amarante

Have a tree in every room if one likes but I am pretty certain that she vetoed the front room being used as anything but a display for the tree. I thought the broker suggested it be used as an office in one hime and the woman threw him a death glare.

In a few homes I have seen the air conditioning units disappear and have wondered how they solve the A/C unit. Homes were built without ducting systems so there is no ability to have central air unless you add ducting systems throughout the house. You either have units in the window or more typically especially in a climate like California where you might use A/C year round, you put it in the wall permanently. I think the transformations are fantastic but I don't understand the need to understate the cost of renovations to the point of it being a fantasy. Why is it necessary to make the costs of doing stuff so low as to boggle the minds of anyone who has had any work done. I can't remember which show but there was a show where a wall was opened up because it needed to go to improve the flow and the electric panel was discovered and the "cost" was $1000. I just had mine moved during a remodel and the cost was closer to $5000 for a new panel and to get electrical up to Code. You open up a wall and touch the electrical and Code is that it all has to be brought up to Code. I was told if I moved an outlet it would mean all the wiring would have to be redone - I could ADD an outlet (and I added lots of those) but if I moved an existing one, Code wouldn't grandfather in any of the wiring.

I was going to give Raleigh wife a pass on the bitchiness she displayed towards her husband because they have been married 11 years and so thought maybe they think this shtick is cute and don't realize how it comes off and doesn't reflect the actual dynamics of their marriage but is edited. On the other hand maybe it reflects the true dynamics of the relationship and the editing only brought out what their marriage was. However, the nastiness towards her mother in law was beyond horrible and not a shtick for the camera. At one point she said they couldn't even be on the same floor with the home that had two masters on the ground floor. I can't imagine what it was like when all THAT was shown in this episode. Most people don't have dedicated guest rooms and they seem to survive fine in terms of housing guests and making them physically comfortable. There are day beds as well as higher quality sofa beds with good mattresses and no uncomfortable bars. And there is also a tradition of having a parent stay in a child's room when they visit and having the child share a room during the visit. And why no snark on the Christmaskah tree and the need to buy a house specifically for that tree. And the stupidity of calling it that. It's a Christmas tree - not a Christmaskah tree or a Hanukah bush 🙂 and it doesn't need a room specifically dedicated to it.

Since the foreign house hunters are even more likely to be settled in a place than domestic, Vienna girl was obviously a completely fake. Shipping the dogs (if they really existed) internationally for what would probably be a relatively short period of time would not make sense. Obviously if she really had wanted the dogs, she would have made a trade off in order to have them there. There was a brief flash on the screen that said her salary was $35,000 and taxes in Vienna were approximately 42% so she didn't have much money especially if she wanted to take advantage of being in Europe. The place she chose was small but made sense on her budget - seemed like a very sleek dorm room.

Shannon didn’t pay for anything. Who are they trying to do. The stores in which they shoot agree to comp stuff in exchange for the promotional opportunity. Its the sake bullshit they attempt to pull when a housewife hosts a trip when the production staff has negotiated all the freebies. Gina was kind of breaking the fourth wall by exclaiming about the high status of rolling with Shannon when what she really meant was what it was like to tour Beverly Hills while being filmed and so everything was comped and service was pulled out for them as if they were real ballers.

What Shane's sexual proclivities are who knows. Gay or straight he obviously has no interest in Emily as either a person or a sexual partner. I have passed both the California and New York bars (passing on the first attempts both times) and there is absolutely no reason why anyone needs to be holed up incommunicado 24/7. No one is studying 24/7 and "normal" people find it more comfortable to be at home - or at least I did. I am sure there is some type of office in that McMansion where he could be quietly left alone when he is actually studying. Most "normal" people would want the ability to interact with their spouse and children when they take a break. As I recall the rest of Shane's family isn't Mormon - he converted. If he is a closeted gay, he has the shame from both the Mormon religion and what I would assume is a super-traditional Persian family. Elizabeth Straight's father just left the Mormon Church because he acknowledged that a gay person could not exist within a religion that demonized homosexuality. I would feel sorry for Emily except that she obviously knew what she was getting in for in terms of the actual emotional intimacy of the relationship when she married him. Based on what she has said about the proposal, they didn't even have the kind of friendship where old friends decide they might as well get married - like Barry Diller marrying Diane Furstenberg where they are spouses in every important emotional way without the sex.

I saw what was probably a rerun of a young couple who were moving out of her parents' home in Mason - and the woman wanted desperately to stay in Mason and evidently Mason is a more expensive area than there $200,000 budget could afford. I rarely take the banter and bickering of couples on the show seriously - the "it's my closet" or one party showing no willingness to accept any compromise but I thought the dynamics of this couple were really off. It was quite strange as they had been going out for eight years but only married for two months and she wasn't willing to live with him until marriage (or he had put a ring on it). She seemed to answer every question and, as I posted, I rarely think the dynamics of a relationship depicted on a half hour show are realistic, but I couldn't imagine how same element of the dynamic wasn't realistic. And she had an odd phobia against prefab tub/showers. Not admittedly those are down market but that wasn't her issue - she felt they were harder to clean and were moldy. Which is actually the complete opposite of a tiled bath or shower. A poorly constructed shower is more likely to become moldy because of water intrusion and for sure grout and tile is much more difficult to keep clean than smooth surfaces of an insert. The irony was that she had swapped the insert for a really hideous cheap tile job which I can 100% predict is not waterproof because it is difficult to fully integrate waterproofing after the fact - I just finished a remodel with tiled showers and read about waterproofing quite a bit to avoid water intrusion disasters which are not uncommon. They didn't wind up in the Mason completely crap home but oddly wound up with the one with a basement for him.

Like having a cast on your leg and needing a stick to scratch underneath the cast 🙂 I appreciate your having to probe with a rat tail comb rather than continuing to pat it futilely in search of comfort. I would imagine that the extensions themselves are an irritant so that the need to pat is more than if one didn't have extensions. I know when I have stuff on my head like a headband I need to take the headband off after awhile because my scalp needs a break 🙂 Or if for some reason my hair is pulled in a direction opposite the natural root pattern it gets irritated and annoying and I have to do something. Not sure if it's the same but sometimes in winter when I didn't bother to shave my legs and was wearing heavy tights, the hairs would go up instead of laying flat and I would have serious itchy legs at the end of the day because of the hair not lying right on my legs 🙂

Why do women with extensions seem to be patting and stroking their hair continually? It's not just the Potomac women but it seems like all the housewives with fake hair stroke their hair as if it is a small dog attached to their heads? When I watch Candiace it seems like she is constantly checking with her hands and it drives me crazy. I have no real experience with extensions since I have thick long hair but it's not something I do with my hair - when I fiddle with it, I lift it at the head to get it off my face. Is the hair itchy? Does it feel like it's coming off so they are checking it?

Santa Clarita is hot as hell so the A/C will be going all the time. As others have posted, their choice for a family is inscrutable - Even in the townhouse world, there are places that have a small backyard rather than a front entrance - I don't even know what to call it with no privacy. In California, most people want SOME area in which to sit out because it's pleasant to do so most of the time. As someone who grew up in an urban area, I don't think a toddler and a small dog need a huge yard to run around in because a toddler isn't running around that much and doesn't need space and in a planned development you can take the kid and dog to the park and the benefit is they also have other kids to play with. When they are older they can take themselves to the park with their friends and a big plus if there is a walkable pool in the development for recreation. While I understand that kids have much larger and more toys than in the past because toys are much cheaper than they were years ago because of cheap imports, I also don't understand why toys aren't confined essentially to the bedroom. You keep a supply of toys in the living room and these are put away in an attractive basket or wall unit when necessary. The free standing home was so extreme in terms of its obviously decoy status. In reality I was not be interested in a home that had remained vacant for several years after the death of an elderly person and used solely as storage by the estate. I would assume minimal maintenance had been done - and not just cosmetic stuff. That kind of remodel needs to be done by either a professional flipper or people who have significant expertise and DIY experience because any kind of remodeling in Southern California is three times as expensive as anywhere else - ask me how I know because I just finished a gut remodel of my LA home :-). I don't mind people who know they don't want to do maintenance and opt for a townhouse lifestyle. I have no interest or desire in doing so and so factoring in the cost of landscapers would be a factor. It's really only exterior landscaping that is at issue since anything inside your condo or townhouse the owner is responsible for doing so whether it's a single family home or a high rise condo (using extremes), the owner either needs to do it themselves or hire someone to do it. The only time I roll my eyes is when an affluent couple moans about maintenance or how difficult it would be to clean the home. There was a Utah couple where they bought a home that was about $1.3 million dollars and the wife kept complaining about how hard it would be to clean the larger home. AS IF she didn't have a housekeeper or maid coming often and doing the major cleaning :-). Similarly with pools and landscapes - I personally don't know anyone who doesn't use a pool service or have a gardener for that stuff as part of their normal expenses. Hell my middle class parents back in the day had a gardener to do our postage size front yard in Brooklyn as did everyone else on the block 🙂 - in defense of my father he was extremely handy and did everything to maintain the interior 🙂

In defense of the Nashville woman, god help me, she wanted a backyard space in which the grassy part flowed as part of the deck/patio area. I understand this because it means the grass part of your backyard is a more functional part space. It's not that one doesn't want to physically walk stairs - it's that a deck that is more or less level with the rest of the yard means that one seamlessly uses all parts of the deck. If you have to walk down a flight of stairs to get to the backyard, you wouldn't really use that area as well. It's the same reason I find rooftop decks - especially those reached with spiral staircases - to be a feature that is probably not used frequently. No one is going to shlep food and drink up and back on a regular basis.

Well for starters selling the interviews and pictures to People for its "exclusive" story. Not sure how many followers she has on social media, but every time she is shown using, eating, drinking, vacationing or whatever she is either paid or comped for the service or product.

Those are deceptive statistics. Cota is a private housing development with less than 4000 homes while Orange County contains a large population base with lots of economic diversity. Obviously people who are buying homes worth $1 million to $2 million have higher incomes than those who live in poor areas of Orange County. However, just like any less "desirable" area in any place, people decide whether they would rather have a larger home in a less desirable area or a smaller home in a more desirable place. What Tamra paid for her really nice home in Cota would buy a small "middle class" home in a more desirable area. In some parts of SoCal it would only buy a condo. :-).

Of course it comes down to lifestyle choices and trade offs. However, the reality is that Tamra's house would be much more money if it were relocated closer to the more desirable and expensive coastal communities. Since there's traffic all over, it really depends on where one is commuting and unless one is specifically visiting the beaches and downtown areas, parking isn't an issue. The average price of a home in Coto is far less than the average price of a home closer to the coast. Pasadena is less expensive than Santa Monica and Santa Monica is more expensive than the Valley - obviously comparing apples to apples in terms of the actual home.

Totally agree as it definitely reflects their specific business model in terms of how their clients use the gym. On weekdays the morning hours attract people who work and then stay at home mothers or other people who don't work 9 to 5 until lunch. There is a lull because typically the rhythm of most people is not to exercise after lunch and in the early afternoon. It then picks up the after work/after school crowd. Same on Saturdays as most people who work out do it in the morning rather than kill a whole Saturday at the gym. I am sure they know exactly when to schedule classes in order for there to be enough attendance to make sense. I have no idea whether Cut is actually a money making business but there are a lot of small gyms like this which focus on classes that have been around for a long time that I am familiar with - at least in Southern California so there must be a way they make sense economically. If all you want is the ability to access a treadmill at any hour, there are gyms for that or a lot of people at least in SoCal either have room for cardio equipment or live in a building or HOA development with a rec center. My building has a gym and pool. Though not stated, I would assume that since the gym focuses a lot on personal trainers, you could probably schedule your sessions whenever you wanted since the personal trainers associated with the gym would have access.

The purchase price for Tamra's Cota house was actually $1.78 and they sold Eddie's house for $1.75. It's not a significant price increase for someone with her probable income. I had never heard of Cota prior to Real Housewives and I don't think it's one of the really desirable locations in Orange County. The coastal communities are far more desirable and expensive in terms of what your real estate dollar will buy.

Simon had lost his job and the short sale occurred in the midst of the real estate melt down. I think the finances of both Tamra and Simon have fully recovered from his job loss and the impact of the recession. Purportedly Tamra made $600,000 for the last season and she has additional income from all her promotional activities. I would suspect that Cut is at least self supporting as there is no particular reason for them to run it as a vanity project and there wouldn't be huge ongoing costs. I don't understand why people think it is outside Tamra's purchasing power to support the house. She doesn't seem to have extraordinary expenses at this point - to a great extent a lot of her lifestyle is subsidized in terms of entertainment and travel expenses because all of her stuff is comped. When she posts on her social media accounts it is a quid pro quo for being comped or if she is shown eating or using a product, she is paid a fee. That's why having as many followers as possible is so desirable - because you are paid a lot of money to promote stuff based on your followers.

The draw for my for the Gina storyline is sheer schadenfreude. I will not duplicate the posts in which it was clear last season that the idea of a family living in Orange County for no reason while the husband had a job and apartment in Los Angeles made no sense. The only reason people would have that kind of split living situation is if the family had school age children who were settled and it was temporary while the kids finished the school year. But Gina had absolutely no reason to continue to live in Orange County except that she didn't want to rock the bock and Matt wanted to be able to live free in Los Angeles. I was with the other women completely in the skepticism because parents of young children do not decide to separate or divorce if they are on good terms and having good sex with no discernible reason to not be married. Not that I think that you are a complete martyr to your children in a horrendous relationship but if there is nothing wrong with the marriage, then you do try to stay together so the kids have an intact family. Not that Shannon is a role model god knows but much more realistic that the spouse is miserable but puts up with it for as long as possible until there is some kind of reason it is no longer possible to hide one's head in the sand. So yeah no surprise and it will be fascinating to watch the future demise of the Gina facade crumble. As others have posted, that Housewives check is the only income for the family now as I would imagine Matt is toxic in terms of a job at the executive level he had. I believe he was with PIMCO.

I think Phaedra’s claim that Kandi tried to drug and rape a woman is way more over the line than any of the stupid rumors being spread by any of the OC women. Insinuating that someone has loose morals is mean spirited but not the same as accusing someone of heinous criminal activity. I think the producers do want the ladies to stir the shit but I only up to a point and Phaedra passed that point. And then there are the very real logistics of the women not wanting to work with another cast member. For whatever reason, Porsha wasn’t as tainted with the rape accusation as Phaedra. And probably more valuable as a cast member than Phaedra. Which brings it back to VIcki in terms of value to the cast. From what I’ve read, the producers are trying to attract a younger viewer and Vicki is one of the older members. She also really doesn’t have much of a story line as I don’t think any viewer is emotionally vested enough in her relationship with Steve to care. Shannon has a great come back story. Tamra is much smarter about not going over the line while at the same time being able to bring and instigate the drama. So far, this franchise has escaped the tedious idiocy of a whole season devoted to whether a dog was returned to a shelter or not.

I know nothing about extensions so please enlighten me. Wjy do women with extensions constantly pat and stroke their hair. Is it a nervous habit or so is something that itches or necessary to keep the extensions in place.

At this point they have been making a good amount of money and real estate prices have appreciated so the old home would have been worth a fair amount. I don’t have intimate knowledge of their income or assets. My point is that I don’t think it a financial stretch for someone with Tamra’s income to move into a $2 million dollar home especially after selling the old one. Most people at their income level could afford a home at that price point. They didn’t move into the level of home Heather lives in or Shannon moved out of.

Why would you think someone who is probably making in excess of $500,000 at a minimum can't afford a $2 million home. That is not a huge amount for a home in Orange County and people with ordinary well paying jobs live in homes for that amount. The home that Eddie bought was fairly nice and since he had owned it for awhile, I am sure he had some equity in it so their new home - at least to me - is a fairly normal home purchase for a family of their means.

Thanks I had forgotten the correct term for them. The vintage Mondrian inspired wall units are quite collectible but would never have been used for kitchen cabinets. Yves St. Laurent had mini dresses that were Mondrian inspired and were widely knocked off in the 1960's.

A gang bang is NOT the same as a train. A gang bang is rape. There is absolutely no consent implied or otherwise. A "gang" of men act in concert and rape a woman. A "train" implies that the woman in some way consented to having sex with a succession of men. That is why is implies the woman is of questionable moral character. However, most "trains" fall in the gray area since the woman is so inebriated on some kind of intoxicant that legal consent is not possible. Still because the woman got herself that drunk or whatever, there would still be those who pass a moral judgment on her. There are a very few instances in which women would willingly participate in a train. Years ago there was a woman who was a porn star or some other professional who did one for the Guiness Book of Records. A threesome is always consensual and just another lifestyle choice. It can be any configuration of genders and even include more than three. Obviously it's for the sexually adventurous and as has been pointed out numerous times on this thread, Laurie attempted to shame Vicki on the ski slopes by accusing her of participating in a threesome. I have no idea what any of these people's sex lives actually are but statistically I would imagine a few of them have had a threesome as part of their sexual experimentation although probably not as a steady lifestyle choice. I would doubt Shannon or Emily ever did. Although I find VIcki repulsive and hypocritical, she is such a stupid lump of a bourgeois that I doubt she has - I am still reeling at her stupidity in equating atheism with having no moral compass - only someone with a 10 year old's level of philosophical and spiritual understanding believes that Christians have any kind of monopoly on ethical behavior. And Vicki is also the kind of person with such limited intellectual views of the world that I believe she thinks anyone but a Christian is headed for hell or at best purgatory.