DownTheShore

I've always thought that I would want a house with a detached garage, at most connected by a breezeway. I just don't like the idea having a running car emitting exhaust in a room below a bedroom, not to mention the fact that the insulation usually isn't enough to keep the floors warm.

I watched it once. I don't know if my liking for Craig is strong enough to get me to watch it again. Isn't he also supposed to have some half-hour talk show in the works? If so, I'd prefer that to this.

I didn't even know he got married, so I wouldn't even recognize her even if she is in the US commercials - sorry. I really want to give props to the backup band on The Voice. They are truly an asset to those singers, supplementing their performance but never overwhelming it. Ditto, for later shows, the set designers. I was watching America's Got Talent this summer and I was really surprised how much the sets and lighting actually worked against the performers and distracted from them. I've always felt that the sets on The Voice have complemented the song choices and the singers.

I thought she wouldn't be back again, after she managed to take advantage of doing her own home. That usually seems to be the swan song for hosts - after they make sure their assistants get their homes taken care of.

That is true, and I wonder why they are continuing to do that? Given the fact that they are probably responsible for breaking a lot of the stereotypes about gay couples and bringing them into the mainstream by making shows about them acceptable to so-called Middle America, it's odd that they would actually be creating a stereotype.

I was just surprised that there wasn't anything offered to them that was more in line with the price they were comfortable with (which became obvious was about a million) that gave them the space and the views that they turned out to want. I wonder if it was just because they wanted to stay in the more touristy area of the island?

I am tired of the 15-17 year old wunderkind category; that's become overpopulated lately. I want to see singers from all age categories and all ranges of experience. It sort of reminds me of how in Olympic women's gymnastics for a while all we were seeing were 12 and 13 year old girls and anyone who was say 17 was considered "old". It made the competitions less fun to watch because all of they gymnasts were virtually interchangeable in look, voice, and body type. I liked that older guy who had tried out, the one who had wanted to be a singer when he was young and had to give it up and take over the family business when his father had a heart attack. Their criticisms of him weren't much different than the ones they've given to the nervous young singers, yet the young ones are more likely to be chosen, with their problems recognized as "potential" while it is a detriment to the singers with more mature voices.

The only time I'll turn on Fox News now is if they're live-covering some massive police car chase. That's the only thing they seem to do well anymore. The rest of their broadcast is merely a means for Roger Ailes to make money for News Corp by catering to the portion of the population who can't be bothered to have an original thought of their own and who need to have their own prejudices and bigotry constantly reinforced. The news reports are full of hyperbole, misinformation and misdirection, and the Fox News viewers lap it all up, totally uncritically. All of their reporters and announcers are a disgrace to the journalism profession, and are greater whores than the working girls who at least honestly ply their trade. What I find most disturbing of all is how much influence they have over the Republican Party and its platforms. How they are truly creating a know-nothing society just by the constant reiterations of lies and innuendos. (don't hold back, DTS, tell us what you really think - lol)

I was watching the one tonight set in the Canary Islands, and while I liked the couple, I would imagine that the real estate agent would be pulling his hair out over the fact that they didn't have a set budget and that they couldn't tell him what they wanted, only what they didn't like. It was followed by a repeat of that Lisa Anselmo one (mother died, she moved to Paris, Adrian found her a very small apt). I was looking online and found this blog by her re her current situation: http://myparttimeparislife.com/2014/09/09/fear-and-loathing-in-paris/

I look at those huge closets, and thinking of the fact that some of those houses are on slabs, and say to myself, "there's room to store some of the Christmas decorations in there" - lol. That's the direction my mind travels in.

Oh, that Atlanta loft woman's voice was horrible! I turned on the show halfway through and then sort of watched in horrified fashion, that someone would deliberately speak that way.

Her pitches are going to seem especially hit or miss if the producers are showing the auditions out of sequence. They might be mixing the more awkward early ones with the more polished later ones. We wouldn't notice it with Blake or Adam, and Pharrell has a "cool" persona to maintain so there isn't going to be much fluctuation in his behavior.

I am sort of repulsed by the women who go into those huge walk-in closets - those really big ones that are like a separate room - and then complain that they aren't going to be large enough for all their clothes, and their husbands agree. I find myself wondering why on earth one person needs so many clothes, and why they seem to be proud of the fact that they have so many.

Anyone watching that Beachfront Bargain show, and are you as sick of seeking cookie-cutter, shoebox-shaped condos as much as I am? And wondering why a family of 4-8 people would choose a one-bedroom unit? ---- I was watching that Vacation For Free show a couple weeks ago and they were redoing a house on Long Beach Island NJ that the couple planned to rent out for most of the season, and my sister and I were laughing over how completely wrong they did the place if they wanted to get season-long rentals at that location for the price they were asking. My sister has a place down the shore that she rents for most of the season, and we've rented down there since I was a kid, and that place with its lack of storage space and lack of sleeping spaces is not going to be a hot property. That backyard seating area was crappy, and the wide spacing between the boards on the fencing surrounding the hot tub negated its privacy factor. I didn't notice any air conditioning or heating (other than that modern-style fireplace), so that limits the rental period at the beginning and end of the season, and will be hell on the days when the temperature is in the 90's and the humidity levels are skyhigh.

I think that she's probably trying to differentiate herself from both Shakira and Christina and create her own niche among the boys.

I don't get that whole aversion to close neighbors thing, either. If you want to live close to a city, you're going to have close neighbors. If you want to pretend you're wealthy and live in a McMansion but can't afford the price of acreage, then you're going to have close neighbors. If it's that much of an issue to you, then save up more money until you can afford something with more distance. It's not as if the majority of people spend their time looking in each others windows, and if you don't want people to see in, put up blinds or drapes or curtains or translucent shades over the offending windows. Problem solved.

Well, yes, I doubt if any of us truly care, but it's fun to get involved with the silliness of the artificial drama as if it were real. It's on par with watching the soap operas. :-D (We really do need some smilies on this forum) It was nice to see Wales for a change. I am so sick of all the Australia episodes, and before that, the Belize ones. That one that they had set in Paraguay was, I think, the first time that I've seen any videos of that country.

I thought that having artificial grass was a good compromise for homeowners in the Southwest who want the look of grass but are conscious about how much water is wasted taking care of it in that climate. I can never understand why people move to the SW for its climate and look, and then immediately try to recreate what they had back in their home states. I'd actually rather have a batting cage in my neighbor's yard than a basketball court. The sound of a baseball being hit is much quieter than someone dribbling a basketball on a hard surface. And if she doesn't like the look of it, they can always plant some trees or shrubs that will mask that direction.

I've been enjoying watching to see which coach has subsequently decided, after turning his/her chair around and listening to the performance to the end, that they really don't want that person on their team and how they manage to dissuade the person from actually choosing him/her. I'm sort of getting tired of all the tales of woe and tragedy too. I thought that woman's mother had just died recently, not 17 years ago, the way she was getting all choked up. She was sort of the icing on the cake for my growing dislike over the stretches the producers are making to insert human interest elements into the backstories. I mean, like I'm supposed to be in awe of a 16 year old who's wanted to be a singer all her life - all brief 16 years of it? The majority of us, if we've lived long enough, have had tragedy in our lives and while I don't want to be cynical about people's real motives behind why they are pursuing a musical career, sometimes I just roll my eyes at the reasons they give. I think that the older, more professional singers are usually at a disadvantage on this show. It's probably very easy for the judges to tell who they are, without even seeing them, and I'm guessing that they probably think that there isn't going to be much of a chance of improving them beyond what they've already achieved on their own, Perhaps it might be harder to wean them away from any singing idiosyncrasies that the coaches noticed. There is some degree of inconsistency in what they say as opposed to who they choose. For some classic songs, they seem to want a note-by-note duplication of the original artist's phrasing, yet in other instances, they chide the performer for not making the song their own and stayng too close to the original. I can't quite figure out why some songs are apparently sacrosanct while others aren't. Makes me wonder if they had listened to Clapton do the acoustic version of "Layla", would they have turned around because it was an entirely new interpretation of the song, or snubbed him because he changed it too much? ;->

I've sorta been liking Gwen's old-time movie star look. As much as I enjoyed Shakira as a judge, I was getting a little tired of the Latin spitfire schtick. Gwen's never been much of a blip on my musical radar and I don't know that I could name any songs by No Doubt, though I might recognize a song if I heard it. What has surprised me with the coaches over the years is how much musical knowledge they have, more than I ever appreciated. It'll be interesting to see if, when she actually coaches, she has the same depth of musical knowledge and can transform and improve her singers in areas other than style. I think that it's possible that she has more depth than she is being given credit for.

I am really getting a kick out of watching Pharrell as a coach because he's managing to give all of those contestants an ego boost while giving them constructive criticism, which takes skill. He's also holding his own with Blake and Adam. He seems to be really enjoying himself on that show and looking forward to actually working with those singers, rather than just acting as an advisor to another coach. He seems to be a good match with the other three.

People forget that with hardwood floors, you have to dust them with a mop or a Swiffer or something, because dust is much more visible on them. We only had carpeting the living room when I was growing up so the rest of the floors had to be mopped because a vacuum cleaner didn't really do a lot for dust.

Didn't the real estate agent mention helpfully that it was downhill on the way to work? My first thought was, "that means that it's all uphill on the way home". I couldn't believe that she was going to have to bike-ride that distance all the time. What a piece-of-work he was, not putting her circumstances before his, and what a doormat she was for going along with it. ------ One of the things that I find annoying about the HHI episodes is that these people are so particular and specific about what they want in their home - and most of the time IT'S A ONLY FREAKIN' RENTAL PROPERTY! They're not buying it and they're not going to live there for the rest of their lives! If they've got a standard one year lease, THEY CAN MOVE SOMEWHERE ELSE IF THEY'RE NOT HAPPY! Aaarrrghh! Drives me crazy.

What is really striking to me is how divergent a lot of these couples wants and desires are; makes me wonder why on earth they got married in the first place if they have such basic disagreements? I don't know. In my family, "happy wife, happy life" seems to be a motto, and the wives make sure they don't abuse that attitude.

The fact that they are now renting out their pied-a-terre makes me wonder how much of her enthusiasm was just a show in order to hype up the place for the rental market? Wonder how long it'll be until they buy another, larger place with a sea view for themselves?