House Hunters International - General Discussion

[NYGirl]

Geneva - What a nice family!  The girls were cute...the parents were not snarky or mean to each other.  A breath of fresh air.

I can't believe the prices of those houses...is Geneva that expensive?  It is beautiful though.

I'm glad he got his lake view.  She didn't even complain once about having a 30-40 minute commute.  Nobody asked for city center for the cafes and shopping;

I wish they were all like this!!  All we needed was Richard as the realtor.

Edited March 3, 2021 by NYGirl

[Kiddvideo]

25 minutes ago, NYGirl said:

Geneva - What a nice family!  The girls were cute...the parents were not snarky or mean to each other.  A breath of fresh air.

I can't believe the prices of those houses...is Geneva that expensive?  It is beautiful though.

I'm glad he got his lake view.  She didn't even complain once about having a 30-40 minute commute.  Nobody asked for city center for the cafes and shopping;

I wish they were ll like this!!  All we needed was Richard as the realtor.

If they can afford $9000/month for just rent, what the hell is her salary, what does she do, and how can I get her job?

[WI GIRL56]

6 hours ago, Kiddvideo said:

If they can afford $9000/month for just rent, what the hell is her salary, what does she do, and how can I get her job?

She works for Proctor and Gamble.  Has a degree in Mechanical Engineering and a Masters in Business.  Very well educated and I am sure she is very well compensated.    She has been with them for a long time and has worked her way to the top.  Linked-In,  shows they are still there.    She did the winter commencement address for University of Illinois, remotely, where she earned her Bachelor's Degree.

 

Edited March 3, 2021 by WI GIRL56

[chessiegal]

10 hours ago, NYGirl said:

can't believe the prices of those houses...is Geneva that expensive?  It is beautiful though.

All of Switzerland is expensive. We were there a few years ago after going to Germany and Austria, and it was much pricier than any place we had been.

[aghst]

Price range was $8000 to 9000 so not that much more than they originally wanted to pay.

Yes Switzerland is the land of $15 McDonald's meals.

 

 

[ECM1231]

10 hours ago, WI GIRL56 said:

She works for Proctor and Gamble.  Has a degree in Mechanical Engineering and a Masters in Business.  Very well educated and I am sure she is very well compensated.    She has been with them for a long time and has worked her way to the top.  Linked-In,  shows they are still there.    She did the winter commencement address for University of Illinois, remotely, where she earned her Bachelor's Degree.

 

Might Proctor and Gamble not have provided her with a sizeable housing stipend? Oftentimes companies do this when employees are moving to housing markets that are super expensive. 

[WI GIRL56]

4 minutes ago, ECM1231 said:

Might Proctor and Gamble not have provided her with a sizeable housing stipend? Oftentimes companies do this when employees are moving to housing markets that are super expensive. 

I was thinking the same thing.  I know when my cousin relocated they paid the difference in housing cost.  

I really liked this family.  They all got along so well.

Edited March 3, 2021 by WI GIRL56

[LittleIggy]

Geneva: The bathtub in the bedroom was ridiculous. Whoever thought that up must have been 🥴!

[biakbiak]

20 hours ago, WI GIRL56 said:

She works for Proctor and Gamble.  Has a degree in Mechanical Engineering and a Masters in Business.  Very well educated and I am sure she is very well compensated.    She has been with them for a long time and has worked her way to the top.  Linked-In,  shows they are still there.    She did the winter commencement address for University of Illinois, remotely, where she earned her Bachelor's Degree.

 

All while giving birth to four kids! That’s awe-inspiring! 
There is no way P&G didn’t provide a very generous housing allowance and a COLA.Also,the housing allowance  it’s usually structured so that if you don’t spend it all, you can keep what you don’t spend. 

Edited March 4, 2021 by biakbiak

[Kiddvideo]

15 hours ago, WI GIRL56 said:

I was thinking the same thing.  I know when my cousin relocated they paid the difference in housing cost.  

I really liked this family.  They all got along so well.

Companies will pay a cost of living increase, so Ohio would’ve been cheaper but they were still living a comparable lifestyle. Bottom line for me: She’s impressive and I liked the family, too.

Edited March 4, 2021 by Kiddvideo

[Grizzly]

Costa Rica look back, they moved there for the sloths. I admire their weight loss but couldn't live on a whim the way they do. They're already selling so they can build their own place. And in the next breathe, talk about living in Spain or Thailand. No wonder they have to sit on dog beds to watch tv.

[Dehumidifier]

1 hour ago, Grizzly said:

Costa Rica look back, they moved there for the sloths. I admire their weight loss but couldn't live on a whim the way they do. They're already selling so they can build their own place. And in the next breathe, talk about living in Spain or Thailand. No wonder they have to sit on dog beds to watch tv.

I thought he looked too thin, almost ill. 

[Cetacean]

1 minute ago, Dehumidifier said:

I thought he looked too thin, almost ill. 

Ditto especially when the camera supposedly adds pounds.  He did not look well.

[Flip Flops]

I saw an episode with a young couple moving to Amsterdam (I think). They would be there for a few years for his job. What stood out was that snippy realtor. The wife wanted two bedrooms which I didn’t think was unreasonable considering how small they were. In the one bedroom apt, the room was so small, all that was in there was the bed and it about touched the walls. Anyway back to the realtor. I thought she was rude with her snide comments directed at the wife.

[aghst]

2 hours ago, Flip Flops said:

I saw an episode with a young couple moving to Amsterdam (I think). They would be there for a few years for his job. What stood out was that snippy realtor. The wife wanted two bedrooms which I didn’t think was unreasonable considering how small they were. In the one bedroom apt, the room was so small, all that was in there was the bed and it about touched the walls. Anyway back to the realtor. I thought she was rude with her snide comments directed at the wife.

If that was Sarah, the blond American, she's awesome.

She's often chipper, at least in the first episodes she's done.  But she may have gotten fed up by American House Hunters demanding American features like bigger rooms, appliances, etc.

[Grizzly]

Brussels. That has to be the worst excuse to not choose a place. The fridge is too far from the counter said the guy who could cover that distance in 2 steps. I like Chun, the realtor. He was so funny talking about North Americans having a separate toilet.

[StatisticalOutlier]

8 hours ago, Dehumidifier said:

I thought he looked too thin, almost ill. 

I looked carefully at his "before" footage and thought, "There's no way this man should lose 70 pounds."  I don't think he necessarily looks ill, but he doesn't look like he's at the weight his body wants to be. 

The wife lost 50 pounds, and looks better but still isn't exactly skinny.  Maybe they should try having him lose 50 and her lose 70. 

[40Love]

12 hours ago, Grizzly said:

Brussels. That has to be the worst excuse to not choose a place. The fridge is too far from the counter said the guy who could cover that distance in 2 steps. I like Chun, the realtor. He was so funny talking about North Americans having a separate toilet.

I did not get that separate toilet thing. She kept saying the toilet was in a closet. I'm single, so it's not a big deal either way for me. But, if I lived with another person, I would greatly appreciate a toilet in it's own little room. 

[WI GIRL56]

Brussels....isn't it called a water closet?  I get it was not right in the bathroom and there was not a sink but it was workable.  The realtor was great.  And the boyfriend was sure easy on the eyes.

[abbyzenn]

Geneva - that woman was one of the best on this show not only as a house hunter but as a person.  At all three places she really thought about how it would work for her family.   And GASP - at atleast two of the houses both said the bedroom was big enough for 2 of the girls to share - imagine sharing a bedroom!!!  And something we hear so much "I want the children to experience Europe or another culture" it seemed like this was one of the few times that was true.  The older girls were learning French.   But  I wasn't impressed with any of the places especially for that amount of money.

Amsterdam - the realtor was really snippy in this one more so than in other shows she's been on.  I wonder where she is from?  For some reason I don't think she's Dutch.

[aghst]

35 minutes ago, abbyzenn said:

Geneva - that woman was one of the best on this show not only as a house hunter but as a person.  At all three places she really thought about how it would work for her family.   And GASP - at atleast two of the houses both said the bedroom was big enough for 2 of the girls to share - imagine sharing a bedroom!!!  And something we hear so much "I want the children to experience Europe or another culture" it seemed like this was one of the few times that was true.  The older girls were learning French.   But  I wasn't impressed with any of the places especially for that amount of money.

Amsterdam - the realtor was really snippy in this one more so than in other shows she's been on.  I wonder where she is from?  For some reason I don't think she's Dutch.

Is there an episode I'm missing?

This week my Tivo only recorded the Geneva and Brussels episodes as new ones.

[Grizzly]

2 hours ago, abbyzenn said:

Geneva - that woman was one of the best on this show not only as a house hunter but as a person.  At all three places she really thought about how it would work for her family.   And GASP - at atleast two of the houses both said the bedroom was big enough for 2 of the girls to share - imagine sharing a bedroom!!!  And something we hear so much "I want the children to experience Europe or another culture" it seemed like this was one of the few times that was true.  The older girls were learning French.   But  I wasn't impressed with any of the places especially for that amount of money.

I thought the girls would appreciate the house with a pool more than dad's lake view.

[Grrarrggh]

Those two Brussel's hunters deserved each other. Him with his ridiculous three steps from the fridge to the sink, her with her stupid hate of the WC. Yikes. 

[DonnaMae]

9 hours ago, WI GIRL56 said:

Brussels....isn't it called a water closet?  I get it was not right in the bathroom and there was not a sink but it was workable.  The realtor was great.  And the boyfriend was sure easy on the eyes.

In Britain the toilet is called the WC (water closet).  I don't know about Belgium.  I thought the prices were very reasonable for small apartments in the middle of the city.  I would never have chosen that tiny apartment with the loft.  Those stairs looked dangerous without a handrail.

[amarante]

I think the issue with the toilet rooms is that there is no sink in the room. I would also find it a bit unsanitary to think that people are using the toilet and then have no easy access to the sink. Is this done in new or relatively new construction? I ask because older apartments in New York City were built without toilets in the apartment. They would have a sink in the kitchen which was used for everything. Even when they were modernized, the toilet would still be in the hallway outside the apartment and there would be a bathtub in the kitchen. I had friends who lived in the East Village pre-gentrification who had apartments like this.

But the Amsterdam couple complaining about the size of the apartments were particularly idiotic in my opinion. Their budget was small for an urban city so their expectations were completely unrealistic. The only sympathy I have for Amsterdam HH is complaints about the stairs because those are pretty steep and narrow - and I think about how difficult moving anything into them would be. 

[aghst]

I actually stayed once at an Amsterdam apartment which had a narrow WC with a toilet and a very small sink, maybe just wide enough for you to rub your hands together under the faucet and deep enough from the wall to maybe your wrist.

They jammed it in in the corner of a living room.  The bathroom with the shower was in another part of the apt.

I think those small and thin sinks aren't uncommon.  It was about the size of this, though the fixtures were more basic.

https://www.remodelista.com/posts/10-easy-pieces-traditional-wall-mounted-bath-sinks/

Edited March 6, 2021 by aghst

[Grrarrggh]

3 hours ago, amarante said:

I think the issue with the toilet rooms is that there is no sink in the room. I would also find it a bit unsanitary to think that people are using the toilet and then have no easy access to the sink. Is this done in new or relatively new construction? I ask because older apartments in New York City were built without toilets in the apartment. They would have a sink in the kitchen which was used for everything. Even when they were modernized, the toilet would still be in the hallway outside the apartment and there would be a bathtub in the kitchen. I had friends who lived in the East Village pre-gentrification who had apartments like this.

Nearly every toilet room I've ever been in has had a sink there; the only two that didn't and they were quite old and hadn't been renovated yet. 

[NJMom]

52 minutes ago, aghst said:

I actually stayed once at an Amsterdam apartment which had a narrow WC with a toilet and a very small sink, maybe just wide enough for you to rub your hands together under the faucet and deep enough from the wall to maybe your wrist.

They jammed it in in the corner of a living room.  The bathroom with the shower was in another part of the apt.

I think those small and thin sinks aren't uncommon.  It was about the size of this, though the fixtures were more basic.

https://www.remodelista.com/posts/10-easy-pieces-traditional-wall-mounted-bath-sinks/

Very common in Holland.  Some are even smaller than what  is shown on that web site. If you want to know more about Dutch toilets, check out shelf toilets in Holland. I never get used to them.

[amarante]

2 hours ago, Grrarrggh said:

Nearly every toilet room I've ever been in has had a sink there; the only two that didn't and they were quite old and hadn't been renovated yet. 

I mentioned the lack of a sink only because the HH have mentioned it. A toilet and sink is a powder room which is pretty common in the US so it is indeed strange to be negative toward them. 

Edited March 6, 2021 by amarante

[LittleIggy]

11 hours ago, NJMom said:

Very common in Holland.  Some are even smaller than what  is shown on that web site. If you want to know more about Dutch toilets, check out shelf toilets in Holland. I never get used to them.

I googled it. 🤢

[awaken]

On 3/4/2021 at 5:42 PM, Dehumidifier said:

I thought he looked too thin, almost ill. 

Agreed, we thought he looked better before!  He looked unnaturally thin. The wife looked great though!  
 

we also laughed at Brussels man thinking the counter was three steps too far from the fridge. And the loft apartment they chose seemed way too small!

[debbie311]

Our house is ten years old and has separate water closet in the master bathroom. No sink in the water closet, but there are two sinks in the main part of the bathroom, which is steps away from water closet. I think most newer builds here in CA are like that.

[Quof]

So do you open the door from the water closet without washing your hands? Cuz that's gross.

[Jodithgrace]

I live in a modern condo in New Jersey and my master bathroom suite had a separate toilet room, the idea being to provide privacy so that two people could use the room at the same time. I say "had," because I had the door removed since I live alone and it was always getting in the way of the main bathroom door. With the door removed, it's just a little toilet alcove now.

[Grizzly]

South of France, Joseph and Juliet. I should've paid better attention at the beginning. What makes these people think they can operate a guest house in France?

[Kiddvideo]

16 minutes ago, Grizzly said:

South of France, Joseph and Juliet. I should've paid better attention at the beginning. What makes these people think they can operate a guest house in France?

They work in technology. There’s an app for that. 🤣 (Sorry!)

It would be nice to know if they planned marketing events or were software engineers. When people have planned a wedding they seem to think they have impeccable taste and know all the ins-and-outs of event planning and venue management. I was wondering if this is Escape to the Chateau envy.

Did she imply they hooked-up the first night they met or did I infer too much into it? Cause that’s squarely in tmi territory for me.

I liked them ok, but wondered if they’d be able to manage especially if they bought before the pandemic.

[biakbiak]

2 hours ago, Kiddvideo said:

They work in technology. 

He is French and worked at Tesla and she worked in marketing at Sequia Capital. They said they always wanted to move to France and he grew up in the French countryside.

Their IG. https://instagram.com/projetauvert?igshid=q3yl1cmh68l1

Edited March 10, 2021 by biakbiak

[buttersister]

Lovely photos. You know what’s missing? Anything having to do with them renting the guest houses.😂

[biakbiak]

10 minutes ago, buttersister said:

Lovely photos. You know what’s missing? Anything having to do with them renting the guest houses.😂

Well they bought right before the pandemic based on when they left their jobs so that’s not odd at all. If they sold a house in the Bay Area I imagine they have a healthy savings that renting out two guest houses wouldn’t make a huge difference in lifestyle.

Edited March 10, 2021 by biakbiak

[buttersister]

6 minutes ago, biakbiak said:

renting out two guest houses wouldn’t make a huge difference in lifestyle.

Right. I think the idea was to live in that area more than turn into hosts anyway.

[aghst]

The way they drove in separate cars, it makes it seem like during the pandemic, maybe last summer.

Because the guy is French, they might have been able to get into France last year after the lockdowns.

They had a budget but they could have walked away from their tech jobs with millions.  Certainly $680k in rural France is nothing compared to Bay Area housing prices so if they sold their home there, they'd have more cash.

They talked up wanting to spend time together as a family which is fine but do they both walk away from high-paying jobs unless they cashed in a lot of stock compensation?

They did move it to an area which doesn't seem like a hotbed of tourism or having some big industry nearby.  Cahors is about 90 minutes north of Toulouse.

So even for the large properties they wanted, especially him, the prices were relatively low.

I don't know, if they have to open a lot of time renovating and building up the exterior of the property, it would consume a lot of time, take them away from their young children.

He was willing to take on a huge project with that monastery and they wouldn't have been able to host guests and have income coming in right away.  In fact they eliminated the first place, which already had paying guests.  That makes me think that this idea of building a business is not that high a priority for them, probably have money to cover the purchase and to live on for awhile.

Also if they have a busy gite it's going to be as demanding on their time as their tech jobs, at least during the height of tourist season.

But I don't know, while it looked idyllic, it didn't seem like a big destination for tourists.  It's more than a couple of hours drive from Bordeaux to the west, Provence to the east and the Spanish border to the south.  It would appeal to people who wanted to stay in the country but not necessarily having the better-known attractions in other parts of south/southwestern France?

[biakbiak]

3 minutes ago, aghst said:

The way they drove in separate cars, it makes it seem like during the pandemic, maybe last summer.

Because the guy is French, they might have been able to get into France last year after the lockdowns.

On the above IG account they moved to France in August 2019 and closed on the property in January of 2020 and even then didn’t plan on having even “beta” guests until the fall of 2020. 

[StatisticalOutlier]

On 3/6/2021 at 11:27 AM, NJMom said:

If you want to know more about Dutch toilets, check out shelf toilets in Holland. I never get used to them.

I encountered those in other parts of Europe, too--40 years ago.  Now I know what they're called, and why they exist.  Dang, I learn so much here.

 

On 3/9/2021 at 1:22 PM, debbie311 said:

Our house is ten years old and has separate water closet in the master bathroom. No sink in the water closet, but there are two sinks in the main part of the bathroom, which is steps away from water closet. I think most newer builds here in CA are like that.

Mr. Outlier's house, built in 1983, had a room with just a toilet in it, and my condo (built as an apartment in 1968) had a room with the toilet and bathtub/shower in it, and no sink.  Actually, I just remembered another apartment I lived in that had the toilet and bathtub/shower in a separate room, so I checked the appraisal district records and it was built in 1968, too.

I assume people don't like them because, like @Quof, they think it's gross  But it doesn't bother me because it's in one's own home, and the faucet on the sink gets touched, just like the doorknob, and I don't think people wash the faucet every time they touch it.  Or do they?  Maybe this is in the "suitcases on beds" arena, and I just had no idea I was such a filthy beast.

[Bastet]

My parents' bedroom (in a house built in the early '60s) has an attached bathroom, and there's first an open area with two vanities (across from each other, so these "we need two!" HHs would drool at all the cabinet and counter space each person has to themselves) and then an area behind a door that has the toilet and shower.  We are not at all germ focused in my family, so no one has ever cared that there's a door between the toilet and sink. 

[Grizzly]

Frankfurt. Kevin is looking especially sexy tonight. Remind me not to hire her as an interior designer. But the couple was agreeable, no drama.

[BrownBear2012]

On 3/3/2021 at 9:18 AM, chessiegal said:

All of Switzerland is expensive. We were there a few years ago after going to Germany and Austria, and it was much pricier than any place we had been.

I lived in Geneva for a year back in 1967 with my family...my dad was a doctor and was doing work for the World Health Organization there. We had sticker shock back then! We ended up renting a three bedroom apartment on a noisy street in town. Anything in a more residential area was way over our budget. Switzerland has always been expensive...a lot of very wealthy people own homes and vacation places there. 

On 2/26/2021 at 7:36 PM, DonnaMae said:

Why did she have to be within 10 minutes of her sister if they saw each other only once a week?  

Yeah...it was pretty annoying that everyone else in the family had to bend to her need to be 10 minutes from her half sister. Sister had a weird name..."Friedel"...can't say I've ever heard that one before.

[biakbiak]

5 minutes ago, BrownBear2012 said:

Yeah...it was pretty annoying that everyone else in the family had to bend to her need to be 10 minutes from her half sister. Sister had a weird name..."Friedel"...can't say I've ever heard that one before.

Except it wasn’t inconvenient for any of them because the other places weren’t actually options and his one “drawback”, the lack of a designated parking spot wasn’t an actual issue. She also stated they saw each other at least once a week which implies it’s actually more frequent.

[CoppersMom2021]

Re-watching season 138. On the Burbs to Bangkok episode with the Austin couple that lived in a gated community where everyone had “nice houses, nice cars, etc.” and they were ready for something different. The wife is a total American nightmare in a foreign country. “This kitchen isnt Westernized”. “This isnt what Im used to in America.” “Its so loud” (as she stands in the city center). 
I have rolled my eyes so many times. 

[Crashcourse]

16 hours ago, Grizzly said:

Frankfurt. Kevin is looking especially sexy tonight.

Yes.  He looked like he's been working out. 

[LittleIggy]

Kevin! 😍 Anytime I see in the TV listing that HHI is going to be Germany, I break into a big 😁. He is so adorbs. Poor baby is too young for vinyl! 😆