Renovation Island - General Discussion

[LittleIggy]

OMG! That place is a money pit writ large. Did they even inspect it before purchasing?

[NJMom]

I really liked this show. Something different. I looked up the resort and thee price per night is unbelievable.

[CrazyInAlabama]

Spoiler

I looked at the website for the resort, and the main hotel rooms rent for almost $500 a night, and the villas are just under $1500 a night.   I'm hoping it includes meals at least. They've closed until October 2020 because of Covid, but the place looks spectacular.   

I liked the show, and was amazed at the price per night.    I didn't like the arguing between Bryan and his wife.    I remember when they showed one of their house builds, and it was the same arguing.    I guess it works for them, but I dislike it.    

I was shocked at the price per night also.   

Edited June 10, 2020 by CrazyInAlabama

[camom]

I'm not sure about this show yet.  It could be interesting to watch the resort come to life, but I find the people annoying; they seem quite impressed with themselves.  Are the kids just left to roam free all day every day?  I'm all for letting kids just play, but I'm wondering if they have any structure at all.

[LittleIggy]

1 hour ago, camom said:

I'm not sure about this show yet.  It could be interesting to watch the resort come to life, but I find the people annoying; they seem quite impressed with themselves.  Are the kids just left to roam free all day every day?  I'm all for letting kids just play, but I'm wondering if they have any structure at all.

They probably hired a local person to watch over them during the day. Also the wife said that the young woman who helped her clean out their villa used to be the kids nanny (now her assistant or something like that). 
BTW, what is the name of the resort?

[NJMom]

2 hours ago, LittleIggy said:

They probably hired a local person to watch over them during the day. Also the wife said that the young woman who helped her clean out their villa used to be the kids nanny (now her assistant or something like that). 
BTW, what is the name of the resort?

Caerula Mar Club.

[Grrarrggh]

The owners (stars of the show?) are too annoying for me. All their whining about money, when they're obviously rich gets to me. As does white people coming in and hiring poor blacks. I feel a bit bad for their kids. 

[LittleIggy]

What’s wrong with hiring local people? I’m sure they were glad for the work.

[Grrarrggh]

12 minutes ago, LittleIggy said:

What’s wrong with hiring local people? I’m sure they were glad for the work.

Nothing with hiring them, I'm just sad that they're not the ones in charge. 

[CrazyInAlabama]

I'm guessing that as with other HGTV shows, the stars do some of the work (Bryan and the other man have worked together for years), the wife does the design, and a huge number of local people are working too.   There is no way that a few people could do the amount of work to finish even one villa in the time allotted to open the resort on time.    Plus, a resort with a spa, three restaurants or cafes, and all of the work involved in a resort of that size must have a huge staff.  

[CruiseDiva]

4 hours ago, CrazyInAlabama said:

I'm guessing that as with other HGTV shows, the stars do some of the work (Bryan and the other man have worked together for years), the wife does the design, and a huge number of local people are working too.   There is no way that a few people could do the amount of work to finish even one villa in the time allotted to open the resort on time.    Plus, a resort with a spa, three restaurants or cafes, and all of the work involved in a resort of that size must have a huge staff.  

I've been to those islands many times and my bet is that the locals are happy for the reopening of the resort and the jobs that will be available.

[Grrarrggh]

You can be happy for a job and still sad/angry/frustrated that someone white is always your boss. Especially when you live somewhere where white is the minority. 

Edited June 11, 2020 by Grrarrggh

[Pike Ludwell]

What happened to the place in the first place? Hurricane Dorian? Pretty risky re-building there. They could finally get it going and then it's destroyed again.

[CrazyInAlabama]

If the wife doesn't stop shrieking at every cockroach, crab, and lizard she sees, she's going to be shrieking a lot. 

There's a wikipedia article about Island of Bryan, the resort was built in the 1960s, and last operated eight years before Bryan bought it. 

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Island_of_Bryan#:~:text=During the show Island of,and opened in June 2019.&text=In 2020%2C because of the,resort had to close down.

[Frost]

Bryan is a mansplainer.  Very annoying.  He doesn't share his schedule/plans with Sarah, but expects her to run everything design decision past him.  I was really looking forward to this show from the previews, but the first two shows have not been that entertaining.  Too much focus on the couple arguing and not enough on the actual design and decisions being made.  I keep trying to watch these shows because I like the process, not the personalities.  HGTV is way too fond of pushing the "talent" over the project itself.

[Gam2]

I watched the first episode tonight. From watching Brian/Sarah in previous shows (which I’ve liked), I know that all of the “conflict” was producer generated. It’s just a bunch of bulls..t to generate interest. I always liked this couple but not on this show. 

[MaKaM]

2 hours ago, Frost said:

Bryan is a mansplainer.  Very annoying.  He doesn't share his schedule/plans with Sarah, but expects her to run everything design decision past him.  I was really looking forward to this show from the previews, but the first two shows have not been that entertaining.  Too much focus on the couple arguing and not enough on the actual design and decisions being made.  I keep trying to watch these shows because I like the process, not the personalities.  HGTV is way too fond of pushing the "talent" over the project itself.

I haven't seen any of their other shows (that I remember, though he is familiar so maybe commercials?) but I don't find them personable or interesting enough to be so much the focus of the show. If it were the couple from Big Texas Fix or even Chip and Joanna, it might work better but I am just not a fan of these two. Heck, I'd even take the Property Brothers over them. I still don't have a very good idea of how big this resort is or what they are trying to accomplish with it (except for making money). I've also only been half-paying attention, so yeah.

As an aside, I too have ordered tile and because it came from different production lots there was lots of variation in the colors and the sizes were also different enough to be a challenge. It stinks when tile producers don't have good quality control.

[Frost]

31 minutes ago, MaKaM said:

I still don't have a very good idea of how big this resort is or what they are trying to accomplish with it (except for making money).

Me either.  That's the stuff I'm actually interested in.  What happened to the resort in the first place?  What will the impact be of the construction and opening on the local community?  How long is the lead time between ordering supplies from the US and getting them delivered?  Bryan keeps mentioning meeting these local experts in the various trades.  I'd like to see more of that.   I'm probably the wrong audience for this show!  I want more of a documentary and less of a docudrama.  

[dbell1]

Normally this is the type of show I’d love: great location, tons of remodeling, high end design. But, people arguing, the wife walking around in resort wear shrieking at bugs, the husband complaining because he bought a dump, the kids disappearing off camera to do what exactly, it just seemed boring and scripted. I didn’t make it 30 minutes into the first show before deleting from my dvr.  

[MsTree]

On 6/10/2020 at 10:19 PM, Grrarrggh said:

You can be happy for a job and still sad/angry/frustrated that someone white is always your boss. Especially when you live somewhere where white is the minority. 

If I didn't have a job and finally got hired by a minority, I wouldn't care if my boss was purple! 

[Grrarrggh]

4 hours ago, MsTree said:

If I didn't have a job and finally got hired by a minority, I wouldn't care if my boss was purple! 

Sigh. It's a problem that is so much deeper than that. 

[Pike Ludwell]

16 hours ago, CrazyInAlabama said:

If the wife doesn't stop shrieking at every cockroach, crab, and lizard she sees, she's going to be shrieking a lot. 

There's a wikipedia article about Island of Bryan, the resort was built in the 1960s, and last operated eight years before Bryan bought it. 

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Island_of_Bryan#:~:text=During the show Island of,and opened in June 2019.&text=In 2020%2C because of the,resort had to close down.

Interesting. So they had it largely built by the time of Dorian. Dorian ravaged the Bahamas. The article doesn't mention the storm, but apparently their island was not hit too hard.

[alexa]

And plus when the wife said it would be one thing if they had an architect, etc, to help the planning.... blah, blah, blah.  Why would you buy such a big place and have a tight timeframe and not invest in someone to help you coordinate your process?  You can't just find constant problems and then to expect the person that is doing the design to just be all ready with measurements and plans for the problems you just found.  It is silly.  I see from the previous posts that they did finish the work, but I am not sure they did it in the smartest way possible.

[CrazyInAlabama]

I love how the pool turned out.    I looked at the resort website, and the meals are not included with those huge villa and room prices.   The resort was scheduled to close from August to October, but this year it closed a while ago because of Covid.    My guess is that there will be local management at the resort, since the family is still living in Canada.  

I call shenanigans on last night's story about not having a lot of things on order, there is no way experienced construction people like the Beaumlers did that.  

Edited June 15, 2020 by CrazyInAlabama

[toodywoody]

These people must have a shit ton of money or they have someone who has it that they aren't showing us.

While the location is beautiful, it's a lot of work going on. 

And the tile, I'm sorry but I have tile in my bathroom and whoever put it in, I want to kick their ass because it gets wet and I almost bust my ass all the time. I know this is suppose to be high end, but gd, that's a lot of fucking tile for one bathroom, I'd be pissed too if each one took me 4 days because of how my wife wanted it.

[chessiegal]

11 minutes ago, toodywoody said:

These people must have a shit ton of money or they have someone who has it that they aren't showing us.

He's definitely not your average Joe handyman. Among other ventures, he has his own construction company, and has done several tv shows.

Bryan Baeumler

[Frost]

Quote

The resort has been designed around eco-friendliness, fair-trading, sourcing from sustainable farming producers.

This is a quote from a wiki site.  I certainly got absolutely nothing about any of this from watching two episodes of the show!  The article was 100% more interesting than what they put on TV.  Very frustrating.

[MaKaM]

16 hours ago, Frost said:

Me either.  That's the stuff I'm actually interested in.  What happened to the resort in the first place?  What will the impact be of the construction and opening on the local community?  How long is the lead time between ordering supplies from the US and getting them delivered?  Bryan keeps mentioning meeting these local experts in the various trades.  I'd like to see more of that.   I'm probably the wrong audience for this show!  I want more of a documentary and less of a docudrama.  

Yeah, I didn't realize how much I liked the computer graphics lots of the other shows use to show what the overall project is and show what changes they are planning on making until now. To me, it just looks like they are going around like headless chickens doing a bit of a thing here, a bit of a thing there, and focusing most of their time/energy on one room/suite. Get Tamra Day out there to break it into phases!

[ByaNose]

I started watching the show last week. It’s the usual husband and wife and tense moments. Oh, no will we get it done in time? Will said husband and wife argue about a style design or choice? Is the weather going impede our work outside? Basically, wash, lather and repeat. The husband and wife are attractive people so they have going for them. I’m sure their are 500 people working behind the scenes to get the project. I doubt the crew of 5 that they are showing would be able to complete such a project. As usual, most of it’s fake and I’m sure the reveal will be fine. I was also thinking what the hell are the kids doing all day? I hope they have WiFi. LOL!!!!. It’s a great place to be “stuck” in as a kid but I’m sure they were like, “Um, I want to go home and play with my friends“.

[topanga]

18 hours ago, dbell1 said:

Normally this is the type of show I’d love: great location, tons of remodeling, high end design. But, people arguing, the wife walking around in resort wear shrieking at bugs, the husband complaining because he bought a dump, the kids disappearing off camera to do what exactly, it just seemed boring and scripted. I didn’t make it 30 minutes into the first show before deleting from my dvr.  

If the husband says, "We risked everything" one more time, I'm going to... who am I kidding? He's going say it many more times, and I'm gonna keep watching anyway. I'm hooked. 

I can't tell if this couple is being melodramatic for the cameras or if Bryan really is that mean to his wife. Not mean, but controlling, condescending, and patronizing. I know he's the construction "manager," but aren't he and his wife partners on this project? Why does he talk to her and treat her like a child? "Promise me you won't change anything else." "That absolutely cannot happen." or "Do you want me to send you an email?" in response to the wife's request for a construction schedule so she can adapt her design schedule. 

I wonder what their marketing plan is beyond the website? I suppose having this show will help, but how do they plan to make this resort work if it failed the first time? 

And where does their money come from? Family money? Do they work in finance? 

[chessiegal]

22 minutes ago, topanga said:

And where does their money come from? Family money? Do they work in finance? 

They have plenty of money. He owns and is CEO of his own construction company. He's also had multiple tv shows on HGTV. I linked his wiki page above, but I'll link it again.

Bryan Baeumler

[LittleIggy]

If the wife didn’t flit around dressed as if she were on a resort vacation, I would take her more seriously. She comes across as a dilettante, IMO.

[MsTree]

18 hours ago, Grrarrggh said:

Sigh. It's a problem that is so much deeper than that. 

Deeper than empty pockets and not being able to feed my family?  Sorry but IMO that takes precedent over everything.

[Grrarrggh]

20 hours ago, MsTree said:

Deeper than empty pockets and not being able to feed my family?  Sorry but IMO that takes precedent over everything.

Look at the reasons WHY black families have empty pockets, and why they're a majority race on that island but not the owners of business like this one. 

[mandigirl]

On 6/15/2020 at 5:15 PM, topanga said:

I can't tell if this couple is being melodramatic for the cameras or if Bryan really is that mean to his wife. Not mean, but controlling, condescending, and patronizing. I know he's the construction "manager," but aren't he and his wife partners on this project? Why does he talk to her and treat her like a child?

This is what has struck me about this show as well. Bryan is harsh and his wife comes off as controlled and naive. I suspect that its just for the cameras, but this "drama" is not a selling point, it makes me not want to watch the show. 

They seem to be designing and constructing on the fly which makes no sense, so I hope that it's just for the cameras too. I would have thought that most if not all of the basic design decisions would have been worked out before they left Canada. 

Bryan micromanaging his wife is distasteful, but his wife trying to make major layout changes without any construction input is just bizarre and a waste of time.

It may be difficult for some people to appreciate the racial dynamics created in a post-colonized region, but the imbalances and legacies that creates are entrenched and very very real. 

[Slakkie]

8 hours ago, Grrarrggh said:

Look at the reasons WHY black families have empty pockets, and why they're a majority race on that island but not the owners of business like this one. 

Actually these resorts help the locals.  I have been going to St Kitts for over 20 years.  When the island switched from Sugar to Tourism (which was a brave move!) it took a bit of time but the locals who are entrepreneurs have increased their lifestyle.

One of the guys we have become friends with now makes more money in half a day taking tourists on tours than he did in a month doing backbreaking work with the govt (he carried telephone poles into the jungle). His kids are going to college now.  His wife went to college and has a good job.  They expanded their home for each child to have their own room.

The land his home is on is amazing - if he decides to sell it it will sell for more than I could pay - all because of tourism.  So these resorts can help locals - especially locals who take a leap of faith.

Now the big inclusive types in Jamaica or the cruise line islands - probably not so much but that is why I like to travel where my dollar puts money with locals not with big international corporations.

[Grrarrggh]

9 hours ago, Slakkie said:

Actually these resorts help the locals.  I have been going to St Kitts for over 20 years.  When the island switched from Sugar to Tourism (which was a brave move!) it took a bit of time but the locals who are entrepreneurs have increased their lifestyle.

One of the guys we have become friends with now makes more money in half a day taking tourists on tours than he did in a month doing backbreaking work with the govt (he carried telephone poles into the jungle). His kids are going to college now.  His wife went to college and has a good job.  They expanded their home for each child to have their own room.

The land his home is on is amazing - if he decides to sell it it will sell for more than I could pay - all because of tourism.  So these resorts can help locals - especially locals who take a leap of faith.

Now the big inclusive types in Jamaica or the cruise line islands - probably not so much but that is why I like to travel where my dollar puts money with locals not with big international corporations.

As I said before it's more complicated than that. It's a bit like how black people on SNAP (food stamps by another name) are happy they probably won't starve to death BUT they'd rather not be impoverished to begin with. They would rather the systematic racism that keeps them poor be addressed. It's the same on the Caribbean islands. 

[MsTree]

9 hours ago, Grrarrggh said:

They would rather the systematic racism that keeps them poor be addressed.

Why must everything be about racism? It's not Brian/Sarah's fault, nor is it their job to address it. They are on the island to make some folks lives better as Slakkie articulated perfectly.

[topanga]

A lot of people are making good points, but let's stay away from the political and be civil with one another. 

[chessiegal]

I first saw Bryan on one of his shows where it was just him and his co-workers and clients. I really enjoyed those shows and appreciate his expertise. Then he did the show renovating his house and we meet Sarah. She came off as a whiney entitled princess - cost/practicality be damned, she wanted what she wanted. Such an unlikeable person. I see she hasn't changed.

[ByaNose]

I did enjoy Bryan’s other shows. While it did have some comedic elements it was more This Old House than the usual HGTV format (involving spouses). I like him and he looks great all tan with his scruff. The wife is a little annoying though. It does look like he gets frustrated with her with the eye rolls and such. He’s doing the heavy lifting and it must make it harder if someone (his wife in this cases) is making changes without telling you. Of course, how much of this is exaggerated or if she’s really like this we’ll never know until one of them goes all Tarek and goes off the reservation.  

[LittleIggy]

I figured Bryan and his wife were Canadian based on their pronunciation of out, about, etc. Were his prior shows on Canadian HGTV?

[chessiegal]

8 hours ago, LittleIggy said:

I figured Bryan and his wife were Canadian based on their pronunciation of out, about, etc. Were his prior shows on Canadian HGTV?

His shows were on US channels also. Can't remember if it was HGTV or DIY.

[CrazyInAlabama]

Tonight they found most of the metal roofs were rotten.   They brought in a crew from the U.S. or Canada, to do the work, and to teach the local craftsmen how to do the metal roofs.    I'm hoping some of the construction issues are just for TV, or they're terrible planners.  

(Yes, the Baeumlers are Canadian.   They have run some of the their shows on HGTV, or maybe DIY).  

Edited June 22, 2020 by CrazyInAlabama

[LittleIggy]

On 6/21/2020 at 10:17 PM, CrazyInAlabama said:

Tonight they found most of the metal roofs were rotten.   They brought in a crew from the U.S. or Canada, to do the work, and to teach the local craftsmen how to do the metal roofs.    I'm hoping some of the construction issues are just for TV, or they're terrible planners.  

(Yes, the Baeumlers are Canadian.   They have run some of the their shows on HGTV, or maybe DIY).  

Yeah, I can’t believe they are just discovering all of this stuff! Didn’t they do an inspection before buying? 😳
Will there be no bathtubs? Some people would enjoy taking a nice soak in their expensive villa.

Edited June 23, 2020 by LittleIggy

[chessiegal]

17 minutes ago, LittleIggy said:

Didn’t they do an inspection before buying? 😳

Bryan said at the beginning of the 1st episode - is this worse than the last time we were here?, thus implying they visited it previously at some point.

[topanga]

23 hours ago, CrazyInAlabama said:

Tonight they found most of the metal roofs were rotten.   They brought in a crew from the U.S. or Canada, to do the work, and to teach the local craftsmen how to do the metal roofs.    I'm hoping some of the construction issues are just for TV, or they're terrible planners.  

(Yes, the Baeumlers are Canadian.   They have run some of the their shows on HGTV, or maybe DIY).  

I feel bad whenever they have to undo something they’ve already done, like having to cut up part of the recently poured cement floors in the kitchen to redo the electrical work. 
 

They were nicer to each other this episode, which made it more enjoyable. 

[MaKaM]

On 6/22/2020 at 9:47 PM, topanga said:

I feel bad whenever they have to undo something they’ve already done, like having to cut up part of the recently poured cement floors in the kitchen to redo the electrical work. 
 

They were nicer to each other this episode, which made it more enjoyable. 

Part of me feels bad but then the rest of me thinks that is what you get when you have two project managers who aren't communicating instead of one person (preferably not in a relationship with the other two) running and scheduling things.

[retired watcher]

Thoughts so far. I'm tired of Bryan saying "we risked everything". I'm sure they didn't. I think this is strictly for tv. Someone with his experience would have know exactly what he was getting into.  Drama = viewers. I'm going to just enjoy the atmosphere of the Bahamas.

[Grrarrggh]

5 hours ago, retired watcher said:

Thoughts so far. I'm tired of Bryan saying "we risked everything". I'm sure they didn't. I think this is strictly for tv. Someone with his experience would have know exactly what he was getting into.  Drama = viewers. I'm going to just enjoy the atmosphere of the Bahamas.

My calculation has always been Fake Drama = changing the channel.