CruiseDiva

I'm a semi-retired travel writer and have authored guidebooks for ten-plus years. I've also hosted web sites and written for magazines and newspapers. The pay sucks these days. It's certainly not enough to live on unless you have a lot of regular outlets. Print assignments generally generate higher fees than articles for web sites or blogs. Unfortunately, the market for print publications, and even guidebooks, has shrunk considerably over the years.

It would be and HGTV probably already has it ready to air. I felt kind of bad for the wife because that newbuild house was perfect for her until they talked about wanting to rent out a carriage house when family wasn't staying there. Can you say Air B&B? I found that to be something of a turn-off.

I just watched the Brookline couple. Why, oh why, do these insufferable twits want vintage houses with "charm" and then proceed to rip it all out to achieve the hipster open concept look? I don't get it. I might have liked the blue used in the back of the kitchen cabinets if it had come close to matching the stove. Each blue was a different shade and the turquoise fireplace didn't go with anything. Were those people color blind? I agree that stripping the finish off the fireplace and restaining it lighter would have been the way to go. Personally, I'd have done that to the fireplace and painted the dark beams to lighten up the room. The "island" was a loser. It was too low to function as a prep space and the baby poop green paint color was obnoxious. It was a good idea that turned out to be a total fail. Even with regular height chairs it looked too low to be comfortable.

I record the episodes on the DVR and watch them later. This morning I caught one of a couple moving from Florida to the Atlanta area. They were so reasonable and loving and their little boy was adorable. I enjoying the joking back and forth about needing a three car garage for his future sports car. The houses they saw all had two car garages and he seemed fine with that as long as he had a spot for a manly sized TV. I would like to have them as neighbors.

I enjoy the show, especially when the house is built in a permanent location that includes the land. I wonder, though, how many houses in that area of Texas really need a "guest" house and why a guest house needs a full kitchen and a washer and dryer. That just seems odd to me.

In the last episode they flip-flopped the location of the kitchen and dining room because of a load bearing wall and didn't show the dining room in the reveal. What they did show looked good, but the living room was tiny next to the ginormous kitchen. I hate it that the reveal in these shows is so rushed.

Up to date or nice? Some of the houses on the show look like dumps.

LOL! Aw gee, I remember the 50s when we had three bedrooms and us four kids had to share. Horrors! I had to share a room with my baby brother. And we had one bathroom. Then my step-father got a job in another state and all he could find to rent were two bedroom houses. My parents slept on a hide-a-bed in the living room and us kids had bunk beds in one room and a trundle bed in the other and still only one tiny bathroom. After his next transfer the step-father found a three bedroom house with TWO bathrooms. Man, I thought we were in tall cotton, even though I still had to share a room with the baby brother. So, now that I'm an old broad, I feel rich with two and a half bathrooms for just my husband and me and the full bathrooms have double sinks. I don't need therapy because now I have my very own sink. /sarc

That's correct! Her duck lips and faux fingernails were even more cringe-worthy than the real estate agent's furry false eyelashes. The whole show was such a train wreck that I couldn't stop watching it.

We did the same and the square stepping stones always got covered by debris and pine needles--pine trees here shed needles all year. We had them taken up and put in a flagstone walkway that's cemented in place. Much safer, less slippery, and looks better. I've been watching Rustic Rehab and my heart is breaking for them and the residents of Paradise. Seeing pictures of the aftermath is so sad.

That HH wife drove me up a wall with her stupid suggestions for renovating. We bought our house new in 1987 and my "personal touches" were furniture, window coverings, and pictures on the walls. We have recently put in new kitchen countertops and flooring, swapped carpet in the family room for wood flooring, and are in the middle of a master bath reno, removing a "garden" tub and replacing it with a big shower and putting a linen closet where the old shower was. Tastes and styles change over the years and, in our case, it took 30 years before we felt the need to do major work. 1400 square feet means tiny rooms in a house with more than two bedrooms. Yep, they should do the math.

I think the BB house was a tri-level. They were pretty popular in that era.

I just selected faucets, shower head, and accessories for my master bath remodel in stainless steel finish to replace all the 1987 brass. Can't wait for the work to start! All the tile will be a neural ivory and the walls pale blue.

I didn't notice the braces, but nearly fell off my chair laughing when they both dissed the "barn" door on the closet.

No fussing about the lack of stainless appliances and no insistence on white Shaker style cabinets and granite or quartz countertops. What a nice normal family. Really refreshing! That old format was so superior to the current one with all the eye rolling and complaining.

But they got that accent wall of fake weathered wood tile! And the fancy blue patterned tile over the stove! And the pebble tile for the shower floor and a strip of it up the shower wall! Those items added unnecessary expense to their budget and no doubt there were other things they could have saved on with less expensive options. The one thing they should have splurged on was a decent dining table and chairs.

I use coupons for things I actually buy often and use. Takes up no room at all--I keep the coupons in a little box that's attached to the fridge with a magnet.

Woman was a major bitch. I can't imagine being a family member who has to spend 10 hours in a car with her to get to the beach. Poor husband.

All her eye rolling was getting on my nerves. She certainly thought she was a diva. "French country" in a Tudor style house? Can you say tacky?!? The husband was cute...the only reason I watched the entire show.

Thank you! I'll be happy to have an updated master bathroom to go with my updated kitchen. No more "welcome to 1987"! LOL!! Will share photos when complete in a couple months. As soon as master bath is complete I'm sure DH will want to re-do the hall bathroom that he uses.

I'm remodeling my master bathroom and selected tile this week. The specialty tile shop didn't even have a display with those fugly cement tiles. I commented on that and the nice lady told me they simply aren't popular here. She and I agreed they are tacky looking. I picked tiles in a nice calming ivory for the shower and the floor. The walls will be painted a very light blue.

I lived in a real honest to goodness farm house as a teenager. We didn't have any of that farm house chic crap.

I was really surprised that two psychic mediums from Australia were moving to the US. From what I found online, "The Visa Waiver Program enables nationals of certain countries, including Australia, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom, to travel to the United States for tourism or business for stays of 90 days or less without obtaining a visa, if certain requirements are met." However, "In general, a person who wishes to immigrate to the United States must have a petition approved by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services before applying for an immigrant visa. The petition is filed either by a qualified relative or a potential employer at a USCIS office in the United States." Obviously they were planning to live in the OC long term so they must have gotten permission to immigrate to the US. Someone must have decided that CA needed two more fruits and nuts :)

I remembered to look for the dishwasher as well. Good to see it! I really liked both of those houses.

I really could have done without the actress playing Scarlet because of her awful voice. It was rare that I could understand any of her lines, I can only surmise that it was because she did a poor job of substituting her Australian accent with a Southern American one. Being from the South, I'd rather hear no accent at all than a fake Southern accent. The British actor playing Gunnar did a good job with his vanilla American speaking voice.