letusprocrastinate
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Posts posted by letusprocrastinate
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5 hours ago, CrazyInAlabama said:
I'm glad the Minnesota house hunter found the right house for her, and her son. I'm wondering if the train track behind the one house was a commuter line, so the major traffic would be Monday through Friday?
It's all freight rail.
Amtrak does go through Minnesota but the route is north of Alexandria.
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28 minutes ago, ECM1231 said:
Did the new build in Fargo have a basement? I don't recall seeing one, but imagine if it did have, it would be unfinished, which is another expense.
If you're talking like the basement House #2 had, no. The new build is a split level and the lowest of the 3 levels, where some of the bedrooms are located, is partially underground. If you watch the drive to House #3 and when they look through the windows to the backyard area you'll see a bunch of houses in the same style.
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41 minutes ago, StatisticalOutlier said:
I was like, whaaat? A street has one name if you're on the east side of it and one name if you're on the west side of it? How does that even work?
And why is there a north-south border between towns that, given their names, are presumably east and west of each other? But I looked at a map and realized I misinterpreted what you said, and noticed there's a little jutting out square where all hell breaks loose. Looking at this intersection makes my head hurt:
7th Avenue runs east-west, and if you're driving east on it it turns from 7th Avenue East to 7th Avenue South where it intersects 17th Street East from the north and 52nd Street South from the south.
4th Avenue runs east-west just north of 7th Avenue, which makes sense, but it's 4th Avenue East on both sides of north-south 17th Street East, while 7th Avenue changes from 7th Avenue East to 7th Avenue South where it intersects that street.
And just south of 7th Avenue you have 10th Avenue, which makes sense, but it's 10th Avenue East on the west side of 52nd Street South and 10th Avenue Southwest on the east side of 52nd Street South.
One of the things I like to do when I'm in a town I haven't been to before is ride around slowly on my bike, looking at downtown and neighborhoods and houses. And here I thought Salt Lake City was tough to figure out the street naming, but I obviously have never been to Fargo.
Kudos to Denver, where streets running north-south as you head west from downtown are in alphabetical order! Acoma, Bannock, Cherokee, through Wyandot, Yuma, Zuni, then starting again with Alcott, Bryan, Clay, through Xavier, Yates, and Zenobia, then major road Sheridan, but then starting again with Ames, Benton, Chase, through Wadsworth, Yarrow, Zephyr (and Wadsworth is a huge street and still fits into the scheme, unlike Sheridan), and then for the next batch they started having two streets with each first letter, but still alphabetical even between the two: Allison, Ammons, Balsam, Brentwood, Carr, Cody, major street Kipling which fits in the scheme, and by the time it gets to Z it gets tricky because the streets aren't as grid-like this far west, and streets start and stop a lot, but you still have Ward, Wright, Xenon, Youngfield, Zang, Zinnia. And a final valiant effort in a very non-grid area, with Alkire, Beech, Braun, through Ulysses and Utah, and then the Rocky Mountains intercede, which is good for the street namers because I think they shot their X wad with Xenophon for a couple of little stubs in the penultimate batch.
This alphabetical scheme is no Manhattan above 14th Street, which is the gold standard, but at least they tried, and it's immediately understandable to a non-local (assuming they notice, of course).
Then again, Denver can bite me with its downtown grid being 45 degrees off of north-south-east-west, like the rest of the city, because streets downtown orient with the river that inconsiderately runs at an angle right there, resulting in a dreaded intersection of 20th Avenue and 20th Street, and not even at a 90-degree angle.
DC also does the alphabetical thing on the east-west streets, but then there are the diagonal state-named streets and the quadrants. Knowing the quadrant is important; for example 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue SE puts you next to the Anacostia River and near a McDonalds vs. 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW which is the location of a certain famous building.
House #2 was 4 blocks east and a bit north of the intersection you mention.
The whole Fargo/West Fargo thing quite something. Besides the street naming issues, one part of Fargo (including the area immediately to the east of House #2) belongs to West Fargo Public Schools and it's all because of the West Acres shopping mall; at the time it was built in the early 70s there wasn't much, if anything, around there and Fargo refused to pay for the infrastructure that was needed (water, sewer, etc) for the area so the much-smaller municipality of West Fargo stepped up and paid for it. Ergo, the mall and the area around it are physically located in Fargo but for property tax and school purposes are in West Fargo. Fargo even went to court years later to try to get those sweet, sweet tax dollars to come their way but was told too bad, so sad, you should have ponied up the infrastructure money back then.
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Fargo episode. I'm a bit familiar with the Fargo-Moorhead area so watched it with interest.
First observation: This certainly wasn't filmed recently (it was last fall).
House #1: I know this show is pre-determined but it was easy to tell from their facial expressions that it was a no-go. The voiceover said, "Close to downtown in an area busier than they'd like" but their faces were screaming, "No, no, no!" and it for sure wasn't due to that rather flimsy voice-over excuse. The house obviously stands out from the rest of the neighborhood; it's either one heckuva flip or a tear-down and rebuild.
Her: "The location of the house isn't my favorite". No kidding.
House #2: West Fargo, but it's West Fargo just by 1 block. In that area of town the north-south border between Fargo and West Fargo runs along a street which is 22nd on the Fargo side and 47 1/2 on the West Fargo side, so it's easy to tell you've gone from one to the other.
Once again, their driving-up-to-the-house enthusiasm is rather muted. Just like House #1 there's a big backyard, although they'd need to use part of it to expand the single-car garage. There's baseboard heating. Even if only half of their "wants" were true there would be a lot of renovating going on to get the house to that point, especially the garage thing since they have 2 cars and several motorcycles and there are only 2 seasons (winter and construction).
House #3: As mentioned by @CrazyInAlabama, it's a model house in "nearby" (right across the river!) Moorhead, MN, but they could get the custom build on the south end of Fargo, where there is a lot of new construction going on. Hemming and hawing about waiting for a new build to be finished and cost of customizing (ie. upgrading to a 3-car garage instead of the 2-car included in the base price). He notes the quartz countertops in the kitchen; at the start of the show he mentioned quartz countertops as something he'd like to have.
In segment showing them in the new construction house, I liked the olive green cabinets in the kitchen. They also upgraded the flooring and tacked on that much-desired 3rd garage.
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4 hours ago, Mindthinkr said:
When she made those Mangoes on sticks, does anyone remember what she seasoned them with besides chili’s (ancho?), coconut, lime zest and sugar?
You got them all: dried ancho chilies (seeds and stems taken out), coconut, lime zest, and sugar. Pinch of salt at the end.
BTW, that episode (S7, E11) is being rerun next Monday morning, February 13.
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8 hours ago, StatisticalOutlier said:
Did anybody catch the mustard tasting on the Cuban sandwich episode? I had no idea there were that many varieties, and that one would send Julia into paroxysms of joy; she likened it to caviar.
I don't know if ATK still does The Test Cook series, but 5 episodes covered the development of its Cuban sandwich recipe. The link below is for all of them together, but if you search for "America's Test Kitchen Cuban sandwich" you can also find the 5 episodes individually.
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"Each entrée serves 2–4".
Or 1 teenage boy until he eats the next entree sometime between immediately and 5 hours later.
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2 hours ago, cameron said:
Alexandria house buyer's friend looked like he was wearing makeup.
Surprised that he was able to find a place for that low of a price in the area.
I read your post before seeing the episode, so I figured it had to be in a gentrifying area or way out in the suburbs (or both) to get something not sky-high.
Since it was a "DC or suburbs" episode the first place was a condo in Old Town Alexandria. It looked very much to be in North Old Town, which has had a ton of new construction in the past decade and is considered the gentrifying part of Old Town (in random facts for those not familiar with Alexandria, one can tell where the school boundary is in Old Town based on the real estate prices, because they're noticeably higher on the south side of the boundary). No amenities. 1 bed/1 bath, 640 sq ft, $410,000/$330 monthly HOA. Hopefully it has parking included otherwise he'll be in for some on-street parking fun. He hates that the building doesn't have any historical features (well, it is new construction that looks like a whole bunch of the other new construction going up around there). It's 110 sq ft less than his current place.
#2 is in Mount Vernon Triangle, which is in downtown DC and north of the sports arena. It's a house built in 1887 that has been converted into condos and is surrounded by new construction office and residential, so it sticks out a bit. Close to work and a park where people walk their dogs, so good for his dog-walking needs. 1 bed/1 bath, 579 sq ft, $450,000, $230/mo HOA because, once again, no amenities. Exposed brick in addition to the modern kitchen and bathroom (I don't know if I'd want exposed brick in my bathroom). Layout is a bit weird, IMO. Lots of talk about downsizing to make everything fit. Even though it's described as a quieter street I hope the windows are good because there will be plenty of traffic and siren noise.
#3 looks like more of your standard "suburban" location. If it's in City of Alexandria (not the part of Fairfax County called Alexandria) that house will be somewhere west of Old Town. They call it a townhouse, I'd call it a duplex since it's a 2-story attached to another 2-story. Built in 1951 (cue the "not historic enough"), 2 bed/1 bath, a bit over 1100 sq ft "so it's pretty big". Kitchen has a dog door, and there's a fenced-in backyard with a deck.
#1 is the one, $410,000 listed, got it for $415,000. No, dude, it is not "far out" from the city. Sure, if he's driving or taking the subway to work then it may feel like he's coming from Siberia if traffic is bad or Metro is screwed up that day, and I know they play up the "so far away" for dramatic purposes, but that part of Alexandria was originally part of the District of Columbia and helped give DC its original diamond shape (it was given back to Virginia in 1841, if I recall the year correctly).
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19 hours ago, ECM1231 said:
Re the Philly volleyball coach episode: is a 30-minute commute really that long of a commute? That always surprises me when home buyers say that. Living on Long Island and commuting into the city whether by train or car, some folks have triple the commute as that.
If it were me, I'd have chosen the house, b/c I'd rather live in a house and 30 minutes is not that far out in my opinion. But if the house was definitely a no, I'd go with #3, but I understand if the wife just didn't want to go to the max budget.
Also, another pet peeve is that homeowners MUST have an en suite bathroom. They had one child. ONE! Three people cannot share a single bathroom? That was the wife's main concern about the house, along with the distance. I was 50 before we finally added on, and my husband and I had an en suite bathroom.
I'm wondering if it was because of her schedule, which for the most part won't be your typical 9 to 5. For example, "Team Bus to (Name of School) leaves at 6 a.m." would incentivize me to want to live as close by as I could.
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12 hours ago, CattyK said:
The wife in the Hawai’i to Detroit episode annoyed me. She complained about being able to see the neighbors’ yards. How’d you manage to live in a condo?
I thought the house they bought was the best choice, but I personally would appreciate that the yellow bathroom seemed to be in great shape, no need to tear out all that great tile.I’d love to see a follow up episode to see all her diy improvement projects. Somehow I doubt she can really learn how to redo the entire kitchen from the internet.
luckily the husband seemed a lot more realistic.
Alas, Love It or List It doesn't film in the Detroit area.
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6 hours ago, marymon said:
In the second episode the last one in Tampa (the green box) wasn't even close to being ugly. They could fix the few problems easily.
I had the same thought. Sure, it may stand out from the rest of the immediate neighborhood, but it wouldn't in many places elsewhere in Florida. If they don't like the green accent, that can be changed Although I had the thought that Alison Victoria and her black paint should be allowed nowhere near it. As for the bathroom, plenty of people have this same type of situation, although there may not be a church 50 feet away.
8 hours ago, satrunrose said:I agree with the choices tonight, but I have no idea how $150,000 is enough of a budget to fix either of them. You seem to have massive structural issues in the rock house (no floor, one wall is a 2 million-year-old rock, electrical issues) and I don't know how you fix the octagon house unless you put ceilings on all of the rooms and call the remaining space above an attic or a loft. I might have picked the "not a church" house, actually. I think you could have solved a fair number of the problems with the budget they're given. (I'll admit I kind of liked the stained glass, though),
When I first saw the rock house I wondered if it is this season's version of the house in California in season #1, which had so much going on inside that $150,000 wouldn't have made a dent.
4 hours ago, MsTree said:As much as I enjoy this show, what puzzles me is the homeowners. They buy a house that they consider "ugly" and do absolutely nothing to improve it. I wouldn't brag if I were them.
I agree. Some things are structural and would take a lot of time, effort, and/or $$$, while there are others which fall under, "You could do something about this, but just haven't."
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The first half hour of season #2's premiere is in the Mountain West (two houses in CO and one in MT). Whoever is doing the graphics needs a dictionary and a map. I caught two big typos: chords instead of cords when referring to the kind that get plugged into walls to provide electricity; and Kalispel, Montana, which is the location of House #3. It's Kalispell.
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24 minutes ago, Grrarrggh said:
Don't they have countertop dishwashers if you don't have the cabinet space?
Yes.
Also, provided you have the floor space, there are dishwashers on wheels (I know a few people who own them, and I've used them in the past). The electrical cord goes into a normal outlet, the water hose gets connected to the kitchen faucet, and the top of the dishwasher can be used as extra counter space.
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14 hours ago, ArtFossil said:
I just don't get it. If ex-pats are filing taxes in the US because they have income there, why not use a US accountant? It's simple to just transmit your information to an accountant anywhere. Is she just looking for a rental/investment/vacation home in Nice because I can't see how relocating there makes any kind of business sense.
If you're a U.S. citizen living abroad, you're required to file a tax return every year and it has to include income generated in the other country or countries in which you reside. If your income and asset situation is as such that you'd just be filing a return to show the government you're still alive and kicking, or if you're a citizen who has never resided in the United States and spends 24/7, 365 living elsewhere, you're still supposed to do it.
But "required" doesn't mean that everyone does it (goodness, no), so a number of years back Congress passed FACTA, which means the government, especially the IRS, is paying more attention to Americans living abroad. In particular, they are looking for those people who may be using that status as a means to keep significant amounts of income, assets, etc away from the U.S. taxman. They can also use this to keep an eye on dual citizens who may live in the States but use the citizenship of the other country to have bank accounts, etc in that country.
So there is a market for ex-pats needing accounting and tax-related assistance, and if she's on the European side of the pond it's easier for French and other European clients and anyone else in Europe she needs to contact on behalf of her clients to work with her since they're not dealing with the time zone difference with California.
BTW, I did see that episode and I also felt bad for the teenagers. I bet they'll be spending as much time as possible away from the flat.
Another quick thing: Think of all the business-related expenses she can deduct on her own taxes.
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JMHO, but if the housing market takes a decent-sized tumble this show and a few others of its ilk will be gonzo. Right now the sisters or more likely the producers can pick and choose the houses they're going to renovate/make eyebrow-raising "improvements" upon and the markets in those areas are, as of taping, so hot it really doesn't matter what they do because the houses will sell for over-asking anyway and make them look like geniuses. Same thing with other shows like theirs although it's well-known that there have been cases in which the selling price shown at the end of the show isn't accurate and/or shows get sued for crappy construction (for example, Windy City Rehab has been guilty of both).
This is not to say we're going to have a full-fledged repeat of the housing crash of 15 years ago because there were other issues such as subprime mortgages driving that one. But I'm sure many of you recall how many flipping, renovation, and "what is my home worth so I can call the bank to remortgage for that addition/vacation" shows were on various channels in the years leading up to the crash and when it happened a good number of them disappeared from the airwaves.
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On 6/2/2022 at 3:48 PM, Grrarrggh said:
Fargo agent must have been having hot flashes. Middle of winter and she was wearing summer dresses. She also looked a bit too dressed up at that first house.
Oceanside real estate agent had scary looking eyebrows. I kept expecting her to either do an evil laugh or see one of the brows to crawl off her face. Mr Stay-at-home dad needs to get that pacifier away from his son.
Fargo and environs had a much longer than usual winter this past season, so although I haven't seen the episode in particular it's possible they filmed on days when there was a warm* spell and the locals were happily breaking out the summer clothes even with snow still on the ground.
*Warm being in the eye of the beholder, so a temperature that would have people breaking out the shorts and sundresses in North Dakota in, say, February would have people putting on the woolies in Florida.
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7 minutes ago, debbie311 said:
Random thoughts. I thought the wall of tea lights was about the dumbest thing I have ever seen. Who would want to bother to light them/turn them on (if battery-operated)? So "Trading Spaces." And that slide! Completely ridiculous.
I also agree with all the comments about not having a screened-in porch in the back. I mean, the houses are right on the water. Mosquitoes? I would imagine that in that area of the country, there would be a lot of flying insects, especially in the summer. I can never understand the big fold-back glass doors to "open up to the outside." Sure, it would make for a nice unrestricted view, but it would let any number of bugs in the house. So not practical.
To me, those tea lights looked like the kind you can buy dirt cheap by the hundreds at the Mart of Wal.
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I agree with many of the assessments provided here, particularly the indoor slide being a bad idea. Once I saw what the Maars were going to do that I knew they were going to lose and once the generator was mentioned I knew Egypt and Mike were going to win and it was only a matter of trying to edit things to make it look like the other teams had a chance.
Seriously, put that slide in the yard instead of wasting two perfectly good rooms on something that young kids will outgrow and could be a legal liability, adults on the show enjoying themselves taking turns going down said slide notwithstanding.
I will give kudos to the twins for keeping the living room windows instead of adding doors and therefore making it more difficult to have furniture on the front porch.
I will also give kudos to the Detroit guys for adding the ceiling fans to the covered portion of the backyard.
That being said, and I'm saying this because of comments here about where these houses are located, why didn't anyone screen in some part of a backyard to allow people to sit outside bug-free? What's more, with all of the added outdoor furniture (yeah, I know, staging), have fun dragging that stuff inside when the weather gets funky. Furthermore, fireplaces and hot tubs in a location where you're dealing with heat and humidity for a good chunk of the year? Not to mention saunas, including one on the top floor of a house that is already going to have a big AC bill?
Finally, and I realize this is something that happens all the time in new construction, but what concerns me more about the closeness of these houses is not if the neighbors can see you but what if one of those houses catches fire. Embers don't have far to go to hit the neighbors' houses.
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2 minutes ago, Rammchick said:
I'm guessing SE Pennsylvania? I lived in the Philly suburbs for 13 years and there was a Shad Festival every year, I recall.
Northern Virginia.
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On 1/12/2022 at 10:32 AM, Rammchick said:
If you ever watched the old Japanese version of Iron Chef, it was referred to as soft roe, and appeared on the show many times.
Thank you. I have watched the Japanese version of Iron Chef but it looks like I missed those particular episodes.
I know where I live when Shad Roe makes its annual appearance it's a big deal.
As for the whole "Casino Royale" thing, I don't mind it since Chopped has been pretty stale lately, and at least they're doing something to liven things up a bit.
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Observation:
Given how weekends have been programmed lately, Guy Fieri shows take up a lot of airtime on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays. Since Wednesdays are Guy's Grocery Games days, that's 4 days a week in which his shows are the dominant feature during afternoons and/or evenings.
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Well, I learned a new term during tonight's episode: Cod Milt.
I lived a happy and contented life without knowing this. I guess I can now impress people at parties.
But at least I'm not going to have to eat it.
(Cod sperm)
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1 hour ago, CruiseDiva said:
I know that many of y'all find Retta talented and funny, but for the most part I was less than amused by her. I just had to mute the sound whenever she came into view during the renovation finale. As a show host she got on my nerves almost as bad as Chip Gaines and the Property Brothers. Just my opinion so please don't throw things at me. 🤣
I thought that she was out of her element during the renovation show.
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A few thoughts:
I also was not a fan of the front facade. Besides the black paint, having such a small front porch in proportion to the size of the house looks weird, IMO. Maybe I should say "off-balance" instead?
I noticed that with the exception of the wide-angle exterior shots of the front facade, none (I think it was none) of the windows had window treatments nor, by the looks of it, hardware to hang window treatments. I suppose those exterior shots were done while work was still going on inside. That's some money the homeowner is going to have to fork out.
I hope the homeowner is into pool maintenance, otherwise she'll be hiring someone to do it (the company that overhauled it, maybe?). I wonder how much more could have been done inside the house with the money that had to be spent on the pool. I'd also like to know the depth of the pool since they installed a diving board.
One final thing and then I'll stop: Before they started taking it down, AV described the glitter ceiling in the living room as being a "popcorn" ceiling. From what I understand if it was a true popcorn ceiling it probably would have needed asbestos abatement first.
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House Hunters International - General Discussion
in House Hunters International
· Edited by letusprocrastinate
Quoting this (see pages 229-230 for those who want to look at the discussion) so I can link this article from the Forum newspaper of Fargo-Moorhead.
A few things of note: The husband applied for HHI "on a whim". The place they chose is about the same distance to St. Andrews as Fargo is to Grand Forks, ND, which is home to University of North Dakota. So they're 70-odd miles away from their daughter when they're in Scotland but the drive isn't that long if they come visit, and it would be what they'd be doing distance-wise if she was at UND.
Also, they split their time between Scotland and Fargo, where they have an apartment downtown and still have active law practices. But they'll be in Scotland for American Thanksgiving.
https://www.inforum.com/news/fargo/fargo-couple-totally-restructures-life-to-follow-daughter-to-scotland