msmarjoribanks

Yeah, my last place had no hood, only a window (closer than the one shown) and also a fan from the over-the-stove microwave, and that was bad enough, and they have nothing. The smoke alarm went off about 50% of the time I cooked steak on a burner, and there was major grease built up on the wall behind (no backsplash originally, I decided to add one), and on the cabinet over the microwave.

Yup on the open shelving. I really don't want to worry about whether my plates and bowls look super nice when they are just put away. And the dusting. At my last place I had one (only one) cabinet with glass instead of solid wood, and that was plenty of showing plates and bowls for me. (Funny thing was at one point the glass broke and I wasn't going to bother replacing it, you could hardly tell, until I came home one day and saw my naughty cat had managed to get into the cabinet and was curled up and sleeping on a plate. No go. Also makes me wonder what disasters could result from open shelving in a home with a cat or two, but at least that wasn't an issue here.) ;-)

Maine to Park City, either $900K or $1.2m budget: Just watched the rerun of this episode, and I agree with this. I loved all three houses, but especially #3 (which I want), #1 was really outside their price range (but nice, granted I have those cabinets and like cherry). I loved the views.

I liked much of it too. Thought the decision to forego the vent was wrong (my oven is in the island/breakfast bar and I still have a hood/vent, and a window doesn't cut it, especially in a place where it gets cold and you wouldn't want to have the window open in the winter), and hated the farmer sink, but I thought it was more interesting than the usual, and liked the library pulls, oak as well as white, and the two counter tops. I do think it lacked cabinet space and the open shelving wasn't going to be functional, and I'm afraid the "brick is crumbly" point is true and that brick may be an issue eventually. I would have worked on the landscaping as part of part 1, they could have DIY'd it. Nice location, and that's the house I wanted them to pick.

Heh, I figured. I just could not believe how similar her style was to certain girls I went to jr high with. That was my assumption too.

Just happened upon this one, I cannot agree more (except that I think it's a bit unfair to Kelly Clarkson -- make-up (the black eyeliner) and hair dye and overall style (jeans jacket) she looks exactly like some girls I was in jr high with, and I was in jr high in the '80s). Is that look back?

That was a super weird episode. They did not mention jobs for either woman, and if the last place was $850K and they were getting a gift of $750K, why ask Lola for more -- three adults (mom, daughter, and boyfriend) could presumably swing an $100K mortgage. The first place was absurdly small and eh (but for the yard, which was nice) for $715K!!! I know, Burbank (and I live in Chicago, which is expensive), but I was like no way, live elsewhere. (I would have gone with the second Spanish place, assuming a $750K budget. Or somewhere not shown where $750K buys something.) I wonder how much adding a bathroom for the redone garage is -- that would seem high priority, and I think boyfriend should pay (or pay rent) and they have money left over. It might not be easy, though, given location. Yeah, I'm being judgy, it was just odd. The daughter (Amelia) was pretty, and dogs were cute.

'Cause they were really tech job people, and one of them got a job there (I was not paying attention to the specifics, although I personally know someone who moved there for a job). The acrobat thing was a hobby. Interesting -- do you have a link to the house or article? (I love looking at listings and normally find them on redfin, which seems not to cover Wichita.)

Wichita -- I definitely had the sense that most of their "things I hate, things I must have" were made up for attention. There was a part where I thought they were having fun with it and playing off each other and trying to be the most extreme. I'm not questioning that they are into the acrobatic thing, though. Interesting that for once they didn't seem to care at all about parking or garages. I'd get that in some places, but surprising for Wichita. Second house seemed like the right and obvious choice for them. I didn't like the stars on the third one, but I thought it was charming and would personally have picked it and fixed it up (it did need work), but I didn't think it fit their needs/desires (such as they were) as well. I find it so bizarre when a couple with no kids and even a totally separate guest area with bathroom compare about no master (when there's a bathroom immediately nearby) or the master being too small for both of them to get ready at the same time, when there's another bathroom (bigger and nice) immediately nearby. Here the premise was that one guy wanted to eat in the bathtub (color me skeptical) and the other wanted a shower, no bath, because he's a germ-phobe. So using separate baths to get ready seemed perfect (and seems to be what they did, but again I don't believe the bathtub thing).

Yeah, I loved that they wanted all the defined rooms, and I think the place was charming, although lots of work. I initially thought they should go with the second, as it seemed much more practical, but it seemed like they really loved the first and were willing to do the work over time. I enjoyed them.

Yeah, likely, that seems to be common enough on HHers. If they timed it right and made a bunch on the old place it could be from that, though. I loved the place they got, want to see how it turns out. Tons of work, but potential too.

Although I would agree it doesn't need to be huge, I think it was the only first floor bathroom, so one that would likely be used a lot and used by guests (not for staying overnight, but just during the course of an evening). I'd want it not to be too small, given the option.

Extra big oven makes sense. I wanted one on Thanksgiving, and get why people who cook a lot (as I do) might want professional grade. However, a lot of people who rarely cook want Wolf, etc., because it has become a status symbol, even though a regular oven would be totally sufficient for anything they use it for. The oven that the Brookline wife purchased is likely all about the appearance, and I don't think the appearance was such that the difference in money was worth it given their budget constraints, but obviously people can choose what they spend money on. I think extra money on the location made sense given commute time and resale, but much of the rest of the decor I did not get.

I'm another who hated the turquoise fireplace. If you have beautiful original wood, I really hate painting it at all, including the current rage for all wood painted white, although that room needed to be lightened up, I agree. I think there still could have been other options besides painting it (and if you really must paint it, not that color). Also would have gone with a different oven and used the money elsewhere.

That was a fun episode and I liked all the houses, although I liked the third the best and they took the first.

That seemed to be the deciding factor, though, and as someone in Chicago, that I am walking distance to the L and areas I like was important to where I decided to live. I liked all the places they looked at but assumed the walking distance thing would be the decider. I have a double sink and want to replace it with a single sink, so sympathized with that guy.

Colorado, wanted house in the mountains, wife wanted to walk to town, had a baby daughter, dog, two bunnies. I loved all the options and didn't (unusually) know which one they would pick, but I liked the choice since I also would prioritize walkability to town. They were (as usual) convinced white appliances were unworkable, but then seem to have kept them, and overly worried about small bedrooms when the rest of the rooms were spacious (I'd prefer that tradeoff, and the supposedly tiny room for the baby seemed about the size of the room I grew up in). No garage was a genuine issue in CO, IMO, but as a bonus there was an this extra cottage and room to build a garage, so options for space.

Eastern Washington couple with two little kids, husband was former football player. I liked the middle house least -- the other two had great location-based features you can't add (the lake for the first one, plus a nice yard with pool, amazing views for the third), but I knew they'd pick the boring bland middle one because it was the biggest a new build (in a development still being built, everything looked the same) and had the white kitchen the wife of course thought was her dream. I'm so bored of the white kitchen obsession. Wife was bugging me since she seemed to be a stay at home but kept complaining that her husband's budget was too small, he needed to open his wallet. Third place (while I liked it a lot) was really too similar in size to the house they were leaving and over budget, so I would have picked the first and just reno'd it some. It didn't need to be completely gutted like the wife was insisting. But oh well, they are happy, even if I would have made a difference choice.

Just watched this one -- I don't know the market, but my impression was they couldn't afford anything in the area (or easy commute to NYC) that didn't have renters. With 3 rentals (based on the mortgage info they showed), they should be able to cover the mortgage with just 2 rented (although I bet that assumes 20% down and they aren't putting 20% down). The wife apparently grew up in a family that flipped houses, so she might be capable of doing the repairs.

All true, but I really wanted the third place. Close walk to the beach and so much else. I liked that couple. CA pricing (well, in the most popular areas) is so insane.

Agreed. I didn't dislike either the husband or the wife, but as the husband said, the wife was really weirdly obsessed with the color white. I admit that white kitchens are not my favorite, although I can appreciate some kitchens with white cabinets and like some primarily white countertops, but she seemed to just want everything to be white, white, white.

Watched a rerun from Edwardsville, IL (near St Louis) -- couple ended up buying a house next-door to her parents. It was the obvious choice and obvious that they picked it (pretty sure if there's a house next-door to parents that's usually the one they've already purchased, since it would be too coincidental to find a decoy there). I liked the couple, but their one issue with the house they selected (supposedly, to create suspense) was that it needed all sorts of expensive work, all cosmetic, basically just painting, painting cabinets, dealing with some wall paper, and redoing all the floors. Only the latter is actually expensive (the house was big), but had there been a real issue with cost it seems to me it would have made sense to buy the place and redo over time. I was remembering the house we moved into when I was 8 (and my parents lived in until they retired) -- when we moved in the basics of the house were what my parents wanted, but a lot of the decor was pretty questionable. The family room had ugly carpet and weird fake tile below the fireplace (I don't exactly remember), the basement was finished but not cozy, the floor was cement but for one little office, the kids bedrooms had super weird ugly carpet (one was a blue and green I loved as a kid, but it was kind of hideous, the other was red and green -- I was oldest so got the blue room), so on. There were other things buyers today would hate, of course. The idea that it would have to all be fixed right away or not be worth living in never even crossed my parents' minds, and the stuff was fixed over time. Anyway, the Edwardsville couple got help from family and fixed their place up right away for cheap, so that works too, if it's available.

I thought the third one was great too, but from what they said the location was bad for her commute compared to the other two. Watched an old (2016) one with a 26-year-old couple looking for a Philadelphia row house for around $400K which was fun because the places were right up my alley. Couple seemed nice, and had reasonable, although somewhat unrealistic desires -- they realized they couldn't get everything they wanted in the area they wanted and were happy with the place they got (and the wife said she loved all the places they saw, which I liked!)

Yeah, I wanted that atrium and liked that place (and thought the husband was being silly about the yard, which he admitted at the end). I thought the first house was the obvious choice.

I thought they were kind of cute. I do think they were a little awkward on camera, but I don't mind that. I didn't perceive the wife as being snotty about the 'burbs, but just preferring to live in the city due to proximity to their friends and what they were used to doing and their parents, and if they have a sweet deal with grandparents wanting to babysit, I don't blame them. Maybe because I'm in a city lot with a 30x125 lot, I don't see anything wrong with the size of the first yard, especially if they don't want to do lots of yardwork. The worm thing was, of course, dumb, and probably quirk of the day for HHers (as was the bickering over the bikes). The first place (which I figured immediately they'd take, something about the weird tiles) was supposed to be the biggest, but they didn't really show that -- maybe I missed it, but they called it a 3 bed, and I thought they only showed 2 beds (about the same size). Anyway, it seemed like it was in the neighborhood they wanted, and I think it could be fixed up reasonably easily and probably (depending on what kind of fixes they want to do) pay off eventually if they choose to sell later. I liked the exteriors of the other houses much more, though. If the suburban one had been more turnkey (it wasn't any different work-wise than the place they bought) or bigger, I might have thought it was possible they changed their minds about location, but it wasn't (and yet not much cheaper). Agree with all this. I really liked the third, but it was a problem to have no yard. I figured she'd pick the first -- as others said, she loved the paint colors -- and I think it's really cool that she was so enthusiastic about a little fixer. I actually do relate to her wanting to put her stamp on it, and it was clearly in the neighborhood she had her heart set on. Much more the type of buyer I enjoy than the people who can't be happy with 5000 sq ft brand new monstrosities because they lack a second laundry room!