DownTheShore

Family from SC to Clermont-Ferrand France: First thought: around the area where Matthew Clermont from the book "Discovery of Witches" has his castle Second thought: another American princess who wants to bring American suburban life with her. The husband seemed like a nice guy but it was clear that she held all the cards in that relationship. Once again, the cry is heard throughout the land: "Mon Dieu! Comment pouvons-nous laver le bébé?" The place they chose was the roomiest of the bunch. The third place seemed to be the best compromise choice - in town and next to a park and seemed to have the French charm in the apt layout that he wanted. That second place had crappy furniture and a poor kitchen; no way on God's earth she would have chosen that.

I concur with MissT's "cheap-a$$" label in that case.

While none of the designers annoy me this season, none of them have produced anything that has consistently interested me to the point where I wonder just what they're going to think of next. I watch the show because I like design and I like watching the creative process, and because it's a nice change from thenever-ending home remodeling shows.

Why were they moving in the first place? It seemed like they had everything they wanted in their old home. Every time I looked at that woman I thought of her in dog-face makeup. Can't you just see her with her nose painted brown? They seemed like a nice couple, though. I liked that she wanted the homey curb appeal look. I went on Zillow and there are more plantation/Cajun style homes seemingly available than the agent showed them. I realize this show was taped months ago but I'd imagine that the housing stock was proportional then.

Did they ever mention what he did that he was able to pack up his family and spend a year in NZ?

They would probably do better to have the two full-time judges work as coaches, and then have a lineup of ten random people each week vote on which pieces they liked or would have in their homes, if they're going for commercial viability. We don't really know what Ellen intends because we don't know what she considers "good design". Is it statement pieces? Is it something that works well with whatever is her decorating theme? Is it comfort? Is it something completely new and different? We all know good design when we see it, but the "good" portion of that equation is totally subjective. ---- I agree that the guest judge was full of himself, but I still enjoyed watching him knock the starry-eyedness out of the contestants. It wasn't a nurturing experience for them and gave them a taste of the cut-throat level of their profession that they're all aspiring to.

I'd think, though, that New Zealand would have them, especially after the earthquakes.

"How will five of us ever share one bathroom???" Funny how when that's your only option, you make it work. And what was with the tennant having to seal the windows in that house themselves? Wouldn't that be a housing violation in a rental property - not to mention a potential hazard and lawsuit if the window should blow in during a storm?

How can you design a piece that encapsulates a culture if you are not OF that culture? I'd think that the best you could do is interpret the known styles of the culture through your own design aesthetic. I thought that guest judge was like a splash of cold water on all the contestants' egos; he seemed to be the most brutally honest one so far. I think that Moroccan console table would have looked better with a cobalt blue hammered leather top with those brass tacks on the side. The tacks would have added another layer of design but simpler one, and would have tied the brass elements together. Although Miles' storage unit was clever in its functionality, to me it looked like something you'd find in the kids section at Ikea. I did not like those red doors. At all. I wanted to see the guest judge sit in Sef's chair, to see how it looked with a tall guy in it. But I agreed with them that it wasn't the right proportion for the style and it wasn't very original. What an odd choice of style Vivian chose emulate, out of all the possible choices for Italy. I would have gone a more lyrical/sensual route. There's a reason why the style she copied didn't last long there. I also didn't like the rust treatment; that precluded ever putting that piece on a light rug. Melissa really cut her own throat by saying she was basing her design on the little black dress by Chanel - not with all those embellishments on the piece. She should have labeled it a Parisian "bon-bon" or a furniture amuse-bouche

Oregon family to New Zealand: Wife was annoying; she's afraid of tsunamis, spiders, open flames on the gas stove. Idiot woman - she'd be in more danger living in the center city of Wellington from earthquake damage than from a tsunami by the water.

I do like the fact that patterns are ceeeping back into flooring.

I saw a show the other night called, IIRC, "Five Day Flip" with some Australian woman flipping a house in the Minneapolis area. It, too, was on late at night.

I actually prefer sheet vinyl flooring in kitchens. It's softer underfoot than tile, has no grout lines, and if dishes or glassware falls on it, they don't always break. It's not cold underfoot when you're barefoot. It's easy to clean, wears well, and is cheaper and easier to change out when you want a new look. Although I love the look of tile flooring, it wouldn't be my first choice for a kitchen. I'd get wood before tile. I don't like stainless steel appliances because they are a PITA to keep clean, so I'd never put them in a rental property. I like all of the stone and solid surface countertops, with the exception of black granite; that to me is totally boring. I've got Formica in my apt. and I've managed quite well with it for years. The only countertop surface I don't like is ceramic tile, and that's simply because of having to keep those grout lines clean. I think I watch these shows with a totally different attitude than the HHs. I ask myself if I can live with a thig the way it is, while they seem to allow for no compromise.

I'd always go with the outdoors space choice. That's what always bemuses me about the London episodes - some of those house hunters are so adamant that they absolutely MUST live in a particular neighborhood, just for the cachet of that particular neighborhood (in their minds). Yet there are other areas just as nice or as vibrant or even more so, where they can get a better deal but they seem to have tunnel vision. It like someone Stateside told them, "You must get a place in X" and they accept it as gospel. The Paris ones are like that too: ”The Marais! The Marais! "

I've always wondered how many of their friends and relatives made that trek to Guam. -------- That bbq grill he bought [Milton Keynes episode) costs about a thousand dollars, so I guess her having a car to drive during the day probably wasn't going to be an issue for them. I would have taken the city house, though.

Those would require some ingenuity, I agree. My remarks were about those HHs who see a shower stall with no rod or curtain and make some comment about never showering like that before. Those bathrooms with no defined shower area, I think that I'd velcro a shower curtain up on the ceiling. It probably then wouldn't be long enogh to reach the floor, but at least it would cut down on the water spray. If you replaced the bathroom carpeting with the same type and color that was initially there, you'd have actually improved the rental. My walls are supposed to be white but we painted them other colors. My landlord is required to paint the apt if needed. Since they've never painted it since I've lived here, it's way overdue. Whenever I'm finally ready to move, I'm going to ask them to paint the apt and they can paint it back to whatever color they want. I didn't use dark colors so one coat will cover my paint.

Also, you come in with damp bathing suits and not everyone can take a shower at once. You need furniture to sit on that dampness won't bother. Back in the day most of the shore furniture was naugahyde. When my sister redid the cushions on her rattan chairs she had the uphosterer use Sunbrella fabric, which is holding up well.

The excitable girl who got eliminated first had the most potential to be annoying, so we got a quick save on that. I wonder if they deliberately didn't choose a vocal-fry woman to be part of the contestants this year?

The "OMG there's s no oven" thing always cracks me up. Buy a countertop electric oven and voilà! It not as if they're not for sale in most parts of the world. Or, here's a thought - learn to cook on a stove top. Or buy a crockpot. Or an electric pressure cooker. The apt doesn't come with enough burners? Buy a single induction burner and put it away in a cabinet when not in use. Ditto the no shower curtain. Buy an expansion curtain rod and hang a.shower curtain. A lot of apartments don't come with shower rods installed into the walls (mine didn't) because then the idiot renters can't accidentally pull them out of the wall by grabbing on them and ruin the tile. Don't like carpet in the bathroom? Rip it out and put in a piece of sheet flooring. Replace the carpeting when you're about to move out.

When we vacation down the shore, none of the cottages have bathtubs, only showers. When the kidlets were small enough we would pop them in the kitchen sink for their bath. Once they got too big for that, they would stand on the shower and get washed. We would usually get wet while washing them, but that was great fun to them to see us get wet. It's not a big deal. Get them wet and move them away from the spray, soap them all up and then have them stand under the water again. When they are very young, put a folded up washcloth over their eyes and the top of their nose so soap and water doesn't run into them.

I actually liked those metal railings; I thought they were a nice change-up. I didn't like the woman's Boobs-R-Us dress at the reveal, but they seemed to be a nice couple. Painting that brick, changing out the windows, getting rid of the balcony and adding shutters made a world of difference to the look of the house.

I didn't like Sef's table at all. I thought it looked clunky and on my TV I couldn't even see the mirrored reflection of the pattern. There seemed to have been no point inscribing the pattern across the complete underside of the table; no one can see it and it added no function. I also thought the china pattern got lost on the dark wood of the tablefop. Miles' pop-up table was a one note wonder; once your guests have seen the trick the novelty is lost. Also, imagine the mechanism breaking down and a perishable foodstuff getting stuck inside. Alexis' table legs didn't seem to be joined tightly to the tabletop. The inner whitewashing didn't work. I didn't mind the checkerboard effect, by since she had a playful china set, the wood choices should have been a bit more contrasting. She should have either chromed the inner legs or else painted them one of the colors from the plates. Vivian should have used a glass or lucite top or insert to show off the table legs, instead of that solid, white, old-fashioned top that completely hid the most interesting part of them. I liked Kyle's table, don't know that it really complemented his china pattern, but it did look like the most professional piece. Melissa's tabletop was lovely, and though I didn't really mind the shape of the legs, I could see where the judges suggestions had merit.

That Arlington TX couple annoyed me. If she's got a job lined up already in HR before she even graduates, then she's either going into Daddy's or her future father-in-law's company. Wasn't there a shot of a piano in that TX Traditional home when they were touring it? I thought I saw it briefly, and said to myself, "that's their home". It wasn't shown in the final scenes of them in the house. Perhaps the producers are wisening-up?

I was wondering why their housing "budget" was so low? If he works on an oil rig in the US and got transferred to a North Sea rig, then he's no mere roustabout but has some sort of skilled position. The average salary for folks like that is $100,000/yr. So why the cheap housing budget? I'm thinking that perhaps the money isn't going to be used for touring Europe - can't believe that that woman wants to actually go to a place where they really do speak limited English - but will be used to fly the family back to the US frequently. And why on earth, when these Americans from Midwest suburbia move to Europe, do they think they're not going to need a car? They're not used to functioning in cities, they're not used to using public transportation, and being without a car when you're used to having one is like having a limb cut off. Best to get a car, even if it's not used that often. Then at least the homebound spouse has the illusion that they have free mobility. I do realize the European public transportation systems usually make cars superfluous, but it's a necessary psychological crutch for most Americans, I'd think, at least at the beginning of their stay. Perhaps it's very mean of me, but I don't really feel much sympathy for the stay-at-home parents who are panic-stricken about moving to Europe. Moving to the back of beyond in Africa or Asia, yes. But Europe, no. I think that it is also probably healthier for the kids to experience a different culture rather than allow the parent to inculcate into them that their home culture is the best and safest by staying in one place all their lives.

The ones that annoy the heck out of me, though, are the ones who'll take a POS apt because they don't want to spend the extra $50/mo for the much nicer one because it's "over the budget" and they'll maybe have to take one less trip or eat out one less time per month. If I have to live in a foreign country, then I want my nest there to be as roomy and as comfortable and comforting as possible.