House Hunters International - General Discussion

[laredhead]

The Dubai to Sri Lanka couple certainly did go from comfort to almost roughing it with their lifestyle change.  The final reveal said it was 9 months later, which is a bit longer than the usual 3 months.  I wonder why the time lapse.  The house certainly did look better than when they first toured it.  I think I would figure out a way to be able to live in one of the new places they were building to rent to tourists, and maybe that is a goal of theirs in the future.  Cannot imagine living without screens on the windows and a/c in that climate.  It can get very hot and humid in that part of the world.  I can't remember if the house they chose was the one that had a wood burning cooking area in the kitchen, but that would have made me want to return to Dubai immediately.  I laughed at her "surf, surf and surfing" quip about the boyfriend.

[KLovestoShop]

I was lucky to visit Sri Lanka and I just don't see how the couple is counting on tourism.  The ongoing civil war between the Tamil Tigers and the Sinalese can be very dangerous with lots of bombings and the rest.  And, it's terribly hot and very humid for nearly every day of the year, so having no AC is not a good idea.  The country is very poor with virtually no industry.  When the couple said they were planning on going into a business they knew little about, I just cringed.  If they want to do a villa business, and be part of tourism they need to be right smack dab on the water, and not in the city.  Even their road infrastructure is very, very bad.  We took a tour to an elephant sanctuary and the drive in any other developed country would have taken less than an hour, but for us, with the bad, and scary roads, took over two hours.   Seems to me the man is only interested in being a beach bum and nothing else.  As for bars and restaurants, I don't think so.  They're basically not places that most tourists would not want to go into.  I really see her hightailing it back to Dubai in a short amount of time.  

Edited August 19, 2015 by KLovestoShop

[laredhead]

Klovestoshop, she may already be back in Dubai.  Maybe someone with better research skills than I can find some information as to whether they are still there or if their business folded.  I agree with you about the boyfriend.  He didn't seem to be interested in anything other than surfing.

[KLovestoShop]

Did not like the husband from the Utah to Puerto Rico couple. He came off as such a selfish ass, and it just seemed to me that this move was just for him and his beach lust. The wife was all about the kids, and their happiness, but dad was nothing about making the kids happy, just his desire for an office and full beach access. Personally, I just don't think the condo was the best choice for a large family, and with kids in that age group. The house would have been better, in the long run. But like so many recent couples, they use the excuse that it's all for the kids, but it never seems that way.

[Kiddvideo]

Ontario to Azores: The "space for a goat" drama was so unrealistic even I knew it'd be the must-have that got left out. (Who'd care for it the 40+ weeks a year they were in Canada, I asked myself. Lol, look at me. I'm Columbo.)

[Peanutbuttercup]

I liked the family moving to Nice from last night. It was great to see people who were fluent in French moving to France! They intrigued me so I did a little digging. I think possibly they have moved back to Illinois (for the academic year) and that they were on an extended sabbatical rather than a permanent move -- if I am right, it makes sense, because you can't really survive on income from a few academic, non-best-seller type books. So their apartment in Nice will be more of a summer place in the future.

Her blog:

http://rixarixa.blogspot.com/

(note the comments on the "See Us on House Hunters International" post - I had no idea those shows weren't real! You are such good actors!)

His web page:

http://www.ericfreeze.com/

Goodreads page for his most recent book:

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/21945014-hemingway-on-a-bike?

 

[laredhead]

This is from the Q&A part of her blog where she says they will stay there a couple of months a year and rent it out the rest of the time:

 

Rixa Freeze4/10/15, 3:07 AM

We bought this place with the long-term plan of either coming back every May & June (and enrolling the kids in public school for those 2 months). Or, if possible, more frequently than that! So it's something we're keeping forever and will rent as a vacation rental when we're not in France. We figured that it will pay for itself that way.

We also have a deadline because the apartment must be completely finished and in tip-top shape before we go back to the States this summer. Having HelpX people has been a life-saver with these projects.

[KLovestoShop]

When the show was beginning, I thought, "Here's another selfish man who wants to drag his family across the world so HE can fulfill his fantasies about being Hemingway", all in the guise of the usual reason, so the kids can experience a different culture, and I still feel that way.   And once they were shown the properties, I really knew this show was based on falsehoods.  No way do you put four kids in tiny rooms with bunk beds.  Once kids get to a certain age, they want privacy, and teen girls don't want to be sharing small bunk beds with their brothers.  They did take the larger place, but I just didn't feel that they were permanent movers to France.  Like someone upthread said, you can't have four kids, live in VERY expensive Nice, with basically no regular income other than some off the grid books and essays.  I just knew they would head back to their jobs in the US.  

 

They're both teachers at Wabash College in Indiana.  And from what I've read, they're Mormons---not a bashing, but just a comment.  I rather guessed that from the beginning seeing how they dressed.  But I'm not at all surprised that they aren't going to be permanent residents in France.  This just didn't compute.   

Edited August 21, 2015 by KLovestoShop

[Quof]

FFS, the fakery grows worse with every episode. I just saw the "Canadian DJ abandons her life to throw herself into the great unknown by following her paramedic husband to his native South Africa."  Poor thing, she was nervous about being alone, wondered how she would adapt to the new culture.

 

But for the fact she has lived there since 2011, when she became certified as a Field Guide.

[peggy06]

When the show was beginning, I thought, "Here's another selfish man who wants to drag his family across the world so HE can fulfill his fantasies about being Hemingway", all in the guise of the usual reason, so the kids can experience a different culture, and I still feel that way.   And once they were shown the properties, I really knew this show was based on falsehoods.  No way do you put four kids in tiny rooms with bunk beds.  Once kids get to a certain age, they want privacy, and teen girls don't want to be sharing small bunk beds with their brothers.  They did take the larger place, but I just didn't feel that they were permanent movers to France.  Like someone upthread said, you can't have four kids, live in VERY expensive Nice, with basically no regular income other than some off the grid books and essays.  I just knew they would head back to their jobs in the US.  

 

They're both teachers at Wabash College in Indiana.  And from what I've read, they're Mormons---not a bashing, but just a comment.  I rather guessed that from the beginning seeing how they dressed.  But I'm not at all surprised that they aren't going to be permanent residents in France.  This just didn't compute.   

Honest, HGTV, I'd still watch even if you told us the HHers were looking for a place for a couple of months out of the year. That's the premise of my favorite show on the channel - Vacation House for Free. I don't need to be fed a line about how they are throwing over their whole lives to experience another culture, yadayadayada.

 

I'm here for the houses, not the stories.

[laredhead]

Has anyone watched HH Off the Grid this week?  I'm posting this comment here because the buyer was looking for a place in Uruguay.  There certainly were no granite counters, stainless steel appliances and plush bathrooms in this episode.  There were wood floors in all, but not the ones the U.S. buyers always want.  Wow, when I saw the outside sanitation facilities at one of the houses, my jaw dropped.  The door to the toilet area was a curtain and the "toilet" consisted of 3 plastic buckets.  The shower was in another outside cubicle with a curtain and you had to dump water in a holding tank at the top and then open a valve and stand under the shower head for a nice cold shower.  I could not see the man buying 2 of the 3 houses that were shown because of their condition and size, and the 3rd one was over his budget.  In the end he decided to build a house and it looked pretty cozy and unique.  He certainly took a 180 degree lifestyle change from being a surgeon in Argentina to being a practitioner of natural medicine and Yoga teacher.   

[KLovestoShop]

Could not stand the husband, Ky, of the Paris couple. He was such a egotistical, smart ass, pain in the butt. He appeared to want to come off as being super sophisticated, and like he knew everything about house hunting in Paris. But he just couldn't come to grips with how the French live. He's the kind of guy that we refer to as the one who looks in the mirror all the time and says "Am I great, handsome and sexy?"

[Ritalin Smoothie]

And how the hell can a couple with a federal government housing stipend afford a US $4K+ apartment in Paris?  I don't think our government is THAT generous paying foreign service employees . . . right?

[CherryAmes]

If that's the going rate to live in an area and they're sending someone there then, yeah, I think the government would have to be that generous.  We were in London for years for my husband's job and if we'd had to rent there based only on my husband's Canadian salary we'd have been living in a dump most definitely unHHI worthy!!  But put it another way, the house we did rent back around 2005 cost us about $3000 Cdn monthly but there is no way that's what it would have cost back here, also when it went on the market a year or so later it was selling for just under a  million Cdn.  Trust me we were not living in a million dollar property - at that time in that part of the UK that's what a single family home close to London was going to cost you.  It may  be even higher  now.

[meep.meep]

I figured the Paris guy was just acting badly.  They didn't say why they needed a second bedroom - couldn't he just study in there?

But Paris bathrooms are famous for having toilets and bidets!  To encounter two bathrooms sans toilet, plus a water closet that didn't include a bidet seemed really strange to me.  It was a beautiful apartment.

[Broderbits]

This may sound really petty, but I would be very pissed off to find that my tax dollars were going to finance sonny boy's 2 toilets in Paris. There are cheaper places to perfect one's French.

[CherryAmes]

If the only reason he's in Paris is to learn French on the government dime I totally agree with you.  On the other hand if he's in Paris as part of his job I don't think it's at all unreasonable to expect his employer to supplement his salary to enable him to live comfortably where they're sending him for his job.

[KLovestoShop]

The husband said he was there to learn French in order to go back to the US and teach other government employees how to speak French and understand the French culture.  If that's the REAL reason why he's there, it makes no sense to me why my tax dollars are being spent for this privileged bozo.  Can't people go to school to learn French?  That's how I did it.  One can also go to local schools to learn about cultures of different countries.  I agree with Broderbits that our tax dollars could be spent better ways than by sending this kid to Paris to live the life of Reilly.  

 

I also agree about the bathroom comments.  Even cheaper hotels in Paris have toilets in the bathroom and a bidet, so why this agent couldn't find more apartments with a decent toilet is beyond me.  

[Dewey Decimate]

How much did I despise the Paris couple? Let me count the ways:

 

My tax dollars are in any way paying for this over-acting egotist to learn fucking French? Why the fuck is the gov't paying him to do a job I'd surmise for which there are plenty of capable others? (And if it's a matter of "he already has secure access to gov't intel, blah blah", then why the fuck is he on a very public t.v. show?)

 

He needs two bathrooms for exactly what purpose? And his disgust at the separate WC? So he can open his mind but not his nose? "Peee you!" Hm, let's see what makes more sense.... shitting in a toilet, then taking a shower/shaving/performing all your daily ablutions in said same, stinking room... or core-dumping in the stink closet, then having a fresh, clean room to take care of all your other toiletries. I'd fucking love a separate toilet room.

 

Wifey's dream is to open a cafe when she seems to have no prior experience in food service? (Paging Amy Schumer!) So not only are they going over-budget, he's a student, and now SHE'S also a student without any income? Where in the bluedilly fuck is the money coming from?

 

The cutesy set up let's-get-to-know-Paris! footage: Hey, I have a sanitary and respectful idea - sit in this cooking pot that someone will use to PREPARE FOOD and let me spin you around on the floor! Sure, leave your shoes on! Oh, and now let's take an adorable pastry class for two! Be sure to roll your fucking sweater SLEEVES into the fucking dough so we can serve lint-croissants! "Emily, that's very good!" Indeed!

 

And dude, don't misquote Gandalf. You, sir, are not worth one whisker on that man's chinny chin chin.

 

Wifey's face also somehow reminded me of Melissa Rivers. Strike three, YER OUT!

 

My apologies for the f-bombs and probable poor grammar. The rage is flowing.

[Ritalin Smoothie]

Methinks this couple comes from pretty well-off families or they themselves are trust fund babies.  The sense of entitlement/expectation just oozed from their pores: second bedroom, second bathroom, AND a study area for two underemployed people.  Of course they chose a riverfront apartment; of course he wants a toilet in the bathroom and doesn't understand why a whole country prefers a WC; of course she has extra money to go to culinary school and dreams of opening up her own café (if she only realizes she'll have to wake up at 3 every morning 7 days a week to run that thing); of course they expect to live a charmed life. 

 

ETA: And his French accent left me unimpressed.

Edited September 10, 2015 by Ritalin Smoothie

[Pickles]

I did some digging on the episode last night about the couple moving to Paris. Looks like they are age 28-29. He is apparently a West Point grad. Her family may have some big bucks. Dad had his own company. Lived in wealthy part of Dallas. Died at age 59. She is an only child, so may have a large inheritance.

[Ohwell]

Hmmmm...interesting.  I guess that's how she can afford to open up a café.

[biakbiak]

I think the opening the cafe was a long term dream and was using their time to go to culinary school.

[buttercupia]

I thought the off the grid episode in Iceland was enchanting.  What beautiful country and what a great experience for the HH and her daughter.  They made the right choice getting the apartment over the store where they'll have plenty of community support.  And as a knitter, I was agog over all the beautiful sweaters everyone was wearing!

[DownTheShore]

Re that Paris couple, I figured that he must have a very good patron in the government to be paid to get assigned by his job to go to Paris to get his Master's in French, with such a good housing stipend.

That was too sweet a deal for it to be normal, knowing how my federal agency nickel-and-dimed mere gas mileage. If his job is going to teach other government employees French, he could have gone to any American university.

The wife being the budget-minded one was obviously scripted, because the usual excuses for going with the on-buget apartment weren't trotted out: "we won't have money to travel","we won't be able to do out as much", etc. Yet they're paying an overbudget rent AND paying for culinary school for her.

[biakbiak]

They actually stated that they were able to negotiate the rent to their budget.

[Ohwell]

I think the opening the cafe was a long term dream and was using their time to go to culinary school.

Yes, but my point was, she was still planning to open up a café, which means the money is coming from somewhere.

[Mondrianyone]

Why would a landlord negotiate a substantially cheaper rent--what was it, $500 a month less than asking?--for a gorgeous, oversize apartment with an unobstructed view of the Seine simply because some Americans said pretty please?  Paris apartments a lot less fabulous than that one can command rents that high and much higher.  Was the landlord just charmed by their adorableness?  The whole story reeks.

[KLovestoShop]

Why would someone move to another country to "experience the culture" but yet want a U.S. like house and all amenities? The husband on the Mexico show was only concerned with modern style that looked like any house in the U.S., while the wife wanted a real Mexican house.

[DownTheShore]

I absolutely love that colonial architecture that opens up into those courtyards. I want one of those kinds of homes!

[Babalooie]

The Scottish couple moving to Bergen, Norway were refreshing.  I liked all three houses, but being a Floridian, probably wouldn't last living there.  It was cute at the end when they revealed that the wife had to interpret for him and his thick Scottish brogue.

[StatisticalOutlier]

Re: An episode of high school sweethearts from Illinois moving to Hong Kong.

 

One of the apartments had a bay window that the bed extended into.  I just read an article about the insanity of real estate in HK, and one of the issues was those bay windows.  Years ago, bay windows started at the floor and were therefore included in the square footage.  Then some builders played the system and started putting them in as just windows, but they still got to be counted in the square footage.  So they proliferated.

 

But they're problematic because they tend to leak, and HK is very wet, so it makes the apartments pretty miserable.  At least the apartment on the show had the bed in the bay window, but then if it leaks and gets the mattress wet, that makes it even worse.

 

Also, the article said you have to be sure to ask about "practical" square footage because the square footage advertised includes not only the bay windows, but also the apartment's share of common areas.  I wish the show would spend time on interesting tidbits like that instead of made-up back stories.

 

On the tiny rooms (one apartment in the episode had 2 bedrooms in 400 square feet!), they're structural.  These enormously tall buildings are held up by the multitude of walls inside the apartments.  So no knocking out walls to have an open concept there.

 

And in this episode, it showed them on the gigantic mid-levels escalator at the beginning, and didn't even mention it.  I know they don't want to turn their episodes into an educational film strip, but I think this deserved a mention because it's unique to Hong Kong.

 

Although because of HH, I know that most houses in Asia don't have ovens, and that's not something I necessarily would have ever thought about on my own, so there is that.  And the HH got one--a countertop version.  So there was a happy ending.

[swissair100]

The Scottish couple were kind and respectful to one another even if they had "different" needs (made up or not) .. their lil girl was adorable and they all appeared sweet for once ! Good to see a couple who can portray themselves as reasonable and loving - not appear hateful, condescending or just plain rude that you cringe (even if the producers tell you to create conflict). And Bergen is breathtaking !

[Ohwell]

I thought the Scottish couple was delightful even though half the time I couldn't understand what they were saying.

[Ritalin Smoothie]

I thought the Scottish couple was delightful even though half the time I couldn't understand what they were saying.

 

I also thought their sing-songy Scottich brogue was very charming, but the longer I listened, the more I found the cadence of their speech very familiar to someone else's on TV and I couldn't figure out who it was.  It bugged until I realized that their intonation was like Raj's from Big Bang.

 

And 6 months of winter in Bergen?  That may make me jump off the funicular.

[DownTheShore]

Just saw the one with the Air Force couple from Colorado who were co-buying a place in Playa del Carmen with her parents.

I did not like the father-in-law's assumption that he and his wife would automatically get the master suite in any place they chose (they ultimately did), especially since it was the younger couple's idea to buy a vacation place down there in the first place. He seemed to have a very off-putting sense of entitilement. I know that if it was my parents, they would assume that I would get the master, and it would be up to me to offer it to them.

[KLovestoShop]

First rule of real estate is you don't purchase with the in-laws. Totally disliked the father as he came off as a complete jerk. What right did he have to emphatically state that the master bedroom was theirs? And then the mother who informed her daughter that despite the fact that they get the big MBR, that the daughter certainly couldn't get the second bedroom, and that she'd have to give up the spare room. And what was with the "we want a ground floor" business? If there's an elevator, what's the big deal? I wonder if the younger couple really needed the in-laws for the money for the condo? There's no way I'd share anything with the entitled older couple.

[izabella]

I wonder if the younger couple really needed the in-laws for the money for the condo?

 

That's probably the case. Maybe most of it is the parents' money, so they felt more entitled to have things how they wanted the place.  Having the idea to buy a vacation place is not the same as having the money to buy a vacation place. 

[DownTheShore]

I think they said at the beginning that they were going to split the cost, and that the younger couple might have to rethink their plan if the older couple didn't want to go in on it.

I thought that mother had a lot of nerve, wanting to reserve that third bedroom in House 3 for their other children and grandchildren - who weren't contributing anything to the purchase. And here I was thinking that the younger couple could open up a doorway between the two rooms and make a private sitting area for themselves. Of course, then it would have been bigger than the MBr and the father would have probably wanted it.

I bet that son-in-law rued the day he agreed that having her parents be co-owners would be a good idea. They should have taken their $170K or however much they were chipping in, and gotten their own place in the Dominican.

[CherryAmes]

I didn't see that episode so the above makes no sense to me.  Was the idea that they would only ever be vacationing there if they all went down together?  We have a family cottage that is co-owned by several different families and there is no such thing as "reserving" a bedroom!  Whoever is at the cottage at any given time uses whatever rooms are there as they see fit.  I can totally see giving my parents the master bedroom if we were all down at the same time but it certainly wouldn't stand empty if they weren't there but the rest of us were!  But I guess I am always confused by the way people act on these shows when they are buying houses they don't expect to live in full time.

[KLovestoShop]

Cherry, I think, from the things they said, that they vacation together a lot.  They made the point that they are a very close family and enjoy doing things together.  I totally agree with you about not leaving a bedroom unused if they vacation separately, but I think it sounds like they'll be there together a lot.  

[Ritalin Smoothie]

Oh, so many things to say about the Playa del Carmen episode.

 

• When the son-in-law said that he and his wife came up with the idea of buying a vacation home and therefore should get the master bedroom, I turned to Mr. RS and said, "He isn't a very good actor--can't even deliver the line fed to him decently."
• More power to couples who can vacation with their in-laws.  And even more power to those who BUY a vacation with their in-laws.  (That tells you how much I do things with my in-laws.)
• Even though they say the costs are split 50-50, somehow I still think that the parents are paying for more than half the condo.
• When people buy an overseas vacation home, do they really treat it as a second home?  Unlike, say, a lakeside cabin that you can easily drive to, it seems to me that you can't realistically (moneywise or vacation-time-wise) fly down there more than 3 times a year.  If that's the case, do you treat it more as a pied-a-terre or a hotel room?  That's why the discussion about the master bedroom seems silly to me.  If the 2 couples really synchronize their vacation schedules so all 4 stay in the condo at the same time multiple times a year, then yeah it matters; otherwise, what's the big deal?  But if I visit the place at most 3 times a year, to me it's still just a hotel room rather than a second home.

[DownTheShore]

They didn't mention rental potential at all, IIRC, so I got the impression that the master bedroom was going to be the parents' room and letting others sleep in it was not an option.

[KLovestoShop]

Boy, that Panama husband sure shot down his wife's desire to live on the beach.  If I'm going to retire in a tropical country, I'm going to want to be on the water, not in a mountain.  But for some reason, the husband was insistent on mountain views.  

[DownTheShore]

I think he wanted the room. That beach condo was small, and he mentioned that they were now going to be around each other 24/7. There was no place to just go off to putter around by oneself.

I thought the Panamanian house most suited their wishlist, but I guess it was too much h of the Panamanian experience for them - lol.

With their budget and the d fact that they wanted to live in an established resort town, I thought that her beachfront dream was unrealistic. Maybe if they were looking at a town more off the beaten path she would have had a better choice.

Edited September 18, 2015 by DownTheShore

[KLovestoShop]

I cannot believe the agent in England saying that her job would be easier if the client would put her pets down. What an awful woman, and shame on HGTV for not editing that out. This woman obviously cares for animals, seeing that her four pets are special needs.

With that said, the client did need to get over the size of the rooms in the first house and how she didn't like that the rooms are so small.

Edited September 19, 2015 by KLovestoShop

[DownTheShore]

I think that comment about putting the pets down was a joke, because they did have a clip of her saying that she couldn't resist saying it.

I have to admit that I laughed at the comment because I was thinking the same thing. One of my siblings has four dogs, and that's three too many for my taste.

I realize that the majority of people in this forum are pet people, but I'm not one of them. We had dogs when I was growing up and I have nothing against them, I just don't want to have to take care of a pet. The mindset that considers a pet to be akin to a child is an alien one to me. So I was really rolling my eyes during this episode as the woman was worrying about her pets and the carriage house with gravel in its yard.

[truther]

Eh, I'm a loving dog owner and I thought it was funny, too, and for some of the same reasons DownTheShore said.  I'm sure the realtor thought this American woman with her 4 animals was ridiculous.  And I'm sure there was a kernel of truth to her comment about putting them down.  But I think she was just displaying that characteristic dry humour those wacky English are known for.  That said the realtor also seemed pretty stiff throughout the whole ep.  Either she didn't like the HH, or she didn't like being on TV, or she's just not a very good "actor" and wasn't up for going around pretending to look at these houses that they weren't actually looking at. 

[AuntiePam]

So I was really rolling my eyes during this episode as the woman was worrying about her pets and the carriage house with gravel in its yard.

And wasn't that the house with the light-colored carpet?  A gravel yard would be better, with dogs -- no muddy paw prints.  Although some dogs eat gravel, so maybe that was the problem.

 

Why were her pets "special needs"?  I must have missed something.  They looked fine to me.

 

I liked the woman -- she had an interesting sense of humor and seemed really smart.  I think she'd be fun as a neighbor -- too bad she didn't want neighbors.

[DownTheShore]

One of the dogs looked like it was blind in one eye. 

 

She didn't need neighbors - she has her pets to keep her company. LOL