amarante

I didn't find the Canadian to Atlanta couple outrageous in terms of what they were looking for and what they got. They have three teenage children living at home who will need bedrooms for at least a decade. Even if they go to college, chances are they will come home as will the kid living in Canada for visits. Unlike most of the house hunters who complain about kitchens this woman knew what she was talking about in terms of why the kitchen should be gutted if one is a serious cook. There is no worse place for a cooktop than the island because it can't be vented well. It also is stupid functionally since it limits the ability to use the island for any kind of casual gathering or seating. Also that kitchen was old - probably at least 15 or 20 years and the configuration reflected that. None of the lower cabinets were deep drawers which are more functional and desirable for anyone who actually cooks and uses a kitchen. The woman wasn't one of those idiots who claimed she couldn't learn to cook if the appliances weren't stainless - based on her assessment and requirements she knew her way around a kitchen and used it. Once you moved the stove top to an exterior wall so it could be properly vented there was no point in attempting to salvage old cabinets which probably also lacked Blum hardware. Also from a purely aesthetic kitchen it was ugly with the 20 year old dated backsplash. If the configuration had been good in terms of function, that would have been different but she was mostly commenting on the functional issues of the kitchen. Her other comments were essentially functional - she didn't mind the shelves on the side of the fireplace. Easily changed to eliminate the arches. In the house she didn't lack, she had remarked that the dated round pillars could be changed to square pillars - again a relatively easy inexpensive fix. Also the husband indicated that he was in construction as well as being a broker. Any upgrades they made to the property would be done more economically than the average homeowner who doesn't know anything about construction and has to pay a lot in order to guarantee the work is done properly. ETA - I never thought he was going to actually put in a skate board ramp. He just talked about it so that he would have something memorable and a way to show the pictures on the screen of him in action. As he said, there were lots of skate board parks in the area. No one sane would have a skate board ramp in their back yard because it is a sure way to get sued when neighborhood kids sneak in and are injured - I can't imagine the kind of cost for an insurance rider if one has it. Also you can’t transfer your credit history from Canada to the USA so they weren’t trying to hide a history of profligacy in Canada but stating the realty of having to build a new USA credit history.

I really am with the sentiment on the board - much as I hate to admit it, Joe Gorga and Melissa really came off as sympathetic human beings. I think they are genuinely trying to maneuver around the pitfalls of being on a reality television show AND having to deal with the primate that is their sister Teresa without completely severing all family ties. I actually have felt sympathetic towards Gorga since the whole Gia thing and NOT because I hold some kind of old fashioned ideas that a younger person shouldn't have the right to have issues with an older person when it involves them - as theoretically having Juicy Joe criticized as her parent involves her. However she is as dense as Teresa is in terms of the reality of the situation - Gorga was 1) actually defending Teresa and she agreed with Gorga's defense in terms of what Juicy had done - and Teresa has actually said worse about Juicy and 2) Juicy is the one who criticized Gorga and Melissa to start. Joe Gorga was truly in a position where he is damned whatever he does - for not supporting his sister and for criticizing Juicy. And clearly Jennifer was vile in terms of her insults - uncalled for - against Gorga and Melissa. It is so obvious that if the situations were reversed Teresa would have a fit. I mean the woman was ballistic when people questioned whether articles about Luis were factual. Obviously housewives are supposed to stir the shit somewhat but I think Margaret had a very valid point - if damning or questionable information is out there, deal with it on the show and put it behind you. There is nothing to indicate that any of the housewives wouldn't have been willing to just accept whatever he said and that would be it. I don't quite understand Tre's reason for excluding Delores from the engagement party. Not that I am worried that I can't understand the way the brain of someone who truly lacks normal brain capacity - and I mean this literally and not in any kind of hyperbolic manner. I really think that Teresa is a person of low IQ and also has some kind of true personality disorder that is exacerbated by her inability to actually process information. One can see the braincells churning whenever she has to think about something presented to her. I still don't think she understand what an analogy is and how it is different from a statement of fact. I don't think Melissa was actually hurt by the exclusion from being in the bridal party or the seating arrangement. I think she was just bringing it up in a rational manner to show that Teresa is the one who excludes her "family" and that Melissa - whatever her personal feelings are - has always done what is considered to be the normal behavior among family. You don't have to actual "feel" the love but you don't act on every base selfish narcissistic thought. I do think that Melissa and Joe wanted the cousins to have a good relationship so that once they are older to have independent relationships with their cousins they will be done.

I am glad that domestic violence woman was not someone I should be familiar with. Sometimes I can't keep the various medical show personnel straight and I was wondering if she was a resident that I hadn't remembered. I am tired of the story of the heroic middle aged fire or police person who wants to risk their health rather than take a medical retirement. In my experience most fire and police personnel are generally pretty glad to be able to take their pension after 20 years and this guy was no spring chicken. He didn't have that many years left possibly anyway for a physically grueling profession. With the great pension and retiring at a relatively young age most of them are able to either find fulfilling second careers or just enjoy life. Meaning absolutely no disrespect to the valor of first responders but it is a hard job both physically and emotionally and this cliché seems to be a popular one on television.

Coincidentally I had lunch with my girlfriend who is a woman of color and very into hair and so I asked her to clarify edges and baby hair. Edges of literally your hairline - and when hair has been abused for a long enough period of time the roots are damaged and so you don't grow hair on the edges. I think there are pictures of Naomi Campbell with her hair blowing and she has almost no hair on the front and around the airs. So far as I could tell there was some kind of procedure that Marlo went through which helped her grow the edges. Okay - so Marlo had actual hair transplants to grow hair on her edges like balding men do. Hence Kenya's shade regarding the "Bosley" treatment. Baby hair is more of a styling issue - it is when the wispy type of hairs at the front are styled with pomade into swirls and other pretty shapes. This is also done a lot with high end lace wig which is one of the advantages of a lace front wig. My friend said that baby hair is more of a young style but I don't know if that is just her personal thoughts. I was thinking that perhaps Marlo deliberately named her business Le'Archive because you wouldn't be able to get trademark protection for L'Archive since it is an actual French word. Often businesses have deliberate misspellings so that they can trademark their business name. I thought her clothing was archival material and there are businesses that rent vintage clothing. However I found it odd that she was planning to rent that YSL Muse Bag for $500 a day and I also thought some of her prices seem out of whack.

They are also in converted brownstones in Manhattan. Same reason as they are adequate for what they are especially since the alternative is walking up four or five flights of stairs.

Except location which is the only basis for comparing houses or apartments. Obviously one can get a bigger cheaper house or apartment if one doesn't live in the central part of the city. Manhattan is more expensive than Brooklyn. The west side of Los Angeles is more expensive than Winnetka and apartments in that specific Parisian district are more expensive than an apartment with a longer commute. Typically lifestyle choices impact one's decision on balancing aspects of a home. Single people without children tend to want to live in areas where there is lots of interesting street activity. People with children need more space which is why that other location in Paris was called a "family" neighborhood. When I lived in Manhattan I didn't need a large apartment or a large refrigerator because other factors were more important to me.

I have a complicated reaction to this episode because I think it trivializes what feminism was about and reduces Betty Friedan to some kind of shrill impolite harpie. I minored in American Studies which was essentially assumed that we knew standard American history very thoroughly so instead of concentrating on grand historical events and famous figures, we used almost an anthropological approach in terms of trying to understand why it was like for the "little people" - obviously they were impacted by the great events but also how the culture evolved. The whole ideal of woman as a "housewife" didn't really exist until the 19th century industrialization when there came to be a separation of work existing in factories or offices where men for the most part worked and "housework" which occurred in the home. Prior to that men and women generally shared labor together and were equally responsible for enabling the family unit to survive - on farms but also in the kinds of very small businesses that were run out of the home. The 19th century begat what is called the "cult of true womanhood" in which woman were viewed as the moral center of the home in the middle and upper classes - I am over simplifying but it is interesting in terms of how this very genteel view of women was a relatively recently cultural invention of the western countries because the older role of economic helpmate no longer worked completely since the domains of household management and earning a salary were divided. There are so interesting books on the history of housework and other "woman's work" such as cooking, knitting and even cleaning the house. Suffice it to say that there was a revolution of rising expectations in which the bar was continually raised in terms of what was expected of a good housewife. So labor saving devices didn't really save labor to some extent - you didn't have to beat your rug physically by hauling it outside but now you were expected to hoover it frequently. There is a fascinating history of Erma Rombauer who wrote The Joy of Cooking originally in the 1920's. It was as much of a culinary revolution as Julia was in the 1960's. Joy was released right after WW I when the middle class (and even the upper middle professional class) was losing its cheap servants so woman who had never had a need to cook before now had to learn how to cook because they no longer had a cheap in-house cook. Irma herself was a product of this as she was upper middle class but became impoverished when her husband committed suicide and so the original Joy was an attempt to make some money. And reading old cookbooks and how the cuisine evolved is really a fascinating look into cultural history. I used to collect vintage cookbooks and "community cookbooks". The originally Pillsbury Bakeoff (for example) began in 1949 when women were literally being propagandized back into their homes and out of the labor force to make room for the returning GI's. The baked goods were fabulous in the early days while the savory main dishes were very unsophisticated and often seem to be repulsive. Over the years that changed and baked goods are now almost completely dumbed down and the savory dishes are more "sophisticated" - albeit it not really what one would call "gourmet". And I had no idea it was Mr. Rogers as I assumed "Fred" was Fred Silverman who was a seminal television executive and producer. I thought he would have recognized the brilliance of a cooking show appealing to the masses given that the whole genre is now such an integral part of television programming from upscale America's Test Kitchen to the ridiculous pandering of HGTV shows which aren't intended to educate people in techniques.

Not very different from New York City's subway system. I grew up in one of the outer boroughs and was equally far (or close) to an IND and a BMT line. I went to high school that was served by the IRT Lexington Avenue line so depending on what I wanted to do I could change at Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn or Union Square or do a shuttle at Times Square. Of course at certain times I would also have to change from the local to the express or I would wind up taking the really long route through the tunnel rather than under the bridge - but then again if you worked on Wall Street you had to take the local.

I think the HGTV type of shows makes people under-estimate the cost and complexity of home renovation - especially kitchens and bathrooms. You can't just paint cabinets the way one might paint a wall. You either have to hire a professional (best) who takes the doors off site and sprays with special paint in a "clean" room with no dust OR you laboriously clean and prime and prime and paint extremely carefully - and the results are going to be less durable than the original wood finish. If you start disturbing tubs and showers and tiles you have to hire skilled labor to make sure that the new stuff is completely waterproofed because otherwise you will have mold and possibly rot out your home. A middle of the road bathroom (not high end finishes) will cost at least $25,000 and a kitchen can be at least that as well - that is a kitchen that doesn't resemble their aspirational kitchen either.

I think there the long commute must have factored into her choice. Evidently there was no direct way to get from the first apartment to her place of work. There is a certain adventure that one has when one lives in an area that is truly metropolitan and filled with interesting shops and cafes and restaurants. I lived in Greenwich Village for several years and just walking around the area was full of serendipitous things to see and encounters. You would not get that kind of energy in a "family" neighborhood. Also there is a concept of geographic undesirability. Despite dating Apps someone from the Bronx is going to have a hard time with a relationship with someone in Brooklyn. Also if you are meeting up with people in a central area, it is much more convenient to be able to walk home rather than have to deal with a long commute on public transportation. But I am an urban girl - the most suburban I have ever done is growing up in Brooklyn which is pretty urban by most HH standards on this show even though the street that I lived on was single family or duplex and tree lined. But no big back yards and we could definitely see into our neighbor's homes - literally and not just that we can see their home as some HH complain about.

I did a gut remodel of my home relatively recently and I realized all the ways that one can ignore the non-obvious and structural stuff and just put in the cheapest "flashy" trendy stuff. I mean on the most obvious people ooh and aah about stainless steel which is ridiculous because there is very cheap stainless appliances available now. Also very obvious to me because I spent so much time thinking about configuring my kitchen is that the kitchens are often badly designed - the lower cabinets don't have drawers because they are more expensive and there aren't that many cabinets at all because any cabinet is expensive - but it looks good to a naive person.

Theoretically it's for sale as they were shown packing up and I think there were showings. Although watching any of these shows requires a suspension of disbelief because in general they *need* to insert plot devices in order to move the plot forward - on both major and minor story lines. As has been posted, no one would go to a fertility doctor after even a few months of trying to conceive unless for some reason there was some kind of pre-existing physical issue. But in the previous appointment the doctor essentially said you are good to go. They wouldn't be expected back in less than a year especially when Maggie is only 30 years old so there isn't some huge ticking clock.

I thought all of the Philadephia homes were awful and potential money pits - especially for someone on a budget. Economically it made very little sense to me to buy a dilapidated home for $265,000 when there was a remodeled one for $289,000 because it will cause more than $25,000 to improve the less expensive one even with modest changes. As I recall the bathroom seemed really dreadful I don't think people have a clue as to how expensive remodels of kitchens and baths are. Not that the $289,000 home was really that great either as I assume it was "flipped" and I assume that any home that is flipped is going to only make the least expensive cosmetic choices. When I see an episode like this with all the choices being awful, I think that the HH could have just waited and found something that was less terrible. But then I think she would have been better off in a condo because it is less likely to need the kind of expensive repairs that those old homes were likely to need like plumbing, electrical, roofing etc. I had to spend $5000 for an upgraded electrical panel and I installed a new HVAC unit that was about $6000. Not to mention all of the stuff I spent money on in terms of better constructed cabinets and higher quality appliances.

That isn't true in most major cities where there are fairly stringent laws which protect tenants. You can't evict someone until their lease expires and even though most tenants have the right to remain subject to rent increases which are regulated depending on the type of housing. If you purchase a place with a tenant living there it can cost you a lot of money to get them out especially if they are older or have some form of disability. Even if the HH wanted to move her family into a place she bought, she would have to buy out the tenant in order to have it vacated. That is why the cost of getting rid of a tenant is factored in and there is a premium on vacant units if the tenant isn't paying market value rent due to some type of rent regulations. In some places, if an apartment is converted to a coop or condo you can't get rid of the existing tenant and so the cost of the condo will be somewhat determined by how long the tenant will stay in the unit - an older tenant might be expected to die relatively quickly. Not to mention that even if a landlord has cause to evict it can be a difficult and long process if the tenant is shrewd.

She was an interior designer with a developer and that might not translate to clothing style. I used a designer for my remodel who is great with design and construction knowledge but her clothing taste is not that great. She is larger than the Lancaster women and wears leggings with short tops. I also think that the Lancaster woman might not be used to having gained some weight especially in the upper body area. In all of the photos they showed of her younger, she looked very slender so the weight and large bust might be a new thing. But definitely for someone with fleshy arms and a large bust putting a knit cardigan over a clinging top was not the wisest fashion choice for her body type because her figure wasn't bad - just not dressed in the most flattering way. What I was curious about is why she wasn't purchasing a house from the developer. I get that they wanted a specific area but I would think that there might have been financial benefits from buying through the employer that would have made buying their first home make sense. Meaning no disrespect but is downtown Lancaster such a thriving hot spot that living within five minutes is critical for one's life style?

I appreciated that they were realistic about the costs of renovating. Ajd of course his grumbling about remodeling was just a ruse for the show since he was in the construction business AND he wanted a huge space for his workshop and tools. No one who didn’t enjoy it would have that kind of a shop and he is obviously going to hire labor to do the stuff he doesn’t enjoy doing.

Here are examples of two bedroom homes of approximately that size. All the rooms are obviously of modest size https://www.bhg.com/decorating/makeovers/california-bungalow-home-tour/ https://www.apartmenttherapy.com/528-square-foot-1950s-florida-house-photos-36946868

While the third house in LA with the tenant might have made more sense financially I would not want to live in a single family home in South Los Angeles as a single woman. It still has a high crime rate although the area is improving. And yes, unfortunately most of the people living there are decent hard working who are victims of the high crime rate but that doesn't make the area safer. The first neighborhood mentioned (Rampart) is infamous for the Rampart scandal of the police department and is synonymous with police misconduct. The Shield which was a television series was "inspired" by the scandal. When I first moved to Los Angeles that area (Rampart - Pico-Union-Westlake (not to be confused with Westlake Village) was really high crime. There was a revival movie theater that I went to because I didn't know about the neighborhood until I read about a mugging on that street in which the woman's finger had been cut off because she didn't get her ring off fast enough. That ended my visits to THAT movie theater.

Today's New York Times had an article on corporate purchasers squeezing out home buyers. Based on the article the problem is in sunbelt states in areas with relatively inexpensive housing - i.e. $300,000 or less. I was amazed by the statistics in some of the areas. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/23/us/corporate-real-estate-investors-housing-market.html Obviously it is location specific since corporations aren't snapping up the homes in high cost locations even when those expensive homes are "starter homes". As the article pointed out there is very little that can be done about it since there is no way to forbid a homeowner from selling to a corporation. Interesting the one example they used was a condo townhouse where they put a restriction which specified that a new buyer would have to live in the place for a year before renting it out. My condo used to have that restriction to prevent the building being over run with absentee landlords but a recent statute in California where I am located made those kinds of restrictions illegal.

Well if we are doing television series odd locations, In Plain Sight was set in Albuquerque. I think New Rochelle is one of the more expensive suburbs because it is a relatively easy commute into the city although I am not sure whether that is as much of a factor with all of the work from home jobs for white collar types. It was one of the earliest of the suburban developments - which is why it was the logical location for Rob and Laura. The New Rochelle housing stock also reflects the era when it was built which is why it is so out of step with modern housing needs. I don't want to use the word "trendy" or "dated" because that implies that it is a matter of style and taste. However the older housing stock regardless of style just isn't in line with how many people want their homes to function. People generally do want at least 2 1/2 baths - at least a powder room on the ground floor; an ensuite in the master and a shared bathroom upstairs for the kids' bedrooms. And even if the master has an en suite it is generally a very tiny and would not be particularly comfortable even for a single user - no place to store hair dryers for example because women went to beauty parlors and didn't have all of that hair paraphernalia. 🤷🏼‍♀️ That bathroom in the unfinished basement was ridiculous. No one is going to use it unless the whole family arrives home at the same time and they all need to pee desperately and no one would actually send guests down a rickety basement stair case to an unfinished basement to use the "powder room". I am not sure how taxes compare to other suburbs but NJ and NY suburban taxes are very high in places with good school districts. I saw a listing for a New Rochelle home listed for about $750,000 and the taxes were about $15,000 per year.

I find comments like that to be ridiculous since they will have a housekeeper and a gardener and a pool guy. Who are they kidding? Also larger rooms are actually easier to clean than small rooms because open floor space is easier to vacuum. sweep or mop than a room that is filled with furniture. Of course multiple bathrooms have multiple toilets.

The New Mexico couple didn't mention actual living arrangements but I think in general that type of blended family would need to have separate bedrooms for each kid. I think that bio siblings of the same sex can share a bedroom if necessary but I think it is not the best if you force two step-siblings to share a bedroom. Also I think that it gets very tricky if one sibling lives almost permanently in the home and the step siblings comes every other weekend or whatever and so shares a bedroom that is really the private domain of the kid who lives there almost all the time. The visiting sibling would not feel they really had a space of their own and the kid who lived there all the time would feel resentful that their space was being invaded. I think the four bedrooms was really a necessity for them in order to blend the families smoothly.

I think a bathroom in the basement is useless unless it is used as an adjunct to space one uses and is an addition. I wouldn’t live in a house that didn’t have at least a powder room on the main level although I did rent a home with only one upstairs bath in college but I think dealing with kids or real guests isn’t something I would do as an adult. I don’t think most people deduct their offices because it is complicated. One can theoretically still deduct office equipment or Wifi. I worked from home years ago and did not deduct the space but did deduct for expenses relating to the office like computer and wifi.

I thought the economics of the New Rochelle episode was interesting because there are houses available in NYC for their budget and the taxes are much lower than the suburbs because single family residences are given huge breaks - and beyond that NYC has a much larger commercial tax structure. Of course you wouldn't get the huge suburban lawns but - at least in my opinion - other stuff tips the balance in favor of living in one of the outer boroughs including significantly lower commuting costs. I believe New Rochelle was where Rob & Laura Petrie lived on the original Dick Van Dyke show but their house seemed to be a typical ranch.

I was thinking when has Max ever done the wise or prudent thing. Even when his actions aren't life threatening they generally are stupid or result in disaster or otherwise make things a mess - not to mention wasting assets. I don't know why Max was changed from a smart reformer into some kind of idiot child who does everything the "opposite" of what someone rational would do.