House Hunters International - General Discussion

[biakbiak]

He talked to his dog like she was his wife

Husband more likely.

I wouldn't have been surprised if the first apartment was his friends because it was the only house he let Lucy off lead which he didn't even do in the apartment he selected and she kept talking about how it was just her style.

[NYGirl]

Good thinking. I bet you are right.

I did love the second ones furnishing but I liked the one he chose.

[KLovestoShop]

Mr Over-Botoxed in Puerto Vallarta was so full of himself and his beloved dog was annoying.   I can't stand when people think their dogs have the right to go wherever they want in the homes they're looking at.  And to let the dog jump on a bed is way wrong.  How does he know if the present owners have allergies and then to allow the dog to jump on the bed was just wrong.  It's the same thing that bugs me when house hunters step into a tub with their shoes on.

 

I liked the Doha story and seeing the choices they had.  But the problem I had was not providing a separate bedroom for the nanny.   Those kids, if they're sharing one bedroom, therefore giving the nanny her own room, will grow up fast and not be able to share a bedroom for very long, leaving the nanny in the lurch.  I wonder how long they're going to live in Doha?

[Pickles]

I did some digging on the Chicago lawyers moving to Doha. It looks like they are based both in Chicago and Doha, so I would imagine they do not live in Doha full time. I was also wondering about a bedroom for the nanny. The kids were very cute.

[Crisopera]

I thought the Cardiff couple both had odd accents - both somewhere between American and Welsh.

[RococoChanel]

Holy crap, Turin wife. I have so many thoughts on this episode.

 

1. She had a weird accent. Like an American trying to sound foreign or "cultured."

 

2. Her inflections were making me cringe. "A chaaaaAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIrrrrrrr!!!" Simmer down.

 

3. I think she looked like she was one second from crying the whole episode.

 

4. They definitely, definitely overpaid. Do you think that on these shows they jack up the prices? I've lived and worked in Italy for years. Turin is surprisingly affordable as far as big cities go, especially if you are on an American salary where one partner can afford to pay $2400 in rent. I was absolutely shocked to see the home prices which were pretty much double what they actually are in real life. Here are some examples:

 

http://www.idealista.it/immobile/8452273/2 bedrooms in the city center for 850 euros

http://www.idealista.it/immobile/8571156/3 bedrooms for 580 euros

http://www.idealista.it/immobile/8567220/2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms for 800 euros

http://www.idealista.it/immobile/7487679/2 bedrooms, 1 bathroom and 3 balconies for 650 euros

http://www.idealista.it/immobile/7895028/right in front of the Valentino... 720 euros

 

What gives???

[Rigoletto22]

That first one for 850  euros does not have a kitchen, you would have to put the kitchen in yourselves. The italians take their kitchens with them. 

[zivadanielle]

So, last night's episode in Myanmar was interesting.  Was that the first time we've been to a country that is still somewhat closed-off to foreigners?  Probably not but right now I can't think of examples.

 

I loved that the HH (can't remember his name) picked the abode where he has to get his mail via an ad hoc pulley system!  I'm thinking he is really going to stick out in that nabe but he seemed to be going with the flow of everything pretty much. 

 

HOWEVER all I have going thru my head since last night is "Myanmar, mid-sized car..."  ARGHHHH lol. 

 

EDIT: More musings!!!!  The comment about how he could not climb the ladder into the one loft space because he was....WEARING JEGGINGS.   Loved that guy. 

Edited October 14, 2015 by zivadanielle

[RococoChanel]

That first one for 850  euros does not have a kitchen, you would have to put the kitchen in yourselves. The italians take their kitchens with them. 

 

That's not really an excuse though. Some Italian houses have kitchens in them when they're rented out and some don't because like you said, Italians take their kitchens with them. When you see an ad for an apartment that is "ammobiliato" or "ammobiliato di cucina" it means it's furnished... And by furnishing, they mean it has just a kitchen! It's completely different from the American meaning of "furnished" which means there is actual furniture.

 

Surely their realtor would have explained this to them as being a cultural thing. And if that were a problem, *surely* they could have found an apartment (hell, even a home!) to rent under $2,400 a month that had a kitchen. I mean, to jump from 850 euros to 2000+ is quite a stretch just because of there being a kitchen. They're out there and they're not that expensive. I've lived all across Italy from Sicily all the way to Emilia Romagna and every home I lived in, I was able to find with a kitchen ;-) 

Edited October 15, 2015 by RococoChanel

[DownTheShore]

I liked the couple moving from Texas to Tjorn Sweden so that the wife could get back in touch with her roots. He made some of the standard Texas comments but he didn't make a bunch of obnoxious comparisons.

While I was watching the show, I kept thinking that he reminded me of someone, and now I've got it. Rick Bayless, the chef who has those Mexican cooking shows.

[Amethyst]

I hope the guy from Myanmar is actually budgeting his money and wasn't just saying that.  It's definitely better to travel when you're young, but those credit card and student loan debts aren't going anywhere.  Hopefully he can put some money away if he's doing private tutoring in addition to teaching.

 

He made the right choice, though.  It was pretty obvious, house #1 was within his budget and he loved the neighborhood.   

 

I also thought of the "Pinot Noir" song when I heard it was in Myanmar, lol.  

[Homily]

Just caught part of a show where 4 American guys are renting a house together in Australia.  Given how much they said they could pay for the house I couldn't understand why 4 of them had to club together to find a place.  Did anyone else see this episode?  What was the backstory that explained it?  Or did they ever explain it?

[JasmineFlower]

A sweet, sensible somewhat older couple? I thought I was watching House Hunters International... So sad how I've gotten used to 25 year olds dating for a year, one decides to move to another country, the other seemingly uninvited and unwanted comes along with no promise of forever giving up their stable job, and pretending like it will be blissful. This show can become a study in how the divorce rate is high.

 

So imagine my surprise with this couple in Italy, the one with the woman moving from St. Thomas to Lucca, Italy to be closer to her long-time, long-distance boyfriend. But not to live together, to be near each other. She doesn't want to rush it seemingly realizing being together everyday will be adjustment enough on their relationship. Seriously, are we sure this is House Hunters? It is, she's picky and wants a lot for the money, but nothing off the charts compared to what we've seen, and they were so sensible and reasonable with their relationship that I basically didn't care about the rest. And his saying he loved her and she was his inspiration? Utterly charming. This episode was a breath of fresh air for the reasonable and mature approach to a relationship, something we need to see a lot more on here.

 

Not familiar with Lucca, but I really enjoyed seeing it, would have liked to see even more of the city. It really does appear to be amazingly preserved.

[biakbiak]

There is no doubt in my mind that Lucca woman moved there and did a gut reno on the apartment that was to "her taste."

There is an older HHI where a woman moves to Lucca, I think she was renting, but it still made me think property values there have increased.

I dont even like the sun that much but I still thought her life of winters in ST. Thomas and summers in Lucca sounded ideal, so I hope she kept her house there.

Edited October 16, 2015 by biakbiak

[RococoChanel]

I liked the episode, too. They were a sweet couple. I wonder how much she sold her restaurant for and what she'll do in Italy. Then again, she might be on an elective residence visa so she might have substantial savings but I'm just speculating.

 

I too think that she did the renovations herself and they just showed a bare apartment "for show." I actually liked the first apartment too! The third not so much, but it was a nice place... just not for her. We should get more episodes like this where the couples are less obnoxious lol

[laredhead]

Loved the couple in Lucca from last night's episode.  I agree with Jasmine Flower that this was a breath of fresh air, and her boyfriend's description of her was so lovely.  I was so taken by their interaction with each other, that I didn't really care about which house she chose.  We need episodes like this as relief from some of the HH's who do nothing but complain and snipe at each other.  Beautiful area of Italy. 

[truther]

Guess I missed a good ep.  I looked up from my work, heard her say something about how the furniture wasn't to her taste and that the kitchen was a "nonstarter," and turned it off because it seemed like just another case of somebody with nothing better to do than complain about everything. 

[DownTheShore]

She had to have a decorator for that final shot of the place. Every room was just coordinated beautifully.

I enjoyed that episode, too. So nice to see sensible people.

I thought she was smart not to move in immediately. I mean, who knows, he might have had someone that he was with in Italy and her as his long-distance love. Also she understood that she would need space of her own to adjust to living in another country without having to add adjusting to living with someone else to the mix.

[Bastet]

So sad how I've gotten used to 25 year olds dating for a year, one decides to move to another country, the other seemingly uninvited and unwanted comes along with no promise of forever giving up their stable job, and pretending like it will be blissful.

 

This made me laugh out loud, because it's so true.

[DownTheShore]

Or the ones who have been dating for three months and have decided to buy a house together.

I wonder about the ones who just have to have that small place downtown by all the bars and restaurants. At what point does not having enough space in your home start to outweigh the convenience?

[RococoChanel]

I can tell you as a city dweller: no amount of space could ever make me want to move away from the convenience. But then again, I don't have or want children and I was born and raised in NYC. Different strokes!

[DownTheShore]

Oh gag me! ”The fairy tale could be us" instead of where they live, as the reason he gets her to cave to his bland, under-budget housing choice. After she's been dreaming all of her life about living in a Victorian building in London.

This is the couple going from St. Louis to London so she can get her English lit masters degree. He gets a transfer to London so they can move in together for the first time. She's another of those women who's fixated on an English author, this time Virginia Woolf.

[biakbiak]

Wasn't the realtor featured on the Kansas city to London recently featured in the international Reno episode?

[lgprimes]

Oh that Kansas City to London couple was painful! Much as they tried I didn't even get the sense that they like much about each other! Girlfriend should have picked the cute place she wanted and sent him back home. She will meet plenty of charming Brits in London.

[NYGirl]

Wasn't the realtor featured on the Kansas city to London recently featured in the international Reno episode?

They look exactly alike. I wish I still had the Reno episode in my TiVo box. I posted a link in the Tool Time thread to the realtor. Hopefully someone can check if he's the same guy.

The girl last night bugged me. How silly was her British accent at the end?

[StatisticalOutlier]

I liked the couple moving from Texas to Tjorn Sweden so that the wife could get back in touch with her roots. He made some of the standard Texas comments but he didn't make a bunch of obnoxious comparisons.

 

I didn't like him.  He looked to me like he had nicotine stain in his hair, and wouldn't stop talking about barbecue.

 

But he hit one of my peeves--complaining about the washing machine in the bathroom--"Who puts a washing machine in the bathroom?"  His nice Swedish wife sheepishly replied, "Swedes do."

 

I'm just glad he wasn't in England, where the washing machine would probably be in the kitchen.  He would have had an aneurysm.

[izabella]

At least it had a washer!  Beats going to the laundromat, no? 

 

I don't see what's wrong with having the washer in the bathroom.  What exactly is bad about that?

[biakbiak]

Much like the bathroom right off the kitchen people think people are going to off put toxic smells and ruin everything, lived with both neither been a problem

[sugarbaker design]

Wasn't the realtor featured on the Kansas city to London recently featured in the international Reno episode?

 

That was him!  I forgot his name but his contractor was a Cypriot named Stelios!

[Ritalin Smoothie]

The girl last night bugged me. How silly was her British accent at the end?

Ssh, don't make Madonna release her backup dancers on you.

 

But he hit one of my peeves--complaining about the washing machine in the bathroom--"Who puts a washing machine in the bathroom?"  His nice Swedish wife sheepishly replied, "Swedes do."

 

I'm just glad he wasn't in England, where the washing machine would probably be in the kitchen.  He would have had an aneurysm.

 

I must admit that this is indeed a very first world problem.

 

Much like the bathroom right off the kitchen people think people are going to off put toxic smells and ruin everything, lived with both neither been a problem

 

That doesn't bother me in a house with a less-than-ideal/funky layout.  The one thing that I am absolutely not crazy about is a bedroom located at one end of the house that can only be reached by passing through the kitchen.  My irrational brain imagines that all the cooking smell just gets stuck in the that room.

Edited October 21, 2015 by Ritalin Smoothie

[Babalooie]

I really like the London realtor.  I've seen him on several episodes, and he seems to be able to deal with the picky Americans with a sense of humor.  And...yes, ix-nay on the British accent, girlfriend.

[Spunkygal]

On the London episode last night, I burst out laughing when the realtor said that the back garden was lovely at one of the houses, and it may have been the house he purchased.  I think he might have been referring to the amount of space, because it certainly was not lovely to look at.  I wish they had given the square footage of all of the houses.  None of them looked very big.  I think the budgeted money went to fix things that were necessary and not to install things that would impress friends and relatives like so many HH's in the U.S. think is important.  Did anyone else think that the home owner looked a lot like one of the the realtors who has appeared on the British episode previously?

Copying this quote over from the HH Renovations thread. Laredhead is absolutely right when she recognized him as a realtor on previous episodes. His name is Richard and he re-did a house he purchased. It was a delightful episode. His laugh is so infectious...I would like to be his friend.

[StatisticalOutlier]

Me, too!  He was so droll.  "I'm not sure that Audrey was really convinced by my blank-slate pitch here." "I can see it's scoring quite low on the Virginia Woolfometer."

[DownTheShore]

That Milan couple that was on last night, I just found them to be annoying: another American expat who needs a tub, and a local guy who has to live in a specific neighborhood only.

And what realtor shows an already occupied place that isn't going to be available for another six months?

[Dewey Decimate]

That British realtor is a hoot. Does anyone know exactly what kind of accent he has? I had an acquaintance once with a similar sound, and cannot remember.

[StatisticalOutlier]

And what realtor shows an already occupied place that isn't going to be available for another six months?

 

One who knows they're already living there? Six months later?  Wait, was this shown on Back to the Future day, as a joke?

 

This one made no sense.  What did they do for those six months?  Pay rent?  So that's like $10,000 that should be added to the "price" of the house they were waiting six months to buy, which puts it way out of their budget. 

[Pine]

The Milan couple actually have an Air BNB house.  Their guests adore her.

 

Vocal Fry times 2 on the Brussels house hunt.  With a dash of the two women radio hosts in the Schwetty Ball's scene of SNL.

I could barely watch this episode.  :(

[laredhead]

Pine, is the house that was shown on the Milan episode the Air BNB unit, or do they own another house for that purpose?  I did not like the master bedroom in the house they chose because of those low ceilings.

 

The Florida to Australia couple last night seemed to not have prepared very well for the high cost of living in Australia.  From what he said, he took a new job there, and was not transferred there with a nice housing allowance like we have seen in previous episodes.  I wonder what their house in Florida was like, because the one in Australia might be a come down.  I don't know what the weather is like in the Northern Beaches area, but if it's hot, A/C would be a deal breaker for me.  That portable room A/C is only going to cool that one room, and not very efficiently.  Did anyone else notice the outside clothes drying lines in the yards of the 2 houses?  I guess clothes dryers aren't that common there either. 

 

Another person obsessed with having a bathtub.  I do agree that having to share one bathroom with 3 guys is probably not the best set up if you are used to a separate bath, but stop insisting on a tub as well.  Evidently that is an American thing.  I want to see reverse HHI's, where  people from other countries come to the U.S. and give realtors their wish list.  Bet that would be easier for the realtors to fulfill. 

 

I meant to make a note of their names so I could find out what he did for a living, but erased the program too quickly.    

Edited October 23, 2015 by laredhead

[Ritalin Smoothie]

It always fascinates me when the parents say they want this move for the kids so they can experience the culture. Seriously, unless the kids are older or you plan on staying there for years and years, a two and four year old will not be experiencing a new culture nor will they remember much unless, like I said, they stay there until the kids are teens. Parents of young kids do these moves for themselves, not for the kids.

 

I know this quote was from last month, but something about all these families stating that they are uprooting the entire household just so that the kids can experience another culture just doesn't sound genuine to me (much like 90% of the HH back stories).  So yesterday I happened to catch a rerun on a family of 11(!) moving to Veneto, Italy.  5 seconds of googling confirmed my hunch: that many of these parents are missionaries, and the production team probably told them not to state the real reason for moving overseas so the storyline appears as uncontroversial/neutral as possible (not that there's anything inherently objectionable about missionary work).  So the next time when a family relocates to a foreign country with no explanation of job prospects and with a modest rental allowance, it's probably safe to say that they are working for their church.

Edited October 23, 2015 by Ritalin Smoothie

[DownTheShore]

The Milan couple actually have an Air BNB house.  Their guests adore her.

 (

She just seemed like such a non-entity to me, like she was merely happy to exist in his orbit or something. Also, she was a Must Have A Tub No Matter How Small The Living Space Or What Country It's In person, which I can't stand.

[NYGirl]

The Milan couple actually have an Air BNB house.  Their guests adore her.

 

Vocal Fry times 2 on the Brussels house hunt.  With a dash of the two women radio hosts in the Schwetty Ball's scene of SNL.

I could barely watch this episode.  :(

OMG Pine!! I always use the Schwetty Balls reference!!!  I hate when they use that tone of voice.

[CherryAmes]

Ok someone even more annoying than "oh my god other people's feet have touched this surface" lady is the guy on the HHI I am watching right now with a couple buying in Australia.  If the guy said once "this is too close to the in-laws" he said it a hundred times!  I hope they gave mom and dad a heads up about this better the show aired.

[DownTheShore]

The family on tonight moving from Texas to some Central American country or maybe Mexico (I didn't catch the name, but they didn't say "pura vida" a thousand times, so I guess it wasn't Costa Rica). Another family moving from a state with a large Hispanic population to an Hispanic county so that their kids can experience a different culture.

They buy a property with two houses on it, and have the two parents and the oldest and youngest kids sleeping in one house, and the middle boy sleeping by himself next door.

No thought to apparently:

A) joining the houses together with at least a breezeway, if not a solid wall addition (they weren't very far apart)

B) take out the kitchen in one house and reconfigure it as bedrooms so everyone could sleep in the same house

They basically said, "oh well, I guess we'll be living in two houses".

~head-desk~

[zipbags]

Thought the same thing about the two houses. They were way below budget. How much could it be to connect the houses?

[juliet73]

I thought the Panama 2 Houses was weird. I thought for sure they would connect them since they were so under budget, but I guess not. I thought it was strange to have the entire family in one house and only one child in the other. If anything, I would put all the kids in one house and the parents in the other.

[laredhead]

I also thought the Panama episode was weird.  Why that particular very small town of only 2,000 people?  As usual  the wife wanted to be near shops and restaurants.  I doubt there are very many restaurants in a town of only 2,000, and probably very few shops.  It is evidently a tourist town for surfers.  I wonder if this is really a vacation home for them and they are going to rent out both houses when they aren't there.  It did not look like there was a lot of land for horses, so maybe they bought a horse and pay someone to keep it for them when they are away.  Who knows.  Unless someone is a good researcher and can do some snooping, it will be another HHI unsolved mystery. 

[DownTheShore]

I was wondering about those "restaurants and shops", too.

I suppose food purchases would be more similar to the way they were when I was a kid, the majority of it done at local mom-and-pop grocery stores, since there weren't huge supermarkets around every corner then like they are now. In that instance, being near such stores is more critical when there's kids to feed.

I always wonder what happens if they find they don't like the food in those restaurants? That takes one option of something to do that's not routine off the table, so to speak.

[KLovestoShop]

I also thought the Panama episode was weird. When at the first house, when the husband was shown the outdoor dining space and he said, what about bugs, and what about the heat. I was screaming at him that you're in freaking Panama where it's always hot and there are big bugs everywhere.

And again, the whole new cultural experience BS rears its ugly head. And this appears to be a very third world village, so shops and restaurants aren't going to be there, and there's no Neiman's or Dillard's much less a Walmart. The wife was so off base.

I wondered why horses was such a big deal. That's not a reason to move to Panama.

There's no way in hell I would allow a kid to be in a separate house. All it takes is one whack job to get into the separate house to have a sad ending to the great Panama adventure. I don't care how mature a parent thinks a kid is, he's still a kid.

[Christine]

Was out of town and catching up on recorded episodes, so some confusion:  was it international or in the US where the woman didn't like the showers without shower curtains?  I have had a walk-in, tiled shower once in my life and I would gladly have another.  I loved that thing.

 

I get irked with those people who don't like bidets.  I've told my husband that when we're old and need "help" in that area, we'll have a bidet, one of those fancy terlet seats that rinses and blows you dry, or a concrete floor with a drain and a pressure washer nearby.

[DownTheShore]

I don't get the shower curtain thing either. Buy an extension rod and hang a shower curtain on it. Problem solved.

I've always wanted one of those showers that were designed so that a shower curtain was uneccesary.

Edited October 25, 2015 by DownTheShore