House Hunters International - General Discussion

[chessiegal]

Hah! I was watching Amsterdam on my iPad with the sound off because we were watching the football game. Without the sound, they seemed like a pleasant enough family. 😊

[sempervivum]

San Fran to Amsterdam- I laughed when the realtor snarked at the family wanting a view, but being unwilling to climb stairs: In Amsterdam, you have to go up to get a view!

[sistersledge]

Have we talked about the Canadian couple who moved to New Zealand to work at a winery and the wife couldn't get over living in a garage even though it was basically an apartment?

[laredhead]

Sistersledge, I was just about to comment on that episode.  I always love the New Zealand episodes and the beautiful scenery.  All of those places with so tiny, and I thought maybe I had fallen asleep and was watching an episode of Tiny House.  

The garage really wasn't a garage, and I'm thinking that they did not remove the doors because someone might want to make it a working garage in the future.  Or they were too cheap to remove the doors and put a nice finish on the outside - lol.  Entering through the bedroom was a bit weird, but once you were inside, it was a nice space.  I have a den that was once a double carport before it was enclosed, and it measures 20' X 20'.  I could see it being configured with a bedroom, bath & living/kitchen combo.  I loved the house with the outdoor shower and hot tub.  The views there were beautiful.  I'm wondering if that was really someone's weekend get away, or a vacation rental.

Oh, and surprise, surprise, they both found work in the wine industry.  They were a nice couple, and there was no drama, so all in all a good episode, IMO.    

[LittleIggy]

France: I loved Chantal. She was a hoot! “It’s a dog.” 😆 The HH and his friend were nice. 
NZ: Wonder what they did about the carpet in the bathroom?  The outdoor bathroom place was cool for a weekend getaway place, but having to walk out to the loo would get old for anything longer than a week or so. 

[biakbiak]

14 minutes ago, LittleIggy said:

?  The outdoor bathroom place was cool for a weekend getaway place, but having to walk out to the loo would get old for anything longer than a week or so

When looking at spaces I always imagine what it would be like if you had a particular bad case of the flu/food poisoning or badly broken leg (A friend of mine lives in a gorgeous place with views of the Golden Gate Bridge but it is on the top floor of a Victorian so she was basically housebound for six weeks when she broke her leg in two places because of the stairs to get to her place) so I would have ruled that exterior bathroom out. It also gets cold and rainy in NZ so even just having to do that on a typical winter morning would not be something I was up for.

I also wouldn’t have been able to handle the garage apartment between the entrance directly into the bedroom and the tiny windows. 

Edited October 11, 2019 by biakbiak

[LittleIggy]

Goa: If this is an example of the HH’s work, I wouldn’t hire her. It’s full of grammatical errors and typos: http://daniellepettee.com/about/

[doodlebug]

5 hours ago, LittleIggy said:

Goa: If this is an example of the HH’s work, I wouldn’t hire her. It’s full of grammatical errors and typos: http://daniellepettee.com/about/

Wow!  And she is plugging her online skills to help businesses gain customers.  Meanwhile, she starts half of her sentences referring to herself in the first person only to lapse inexplicably into the third person all within a single clause.  If her site is an example of the kind of service she provides her clients, I can't imagine how anyone could think she was a professional, let alone that her work would help their business grow.

[laredhead]

I finally watched the Goa episode.  The woman struck me as someone who just sort of drifts through life with no plan, depends on the help of friends and others, and would be happy to continue that existence forever.  I can't remember the term she kept using to refer to herself, but all I could think of was that is was some weird definition she had made up to justify her wandering through life waking up each day with a new idea how to reinvent herself.  

Note to self - never travel to Goa.  I don't want to live anywhere there is no A/C, monsoons that sweep jungle animals and insects into houses, street animals everywhere, etc.  None of the places looked anywhere near inviting, and the place she chose reminded me of a prison cell.  The friend was long suffering.

[LittleIggy]

@laredhead: Are you thinking of digital nomad? 🙄

[Kenzie]

12 minutes ago, LittleIggy said:

@laredhead: Are you thinking of digital nomad? 🙄

That sounds about right. Her new life goal, now that her apparently poorly planned or poorly funded fashion business flopped, is to prove, once and for all to her friend that she is not a nomad. Lofty goal.

[doodlebug]

6 hours ago, Kenzie said:

That sounds about right. Her new life goal, now that her apparently poorly planned or poorly funded fashion business flopped, is to prove, once and for all to her friend that she is not a nomad. Lofty goal.

Yep. she was a very special snowflake, that one.  I suspect there's a trust fund someplace allowing her to pretend that she is so amazingly talented and creative.  From looking at her website, there's no way her career as a digital nomad is going to support her.

[Andyourlittledog2]

Every time the Goa snowflake said she wanted to live next to her friend because she can just go over there every day and eat their meals (and she said it a lot of times) her friend looked pained. That woman is the kind of person who flitters through life being adorable and kooky and appealing to all around her for help because she just can't be bothered to pay attention or help herself. I have a strong suspicion that her dressmaking partnership fell apart as soon as the gentleman in question had her number and saw his future with this idiot. She takes no responsibility and does not learn from experience because there is always someone who will take responsibility for her and rescue 'little ol' silly' her. I would want to kill her within two weeks of meeting her.

[awaken]

On 10/11/2019 at 12:40 AM, LittleIggy said:

France: I loved Chantal. She was a hoot! “It’s a dog.” 😆 The HH and his friend were nice. 
 

Ha, loved Chantal!  I didn’t think she could stand them, and was pretty obvious about it!  

[LittleIggy]

2 hours ago, awaken said:

Ha, loved Chantal!  I didn’t think she could stand them, and was pretty obvious about it!  

I didn’t get the idea that she disliked them. The HH, at the end, said she had become a good friend. I just think Chantal didn’t take him as seriously as he took himself. 

Maidenhead: Which flat did they take. I got distracted when they did the reveal. I didn’t think any of the flats were all that.

[Irlandesa]

Chantal reminded me of so many older French women I knew when I lived there.  They can be blunt but the "enough with the nonsense" can coexist with love. I loved her.

Edited October 15, 2019 by Irlandesa

[TVForever]

8 hours ago, LittleIggy said:

I didn’t get the idea that she disliked them. The HH, at the end, said she had become a good friend. I just think Chantal didn’t take him as seriously as he took himself. 

Maidenhead: Which flat did they take. I got distracted when they did the reveal. I didn’t think any of the flats were all that.

The Maidenhead couple chose the 1 bedroom. Guess all her visiting family will have to make do with the living room, or better yet, a hotel.

I wasn't terribly impressed with their choices either, but I did think the 2 bedroom converted barn flat in town was kind of cute/quirky.

[sempervivum]

1 hour ago, TVForever said:

he Maidenhead couple chose the 1 bedroom. Guess all her visiting family will have to make do with the living room, or better yet, a hotel.

I wasn't terribly impressed with their choices either, but I did think the 2 bedroom converted barn flat in town was kind of cute/quirky.

They said at the end that they'd had visitors, and that they stayed in a hotel. The wife also said that it was actually good not having them in their space.

I would have taken the barn conversion, too, although it wasn't great. Unlike the wife, I thought the beams, etc, were really cool. However, what in hell is an 'electric shower'?

I did hear the husband say that he was some kind of research scientist (?), but he didn't seem to have a job. Did they say what her work was?

[TVForever]

9 minutes ago, sempervivum said:

They said at the end that they'd had visitors, and that they stayed in a hotel. The wife also said that it was actually good not having them in their space.

I would have taken the barn conversion, too, although it wasn't great. Unlike the wife, I thought the beams, etc, were really cool. However, what in hell is an 'electric shower'?

I did hear the husband say that he was some kind of research scientist (?), but he didn't seem to have a job. Did they say what her work was?

Thanks for the update. you've just reminded me to change my TiVo setting to go "over" by 5 minutes- I keep getting cut off before the episode is completely finished (it would usually be after the choice was made, so I just put up with it)

[doodlebug]

2 hours ago, sempervivum said:

They said at the end that they'd had visitors, and that they stayed in a hotel. The wife also said that it was actually good not having them in their space.

I would have taken the barn conversion, too, although it wasn't great. Unlike the wife, I thought the beams, etc, were really cool. However, what in hell is an 'electric shower'?

I did hear the husband say that he was some kind of research scientist (?), but he didn't seem to have a job. Did they say what her work was?

I think an electric shower is one of those gizmos that works without a water heater.  You flip on the water to the shower and there is a little electrical conduit that heats up and warms the water as it comes into the shower head.  I've seen them in Central America.

[blueray]

7 hours ago, sempervivum said:

They said at the end that they'd had visitors, and that they stayed in a hotel. The wife also said that it was actually good not having them in their space.

I would have taken the barn conversion, too, although it wasn't great. Unlike the wife, I thought the beams, etc, were really cool. However, what in hell is an 'electric shower'?

I did hear the husband say that he was some kind of research scientist (?), but he didn't seem to have a job. Did they say what her work was?

I got the impression he did have a job they didn't say what it was. She was working in London, I don't think they said doing what though, just that she had a job. They kept saying they picked the town because it was in between the two.

[Babalooie]

On 10/8/2019 at 12:42 AM, LittleIggy said:

Amsterdam: Another “aren’t we so special” couple with their “brilliant” offspring.

I have been deleting all Amsterdam episodes.  They're all the same to me.

[sempervivum]

8 hours ago, doodlebug said:

You flip on the water to the shower and there is a little electrical conduit that heats up and warms the water as it comes into the shower head.  I've seen them in Central America

Oh, yeah- I think I've heard them referred to as 'suicide showers' 😬

[Jodithgrace]

When they said Electric shower, all i could think of was the shower we had in The Amazon. I couldn't figure out how to get hot water, until my husband showed me an electric switch in the shower that turned on water heater. An electric switch. In the shower. it wasn't near the water spray, but I'm sure it would have violated about 20 US building codes. There was also a frog which liked to hang out in the shower as well. We survived. 

It's the quirky stuff that I love about this show and why i no longer bother watching House Hunters. How many granite countertops and stainless steel appliances can one look at? But show me an outdoor bathroom or an electric shower, and I'm there! 

[Bastet]

This is one of the many results of the lack of a Basic Life Skills curriculum that would make electricity less mysterious, at least alleviating the fear that water merely in the vicinity of electrical current equals sudden death without taking into account the ways in which the current is contained (even in the rare event of improper wiring, insulation, or grounding, death is unusual).

It's on par with the American HH in the outskirts of Paris; if her phobia of screen-less windows was rooted in reality, it would have meant the streets of Paris and numerous cities across the globe would be littered with the corpses of fallen children.  The showers across the globe (including in the U.K., where I first encountered one, so certainly not only countries with a radically different way of doing things) that feature electric showerheads are similarly not deathtraps.

[abbyzenn]

Maidenhead Episode:  I spent more of the episode wondering whatever possessed that girl to be attracted to that guy.  It was also interesting that he kept talking about how they had used up their money with the wedding and obtaining VISAS especially in light that this show makes it seem like anyone can move anywhere at any time and buy a house as if VISAs don't exist.

I wouldn't have liked that barn conversation because the only windows they showed were skylights (in the bath and bedrooms) and it didn't seem like the lounge/kitchen had any windows.

[Pine]

Goa Girl, was prancing around town barefoot, and in some fairly teeny dresses,  I fear for her safety.  Her new BFF was honest, and also onto Goa Girl.  :)

Barn Conversion....if buying yes!  But having lived in an ancient to us house, sweeping mold off the plaster walls was a normal thing to do.  If you owned it, you could really do it up nice and add some windows, but, as a rental....she will be miserable after one winter. 

Edited October 16, 2019 by Pine

[doodlebug]

20 hours ago, Bastet said:

This is one of the many results of the lack of a Basic Life Skills curriculum that would make electricity less mysterious, at least alleviating the fear that water merely in the vicinity of electrical current equals sudden death without taking into account the ways in which the current is contained (even in the rare event of improper wiring, insulation, or grounding, death is unusual).

It's on par with the American HH in the outskirts of Paris; if her phobia of screen-less windows was rooted in reality, it would have meant the streets of Paris and numerous cities across the globe would be littered with the corpses of fallen children.  The showers across the globe (including in the U.K., where I first encountered one, so certainly not only countries with a radically different way of doing things) that feature electric showerheads are similarly not deathtraps.

The electric shower on the episode looked to be a nice, well-designed unit and those are just as safe as any electrical appliance if properly installed and used as intended.  I will say that, in El Salvador, where I encountered electric showers; the unit was not quite as modern as the one on the show or the typical ones you see in Europe.  There are also not a lot of electricians available to install them properly and it seems like many of them are installed by amateurs.  In at least a couple of cases, I saw ones with wires hanging loose, etc.  In fact, in one place where I stayed, we were actually advised not to touch the shower head while it was running because we 'might get a shock'.  I guess it's good they warned us; but, to me, that sounds like there was something amiss

Edited October 17, 2019 by doodlebug

[LittleIggy]

Mexico City: Wife really didn’t want to live in Mexico, did she? I don’t think she even spoke Spanish. The husband seemed nice, good looking, too.

[doodlebug]

8 hours ago, LittleIggy said:

Mexico City: Wife really didn’t want to live in Mexico, did she? I don’t think she even spoke Spanish. The husband seemed nice, good looking, too.

No, that seemed to be the message there: she wasn't going to like anything they found because she really didn't want to live there.  All the blather about how their house in Maryland was two stories and had a big yard and how could she possibly allow the children to be disappointed by not having exactly the same stuff in Mexico?  It wasn't the kids who were disappointed.  Didn't the husband work in the diplomatic corps or something similar?  Did she really think that, once they got assigned to the US, he would never, ever be sent to another country again?

Last night's couple in rural Netherlands:  Didn't mind them and it was nice seeing a bit of the countryside and the sort of housing found there.  I think an hour or more commuting each way is not going to wear well, though. 

[biakbiak]

I got the feeling that it was more moving to Mexico City rather than Mexico. Mexico city is the 5th most populous city in the world and it’s very intense. Traffic is an absolute nightmare (it can legit take hours to go short distances) so her entire life is changing from being a suburban mom to having to live in a smaller space and will basically stay in a few block radius of her apartment most of the time. 

[LittleIggy]

Netherlands: The wife’s fakey laugh was so annoying. I would hate to commute two hours round trip everyday. The way the wife talked, I was expecting big dogs not tiny chihuahuas!

[Pickles]

8 minutes ago, LittleIggy said:

Netherlands: The wife’s fakey laugh was so annoying. I would hate to commute two hours round trip everyday. The way the wife talked, I was expecting big dogs not tiny chihuahuas!

There was a lot of laughing! 

[awaken]

Blog post written by Mexico City woman on their house hunters experience!  http://irishiweremexican.com/at-post.html

Edited October 19, 2019 by awaken

[LittleIggy]

Taiwan: Yes, Chinese beds are like sleeping on concrete, and it is not good for the back! 😬 I’m glad they picked the place close to the school. I doubt they have time for going out every night if they have such big classes (lots of homework to grade).

[kirklandia]

On 9/27/2019 at 6:45 AM, Ohwell said:

Back to the make a baby wife in Vienna who kept insisting on a bathtub for future baby:  I'm watching an episode of Monarch of the Glen right now and the guy is bathing a baby in a very nice plastic tub.   Plus, it looks easier to handle the baby than bending down to bathe the baby in a bathtub.

I adore Monarch of the Glen. 

(I just signed up for a Road Scholar trip to the Scottish Highlands next June - very excited!)

Edited October 21, 2019 by kirklandia

[seacliffsal]

I just watched the South Holland episode and was surprised by the whininess of the wife.  Didn't care about commutes that were over an hour each way, but did care about going $100 over the budget.  Oh well.

[awaken]

I wanted to vomit looking at the Taiwan couple eat at that toilet themed restaurant and drink tea out of a urine container!  Interesting episode otherwise though!

i thought Goa looked interesting with its Portuguese influence and would like to learn more about it!  The HH woman was really insufferable though and I doubt her stay will last long- she’ll be on to the next thing when the novelty wears off. 

[LittleIggy]

1 hour ago, awaken said:

I wanted to vomit looking at the Taiwan couple eat at that toilet themed restaurant and drink tea out of a urine container!  Interesting episode otherwise though!

OMG! Wasn’t that gag-inducing? Talk about sophomoric humor. 💩

[biakbiak]

1 hour ago, awaken said:

wanted to vomit looking at the Taiwan couple eat at that toilet themed restaurant and drink tea out of a urine container!  Interesting episode otherwise though!

It’s actually a chain with multiple locations in Asia. I refused to go to one in Hong Kong but apparently people enjoy it. As noted in the chryon theme restaurants with “interesting” themes are very popular in Asia.

Edited October 21, 2019 by biakbiak

[amarante]

Saw a new (at least to me) episode where the HH take a party bus of their friends to approve their purchase of a home in Rosarita Beach, Mexico.

Obviously taking the friends along was just for the shtick so I am not even going to bother on the insanity of that.

However, none of the choices made sense - at least to me - if one is buying a home in a resort community. They didn't have pools and weren't beachfront. I am not a beach or pool person myself but if I actually was buying a vacation home in a warm climate, I would want it to have a pool and preferably beach access. I have no idea what the attraction was unless all you wanted to do was drink yourself into a stupor on the balcony.

The bedrooms of the one they chose had bunk beds which is also an odd choice for adults without small children but then again, the whole thing could actually be people buying a vacation home for the purpose of renting to people on Spring break or similarly "party animal" types of young people.

[scrb]

I'm like a dozen episodes behind but noticed my DVR hasn't recorded in a couple of weeks and there are no new episodes scheduled this week either.

HH keeps cranking them out though, it seems.

What's the deal they on hiatus with HHI?

[biakbiak]

6 minutes ago, scrb said:

I'm like a dozen episodes behind but noticed my DVR hasn't recorded in a couple of weeks and there are no new episodes scheduled this week either.

I wonder if your channel guide is wrong because there were new ones last weekand a new one set in Peru is on tonight and three more this week.

[scrb]

Thanks I'm glad I asked.  It somehow got unset so I had to reset it to record HHI.

Saw episodes on Vancouver to Epernay, Fashionable Milan, Africa to Ireland, Cyprus, Good Life in Paris that I don't have in my recordings so maybe these are some of the recent ones I missed.

[Bastet]

43 minutes ago, amarante said:

I have no idea what the attraction was unless all you wanted to do was drink yourself into a stupor on the balcony.

Well, in Rosarito, they'd get plenty of Los Angeles and San Diego college students renting it for that purpose over spring break, Labor Day weekend, Memorial Day weekend, etc.  Being a resort town just over the border, Rosarito is a popular destination for (among others, of course) southern CA college kids eager to enjoy Mexico's cheap food and drink (legal at 18 instead of 21, so no fake ID required), and many of them are happy to have to walk/take a cab to the beaches and clubs in exchange for having a cheaper rental to crash in and get their drink on the next day.

[amarante]

16 minutes ago, Bastet said:

Well, in Rosarito, they'd get plenty of Los Angeles and San Diego college students renting it for that purpose over spring break, Labor Day weekend, Memorial Day weekend, etc.  Being a resort town just over the border, Rosarito is a popular destination for (among others, of course) southern CA college kids eager to enjoy Mexico's cheap food and drink (legal at 18 instead of 21, so no fake ID required), and many of them are happy to have to walk/take a cab to the beaches and clubs in exchange for having a cheaper rental to crash in and get their drink on the next day.

I understand why it might be appealing to that group of renters.

However, per my post the HH were purchasing theoretically for their own enjoyment. I therefore question why middle aged people would want to rent a place in Rosarita Beach without any amenities and bunk beds in the bedroom. I can't imagine someone purchasing a vacation home in a "resort" type of area and not wanting to have easy access to a pool or the beach or preferably both. At one point, a negative about the expensive condo on the beach was that it wasn't a swimming beach - as if no beach and no pool were a positive 🙂

I live in Los Angeles and am aware of the "appeal" of the place LOL.

[Bastet]

6 minutes ago, amarante said:

However, per my post the HH were purchasing theoretically for their own enjoyment.

Yeah, well, we know that's usually not true.  All these folks buying vacation homes that don't remotely fit their families and lifestyles are not buying them (primarily) for themselves, but for rentals.  I wish they'd drop the ridiculous storylines, but they've built the entire show around a small list of ridiculous storylines, characterizations, and dialogue, so that's not going to happen.

[biakbiak]

Though based on the way he and his friends behaved I imagine they will use it as a crash pad for their drunken weekends when it’s not rented out.

[doodlebug]

Thrilled to see Peru tonight.  I've been to Cusco multiple times, one of my very favorite cities.  The Andes are spectacular, TV cannot do them justice. Machu Picchu is breathtaking, too. I also stayed in Urubamba on one of my trips, it's about an hour and a half by car from Cusco, so not all that close.  I liked all of the apartments, would have chosen Cusco because it is such a great place to live, vibrant and full of local color and culture and the smaller towns where they visited require travel on dirt roads that are nothing but mud during the rainy season.  And the towns themselves are teeny tiny and the locals don't have much in the way of disposable income, so there isn't a lot to do in the way of restaurants or other attractions.

I also enjoyed the bit with the llamas, very true to life.  They’re lucky they didn’t get bit.  Llamas are best admired from a distance.

I don't know how well a business leading hikes would do when run by a non-Peruvian.  There are plenty of tour companies featuring hikes along the Inca Trail that are lead by locals who've lived there all their lives and many of whom speak excellent English.  I have a feeling that she had a pretty large nest egg from her days as a DC lawyer and, since living in Peru is dirt cheap compared to the US, she didn't have to worry about the business supporting her for quite a while.

Edited October 23, 2019 by doodlebug

[El maestro]

The lawyer in Peru played the feminist card. Probably most seasoned guides have met tons of people like her before: urban types who one day decided to follow a dream and in a few months they went back to NY o SF.

I was born and raised in Europe. If I had 10 dollars for every American who have told me that their “dream” is to live in Europe and enjoy a relaxed lifestyle I would be a millionaire and I could go back to Europe to have that life. Too many movies with Italian villas and French and Spanish cafés.

I have known people who wanted to open wineries and they have given up, when they realized that it is not easy and you have to work a lot.

Edited October 23, 2019 by El maestro