House Hunters International - General Discussion

[Koalagirl]

If there were three bedrooms on the same floor, with the master upstairs, couldn’t they use one of the downstairs bedrooms as theirs until the kids got a little older and use the upstairs one as the guest room.  I think that would be better so that the guests don’t get disturbed by the kids crying at night. 

[Texasmom1970]

Perth, Australia having a guest room is optimal. You know what also works for visitors, a sofa bed or air mattress. They would survive.

[biakbiak]

3 minutes ago, Texasmom1970 said:

Perth, Australia having a guest room is optimal. You know what also works for visitors, a sofa bed or air mattress. They would survive.

For me having a guest room isn’t for guests it’s for me, so that when people come to visit I don’t have to have MY living space taken over. I would especially like one if I lived as far away from family as Australia because the flight is so long that people tend to stay longer. Of course who knows when they are going to be welcoming visitors given Australia’s tight restrictions.

[Grizzly]

Zap2it shows this Wednesday's episode is in Frankfurt, Germany! Fingers crossed for Kevin!

[LittleIggy]

16 minutes ago, Grizzly said:

Zap2it shows this Wednesday's episode is in Frankfurt, Germany! Fingers crossed for Kevin!

🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻🤞🏻🤞🏻🤞🏻🤞🏻🤞🏻

[aghst]

Pretty healthy budget for a first home in Perth.   Compared to what they'd pay back in Houston.

I think the Heritage home was a red herring too.

You knew she was going to get her way, always the "you're going to spend most of the time in the home" or "you gave up your job to move here" rationale.

 

 

 

[Grizzly]

Frankfurt, Germany. They waited until the last possible second to show us Kevin. Place #1 wife has the nerve to hate the rug pattern while wearing that loud, hideous dress. Place #2 brought the nature inside. I actually liked that floral wallpaper but I can understand if a guy didn't. How could they make that work with a medium sized dog? #1 made the most sense. Not enough Kevin.

[buttersister]

Kevin had this little “ta-da” move at one of the places that would have looked silly on anyone but Kevin.

[LittleIggy]

Kevin! Did everyone hear me squeal with delight when I beheld him again? 🥰 

I didn’t even see a sink in that city center flat’s “kitchen.” The place they picked was the obvious choice. I would love to have a fireplace in the bedroom. I stayed at a B&B in Boston one time and my room (the Louisa May Alcott Room) had a fireplace in it. 💕

Kevin! 🥳💕

[jacksgirl]

Getting tired of HHI, but love Kevin. So sorry, but  $50 over on a $1800 a month rent isn't a reason not to live somewhere. A postage stamp kitchen when you enter your apartment is. And Colorado Springs is lovely, it has so much to do and much natural beauty, if they want to move to Germany for any reason, that's super,  but to say it's nature when you lived in a beautiful city before,  calling shenanigans on that. 

[Dehumidifier]

9 hours ago, jacksgirl said:

...if they want to move to Germany for any reason, that's super,  but to say it's nature when you lived in a beautiful city before,  calling shenanigans on that. 

Google Cassie Knowlton and you'll get an interesting website.

https://gemission.org/donatemissionary/25235/

Cassie's Story

Cassie began her ministry at GEM in 2011 after feeling God strongly calling her and her husband, Michael, to serve the Church in Europe. For many years they have felt God preparing them to move to Europe to continue supporting what God is doing through GEM.

Where Cassie Works

Cassie lives with her husband and daughter just outside of Frankfurt, Germany, where their daughter was born, and serves GEM through equipping the overall organization by planning and hosting events and serving the CEO and International Executive Team directly. She considers Germany home, and both her and her husband have strong family ties to the area, with cousins, aunts, uncles, dads, brothers, and daughters all born in "Das Land der Dichter und Denker" - the country of poets and thinkers.

[aghst]

She doesn't seem like a missionary type.

She wanted to decorate and wanted to be close to restaurants and shops.

OTOH, I don't think they mentioned what she did.

But she relented because of practical concerns about space.

Husband knew exactly what he wanted.

[LittleIggy]

Frankfort: Missionary to the godless Europeans, eh? 😏 Wow. Talk about misinformation! She didn’t say she had relatives in Germany and acted as if she was a Kansas girl who wasn’t familiar with Germany. Neither mentioned their daughter was born in Germany. 🤨

[Grrarrggh]

19 minutes ago, LittleIggy said:

Frankfort: Missionary to the godless Europeans, eh? 😏 Wow. Talk about misinformation! She didn’t say she had relatives in Germany and acted as if she was a Kansas girl who wasn’t familiar with Germany. Neither mentioned their daughter was born in Germany. 🤨

Isn't lying a sin? 

[Cetacean]

50 minutes ago, Dehumidifier said:

For many years they have felt God preparing them to move to Europe to continue supporting what God is doing through GEM.

How convenient that god calls you to work where you have lots of relatives and many people are already religious.  I guess the godless folks of Africa are on their own.

[Dehumidifier]

A) In the beginning she said she was executive assistant to (I caught) CO but didn't say what organization. Kind of mumbled. B) Europeans are not religious nowadays. C) Don't think Africans want western missionaries showing up. D) She was giving Adrian Leeds competition with the bright yellow dress and red shoes.

Edited July 8, 2021 by Dehumidifier

[jacksgirl]

Wow, interesting stuff about Cassie and the ministry. They really left that all out of the hunt. Kind of misleading though. Hope Kevin wasn't complicit in any of the shenanigans. 

[Cetacean]

From somewhere to Mexico - starting new life, fisherman, writing book, new life, fisherman, writing book, new life, fisherman, writing book.  Did she mention that she was starrting a new life, is a fisherman and is writing a book so needs quiet?

[chessiegal]

My husband called bull hockey on the Mexico woman. I wasn't paying close attention but at one point she said she might as well have stayed in Florida. The boat she was on had Tampa as its home port (not that it means anything - you can put any home port you want on a boat, but most people put where they keep the boat). He thinks she already owned the boat and took it to Mexico, and her line about having to learn about boat maintenance was BS. To run a charter business in the US, you have to have a Captain's license, and that's no small feat, unless she hires a Captain for her charter trips. But then this is HHI, the home of the made up back story.

[Crashcourse]

I called bull(shit) on the Mexico woman, too.

[CrazyInAlabama]

Mexico episode was bizarre, and a total crock. 

Germany, they moved from Colorado Springs. When I lived there it was the headquarters for the most missionary, and church groups, so I'm not surprised their church seems to be centered there.   The HHI backstories seem to be the most bizarre, compared to the real story. 

[Rootbeer]

20 hours ago, Cetacean said:

How convenient that god calls you to work where you have lots of relatives and many people are already religious.  I guess the godless folks of Africa are on their own.

Germans are generally Christians, but most aren't observant, don't go to church.  I think her ministry is the sort that feels that Europeans may profess Christianity but they do not believe in the 'right' Jesus and they need to be saved from eternal damnation because of it.  How lucky for them that the right Jesus called them to a developed European country where they both had a lot of friends and family already.

The Mazatlan fishing writer was totally full of it, IMO.  None of her story made any sense.  She made multiple comments that the fishing business was not taking off just yet; she must've had either considerable savings or some other steady source of income.  The amount of money that it takes to set up a sport fishing business and keep it going until profitable has got to be considerable.

[Grrarrggh]

I liked the Mexico woman so much I'm willing to suspend disbelief for 30 minutes. 

[Bastet]

18 hours ago, jacksgirl said:

Wow, interesting stuff about Cassie and the ministry. They really left that all out of the hunt.

Back when I was watching regularly, they did that all the time.  There would be all these people that just screamed "missionary" to me, but their stated reason for moving was something different.  I'd get on the TWoP forum and, sure enough, someone would have posted that they found the HHs online and they're missionaries.

If you're too embarrassed to say on national TV that's what you're doing, maybe evaluate your life choices.  If you want to be honest but the producers won't let you - which is what I suspect, given the frequency with which it occurs - why agree to go on the show?  (Of course, why do any of these people agree to fabricated stories in exchange for 15 minutes of fame on an HGTV show?)

Have there ever been any shows where the HHs outright stated they were moving to another country in order to harangue people just trying to live their lives do missionary work?  I feel like there might have been a couple, but it's not coming to me. 

[aghst]

I didn't think missionaries got to have their own place.

If they're young and they don't have any income, that would probably be the case but if they have a spouse who earns the income and happens to work in the missionary destination, I guess it could work but how typical would that be?

 

[LittleIggy]

On 7/8/2021 at 9:21 PM, jacksgirl said:

Wow, interesting stuff about Cassie and the ministry. They really left that all out of the hunt. Kind of misleading though. Hope Kevin wasn't complicit in any of the shenanigans. 

Hey! Watch what you say about my Kevin! 😏

[biakbiak]

22 hours ago, aghst said:

didn't think missionaries got to have their own place.

Totally depends on the organization. 

[BrownBear2012]

On 6/27/2021 at 12:41 AM, LittleIggy said:

I bet he makes a lot in tips! 😏

He reminded me a little of Johnny Depp.

[Lemons]

On 7/5/2021 at 9:04 PM, Grizzly said:

Perth, Australia. Why was 4 bedrooms so important? Keep the baby in your room and then when older, the kids can share when they have guests. Missed which house they picked.

I love how they weren't able to do the "three months later..." at the end because her pregnancy would give that lie away.  They need to stop that along with the couples claiming they want the opposite of each other. 

[ML89]

On 7/9/2021 at 10:20 AM, chessiegal said:

My husband called bull hockey on the Mexico woman. I wasn't paying close attention but at one point she said she might as well have stayed in Florida.

She might as well have - she was paying, what, $1100 for that apartment? She could have found something similar in Tampa - now, it wouldn't be on the water, but it's not like she was going to Cambodia for $350 a month or whatever it was the "GoFundMe to make cards" ladies paid. She could have done fishing charters  and never moved.

Edited July 12, 2021 by ML89

[Tess23]

Frankfurt husband had such a lovely, deep voice. Yeah, he could convince me to move to the country.

[Grrarrggh]

4 hours ago, ML89 said:

She might as well have - she was paying, what, $1100 for that apartment? She could have found something similar in Tampa - now, it wouldn't be on the water, but it's not like she was going to Cambodia for $350 a month or whatever it was the "GoFundMe to make cards" ladies paid. She could have done fishing charters  and never moved.

I don't think she moved just to save money, but for quality of life too. 

[seacliffsal]

I don't know how much better the quality of life would be between where she moved to and Florida.  I guess overall cost of things.  I've been to Mazatlan and while nice, I think fishing is one of the main draws to the area.

[Grrarrggh]

1 hour ago, seacliffsal said:

I don't know how much better the quality of life would be between where she moved to and Florida.  I guess overall cost of things.  I've been to Mazatlan and while nice, I think fishing is one of the main draws to the area.

I can think of tons of things. Politics, Florida Man (a stereotype yes, but based in all too much fact), a more restful, balanced idea of work and play. I could go on...

[Tess23]

Floating home. We rented a 27-foot pontoon last weekend for our family, including our 5-month old grandson. The gentle rocking of the boat lulled him to sleep for almost the entire day. Hope the Londoners had the same experience with their baby - it was crazy how relaxed he was.

[snarts]

Spent a week on a VRBO houseboat in Amsterdam a few years ago, best sleep I've ever had. 

On 7/12/2021 at 6:11 PM, ML89 said:

She might as well have - she was paying, what, $1100 for that apartment? She could have found something similar in Tampa 

Yeah, no.  You can't rent a 1 bedroom in the Tampa area for less than $1200/month and it's more like $1500-1600 to be in a decent area, nowhere near the water. 

Like others mentioned, completely different lifestyle. She likely also could go without a car, saving even more money.

[biakbiak]

20 HOURS AGO,  SEACLIFFSAL SAID:

nice, I think fishing is one of the main draws to the area.

Good thing she is really into fishing then.

Edited July 14, 2021 by biakbiak

[Pine]

I have started taping and watching Mediterranean Life, and quite like it.  Nice to see our favourite agent, Adrian Leeds on an episode this week.  And she seems to own a place in Nice!      

[blueray]

I just recently watched one with a family moving to Australia (Maitland or something like that) back to where the dad was from. It was nice to see what appeared to be a normal family. Though I will say the housing market is expensive there. I supposes it is kind of a suburb of Newcastle and like two hours from Sydney. 

[buttersister]

Midlife crisis couple in Dublin: tiny place in the middle of a major city or large, calm oasis 15 minutes away? I wonder?😂

[seacliffsal]

I wasn't impressed with any of the offerings in Dublin and I usually love the options in Ireland.  I was surprised they couldn't find better properties for $3000/month.  The last option had an amazing atrium but the apartments wasn't good (the bathroom looked old and dirty).  They were talking about how the common area would be great for the cats and I was like maybe not so much if they start wandering into other homes, etc.

[cinsays]

17 hours ago, seacliffsal said:

I wasn't impressed with any of the offerings in Dublin and I usually love the options in Ireland.  I was surprised they couldn't find better properties for $3000/month.  The last option had an amazing atrium but the apartments wasn't good (the bathroom looked old and dirty).  They were talking about how the common area would be great for the cats and I was like maybe not so much if they start wandering into other homes, etc.

and what about other people using the common area that had dogs? that might have been limiting on the cats' ability to enjoy that space

[aghst]

Guy in Dublin was going to work from home so why would he need to be in the city?

In one of the scenes showing them doing something in their new city they were tasting microbrews.  So if they did that regularly it would make sense to be in the city.

But they didn’t talk about night life or entertainment.  Didn’t talk about travel.  Instead she kept talking about her cats — and one point said something like “since we don’t have kids.”

Midlife crisis indeed.  Though why would they agree to be cast in that light?

Maybe it’s a good professional opportunity for him or maybe they wanted to get away from South Africa for whatever reason.  Or maybe some family in Europe they wanted to be near.

Just not convinced they wanted to change their life because of some restlessness which arose at middle age.

[Meowwww]

2 hours ago, aghst said:

Guy in Dublin was going to work from home so why would he need to be in the city?

In one of the scenes showing them doing something in their new city they were tasting microbrews.  So if they did that regularly it would make sense to be in the city.

But they didn’t talk about night life or entertainment.  Didn’t talk about travel.  Instead she kept talking about her cats — and one point said something like “since we don’t have kids.”

Midlife crisis indeed.  Though why would they agree to be cast in that light?

Maybe it’s a good professional opportunity for him or maybe they wanted to get away from South Africa for whatever reason.  Or maybe some family in Europe they wanted to be near.

Just not convinced they wanted to change their life because of some restlessness which arose at middle age.

My opinion:

He wanted to be in the city for a fun change in his life. (I don’t know where hey came from).

She wanted a quiet location. She won. 
The whole episode fell flat. 

[LittleIggy]

21 hours ago, seacliffsal said:

I wasn't impressed with any of the offerings in Dublin and I usually love the options in Ireland.  I was surprised they couldn't find better properties for $3000/month.  The last option had an amazing atrium but the apartments wasn't good (the bathroom looked old and dirty).  They were talking about how the common area would be great for the cats and I was like maybe not so much if they start wandering into other homes, etc.

The atrium place’s kitchen was dirty and old, too. 😳

[Grrarrggh]

2 hours ago, Meowwww said:

My opinion:

He wanted to be in the city for a fun change in his life. (I don’t know where hey came from).

They were from Johannesburg ZA. 

[Pine]

On 7/17/2021 at 12:03 PM, Grrarrggh said:

They were from Johannesburg ZA. 

Which probably doesn't have a good nightlife.  

[biakbiak]

1 hour ago, Pine said:

Which probably doesn't have a good nightlife.  

It actually does have a pretty big nightlife scene because there are a lot of artists and musicians based there so there are all kinds of things from nightclubs to a thriving bar scene.

[Grrarrggh]

12 hours ago, Pine said:

Which probably doesn't have a good nightlife.  

Joburg is one of the biggest cities in the world and is considered the capital for culture in ZA. It definitely has nightlife. But it also has suburbs, which they apparently lived in. 

[Grizzly]

Brisbane, Aus. How old is she? She's worried about falls? When she's not trying to be a teenager. Instead of worrying about having space for a renter, why not scale back on her budget? I can't be too hard on her, she loves ice cream. And she didn't give in to her kids. To her credit, they were not bratty.