Pet Peeves: The Holy Trinity and Beyond

[laredhead]

Chessiegal, I'm laughing out loud at your comment.  It's always  "my this" and "my that".  Yep, am adding selfishness to my list of pet peeves.   

[KAOS Agent]

I wish they would at least acknowledge that there are other important things about a house than simply the aesthetics. How old is the furnace/AC? What kind of shape is the roof in? I get that the perfectly functional kitchen is a "gut job" for some buyers, but what about the bones of the house? You don't actually replace a furnace until it breaks, so I always wonder whether these buyers even remotely consider this kind of thing or whether they are more concerned with how awful a house is for not having white shaker cabinets and granite counter tops.

[CocoaGoddess]

They save the furnace explosions, lead paint, hidden black mold and rusty, crumbling pipes for HH:Renovation. 

"Well now we're going to have to find some money to pay for updates that we won't even see! This is very hard to come to terms with, because we really wanted that $7k Viking oven that we will never use, because we spend too much time walking to the 'city center' for sandwiches and live bands to stay home and cook."

Then we get to watch the homeowners struggle to remain calm and strong as a Kenmore oven is delivered and installed. 

[auntjess]

That's one of Mike Holmes' lectures, about how people spend on fancy things you can see, and then the stuff is ruined because the roof leaks, and you've got mold and a flooding basement.

[toodles]

 I found my HH peeps.  I recently watched a HHI with the worst women ever.  How she is not compost in the backyard is beyond me.

The were moving to Manchester and she said ad nauseam that she was standing up for the dog in the house hunt.  First house-not good enough for the dog.  Second house- way over the budget and the husband had over an hour commute.  One way. But ok for the dog. Third house- I don't remember, but it wasn't good enough for the dog and didn't have the CHARACTER she wanted.  

She moved for her husband's business and would be home with the DOG all day.  So they got the over budget house in the middle of nowhere with the hour commute.

This woman is all my HH pet peeves in one obnoxious package.  This house has/doesn't have fill in the blank-check.  Idiotic, entitled people-check.  A partner who caves to stupid demands-check.

I'm always thinking of moving some place exotic, so overall I like HHI.  But sometimes these people make me stabby.

[Ohwell]

There were a lot of posts about the Manchester woman in the HHI thread.

[toodles]

2 hours ago, Ohwell said:

There were a lot of posts about the Manchester woman in the HHI thread.

Thanks for the tip.  I wondered if I was posting in the wrong thread.:)

[chocolatine]

I just started watching older HH and HHI episodes on Netflix. My HH pet peeves have already been stated here, but I need to repeat how annoying the "one bedroom/bathroom for every kid" people are. I saw an episode where a divorced dad who only had his kids part-time kept talking about separate rooms and bathrooms for each. Because god forbid the children learn to share.

My HHI pet peeve, from the 20 or so episodes I've seen, is that it's often a woman "sacrificing" her career to move to wherever her husband's job/grad school/whim is taking them. The woman talks ruefully about how much she loved her career, and makes passive-aggressive comments about needing a big kitchen now that she'll be spending so much time there. Hello, gender equality? I've lived in several countries and met many expat couples, and they almost always had jobs or schooling lined up for both spouses before moving, or the trailing spouse started job hunting immediately after arrival, and everyone had their ducks in a row visa-wise so that each spouse was allowed to work. Nobody just brought their spouse to have them sit around at home all day.

[Mu Shu]

I found my new pet peeve.  It's so bad that I stop watching once it commences.  Up talking.   I cannot abide it.  "But I really wanted a gas stove?  This room is.....small?" 

Ok, second thing.  People who say their Max budget is 100k, yet they have two incomes, one of which is in IT.   they are either cheap asses, or have bad credit. Get your debt to income ratio down, or stop bitching about all the houses in your price range being shit holes.   That is all.  

[Kohola3]

Quote

Up talking.   I cannot abide it.

It is an unfortunate (as it sticking a pin in my ear) speech pattern for millennials.  Every single damned sentence sounds like a question.  Make a statement, for Pete's sake. 

[CherryAmes]

On 10/10/2016 at 7:41 PM, chocolatine said:

My HHI pet peeve, from the 20 or so episodes I've seen, is that it's often a woman "sacrificing" her career to move to wherever her husband's job/grad school/whim is taking them.

I was just coming here to complain about that!  I gave up my job when we moved to the US and then to England for my husband's company but I would never, ever, have described it as a sacrifice.  What a melodramatic way to look at things!   

[Sun-Bun]

On 10/17/2016 at 4:32 PM, Kohola3 said:

It is an unfortunate (as it sticking a pin in my ear) speech pattern for millennials.  Every single damned sentence sounds like a question.  Make a statement, for Pete's sake. 

Pair the upspeak with vocal fry and I'm considering throat-punching that speaker---yet another annoying millennial habit that I see regularly pop up on these newer episodes.

[laredhead]

Even the female announcer for some of the HGTV shows has an ear piercing vocal fry, upspeak, little girl sounding squeal that I find intolerable.  Where are these people learning that type of announcing skill?

[Kohola3]

44 minutes ago, laredhead said:

Where are these people learning that type of announcing skill?

Where is the Specks Howard School of Broadcast Arts when you need it?  

[AuntiePam]

Is "definitely" the new "actually"?  For years "actually" was overused, especially on the home shopping channels.  Now it's "definitely" with all the HH shows.  "I can definitely see myself."  "This will definitely work/not work."  "That's definitely not my Cape Cod/Colonial/Victorian/Midcentury Modern."  "That definitely has to go." 

I'm definitely sick of it.

[juliet73]

4 hours ago, AuntiePam said:

Is "definitely" the new "actually"?  For years "actually" was overused, especially on the home shopping channels.  Now it's "definitely" with all the HH shows.  "I can definitely see myself."  "This will definitely work/not work."  "That's definitely not my Cape Cod/Colonial/Victorian/Midcentury Modern."  "That definitely has to go." 

I'm definitely sick of it.

 

4 hours ago, AuntiePam said:

 

I'm tired of hearing AMAZING! Either it's a total gut job or it's amazing!  Everything is amazing!  The view is amazing!  The cul-de-sac is amazing!  The  3 car garage is amazing, the granite countertops are amazing!  The yard is amazing! The master bath is amazing! The fireplace is amazing! 

[Kohola3]

Make a drinking game out of AMAZING and you won't make it to the first commercial.  That has to be the most overused word on HGTV in all history.  I cringe when I hear it.

[aguabella]

AWESOME posts, guys!  I've noticed that one, recently.  Like, WOW!

[chessiegal]

I am so over the producer driven over the top trope of the 2 in a couple wanting completely different things. It seems it's now on every damn episode. HH - STOP IT!!! It's predictable and boring.

[jumper sage]

On 9/29/2016 at 1:37 PM, Empress1 said:

I wouldn't expect a seller to lower the price if all I planned to do was cosmetic stuff like taking down wallpaper and painting. I would expect and plan to do those things - even a "move-in ready" house would require painting. I like color. A house that's done all in neutrals isn't "done," to me, and paint and/or wallpaper is a really easy way to put your stamp on a house. Like, I think those Austin CrossFit renovators' house is ugly with all those paint colors going in all kinds of crazy directions, but it's very THEM.

Really?  I have walked out of houses because of this without moving 10 steps in.  There is nothing worse than horrendous wallpaper or, God forbid, the horrid red dining room wall that is so 1990s.

[Empress1]

49 minutes ago, jumper sage said:

Really?  I have walked out of houses because of this without moving 10 steps in.  There is nothing worse than horrendous wallpaper or, God forbid, the horrid red dining room wall that is so 1990s.

Yep. If all the other expensive/hard/impossible to change things were good (right neighborhood, right number of beds and baths, did NOT have an open floor plan, didn't need a new roof or HVAC or plumbing system, etc.), I'd be fine with taking down wallpaper and/or painting. I would expect to paint.

[jumper sage]

1 hour ago, Empress1 said:

Yep. If all the other expensive/hard/impossible to change things were good (right neighborhood, right number of beds and baths, did NOT have an open floor plan, didn't need a new roof or HVAC or plumbing system, etc.), I'd be fine with taking down wallpaper and/or painting. I would expect to paint.

I guess I am the world's worst homeowner.  Can't do anything.  Can't even hang pictures.  I will not go through another house painting with furniture in another room and the mess, omg the mess.

I always thought this show with its charade of "finding" a home but we know they already found the home was kind of bad until I started watching Escape to the Country by the BBC via CBC in Canada.  We are right on the boarder so we get that channel.  Anyways most of the time they never even select a house.  I watch for an hour, they do tend to drag it out, they see 3 homes and rarely do we see them choose one at the end.  Mostly they keep looking.  Got to say, I think the American version is better if only for that.

[CherryAmes]

That drives me crazy as well!  I guess it's at least realistic in the sense that most of us do not just look at 3 houses,  pick one and move right in!  Still bothers me that I invest an hour of my time in watching them go through houses and in the end they either lose the house if they do offer on one or change their minds and keep looking.

[mojito]

What about TONS of space and TONS of light? That seems to be an abused word.

[StatisticalOutlier]

Speaking of tons of light, am I alone in not wanting a bedroom with tons of light?  They do look more lovely with light streaming in from windows, but really, if a room is for sleeping I think it should be dark.

There's the thought that it would be nice to gently wake up naturally to brightening daylight, but the time the sun rises changes throughout the year so if you have to be somewhere at a certain time, chances are the timing of the sunrise is going to conflict with your waking-up schedule for the majority of the year.

[Kohola3]

3 hours ago, StatisticalOutlier said:

There's the thought that it would be nice to gently wake up naturally to brightening daylight, but the time the sun rises changes throughout the year so if you have to be somewhere at a certain time, chances are the timing of the sunrise is going to conflict with your waking-up schedule for the majority of the year.

Amen to that. I live on a lake with an eastern exposure and TONS of natural light. At 4:55 in the morning in the summer it's like someone is shining a spotlight in my face.   Shades are in the budget for next summer.

[izabella]

I have blackout shades in my bedroom for that reason - morning sun before I'm ready to wake up is not welcome!

[chocolatine]

4 hours ago, StatisticalOutlier said:

Speaking of tons of light, am I alone in not wanting a bedroom with tons of light?  They do look more lovely with light streaming in from windows, but really, if a room is for sleeping I think it should be dark.

I like to have a lot of natural light in my bedroom for doing my hair and makeup (I hate doing hair and makeup in the bathroom), and also when I'm cleaning to make sure I don't miss any dust/dirt. I just close the curtains when I'm going to sleep. I'm not that sensitive to light though (noise is more my problem), so other people's mileage may vary.

[AuntiePam]

On 11/11/2016 at 8:43 PM, chessiegal said:

I am so over the producer driven over the top trope of the 2 in a couple wanting completely different things. It seems it's now on every damn episode. HH - STOP IT!!! It's predictable and boring.

That'd be almost bearable if the couple didn't say "It's not my Colonial!" and "It's not my Craftsman!" in front of every freaking house they look at.  Gah!  It's getting to where I mute the entire episode. 

[laredhead]

All of a sudden the styles of craftsman and colonial are the buzz words on HH episodes.  We never heard the word "craftsman" just a few months ago. 

[biakbiak]

1 hour ago, laredhead said:

All of a sudden the styles of craftsman and colonial are the buzz words on HH episodes.  We never heard the word "craftsman" just a few months ago. 

I think it depends on the area back in the day when it was all LA based "craftsman" was used a ton.

[mojito]

When I watched HH 14 years ago, when the show featured homes out of CA and prices weren't mentioned, I learned what "Craftsman" was. According to Wikipedia, it's a style seen in older western homes. Makes sense. 

I looked "ranch" style on Wikipedia because that's another style people are demanding, and I seemed to have a grasp of its features except: "Asymmetrical rectangular, L-shaped, or U-shaped design" and "Simple, open floor plans". So it would seem that some people like the exterior look of Craftsman and built-ins inside, but basically want a Ranch style indoors. But then I looked up "Bungalow" and it's easy to see why people use "Bungalow" and "Craftsman" interchangeably. There's so much overlap in styles and features. 

It is confusing.

Nevertheless, I think that when a couple is ready to pull the trigger on purchasing a home, they have already decided on the style/features that they want.

[CherryAmes]

I had no idea what a Craftsman style house was until I started watching HH and similar.  To be honest I'm still not a 100 % sure what it is!  

[juliet73]

Here's my opinion on the exterior style of a house: when you're looking for a house,  you either decide on one or two story, how many beds/baths,  Sq footage, etc. Buyers may say they prefer a specific style or look of a house and that may help the realtor get a sense of what they are looking for on the inside.  IE: Mid century modern buyers like floor to ceiling windows with an open floor plan. Colonial style would have more of the closed off formal rooms,  etc. For the most part,  buyers are willing to look at any exterior style as long as it meets their interior needs. Most of the time,  they don't get out of the car and immediately start bitchin' that it's not a craftsman,  traditional, etc.  And when I hear the word "ranch", I automatically assume one story.  What really drives me mad though,  is when buyers are looking for a specific style that is rare/non existent for that region. You're not going to get a Spanish style home in the Chicago, or a craftsman in Las Vegas,  or a log cabin in Manhattan! 

[Bastet]

Quote

Here's my opinion on the exterior style of a house: when you're looking for a house,  you either decide on one or two story, how many beds/baths,  Sq footage, etc. Buyers may say they prefer a specific style or look of a house and that may help the realtor get a sense of what they are looking for on the inside.  IE: Mid century modern buyers like floor to ceiling windows with an open floor plan. Colonial style would have more of the closed off formal rooms,  etc. For the most part,  buyers are willing to look at any exterior style as long as it meets their interior needs. Most of the time,  they don't get out of the car and immediately start bitchin' that it's not a craftsman,  traditional, etc.

Craftsman and Spanish are my favorite of the housing styles common in the older neighborhoods I was looking in, and I wound up with neither.  My house better met my needs and wants than the Craftsman and Spanish homes available at the time, and I liked the look of the exterior just as well, so the fact it wasn't one of my preferred styles was a non-issue.  I'm not a huge fan of ranch homes, but I don't hate them (I grew up in one) and wouldn't have dismissed one on that basis if I liked everything else (but they generally came into vogue post-war, and the neighborhoods in which I was looking developed pre-war, so it wasn't really an issue).

[suebee12]

I have been binge watching recently since I moved and didn't have HGTV available for a couple of months while I stayed at my son's house. I finally remembered something that bothers me(well, a lot bothers me but this is a big one!) How many people actually sit outside on a porch, balcony, or patio and drink their morning coffee, tea, etc. Most people I know grab a cup and run but on these shows everyone says they can picture themselves drinking their morning drink outside. Do people really do that?

[Kohola3]

I live on Lake Huron with a sun room overlooking the lake and I certainly don't haul my morning beverage out there every day. I probably did off and on when I first moved here but the novelty wears off after a while.

[Bastet]

3 minutes ago, suebee12 said:

Do people really do that?

My dad -- when he comes back from his walk, he makes coffee, grabs the paper, and he and the cat head for the backyard to enjoy the morning sun.  But that's because he's retired; he certainly wasn't leisurely sipping coffee on the patio when he was working.  I, too, laugh about all the "Oh, I can see myself sitting here drinking my coffee" comments.  Maybe they mean on the weekends, but it sounds silly to me.  Especially when it's a little balcony off the master bedroom in a two story house.  You're going to go downstairs to make coffee, then go back up to drink it?

[Ohwell]

Most of the apartments I lived in had balconies and I never went out on them to have coffee.  It never even occurred to me.  

[chessiegal]

We have a screened-in back porch (waterfront) and live out there when it is warm when we are not doing something else (we are retired) any time of day. Our kitty too, as she likes keeping an eye out for birds, squirrels, rabbits and other critters passing through. Adding the porch was the first thing we did when we bought the house. We have dinner out there when it's warm enough, sometimes breakfast and lunch too.. Either having a porch or being able to add one was a must have when we were house hunting.

[CocoaGoddess]

I grew up with parents who always made a big deal out of morning coffee on the weekends and during the holidays. During the summer, my mother would wake me up at 5:30 every morning so I could come downstairs and "have a cup of coffee with her". Of course I went back to sleep the minute she was gone. In warm weather, we always had it in the backyard, so I can definitely see that being a priority for people. I like having my coffee in front of the fireplace in my sitting room when it's cold, and it wasn't a "want" while house hunting, but I made sure to take advantage of having it. 

I learned about ranch style homes reading Sweet Valley High, because that's the kind of house the Wakefields lived in.

[chocolatine]

9 hours ago, CherryAmes said:

I had no idea what a Craftsman style house was until I started watching HH and similar.  To be honest I'm still not a 100 % sure what it is!  

Could it be a regional thing? There are a lot of them in Seattle, where I live, especially in older upscale neighborhoods like Queen Anne and Madison Park. On the other hand, when I visit family in Long Island, NY, there seem to be no craftsman homes at all, mostly split-levels and colonials. I'm not very familiar with other areas of the US, so I'm not sure where else the craftsman style is popular.

As for having my morning beverage outside, I would if I had a patio or porch right off the kitchen. But I would not carry a mug of hot tea across the house or up/down stairs just so I could drink it outside. I'd be worried about spillage and slipping (and no, I don't want to use a travel mug; they ruin the taste of the tea for me).

[auntjess]

I think of craftsman houses as those with a lot of dark wood inside, including built-in cabinets.  The Nicole Curtis used to do a lot.
To me, they're dark and dreary.

[mojito]

Does it seem as though more than half the people who claim they hate split levels end up buying a split level?

I have wondered if HH has steered house hunters away from talking about that glass of wine and substituting coffee instead. 

I have my morning shot of scotch, but I knock it down before I even get out of the kitchen. I do drink my second and third shots on the balcony. So sue me, I don't drink coffee. But I love my balcony time before I rush off to work. Driving a school bus ain't easy work.

[AuntiePam]

1 hour ago, mojito said:

I have my morning shot of scotch, but I knock it down before I even get out of the kitchen. I do drink my second and third shots on the balcony. So sue me, I don't drink coffee. But I love my balcony time before I rush off to work. Driving a school bus ain't easy work.

LOL! 

I've decided that the reason I hate buyers saying that a kitchen/bathroom/whatever is a "gut job" is because "gut" is such a harsh, ugly word.  "I'd like to re-do this room" is much gentler. 

[chocolatine]

1 hour ago, AuntiePam said:

I've decided that the reason I hate buyers saying that a kitchen/bathroom/whatever is a "gut job" is because "gut" is such a harsh, ugly word.  "I'd like to re-do this room" is much gentler. 

I hate when they use the phrase "everything in this kitchen/bathroom has to go" when just few cosmetic changes would suffice.

[AnnaRose]

This may seem silly but I hate when people use the term 'open concept' to refer to an open floorplan.  It just sounds to me like people are parroting HGTV buzzwords.  'Price point' irks me for the same reason.  Like nails on a chalkboard.

[proserpina65]

On ‎12‎/‎01‎/‎2016 at 10:06 AM, CherryAmes said:

That drives me crazy as well!  I guess it's at least realistic in the sense that most of us do not just look at 3 houses,  pick one and move right in!  Still bothers me that I invest an hour of my time in watching them go through houses and in the end they either lose the house if they do offer on one or change their minds and keep looking.

I actually would prefer that, at least once in awhile.

[proserpina65]

18 hours ago, auntjess said:

I think of craftsman houses as those with a lot of dark wood inside, including built-in cabinets.  The Nicole Curtis used to do a lot.
To me, they're dark and dreary.

I think real craftsmen are gorgeous, but then I like dark wood, built-ins and individual rooms.  Light and airy are not words which were included in my house hunt.  To each, their own.

5 hours ago, AnnaRose said:

This may seem silly but I hate when people use the term 'open concept' to refer to an open floorplan.  It just sounds to me like people are parroting HGTV buzzwords.  'Price point' irks me for the same reason.  Like nails on a chalkboard.

What's the difference?  What little I could glean by googling made it seem like it was just an American v. Canadian/British thing.

[AnnaRose]

46 minutes ago, proserpina65 said:

I think real craftsmen are gorgeous, but then I like dark wood, built-ins and individual rooms.  Light and airy are not words which were included in my house hunt.  To each, their own.

What's the difference?  What little I could glean by googling made it seem like it was just an American v. Canadian/British thing.

I never considered that it might be Canadian/British since it seems Americans are always saying those terms now.  They just sound unnatural to me, like phrases have been manufactured and pushed by the HGTV puppetmasters.   Actually, I imagine the building industry loves to push the idea of 'open concept' as something desirable because it's so much cheaper to build.  I kind of hate how ubiquitous open floorplans have become.  Those types of houses tend to look the same to me.

I'm just tired of the typical House Hunters scripts, and those terms are two of many that exemplify this.