House Hunters International - General Discussion

[Chippings]

3 hours ago, Pickles said:

Philadelphia to London episode tonight. I looked this couple up and they have lived in London since 2016. I liked the woman. She was cute and positive and enthusiastic. The boyfriend was a bit of a downer going on about how the spaces were small, not enough room for his record albums, etc. But, he wasn’t awful. 

I'm used to being fibbed to in this show, but Hey - lived there since 2016 ??  That's a bit much, lie-wise.   

They were in my favorite part of London, but the treat for us was seeing Toby Brown again.  I had come to love Richard very well, but Toby is equally lovable and I have missed him.  (Haven't seen Toby in a couple of years; maybe they filmed this two years ago ??)  I studied my map and could not figure where they were overlooking the large exhibition space that was leveled.   

[Booklady1017]

The guy who moved to London annoyed me. So what if he couldn’t display his records and they were in a closet. He seemed pretentious and difficult. Plus it would be easy enough to get a display unit/cabinet if there wasn’t already one in the apartment. Also, the room he complained about not having room for a desk was silly.

[Booklady1017]

Fiji: The wife wanted an authentic Fijian experience but I wonder how quickly the cold showers and no AC got old. Does it rain a lot there?

[Booklady1017]

Nicaragua: I thought it was kind of unusual to pick up and go to a place you don’t know well and set up a bar there, even if you have experience. The girlfriend didn’t really seem keen going there so I wonder why she agreed.

[sempervivum]

2 hours ago, Booklady1017 said:

Fiji: The wife wanted an authentic Fijian experience but I wonder how quickly the cold showers and no AC got old. Does it rain a lot there?

I don't know, but even if it were sunny 24 hours a day, I doubt that there's enough hot water for 2 adult's showers, a kid's bath, laundry and kitchen uses. I'd be concerned about hygiene, but that's just me. 

But what about the tot sleeping in the hot loft? They can't put a/c up there, so I guess the kid will be sleeping in the living room.

[proserpina65]

On ‎11‎/‎27‎/‎2018 at 12:14 AM, LittleIggy said:

Yeah, Mr. Hipster was annoying with his vinyl (oh, no! I’ll have to go into another room to get a record!) and his spreadsheets. She seemed nice. I liked the first place best. You could see Freddie Mercury’s house! I was hoping for Richard since we were in Britain, but Toby and his sleepy puppy were adorbs!

I started out wondering where in northern Delaware he was from (I live next door in Cecil County, MD) but quickly hated him so much that I was hoping it wasn't someplace I know.

I loved seeing Toby again.

[Booklady1017]

I think the son was in the downstairs room and the parents were in the loft. I agree about the showers and hygiene and how much hot water they could get. 

3 hours ago, proserpina65 said:

I started out wondering where in northern Delaware he was from (I live next door in Cecil County, MD) but quickly hated him so much that I was hoping it wasn't someplace I know.

I loved seeing Toby again.

I liked Toby. I remember seeing him before but not sure which episode.

[AlleC17]

I don't recall Toby as I am still somewhat new to HH, but I loved him, and his dog too!  The places they viewed were all really nice, and hipster dude didn't bother me too much with his record player nonsense.

[Pickles]

Madrid episode is not even over yet, but I despise the woman. She is so very fond of herself. She has written every day since she was 17. Well, congratulations to you! You are definitely superior in your own mind. She needs an oven, because baking ‘grounds her’ and she has to be grounded don’t you know. She needs her own room, as Virginia Wolfe says, for her writing even though the boyfriend will be at work all day. I found this twit’s website and she has worked for some of the ‘greatest academic minds’. Ah yes, such a self important special snowflake.

[lgprimes]

Also watching Madrid. Not often that I come to the site DURING THE EPISODE to see how much snark is being slung. But this woman deserves everything she gets. Wow, pretentious much??!

Not sure why the seemingly pretty nice spouse puts up with her.

[Pickles]

Also interesting that she went to college (mentioned on her website) where two other young women that I know of also attended and they could all be clones of one another. All insufferable, privileged, entitled brats.

[buttersister]

Wait—Richard’s in Madrid? Richard, I’ve missed you. And please tell me he fed that inflated story line to this episode! Perfection: She needed to feel inspired to write??! Hahahahaha. Inspiration is for amateurs, snowflake. Pros sit down and get to work. Looked like she was selling or giving away clickbait like Top 10 balconies in Madrid. Ooh. I hope Richard is living happily in apartment #3.

[Grrarrggh]

On ‎11‎/‎17‎/‎2018 at 1:02 PM, MartyQui said:

Googled the Dakar people...the program is only 9 weeks, so she was really temporary, which explains the husband’s staying behind.  She’s actually got a fascinating career, I’d kind of like to read her book.

The programme being only 9 weeks means that the people coming to study abroad only stay for 9 weeks, not that the business she's running will only be up for 9 weeks. That's why she was were worried about school commute. 

[pep4]

Yeah, I was thinking it was London when I flipped over and Mr. Awesome Beard was talking.  (But I could be misremembering.  As a writer, I'm a bit out of sorts typing here while not in my Madrid special space.)

[pep4]

Someone asked if it rained a lot on Fiji.  I looked it up during the episode, the primary town on their island can get 119 inches per year, though there's a drier side.

Also, I'm hearing the Sentinel Island episode may be delayed....

Edited November 29, 2018 by pep4

[LittleIggy]

1 hour ago, Pickles said:

Madrid episode is not even over yet, but I despise the woman. She is so very fond of herself. She has written every day since she was 17. Well, congratulations to you! You are definitely superior in your own mind. She needs an oven, because baking ‘grounds her’ and she has to be grounded don’t you know. She needs her own room, as Virginia Wolfe says, for her writing even though the boyfriend will be at work all day. I found this twit’s website and she has worked for some of the ‘greatest academic minds’. Ah yes, such a self important special snowflake.

Do you have a link to her website? I need a laugh. Ugh! She sent my “Bitch Please” meter through the roof. JK Rowlings didn’t need an office to begin writing the HP series, sweetie. Thank God, Richard (or should I call him Ricardo when in Madrid? 😉) was there. I bet he thought she was insufferable.

1 hour ago, lgprimes said:

Also watching Madrid. Not often that I come to the site DURING THE EPISODE to see how much snark is being slung. But this woman deserves everything she gets. Wow, pretentious much??!

Not sure why the seemingly pretty nice spouse puts up with her.

Not spouse. They’ve been “dating” for five years. He’s not ready to put a ring on it. Wonder why? 🤔

[kirklandia]

I lived for 20 years with a vinyl junkie, in a house overflowing with at least 10,000 records. But even he would not expect to travel with them.  Who would schlep a collection (of anything) halfway around the world?  It really weighs you down.  Yeah, LPs look cool, and might impress some people.  Digital works fine for enjoying the music.

Edited December 2, 2018 by kirklandia

[SmithW6079]

On 11/26/2018 at 11:40 PM, chessiegal said:

I thought he was an asshole. Where am I going to put my record player? Talk about first world problems.

At least Mr Hipster didn't refer to his records as "vinyl."

[mojito]

Madrid

What a needy woman! She can't cook or write unless everything is "just so". Makes me wonder just how much talent she has. 

I would love to know the average salary of travel writers. 

She deserves the moldy bathroom. 

[TVForever]

18 minutes ago, mojito said:

Madrid

What a needy woman! She can't cook or write unless everything is "just so". Makes me wonder just how much talent she has. 

I would love to know the average salary of travel writers. 

She deserves the moldy bathroom. 

And I don’t know how to say it in Spanish, but I’m pretty sure they sell bleach in Madrid. If she could rip herself away from her writing, she could go buy some. And voila! No more moldy bathroom.

[Booklady1017]

11 hours ago, Pickles said:

Madrid episode is not even over yet, but I despise the woman. She is so very fond of herself. She has written every day since she was 17. Well, congratulations to you! You are definitely superior in your own mind. She needs an oven, because baking ‘grounds her’ and she has to be grounded don’t you know. She needs her own room, as Virginia Wolfe says, for her writing even though the boyfriend will be at work all day. I found this twit’s website and she has worked for some of the ‘greatest academic minds’. Ah yes, such a self important special snowflake.

She's not as bad as some of the others, as she at least admits at times she is a little difficult (like she said she knows an oven would be hard to find), but yes she was pretentious at times which was annoying. 

11 hours ago, pep4 said:

Someone asked if it rained a lot on Fiji.  I looked it up during the episode, the primary town on their island can get 119 inches per year, though there's a drier side.

Also, I'm hearing the Sentinel Island episode may be delayed....

Thank you for researching that, Pep.  I was the one who asked.

I like how Richard explained why he was there as he had property in Madrid, so he knew it pretty well. They didn't explain why Adrian was in both Paris and South of France, but someone explained it here, but it is nice for viewers who didn't know that to know more about Richard and to have known more about Adrian. 

LOL to Mojito and LittleIggy. You are right on point about that woman. 

[LegalParrot81]

2 hours ago, mojito said:

Madrid

What a needy woman! She can't cook or write unless everything is "just so". Makes me wonder just how much talent she has. 

I would love to know the average salary of travel writers. 

She deserves the moldy bathroom. 

She made me NUTS, she apparently sees herself as Jane Austen reincarnate. He other hand seemed like such a nice, sensible, down to earth guy and   Also, can she loose the uber red lipstick?

[sempervivum]

Madrid- there seems to be an endless supply of young aristocratic women who want to enlighten the unwashed about her oh-so-meaningful experiences in one of a small number of Western European cities, while being supported by an inexplicably indulgent man.  A man who could speak Spanish fluently, unlike her (as far as I could see).

She did have a nice head of hair, though.

[CruiseDiva]

3 hours ago, mojito said:

Madrid

What a needy woman! She can't cook or write unless everything is "just so". Makes me wonder just how much talent she has. 

I would love to know the average salary of travel writers. 

She deserves the moldy bathroom. 

I'm a semi-retired travel writer and have authored guidebooks for ten-plus years. I've also hosted web sites and written for magazines and newspapers. The pay sucks these days. It's certainly not enough to live on unless you have a lot of regular outlets. Print assignments generally generate higher fees than articles for web sites or blogs. Unfortunately, the market for print publications, and even guidebooks, has shrunk considerably over the years. 

[ML89]

Madrid - Richard is Spanish and his background was a surprise, although by his last name, perhaps it shouldn't have been. Interesting shop full of mugs and shoes that they found the mug with Richard on...  I would have gone for any of those apartments, which is rare for me. She's complaining about a few spots of mold? She should see some of the bathrooms that have been on HHI. I'd be the person sitting down with the agent, "Don't care about outdoor space, I'll figure out the commute, I want shops, cafes, a nearby grocery and a decent bathroom and laundry facilities at least in the apartment building." Everyone yammers about the kitchen, eh. That's what I need.

I had to appreciate that she was at least aware that she was high maintenance. I want to be someone who has friends who can get them a good job in Madrid on a whim.

Edited November 29, 2018 by ML89

[Ohwell]

I wonder how much money one makes for an article about the top 10 terraces in Madrid?  Such an important topic.  *rolls eyes*

[LittleIggy]

12 hours ago, CruiseDiva said:

I'm a semi-retired travel writer and have authored guidebooks for ten-plus years. I've also hosted web sites and written for magazines and newspapers. The pay sucks these days. It's certainly not enough to live on unless you have a lot of regular outlets. Print assignments generally generate higher fees than articles for web sites or blogs. Unfortunately, the market for print publications, and even guidebooks, has shrunk considerably over the years. 

She has a boyfriend to take up the slack.

Luxembourg: Seemed like nice people. I think they picked a good place. The backyard was lovely for the kid and dog. 

Wonder why it takes two years to build a house in Luxembourg? 🧐

[LennieBriscoe]

Madrid: A case of her mistaking "effort" for "talent." 

As a general observation: Why do Americans seem to assume that capital cities of the world (London,  Paris,  Madrid,  e. g.) will have cheaper housing/rentals than NYC?

[tch295]

This is the Madrid travel writer's website:

http://lizwellington.com

 

Not all that much content on there, there really isn't much evidence that she can make a living doing what she is doing. One essay is very telling though, about how she lost her school president election to someone less qualified, but more likable. Basically the movie Election. And as everyone who has seen Election knows that the Tracy Flick character is insufferable, so pretty damn similar to this woman. 

Boyfriend seems like a catch - in that he could tolerate her and evidently has good professional knowledge of Spanish and is gainfully employed. Her dream is impossible without him. He just seemed whipped to me, and I just kept thinking he could do better. She was pretty, nice hair, but I was struggling to find anything else about her to like.

 

Luxembourg couple seemed nice, natural together and dare I say normal. Not picking up on a total whim, real job, realistic about where it was best to live. Pretty damn rare for this show.

[Booklady1017]

11 hours ago, LittleIggy said:

She has a boyfriend to take up the slack.

Luxembourg: Seemed like nice people. I think they picked a good place. The backyard was lovely for the kid and dog. 

Wonder why it takes two years to build a house in Luxembourg? 🧐

Luxembourg: The mother was a bit of a worrywart but they picked the right house.

I was trying to figure out why it took that long to build a house.

Edited November 30, 2018 by Booklady1017

[Ohwell]

2 minutes ago, Booklady1017 said:

The mother was a bit of a worrywart but they picked the right house.

Yeah I thought she was a bit of a worrywart as well, but overall she wasn't as annoying as some of the HHs.

[Booklady1017]

4 hours ago, Ohwell said:

Yeah I thought she was a bit of a worrywart as well, but overall she wasn't as annoying as some of the HHs.

True!

[mojito]

Quote

Luxembourg: The mother was a bit of a worrywart but they picked the right house.

I rolled my eyes after seeing the boy kick a football in the beginning with great control and then hearing her fret about the staircase. The boy is no toddler, and he's coordinated!  The stairs will not be a problem for him. However, the house with the pool and trampoline were just fine. Go figure. 

I didn't think the kitchen was bad at all. C'mon, it's complete, it's big enough, it's clean, and it's well maintained. And it's a rental! Glad they chose that place though I liked the one out in the country with the killer staircase, too. Actually, they were all nice.

[laredhead]

I think Richard probably put the Madrid woman in his book of annoying house hunters.  That woman was high maintenance.  The boyfriend has the patience of Job.  Yes, I agree with a previous comment about the mildew in the bathroom.  Go to the store and buy some bleach.  Problem solved.  The view is lovely from the apartment they chose.     

[LittleIggy]

1 hour ago, laredhead said:

I think Richard probably put the Madrid woman in his book of annoying house hunters.  That woman was high maintenance.  The boyfriend has the patience of Job.  Yes, I agree with a previous comment about the mildew in the bathroom.  Go to the store and buy some bleach.  Problem solved.  The view is lovely from the apartment they chose.     

I looked at her website. Didn’t see a mention of still living in Madrid (may have missed it since I didn’t linger there. The pretension was cloying).

Luxembourg: I think that spiral staircase would have been more of a problem for Waldo the sweet looking dog than the son.

[debraran]

On 11/29/2018 at 8:14 AM, SmithW6079 said:

At least Mr Hipster didn't refer to his records as "vinyl."

I'm wondering if he wishes they used another "problem" for him. lol That one was odd, he probably had vinyl records and a lightbulb went off. Not many would take them with them for a year or so.

Everyone needs an issue, some people aren't too likable to start with, this guy was okay without the bad script, his reaction to the second bath (I liked that apartment) was genuine and I have a feeling he's pretty cool overall. Some people though are unlikable from the start and I guess the show doesn't get thousands wanting to be on, so you get what you get. ; )

[Booklady1017]

10 hours ago, mojito said:

I rolled my eyes after seeing the boy kick a football in the beginning with great control and then hearing her fret about the staircase. The boy is no toddler, and he's coordinated!  The stairs will not be a problem for him. However, the house with the pool and trampoline were just fine. Go figure. 

I didn't think the kitchen was bad at all. C'mon, it's complete, it's big enough, it's clean, and it's well maintained. And it's a rental! Glad they chose that place though I liked the one out in the country with the killer staircase, too. Actually, they were all nice.

Yes the boy is old enough to be careful with the stairs. The kitchen isn’t so bad. Put on some nice music and get some candles and that would help in the Luxembourg place.

[Booklady1017]

Did anyone see the Frankfort and Alamos, Mexico ones? I’m not sure if they are repeats but I wanted your thoughts on it.

 

Frankfort- Yes, that woman was definitely quirky. Taking a shower in the kitchen would get old pretty fast. I’d have chose something more like 1 or 2. And I know this sounds silly but her hair was bothering me. Her hair was over processed and needed a good haircut.

 

Alamos, Mexico-I have no desire to live in a really old house like that with those tiles but to each their own and I wouldn’t want to do all those renovation projects, but I guess that is a certain type of personality.

[Tony]

On 11/28/2018 at 9:39 AM, Booklady1017 said:

Fiji: The wife wanted an authentic Fijian experience but I wonder how quickly the cold showers and no AC got old. Does it rain a lot there?

 

On 11/28/2018 at 12:14 PM, sempervivum said:

I don't know, but even if it were sunny 24 hours a day, I doubt that there's enough hot water for 2 adult's showers, a kid's bath, laundry and kitchen uses.

 

It's hot as heck in that part of the world all year round. There's no way anyone would ever want a warm shower. It's a typical non-issue that HH likes to bring up to add to the drama.

[sempervivum]

2 hours ago, Tony said:

It's hot as heck in that part of the world all year round. There's no way anyone would ever want a warm shower. It's a typical non-issue that HH likes to bring up to add to the drama.

I think it was the real estate agent who brought it up, actually. Based on a quick google, parts of these islands receive a lot of rain, and solar doesn't work in cloudy weather. Of course, they could always stand out in the (no doubt) warm rain to get clean!

[biakbiak]

A lot of parts of Fiji get decent crosswinds so it’s not that bad with a fan and as said above you don’t really feel like hot showers or  quickly get used to tepid ones if you have to.

Edited December 2, 2018 by biakbiak

[LittleIggy]

Phoenix to China: The HH moved to China, wanted a western sized apartment and didn’t like noodles or rice? Wow! I was lucky that my job at a university in China included a nice big apartment. The kitchen was small though with no oven. Beds in China are like sleeping directly on a box spring— rock hard. I had to hold it in until I got back to my apartment to use the western toilet. I never could figure out how to use a squat toilet without peeing all over my clothes!

[Booklady1017]

I’m wondering since they pick a home before this is filmed how realistic it is what they are saying. I find this to be true in a number of episodes, but I will just reference Phoenix to China here. I wonder if she did any research initially to learn about the size and offerings of the apartments, especially about the squat toilets.  Maybe it was just exaggerated for the show. I did know about the beds and kitchens and the size by watching other episodes in Asia, but not about the squat toilets and the toilets in the shower. Maybe that’s more exclusive to China? I haven’t seen too many episodes there. I don’t blame her for not liking those squat toilets and the shower situation. Now since I never lived in China, I was wondering if all that is standard in most apartments or it’s due to her picking smaller sized apartments. I get that the apartments are smaller to begin with, but I wonder if some of the bigger apartments maybe had different bathrooms and all or no?

[mojito]

Are all these people house hunters? Do they maybe just pick up tourists and have them fake a story line?

[Ohwell]

3 minutes ago, mojito said:

Are all these people house hunters? Do they maybe just pick up tourists and have them fake a story line?

That's exactly what I'm thinking with a lot of these international house hunters.  Also, I think the "teaching English in xxxxx country" is a fake story for a lot of them. 

[biakbiak]

The only thing I have to say about this episode is the friend was hot!

[Ohwell]

The real estate agent was very attractive as well.  I've noticed on the HHI episodes recently that the real estate agents, both male and female, are attractive it seems than in the past, and I wonder if that's on purpose to attract more viewers to the show.   

[sempervivum]

30 minutes ago, biakbiak said:

The only thing I have to say about this episode is the friend was hot!

He also used a lot of non-standard English, and I wonder if his students end up with a very interesting take on the language!

Not body-shaming the HH (I thought she was beautiful), but I wonder if living spaces this small might encourage weight loss - you'd end up with a bit more room in your apartment.

Wow at this city growing from a 'fishing village' to 13M residents in 30 years.

[Ohwell]

2 hours ago, sempervivum said:

Not body-shaming the HH (I thought she was beautiful), but I wonder if living spaces this small might encourage weight loss - you'd end up with a bit more room in your apartment.

I thought the same thing.

[TVForever]

5 hours ago, Ohwell said:

The real estate agent was very attractive as well.  I've noticed on the HHI episodes recently that the real estate agents, both male and female, are attractive it seems than in the past, and I wonder if that's on purpose to attract more viewers to the show.   

 

5 hours ago, biakbiak said:

The only thing I have to say about this episode is the friend was hot!

 

5 hours ago, Ohwell said:

 

And the three of them seemed to be having fun together on the “ house hunt”. That was nice.

If the loft apartment had been a real option, that would definitely have been the better choice.It offered more elbow room for just an extra $50 per month. 

Anybody else notice that the first apartment was noted for being in the area favored by expats, but was the only one with the squat toilet? I experienced the squat toilet during a visit to China many years ago. Glad to say I did it, but I don’t ever need to do it again. I can’t imagine there are that many expats signing up for that for everyday living .