker - it's not a good feeling." I'm cocking my head like a confused dog, as I consider those words, and think about the powder room. She also seems to not appreciate irony "The 1940s, 1930s, women didn't want their mother's houses. ... Women of the 30s and 40s and 50s - they wanted new and modern, and the first thing to go was all the dark woodwork. - they painted it all." See, it goes in cycles. We had painted woodwork through the 70s - and people who are adults now don't want *their* mothers' houses, hence the return to stained wood. (Except where you grew up with bad 70s paneling and have an allergy to anything that looks "woody" now). Ahh, the "logic" behind the new furniture - buying locally! At a chain store! She couldn't find period sconces? Why not get some in Minneapolis and bring them down in her empty luggage?

I read that recipe - sugar AND brown sugar. For a steak salad. Two tablespoons of white sugar in the dressing - gawd, that's why I make my own - who needs their dressing that sweet??

We don't realize it, but constantly referring to people who are in front of you by their names is a bad writers' trope. It's often a giveaway of a new writer (both books or screenwriter) to repeatedly use names. Listen to yourself sometime, and notice how little you use your significant other's name, or child's name, unless you're calling to them or differentiating between them: "Susie, you get the dog, Jimmy, take the trash out." There's just no reason to keep using someone's name in the course of normal conversation - they know it, you know it, it's redundant. The use of something like "y'all" or "you guys" or "yuns/you'uns" (Appalachians) is more of a filler or discourse marker - sort of like a personalized "um" or "So,..." or "Well..." These things are trained out of public speakers, so in a way, it's almost refreshing that Chip and Joanna h ave them, because it means they haven't been trained that much yet. Alison Victoria on Kitchen Crashers used "you guys...." frequently when she started, but has tapered off. (I only know this because the husband noticed it - he's a big fan :D) Listen to different hosts now, and you'll start noticing their particular filler or discourse marker. I apologize in advance, because once you start noticing them, you won't be able to stop. :D

Philly says "youze" without the guys. The guys is the midwest addition.

The furniture. "The antique market is getting really sparse." OK, someone from Detroit tell me, do you pronounce "sparse" to rhyme with "hairs"? For 52 years, I've been saying it to rhyme with "cars"! I had to rewind & look at closed captioning because I didn't know what she was saying. But anyway, there are still plenty of antiques out there, just not free ones. Or maybe people aren't as willing to give her stuff for her tv show? I don't know. No one donates to Property Brothers, or LIOLI, or any of the other bajillion shows. It's a tv show, not a charity. It's a beautiful room, but let's be honest - it started out that way. Repainting, really. Nothing exceptionally "rehabby" about it, except the window. And yeah, not all beams started out as wood. Paint has been used for millennium! Even some actual Tudor era homes in the UK have painted beams and woodwork. (I admit it. I absolutely adore watching UK shows - Restoration Man, Escape to the Country, etc. They all are always converting, renovating, and expanding homes as old as 500 years. Thank heavens they're not as anal about keeping things originally to those eras! People would have to cook over open flames, and use outhouses and floor rushes! Shock horror, instead they actually install stand up showers, modern appliances, and open up kitchens to dining or family rooms. p.s. - those windows are called "mullioned." p.p.s those aren't "manors" - manor houses were mansions, on very large properties. It's a nice Tudor-style single family house. Upper-middle class, probably.

I wonder how she ended up in Hollywood. Nope, not blocked on FB, though I got on her bad side at one point. She posted about how people shouldn't take apart old sewing machines because OMG sacrilege! My husband & I posted pics of the ones we've rehabbed into things not put in the scrap pile. We do a lot of that kind of thing. She got all nasty on both of us, but a lot of other people commented saying how nice it was that we were doing it. I don't follow her on FB, nor twitter, either. She's so annoying and me me me.

That remains the most terrifying episode of RR I've ever seen. The teaser for it made me think that they were going to televise a decapitation! Joining the chorus of "Dave Coulier? Really?" also LOL. "This street-smart Detroit native spent two years living the high life as a Hollywood housewife—decorating her multi-million dollar mansion with all the luxuries." Housewife implies husband. It also implies rich "Hollywood" husband. It's funny - by being non-transparent, she's inviting research into her past. If you're going to construct an Horatio Alger-esque background of rags to riches, you should be honest about the genesis. From here (the whole thing is a paean to bootstrapping): "I scrubbed floors for 10 years and worked my rear off to get where I am at-don’t think for a minute that I’m the person to whine to that you should be able to shortstep the process of dedication because you are a woman–last time I checked, I am too." (They quote from her facebook - same style of commentary as she's done here.) OK, when were those 10 years of scrubbing floors? Not when she was a Hollywood Housewife. In 2012, she said she came to Minneapolis in 2007. And she says once she did, she was doing real estate & selling furniture on Craigslist. Was she scrubbing floors in Hollywood? Let me say, I have nothing but respect for single moms who support their kids. Or married moms. But it's not an unusual occurrence. It's what people do. Pshaw - obviously no one needed workspace in old homes! ;) I KNOW. That drove me nuts. I mean, with the flip flops, she's only hurting herself. P.S. today she blocked me on twitter. I'm laughing! I guess she didn't like me saying she was mean to people on twitter, too.

I'm from PA too, & now have lived in the south for 20 years, 15 of them in Texas. I still say guys, but it's mixed with y'all. I don't think Chip is being inauthentic. Yes, college influences us, but so do our parents, our neighbors, and where we live later. He doesn't sound like he's from Hee Haw, he sounds like he's from Texas. It always bothers me when actors try to do Texas accents but sound like they're doing Alabama, etc. It's a light accent, but does have certain colloquialisms. I feel the same way when actors substitute a New York accent for Philadelphia. :)

Time for you to make some soup up or something. :D The cauliflower roasts up fine, in my experience. It's a lifesaver. If I had to buy fresh, half of it would end up going to waste.

A lot of great stuff, quoting many of you to help keep my thoughts straight! As others have said, she's done this before. At least twice before, finishing a bathroom & strategically putting a totchke over a hole. I think one was the dollar house, and in that one, she used an awful old dresser - really beat up - and a broken piece of marble for the top, and the "after" pics mostly avoid showing the broken corner. But nothing could camouflage the bad black paint on the particle board on the side of the dresser. She'd have done better to glue a piece of luan or ply over it, then paint it. Of course, then this year she ranted about using dressers and converting them to bathroom sinks. Do as I say, not as I do! You know another reason we do mixer sinks now? Safety. It's way to easy to get burned without them. And the reason they didn't used to do them? Because you could use non-potable water for hot water heaters, and use water from the mains for cold. The hot water heaters could have dangerous microbes. So for a long time, they kept them apart. Then we learned how to have clean hot water. Progress - it's amazing! Just wanted to thank you for that giggle. I really like Renovate to Rent. They're not in the business to become celebs, but to do work. They're also pretty successful, which allows them to go on and "save" more houses, even if they are doing them up as rentals. I appreciate seeing the financials - it lets non-pros know how much it can cost to fix up older homes. A few months ago, on Twitter, Nicole livetweeted her tv watching for the evening. She got pretty derogatory towards a bunch of the people on Renovation Realities, and then babbled on about how some "other shows" aren't doing what she does, will rip out anything etc. Yes, she needs a handler. This week, she posted a screencap of a message on FB from someone. It wasn't the nicest message, but she just loves "punching down." You don't do that when you're a celeb. Of course, then she goes on about how she didn't want to be a celeb! Please. You do not go on TV without knowing that you will get some fame. If you say otherwise, you're lying. I'm sure Nicole despises them. I'm surprised she hasn't directly talked about them yet, but I do think it's funny that you never see interactions between them, considering their proximity. All the other DIY/HGTVers interact! You know what's funny? Many many houses have been used as rentals over the centuries. I was looking up census records for my family's house in Philadelphia around 1905-1920. These are brick "rowhouses", lovely places, great floors, stairs, marble stoops, etc. - they weren't separated as rentals, but census showed about half of them had boarders. It's nothing new. All those "grand old houses" in urban areas were not always lived in by single families.

Right - that's what I mean though. When we're young, we can handle dark dark eyeliner and more extreme makeup. It does us no favors when we get older. Ast least she puts her hair in ponytail when she's working - drives me nuts on some shows when long-haired women don't do that - I worry a lot about safety!

Tonight's ep, the powder room. Just going to put down my thoughts as they occurred. OK, so she wonders about the glass on the powder room door, saying something like people weren't as bothered by it 'back then" - does she remember her "open plan master suite"? People don't get ready in the mornings in their master baths? It needed a medicine chest? whatever. Refinish the door - take the only brightness out of that room, and stain it. Also, it was probably painted (with oil-based paint) before because it's more water resistant. The color. UGH. It looks like a goth bathroom. Like a coffin. Nicole, there are colors other than white and blackish brown. Live a little. I liked the sink, but like many of her cast iron tubs, I would've sent it out to be refinished. Her patch job is insufficient. Now, this is commenting on her personal stuff, but she's the one putting it in the show. She's flying back and forth *every day*??? That really doesn't seem fiscally sound. I think a lot of it is just natural aging - happens to all of us. And we have to learn how to soften our look as we get older. BTW, I didn't comment on the first ep, but that screen door looks so wrong with that house.

Apparently the Zillow thing is whole season. How annoying! I guarantee that the Eddie/Fergus thing is because they're not licensed in the US. This new guy, though yes, he's witty, is an actual contractor as well, and licensed in NC.

I can't lie - I do a cheat. I buy bags of frozen cauliflower. There are only 2 of us in this house, and 1 won't eat cauliflower! So the bags let me do single serve of whatever I want to do with it - roast, or one of my favorites, pureed (how I love you, my Cuisinart Stick Blender). I'll puree with either olive oil or butter and some garlic. Frozen veg are a lifesaver for me.

I don't think Jon can encompass things happening via luck. God, maybe, but not luck. He's so secure in his own abilities that he thinks everything that happened is because of his own agency.

That's a weird word to use for the finale, when only 1 person will emerge victorious. I imagine at this point you go into every TC thinking there's a good chance you could go because, well, Survivor!

I felt like they totally could've pulled out the built-ins. They weren't so blessedly original as to merit preservation. A few drawers and a cabinet, painted over multiple times, and then again painted over. Take that out, and you had more space - I would've put in a stand alone shower AND tub, or a crapton of good storage. That's what a family home with only one bath needs.

If Natalie makes it to the final 3 and Missy's there, I think Missy will make the case FOR her. Missy will want to convince Jon and others that no, she didn't scheme against him! She was loyal! It was all Natalie! At which point, Natalie can say "yup, I did it. I outplayed." If she's smart.

You need to watch his arrival at Ponderosa, and his little speech there. He's mad at Missy for telling him to trust God & by extension, her. He really thought that trusting in god would mean God would make sure he won. I do so love when people think their God would favor them over another fellow believer - it makes their God seem like some kind of bargainer, or auctioneer: "you prayed best, YOU win! I'll just ignore the other 15 people and their prayers." That's a whole new level of entitlement.

YES. It's so refreshing to have someone not bikini ready or momma-type., i.e. more like all the rest of us. Baylor's elevated in my eyes a bit, but not enough for me to want her to win. She should've convinced her mom before now to stand on their own 2 feet. I'm watching again, too. :D

2 hour finale, followed by reunion show. YAY. SO MANY people wimp out on the big move for the sake of loyalty near the end. They forget that it's an individual game and they can't win that way. I get that they're tired and hungry, but man, why do so many let people walk all over them?

Wait, what? No, I disagree. I think they're cool with him being there because they know they have the numbers against him, and they have no fear of him. That's the opposite of respect. They're ignoring him.

I think the only way it'd work is if the virtually all-male jury voted for a guy, just because. But I don't think he's going to make it to the end.

Straight up hubris. Exactly what he's displayed all season!

Jacyln has no one to blame but herself & Jon. She let him carry her - none of her own initiative. I'm actually torn now about who I want out next, Jacyln or Missy. I don't think Missy should be allowed to skate, but I'm going to be very happy to see Jaclyn go when she thought she'd be in the final 2.