House Hunters International - General Discussion

[aghst]

Canberra couple is relying on him getting a PhD in studying exercise in hot weather.

Guess he can become a professor?

She’s not able to use her masters degree.  She talked about how they need to be happy with their house choice for years.

Seems like Canberra will be good for them since they enjoy being active outdoors.

Maybe find some other interests as they get older.  Otherwise they don’t seem to have much else going on rather than the pursuit of fitness, unless HHI chose to focus on this one thing.

[CoppersMom2021]

On 4/22/2021 at 2:18 AM, aghst said:

South African family seemed to be good people.

Tough way to support a large family but he’s done it for a couple of decades.

Now this would be interesting way to weave in the pandemic.  Surely his gigs dried up, even in the Netherlands and Europe.

He didn’t leave South Africa because of the pandemic.  Seems like he mostly made his living doing tours in Europe, did well enough to support a big family, buy a big home.

Hope they’re doing okay now.  

Found Jeremy’s IG page. He responded to a comment that they are planning to stay there for 3-5 years and he’s loving the opportunities in the Netherlands. So they must be doing well.

[LittleIggy]

8 hours ago, aghst said:

Canberra couple is relying on him getting a PhD in studying exercise in hot weather.

If you exercise in hot weather, you sweat a lot. Now give me my PhD! 😆

[Tom Ronson]

On 4/23/2021 at 9:33 AM, CoppersMom2021 said:

Found Jeremy’s IG page. He responded to a comment that they are planning to stay there for 3-5 years and he’s loving the opportunities in the Netherlands. So they must be doing well.

So I missed the very end of this episode, what home did they end up leasing??

 

[Dehumidifier]

On 4/23/2021 at 6:30 PM, LittleIggy said:

If you exercise in hot weather, you sweat a lot. Now give me my PhD! 😆

For sure. They must be handing them out like candy on Halloween now if that is a true description of his area of study.

[Grrarrggh]

On 4/23/2021 at 6:30 PM, LittleIggy said:

If you exercise in hot weather, you sweat a lot. Now give me my PhD! 😆

I would but Lucozade and Gatorade have permanently deleted the knowledge from everyone's brains. 

[Grizzly]

San Miguel, Mexico. Wow, what a negative Nancy. House #1 for once, after giving her negative opinion and then asking hubby for his, I wanted him to say he loved it. What does Michelle have against bars? I do like her blouse. Her son(did you know his name is Micah?)will enjoy all the amenities at #2 so I think they made the right choice.

[laredhead]

I think #2 in the Mexico episode was the right choice.  The husband said the third place was noisy, and as soon as I heard the barking dog, that would have done it for me.  They were renting this place, so do they plan to stay there for many years?  I wonder if he/she still has a house in the states, and this is a get away place for a few months of the year?  The first house was strange, and I thought the realtor was trying too hard to make it look better than it was. 

[MartyQui]

I want to tell that handsome husband that when he and negative Nancy divorce, I’m waiting.  

[aghst]

High school sweethearts and then she sends him a card 30 years later and they pick right back up?

Then talks him into moving to Mexico, away from his kids and grandkids?

Because you know it was her idea, not his.  He mainly wanted "Mexican luxury" which sounds like a punchline.

He wanted to occasionally go into El Centro for meals and stuff.  Otherwise, be isolated from the natives behind the gated community, sitting in his jacuzzi.

But probably sold him on it because it's cheap, a 3BA/3BR for $1500 with amenities?

Yeah if she pushed it with the smaller, noisier and no amenities place, it might have been a dealbreaker for him.😊

[Tom Ronson]

On 4/22/2021 at 2:18 AM, aghst said:

South African family seemed to be good people.

Tough way to support a large family but he’s done it for a couple of decades.

Now this would be interesting way to weave in the pandemic.  Surely his gigs dried up, even in the Netherlands and Europe.

He didn’t leave South Africa because of the pandemic.  Seems like he mostly made his living doing tours in Europe, did well enough to support a big family, buy a big home.

Hope they’re doing okay now.  

Do you recall which home they purchased, I missed the very end of this episode.

[aghst]

I don't recall.  But they sold their home back in Capetown so they said they were doing well after the move.

 

 

[Grizzly]

3 hours ago, aghst said:

High school sweethearts and then she sends him a card 30 years later and they pick right back up?

Then talks him into moving to Mexico, away from his kids and grandkids?

Because you know it was her idea, not his.  

I couldn't believe he was willing to leave his grandkids behind. Wonder what his kids think of her?

[Grizzly]

London and Richard. All is right with the world now. I think Ben and I would be friends. We have the same appreciation for London and its architecture. Jona can take a flying leap. She doesn't have the skin for TV. So long as the bathroom is updated, I could live with anything.

[Texasmom1970]

The wife on the London episode bugged big time. She loved the open concept, so for her that made the tiny inconveniently placed bathroom was okay.

I'm on board with the husband the older buildings I love. Architecture porn for me.

[chocolatine]

On 4/15/2021 at 5:42 PM, Dehumidifier said:

Chicken or egg? Maybe they wouldn't shop daily if they had bigger refrigerators.

 

On 4/15/2021 at 6:23 PM, Kiddvideo said:

They’ve shown us apartments with full size fridges before. Seems culturally they prefer the smaller size fridges and doing smaller shopping runs for fresher food more frequently. It’s a mind shift not a deficit.

It's not so much a cultural preference, but people adapt to what they have. Small apartments with small kitchens tend to have small refrigerators. People who have a chance to design their kitchen have some flexibility with fridge space vs. cabinet space, but when you rent a place that already has a kitchen, you get what you get and you make it work.

On 4/17/2021 at 5:50 PM, ArtFossil said:

I'm really enjoying the Edinburgh episode because (1) Edinburgh and (2) I now get to add stand-up comedian to my list of most-likely-to-fail HH jobs (after travel blogger and holistic health retreat operator).

 

On 4/18/2021 at 7:04 PM, Grrarrggh said:

He is actually in one of the best places to be a comedian with the Fringe Festival. 

The Fringe is only a few weeks per year, but there are also plenty of comedy clubs. I don't have trouble believing that he's found some gigs, though I don't know how much money he makes. I got the impression that the wife is the breadwinner and that his main job is to take care of the kids and the comedy is more of a hobby.

It looked like the apartment they picked was in Tollcross, which was not a nice neighborhood when I lived in Edinburgh in the early 2000s (it's also where the characters from the Trainspotting book went to buy heroin). The great thing about Edinburgh is that it's a really compact city, so you can live in a greener, more residential area, and still get into the city center quickly. I would have picked Marchmont or Bruntsfield instead, just a little further out but much nicer.

5 hours ago, Tom Ronson said:

Do you recall which home they purchased, I missed the very end of this episode.

I think it was the second most expensive house, close to Hilversum but not right in it. They had two of the kids stay in the attic room to make everyone fit.

[LittleIggy]

1 hour ago, Grizzly said:

I couldn't believe he was willing to leave his grandkids behind. Wonder what his kids think of her?

Funny that he had grandchildren while she had a nine year old.

I’m overdue for some Kevin time! 

[aghst]

Hmm the London couple appeared to have set their budget by how much they plan to dine out and travel.  They didn’t mention that til the end of the episode.

The cheaper places didn’t entice them but I guess they planned to have a lot of guests for that second bedroom.

But with travel and dining cut back the past year, maybe it’s not exactly what they dreamed of unless they did a lot of takeaway and saved up to really splurge on travel when they could.

[NYGirl]

London wife wanted whatever her husband wanted as far as architecture but wanted open concept.  I really laughed at the second houses which were 1800 Victorian mansions where open concept was not possible.

[Grrarrggh]

I normally rate anyone baying for open concept right up there with Gargamel, but I found myself really like her. 

[Grizzly]

Lincoln, NZ. Whoa, new graphics for the opening and in the episode. Wow to house #2. The indoor/outdoor living was incredible. Yeah, a little grass would be nice but that seemed low maintenance and was very private. But house #3 really fit what they wanted and was under budget. It didn't look that dated. Glad the modern one worked out for them.

[DonnaMae]

The wife in London absolutely hated the orange tiles in the kitchen, so that's the one they chose.  🙄 This show has to be scripted.

[aghst]

New Zealand, looked it up they're about half an hour to an hour south of Christchurch.

She was going on and on about light.  I would imagine they can open up the windows and patios a lot more often than in Anchorage, Alaska

They wanted extra bedrooms for when their college-age kids visited but decided to go with the more stylish choice with just 2 bedrooms.

Interesting that he found work after they both were on the verge of losing their jobs.  NZ is trying to attract people in certain fields but it's often young workers in areas like technology.

They showed some Anchorage scenery with her talking about how beautiful it is but NZ also has a lot of natural beauty without animals which could eat you.

[Grrarrggh]

The Anchorage transplant to NZ is going to get a bit of a shock if she thinks there's nothing in nature to kill her there. I wonder if she had SAD, since light seemed soooo important. 

Edited April 30, 2021 by Grrarrggh

[aghst]

I don't believe there are anything like apex predators there.

In fact the Kiwi, the national bird and symbol of the country is thought to have flown from Australia and then over thousands of years gradually lost its wings because there were no predators for it on the ground.

The bigger threat to the kiwi is being roadkill.  There are signs on roads asking people to not speed for the sake of the kiwis.

[Grrarrggh]

True aghst. As a serious arachnophobe I probably do have a slightly different opinion on what is a deadly dangerous part of nature than others :)

[aghst]

Not sure about insects.  Australia has poisonous spiders and snakes.

One thing is that NZ has a lot of areas without tall brush.  Makes for clean looking landscapes, with pastures for sheep/lamb and cows all over.

You see smooth green spaces going all the way up mountain sides, with patches of trees.  Or instead of green, it's yellow depending on the time of the year.

Main thing I recall when I planned my trips was that certain coastal areas had sand flies which were a scourge.

Compare that to some place like Bali where you have a lot of buildings which aren't weather sealed at all, because indoor/outdoor is popular.  They have mosquito nets and they burn incense before bedtime.  But I got all kinds of bites including one that left a big welt on my belly that it still visible 5 years later.

 

[Cetacean]

5 hours ago, aghst said:

She was going on and on about light.  I would imagine they can open up the windows and patios a lot more often than in Anchorage, Alaska

I couldn't quite make sense of the light thing. In the summer it never gets fully dark in Anchorage.  True, in the winter they get about 5 hours of daylight but in New Zealand they still go from 9 hours of daylight in the winter to 14 in the summer.

[BrownBear2012]

On 4/22/2021 at 12:29 AM, Grrarrggh said:

Why? So she can fit someone else's standards of "beauty"?

Yeah...maybe she woud look more professional. She is a teacher...

On 4/28/2021 at 7:05 PM, Tom Ronson said:

Do you recall which home they purchased, I missed the very end of this episode.

The second one in Soest.

[LittleIggy]

New Zealand has Orcs, Uruk-hai, and the Nazgul to name a few deadly creatures...😏

[LittleIggy]

NZ: I’m sure flying to Middle Earth can be pricey, so I doubt the older progeny will be visiting 3-4 times a year like the mother said. 

[Cetacean]

On a totally shallow note, how much would it cost to fly a case of  hair conditioner to the woman in New Zealand?  Apparently there is none in Anchorage.

[chessiegal]

4 hours ago, Cetacean said:

On a totally shallow note, how much would it cost to fly a case of  hair conditioner to the woman in New Zealand?  Apparently there is none in Anchorage.

My husband said - what's wrong with her hair? It was totally fried. Too much bleach is my guess.

[Grizzly]

Dublin was not too interesting. Didn't the husband say he worked in IT? Don't see why he couldn't get an online job. And they brought a crapload of stuff over. How was that all fitting in a quaint little cottage?

[buttersister]

US Gov’t guy moving his family to Crete: Not feeling good about Mr. BEACH representing me in any way. Says his wife usually wins the arguments. That’s because you’re an idiot, asswipe.

[aghst]

4 hours ago, Grizzly said:

Dublin was not too interesting. Didn't the husband say he worked in IT? Don't see why he couldn't get an online job. And they brought a crapload of stuff over. How was that all fitting in a quaint little cottage?

She admits that her Ph.D is not in a well known field.

So they’re kind of gambling that it would lead to a higher income job or profession.

the guy said he just wants to sit in a pub.  But he is busy feeding and getting the kids ready for school.

maybe she is getting a scholarship and some living expenses from her grad school program.

probably smart of them to choose the place with the lower rent.

 

 

 

[cuppasun]

My TiVo glitched right at the end of the Crete episode so I missed everything after the obligatory pro/con chat— can anyone tell me which house they ended up in? I was pulling for the beach place, but then again I’ve got an aversion to unnecessarily large houses and raised my own kids in decidedly more cozy quarters!

I must say, Crete is gorgeous. I lived in southern France for several months 20 years ago, and spent some time on the Mediterranean then, it really is breathtaking. I’d have been thrilled to live there with my kids for a time, for sure.

Thanks!

[aghst]

Yeah I tacked on Crete to a trip to Greece, focusing mostly on Mykonos and Santorini.

But Crete is much bigger so there's some variety of scenery.

Only saw a bit of it in 3 nights.

[izabella]

12 hours ago, cuppasun said:

My TiVo glitched right at the end of the Crete episode so I missed everything after the obligatory pro/con chat— can anyone tell me which house they ended up in? I was pulling for the beach place, but then again I’ve got an aversion to unnecessarily large houses and raised my own kids in decidedly more cozy quarters!

They picked house #3 which was not on the beach but had a big yard.  It was the one the wife wanted.  They rejected the first house right away because of the icky pool and all the neighbors on top of them.  The beach house was a no-go for the wife because it did not have a pool.  Husband said it was the right choice in the end since the kids were always outside.

[Irlandesa]

I knew they'd pick #3 when I saw it.  It was in budget.  Had a gorgeous view.  And it had all of the bedrooms she wanted, I think.

He was annoying with his "beach beach beach" focus but her "we must have a fourth bedroom" grew to be annoying as well.  Does their family come to visit them every country they live in?  It's not like Crete is hurting for hotel rooms and if budget is an issue, people are usually willing to sleep in the living room if they're saving money.

[eel21788]

1 hour ago, Irlandesa said:

He was annoying with his "beach beach beach" focus but her "we must have a fourth bedroom" grew to be annoying as well.  Does their family come to visit them every country they live in?  It's not like Crete is hurting for hotel rooms and if budget is an issue, people are usually willing to sleep in the living room if they're saving money.

Why couldn't they put bunk beds in one of the boy's room and a double bed in the other boy's room? Then when visitors were in town, the two boys could share the bunk beds, and the guest could have the double bed. It really isn't rocket science. 

[Grizzly]

Marlborough, NZ. Sometimes I'd like to see the house that these people come from. When tastes are so opposite, who won the last time? The man is a carpenter, how can she hate wood? Funny how he equates modern with bland. Glad the dog got the big yard.

[LittleIggy]

On 5/6/2021 at 11:03 PM, Grizzly said:

Marlborough, NZ. Sometimes I'd like to see the house that these people come from. When tastes are so opposite, who won the last time? The man is a carpenter, how can she hate wood? Funny how he equates modern with bland. Glad the dog got the big yard.

I thought the same thing. 

[LittleIggy]

On 5/6/2021 at 3:53 AM, aghst said:

She admits that her Ph.D is not in a well known field.

So they’re kind of gambling that it would lead to a higher income job or profession.

the guy said he just wants to sit in a pub.  But he is busy feeding and getting the kids ready for school.

maybe she is getting a scholarship and some living expenses from her grad school program.

probably smart of them to choose the place with the lower rent.

 

 

 

The wife had a chronic health condition, too. Does Ireland have a universal healthcare system.

“Neonatal Occupational Therapy” made me laugh. Let’s get those babies ready for work! 

[Bastet]

2 hours ago, LittleIggy said:

Does Ireland have a universal healthcare system.

Yes, like all developed countries other than the U.S., although it's the least comprehensive in western Europe.

[Grrarrggh]

The NZ woman annoyed me the way all people do who think an older house always means it will be falling apart. Just because it wasn't built yesterday or because it isn't white/grey doesn't mean it's going to fall down on top of you or that you'll need to be fixing something every day. 

[Bastet]

6 hours ago, Grrarrggh said:

The NZ woman annoyed me the way all people do who think an older house always means it will be falling apart. Just because it wasn't built yesterday or because it isn't white/grey doesn't mean it's going to fall down on top of you or that you'll need to be fixing something every day. 

Amen.  A neglected house will, over time, cause problems (deferred maintenance will always bite someone in the ass in the end), but the materials and, especially, craftsmanship of old homes are not found today, so if a house hasn't been ignored, its age is not a deterrent.

And, sure, some of those materials should be upgraded to take advantage of technological advances, but to act like an older home is inherently more suspect in terms of future problems than a new build is ridiculous, because the deliberate cutting of corners wasn't widespread back then like it is now; the starting point is a better one because of a completely different attitude toward building.

My house was built in 1938, and I've replaced the plumbing and electrical with better materials that came along in the intervening years in order to keep it going the rest of my life, but it was livable without that.

And, my goodness, the structural work.  This was back when a 2x4 was actually two by four inches, and, more importantly, the attention to detail and employing best practices rather than the minimum necessary to meet code was the norm.  I'd much rather take the best practices of the time and upgrade as necessary than start with a home designed to skate by from the moment it was built, because the former has greater longevity. 

[ArtFossil]

San Miguel, Mexico:

On 4/28/2021 at 12:55 PM, MartyQui said:

I want to tell that handsome husband that when he and negative Nancy divorce, I’m waiting.  

 

On 4/28/2021 at 6:43 PM, aghst said:

High school sweethearts and then she sends him a card 30 years later and they pick right back up?

Then talks him into moving to Mexico, away from his kids and grandkids?

I really wish that the husband had just gone on a long vacation with his former sweetheart instead of marrying her. Will he really want to raise an 8 year old child? And what  are they going to do in San Miguel? (But hey, what do I know?)

[Grizzly]

Azores. House #1 I was surprised at how modern the kitchen was. And I wouldn't change a thing about that purple room. I even liked that chair he was sitting in. House #2 was fine (don't agree with"dingy") but converting those stone huts will be very expensive. At least this couple has B&B experience. House #3, my imagination is not that big. So they are putting off the B&B for a bit. What are they living on?

[snarts]

^likely the proceeds from the sale of their Ontario home. They mentioned their son heading off to university so it sounded like they do have a financial plan.

Love Azores episodes. Hoping to retire there myself.