House Hunters International - General Discussion

[aguabella]

On 6/23/2018 at 12:34 AM, MsTree said:

Just watched 4 episodes in a row, so pardon if I get this wrong, but was it India where they had sinks randomly placed in odd places?  In one scene there was what we'd consider a bathroom sink in the kitchen...within inches of the actual kitchen sink. It made zero sense to me.

In another scene they showed another typical bathroom sink all by itself on a wall in a bedroom...nowhere near a bathroom. Is there some type of ritual with sinks in India that I'm not aware of?

 

On 6/23/2018 at 11:33 PM, MsTree said:

Ok, but do you know the reasoning behind their "normal"?? IOW, if it were a Jewish home, they possibly might need a separate sink to keep Kosher.

Good question.  Limited knowledge of Hindu but I don't believe it's about maintaining separate kitchens or spaces for their vegetarian diet.  In a very religious household, they wouldn't take the risk of someone introducing meat to the veggie kitchen.  Likewise, a very devout, vegetarian individual wouldn't eat at a restaurant serving meat, even if they had a few vegetarian offerings.

In a Hindu household, the kitchen is the most exalted room, after the prayer room.  Cleanliness is extremely important.  In fact, the wife might bathe in the morning and prepare the evening meal immediately after, for that reason.  I doubt they'd want want someone entering the kitchen w/o washing their hands, at minimum.  And, it's no shoes in the kitchen.  (Shoes can stir up dust and debris.)

We could also talk about shoes made from leather.  Ever notice Hindu men wearing plastic shoes?  

Better stop to stay on topic.  Anyway, those were my guesses after noticing the extra sinks.

Edited June 29, 2018 by aguabella

[chessiegal]

2 hours ago, jcbrown said:

I wanted to see this episode because I used to travel to Basel at least once a year for work. The scenery in this one was gorgeous, because, Switzerland. Just make sure to mute the sound whenever the wife starts whining.

I'm not seeing this episode on Verizon FIOS On Demand - maybe too soon? It is available on the HGTV app, but I was hoping to watch it on a larger screen. Oh dear, starting watching.

ETA: Note to wife - Bern has many wonderful hotels, we stayed in one. Also good public transportation.

Edited June 30, 2018 by chessiegal

[LittleIggy]

15 hours ago, biakbiak said:

I wonder what attracted him to her it clearly wasn’t her sparkling personality. 

One weird thing is the map was super confusing based on how they then described the locations. The third place was shown to be the closest on the map but then said to be 40 minutes and the 2nd apartment was clearly shown as the farthest away from the University and even across the Aare river but said it was walking distance. 

 

I’ve noticed the weird map thing on several episodes. The maps are clearly not to scale.

My “bitch, please” scale went through the roof on that Bern episode! She was so obnoxious whereas he seemed so nice. When she made that remark about the shower being tall enough for him wasn’t important, I thought “Judging by your stringy hair, showers must not be important to you.” Were they married? If it was mentioned, I didn’t hear it.

Re: Valencia, that real estate agent was hot. What a sexy voice. I liked the first apartment with the beautiful tiles.

[Pickles]

I believe the Bern couple was married. Such an odd pairing. He could do a lot better.

[mojito]

The Bern wife had the grand idea to go to Bern yet in all those years, she was unable to make it happen. I was annoyed that her entire focus was on her wants, not the purpose of the relocation: her husband's education. 

[sempervivum]

11 hours ago, LittleIggy said:

I liked the first apartment with the beautiful tiles.

Valencia- that place was beautiful, flaws and all. Loved the Gaudi-influenced windows with the yellow glass. However, wifey clearly didn't want to be in Spain at all. Once again, nothing-nothing!- is as important to have in a romantic European city as an OVEN.

They never said what her career was, she seemed like an odd fit with the carefully-tousled/skinny jeans faux hipster husband. 

[mojito]

TX to Valencia, Spain

Good grief. The wife, describing her desire for a balcony said something like, "I'd like to people watch and experience the culture without even having to leave the apartment." Wanted her to smack her. She was quite the dud while he was a guy with a little flair (loved his hat). Him: "feeling of Valencia" ad nauseam. Her: "people watch" ad nauseam.

And that damned oven...If you like to cook, why don't you take this opportunity to learn to cook the way the people of the region do, the people who apparently aren't big into ovens. 

[LittleIggy]

31 minutes ago, mojito said:

TX to Valencia, Spain

Good grief. The wife, describing her desire for a balcony said something like, "I'd like to people watch and experience the culture without even having to leave the apartment." Wanted her to smack her. She was quite the dud while he was a guy with a little flair (loved his hat). Him: "feeling of Valencia" ad nauseam. Her: "people watch" ad nauseam.

And that damned oven...If you like to cook, why don't you take this opportunity to learn to cook the way the people of the region do, the people who apparently aren't big into ovens. 

You don’t need an oven for paella. I was thinking the same thing. She needs to take Spanish cooking lessons.

Go to a cafe or park if you want to people watch. Oh, wait, she would need to leave the apartment!  ?

3 hours ago, sempervivum said:

Valencia- that place was beautiful, flaws and all. Loved the Gaudi-influenced windows with the yellow glass. However, wifey clearly didn't want to be in Spain at all. Once again, nothing-nothing!- is as important to have in a romantic European city as an OVEN.

They never said what her career was, she seemed like an odd fit with the carefully-tousled/skinny jeans faux hipster husband. 

She said she worked in the government sector in Austin, IIRC.

[slasherboy]

2 hours ago, LittleIggy said:

Go to a cafe or park if you want to people watch. Oh, wait, she would need to leave the apartment!  ?

She could watch people on TV then she wouldn't even have to leave her bed.

[juliet73]

Valencia ep: wife didn't like the first apt because it was too "Spanish!" Ugh!!!!! She was so obsessed about having an oven, but at the end of the show, it was mentioned that she didn't even know how to cook!  From the looks of those cookies(?), it was obvious!

Edited July 1, 2018 by juliet73

[Scout Finch]

Handsome Paul from Bern and the real estate agent in Japan who looked so much like one of the Beatles definitely kept my interest during those episodes!

[Blue997]

Valencia: those cookies were messed up. I felt bad for the woman though, I'd imagine moving to a foreign country is super stressful and it looks like she was having a cold sore outbreak during filming. Not ideal!

It was interesting that the cold sore seemed to be resolving on the "2 month" follow up. Don't they usually get better in more like 1-2 weeks? 

Edited July 2, 2018 by Blue997

[debraran]

33 minutes ago, Blue997 said:

Valencia: those cookies were messed up. I felt bad for the woman though, I'd imagine moving to a foreign country is super stressful and it looks like she was having a cold sore outbreak during filming. Not ideal!

It was interesting that the cold sore seemed to be resolving on the "2 month" follow up. Don't they usually get better in more like 1-2 weeks? 

I was told they film the f/up at the same time usually so maybe some makeup helped too. At least it was this way with a friend of a friend and someone on youtube who told her story.

[Kohola3]

Are you saying that the timelines are fake?  Gasp (clutching pearls)!

[Koalagirl]

On 6/30/2018 at 2:07 PM, mojito said:

TX to Valencia, Spain

Good grief. The wife, describing her desire for a balcony said something like, "I'd like to people watch and experience the culture without even having to leave the apartment." Wanted her to smack her. She was quite the dud while he was a guy with a little flair (loved his hat). Him: "feeling of Valencia" ad nauseam. Her: "people watch" ad nauseam.

And that damned oven...If you like to cook, why don't you take this opportunity to learn to cook the way the people of the region do, the people who apparently aren't big into ovens. 

Because then she would have to get off of the balcony and actually meet people instead of watch people in order to take cooking lessons.

[AlleC17]

1 hour ago, Koalagirl said:

Because then she would have to get off of the balcony and actually meet people instead of watch people in order to take cooking lessons.

And she might have to actually learn some Spanish...the horrors! 

[LittleIggy]

Antwerp: Guess the water heater in the bedroom wasn’t too loud after all.

[mojito]

I wish they'd stop with these tiresome demands:

* outdoor "space"

* large closets

* bath tub

* open floor plan

* large kitchen with a refrigerator not reminiscent of the one they had in college and an OVEN

 

I'd say that they should stay home, but it's just as well that these characters are over there instead.

[laredhead]

Mojito, add "water view" to that list.  I'm doing a lot of catching up on watching HHI episodes that I recorded.  Just watched one last night about the couple moving to Edinburgh, Scotland with their dog.  The fact that they let their dog get on the beds in each of the apartments was bad enough, but that woman must have said "water view" nine million times, and then you heard it all over again in the recaps.  Even the realtor was put out by her insistence on a water view when he told her it was impossible with all of the other things they wanted.  The funniest line was the realtor saying that he didn't think the dog cared about a water view.

[sempervivum]

Antwerp- Another annoying wife. This time she sneers at the beautiful wide pine floors in the place they ultimately picked: they're just 'old', you know. Not like that simply divine (already outdated) grey laminate floor in the modern apartment, sheesh. 

What was with her allegedly Belgian husband, who sure sounded like he was raised in the US-he spoke with not even the slightest accent. And why on earth were they down in the sewer system? I've seen a few of those in Europe that are actually interesting looking, but this wasn't one of them.

[biakbiak]

Just now, sempervivum said:

This time she sneers at the beautiful wide pine floors in the place they ultimately picked: they're just 'old', you know.

To be fair she was specifically talking about fairly large holes in the floor, not the look of them. 

[jcbrown]

7 minutes ago, biakbiak said:

To be fair she was specifically talking about fairly large holes in the floor, not the look of them. 

Yes. And he complained because the old floors in the old building creaked. Hell, my new wood floors have places that creak.

I thought the husband was a bit of an Eeyore and they were both a little off. It seemed like the descriptor they both used most was "weird," which, considering he was Belgian, was, well, weird, since wouldn't he have been in Belgian apartments before?

Edited July 3, 2018 by jcbrown

[Kohola3]

11 minutes ago, jcbrown said:

Hell, my new wood floors have places that creak.

Lord, yes. Wood creaks. Live with it.

[sempervivum]

15 minutes ago, biakbiak said:

To be fair she was specifically talking about fairly large holes in the floor, not the look of them

In my world (lives in 150-year old house) 'large holes' are ones you can get your foot caught in, or the cat can fall into. Those little things she was appalled by were cosmetic : )

[biakbiak]

Just now, sempervivum said:

large holes' are ones you can get your foot caught i

 One of them your foot could have definitely gotten caught in, or at least my foot would have gotten caught in it because I am a klutz.

[jcbrown]

1 hour ago, sempervivum said:

In my world (lives in 150-year old house) 'large holes' are ones you can get your foot caught in, or the cat can fall into. Those little things she was appalled by were cosmetic : )

I am owned by and love three cats but the image of a cat falling into a hole in the floor cracked me up for some reason.

I lived in a place in college where my foot went through the wood floor because the end of the plank I stepped on flipped down and the other one flipped up. Now that is a wood floor to complain about.

[suebee12]

2 hours ago, sempervivum said:

What was with her allegedly Belgian husband, who sure sounded like he was raised in the US-he spoke with not even the slightest accent.

I was wondering about this also! No accent I could pick up(and the realtor did have an accent that sounded like someone from Belgium should have)plus he used several slang terms that were definitely American. Wonder what the true story is?

[mojito]

Quote

Wonder what the true story is?

Maybe raised by American/Canadian parents?

[chocolatine]

8 hours ago, jcbrown said:

I thought the husband was a bit of an Eeyore and they were both a little off. It seemed like the descriptor they both used most was "weird," which, considering he was Belgian, was, well, weird, since wouldn't he have been in Belgian apartments before?

 

I thought they were both a little off as well. They're young newlyweds, yet I saw no chemistry between them whatsoever. No handholding, no kissing/hugging when they made a decision, they barely even looked at one another.

On a shallow note, the Antwerp episode felt like one long Ikea commercial. I usually spot one or two Ikea pieces in some of the European episodes, but in this one, two of the apartments had 3-4 Ikea pieces each.

Edited July 4, 2018 by chocolatine

[Bastet]

8 minutes ago, chocolatine said:

They're young newlyweds, yet I saw no chemistry between them whatsoever. No handholding, no kissing/hugging when they made a decision, they barely even looked at one another.

I didn't see the episode, so they may very well have given me an odd vibe, too, but I don't hold hands with a partner (what, is one of us a child prone to wandering off?) and I probably wouldn't kiss one if I knew we had a camera on us, especially under circumstances as staged as pretending they'd just made the decision.  You'd never be able to tell my intimate connection to/physical chemistry with someone based on how I'd act under these circumstances.

[Irlandesa]

10 hours ago, jcbrown said:

Yes. And he complained because the old floors in the old building creaked. Hell, my new wood floors have places that creak.

I thought the husband was a bit of an Eeyore and they were both a little off. It seemed like the descriptor they both used most was "weird," which, considering he was Belgian, was, well, weird, since wouldn't he have been in Belgian apartments before?

I also thought it was funny he said the fridge was small.  European refrigerators, especially in apartments, tend to be small...which he should know.

9 hours ago, sempervivum said:

In my world (lives in 150-year old house) 'large holes' are ones you can get your foot caught in, or the cat can fall into. Those little things she was appalled by were cosmetic : )

If it's big enough for me to drop my keys into it, it's a problem and not charm.  ( I couldn't purposely toss a beanbag into a hole during a beanbag toss but give me a huge room with a tiny hole and I will drop my keys exactly there.)

8 hours ago, suebee12 said:

I was wondering about this also! No accent I could pick up(and the realtor did have an accent that sounded like someone from Belgium should have)plus he used several slang terms that were definitely American. Wonder what the true story is?

He could be American/Canadian but it's also possible he could have studied in the US.  (Another theory about accents is that many Dutch, Norwegian and Swedish speakers watch English TV in the original language and therefore pick up on the sounds.)  They did meet at a Super Bowl party, after all.  That suggests he probably spent some time here.

2 hours ago, Bastet said:

I didn't see the episode, so they may very well have given me an odd vibe, too, but I don't hold hands with a partner (what, is one of us a child prone to wandering off?) and I probably wouldn't kiss one if I knew we had a camera on us, especially under circumstances as staged as pretending they'd just made the decision.  You'd never be able to tell my intimate connection to/physical chemistry with someone based on how I'd act under these circumstances.

I agree.  I actually thought they seemed similar enough that I believed them as a couple.  I also didn't think they were super young either.  Young?  For sure but I would peg them to be 30-ish, maybe even mid-30's.  But I missed the beginning explanation.  All I know is that she was in Antwerp for some educational program.  I read that as being a graduate degree but perhaps I was mistaken.

[LittleIggy]

Merida: I googled and found an article about how Tommo and Megsy ?monetize their food blogging so I don’t get why their budget was so low. The courtyards without pools looked as if they had black mold growing on the walls. And, hey, if a room looks blah, you can decorate it! Duh. ? 

[LennieBriscoe]

Merida: IMO, the pool trumped the restaurant kitchen. But every choice was on a rather depressing street. 

[biakbiak]

8 hours ago, LittleIggy said:

googled and found an article about how Tommo and Megsy ?monetize their food blogging so I don’t get why their budget was so low.

I imagine because they continue to travel and this is just their home base so they want to save money for their travels and not be spending a ton when they aren’t there. Here is their website. They also have a podcast.

[KLovestoShop]

The Merida couple certainly have a very nice website.  But for me, any place where mold of any kind takes over a space, I'm outta there.  I know that they're in a beach community, but that black mold on the outside walls was scary, and I can't believe that mold isn't inside the house.  The one apartment where the landlord wouldn't take care of the nasty peeling paint just turned me off.  I guess the landlords in places like that can rent whatever shithole they own.  

Edited July 6, 2018 by KLovestoShop

[LittleIggy]

The black mold really grossed me out. It was the first thing I noticed when they went outside, yet nobody mentioned it. I couldn’t tell if the garden space with the pool had mold but, it was certainly more inviting than those moldy, concrete yards. That house had a nicely painted facade unlike the other houses.

Edited July 5, 2018 by LittleIggy

[mojito]

Nomads in Merida

Every place was way too ghetto for me.  I would've  remained a nomad.

[Pickles]

I really liked the American couple (and their daughter) tonight moving from London to Paris for the wife's job. They were really likable. I looked up the wife and they are now living in Amsterdam! What a wonderful experience being able to live in all of those different European cities. I hope the daughter is happy. I know they mentioned that she was not thrilled about the moving around, but at least she got a dog.

[KLovestoShop]

I didn't care for the American couple in France.  Their poor daughter being dragged along because of their wanderlust just didn't seem fair.  How does she make friends and learn to socialize without stability?  I know I wouldn't be happy moving from place to place and not setting down roots.  And no pet would make up for instability.  Is it just me, or did the parents seem old?  And when you look at the parents, they sure looked more like brother and sister----almost looked like twins.  And really, a stripper pole?  He seemed to really like the tacky bada-bing factor.  I did love the Bernese Mountain Dog. 

Edited July 6, 2018 by KLovestoShop

[Babalooie]

9 hours ago, Pickles said:

they are now living in Amsterdam!

Yes, I came here to say the same thing.  They didn't last long in France.  He liked London, but got into the French groove.  I guess he didn't groove for very long before he got into the Amsterdam coffee shop/get hit by a bike vibe.  I liked the house choice.

[Pickles]

9 hours ago, KLovestoShop said:

I didn't care for the American couple in France.  Their poor daughter being dragged along because of their wanderlust just didn't seem fair.  How does she make friends and learn to socialize without stability?  I know I wouldn't be happy moving from place to place and not setting down roots.  And no pet would make up for instability.  Is it just me, or did the parents seem old?  And when you look at the parents, they sure looked more like brother and sister----almost looked like twins.  And really, a stripper pole?  He seemed to really like the tacky bada-bing factor.  I did love the Bernese Mountain Dog. 

I didn't really see it as wanderlust. The wife has a big job at a software company and I am assuming these moves were advancing her career. The couple truly did seem to love their daughter and want the best for her. Private schools and horses sound pretty nice to me, but I am not the daughter. The parents did seem older. Didn't they say they met online something like 15 years ago? So, then they had a later in life baby. I think I liked the husband because he said he would have been very happy living in London forever. I also love London, so could relate to that statement.

[doodlebug]

7 minutes ago, Pickles said:

I didn't really see it as wanderlust. The wife has a big job at a software company and I am assuming these moves were advancing her career. The couple truly did seem to love their daughter and want the best for her. Private schools and horses sound pretty nice to me, but I am not the daughter. The parents did seem older. Didn't they say they met online something like 15 years ago? So, then they had a later in life baby. I think I liked the husband because he said he would have been very happy living in London forever. I also love London, so could relate to that statement.

Yes, I saw it as the wife having a career that required living overseas and frequent moves for advancement.  It happens, lots of kids have the same issues and their parents don't have the resources hers do (military families, for example).  The girl was going to a private international school where there were undoubtedly plenty of other kids in the same boat, she has access to horses and riding; she's going to meet a lot of other kids and learn how to make friends.  Also, Paris and London are only 3 hours apart by chunnel, she's old enough to be able to hop the train and visit friends on weekends and holidays.  Her parents seem to be very aware of the difficulties her mother's career presents and are more than willing to help her adjust.

I, too, love London and would be thrilled to live there, but Paris ain't bad, either.

[Vivigirl10]

I thought the couple was a bit odd with each other and there may have been some festering resentment there.  When they were in the carriage house above the horse stables, the wife said maybe he could live there and she and the daughter could live somewhere else.  It didn't come across as light-hearted but rather pretty mean spirited.  And the face he made in response kind of said it all.  Uncomfortable. 

[MarthaEllisanne]

I was impressed that a female of a certain age held what seemed to be a highly-placed job in the software industry; those jobs seem to be dominated by young men, so good on the wife.  She was likable enough.  The husband came off as the guy you do not want to get stuck with at a party - you'd probably have to listen to the plot of the book he is writing all evening.  It can be hard on kids, especially teenagers, to move around, but the experience will probably benefit the daughter greatly in her future.   

[doodlebug]

2 hours ago, MarthaEllisanne said:

I was impressed that a female of a certain age held what seemed to be a highly-placed job in the software industry; those jobs seem to be dominated by young men, so good on the wife.  She was likable enough.  The husband came off as the guy you do not want to get stuck with at a party - you'd probably have to listen to the plot of the book he is writing all evening.  It can be hard on kids, especially teenagers, to move around, but the experience will probably benefit the daughter greatly in her future.   

He seemed like the kind of guy who thinks he's a lot funnier than he actually is.

[LittleIggy]

My heart didn’t break for pauvre Mina. Due to my father’s job, as a child to age 18 we moved about every two years and not to glamorous places like London and Paris. We sometimes had to move in the middle of the school year, so no tears from me. As the real estate agent (hasn’t she been on there before) said, she is a princess. BTW, when I saw the intro, I thought Mina was their granddaughter.

[LittleIggy]

On 7/6/2018 at 12:16 AM, KLovestoShop said:

I didn't care for the American couple in France.  Their poor daughter being dragged along because of their wanderlust just didn't seem fair.  How does she make friends and learn to socialize without stability?  

 

I learned to socialize just fine. 

Perth: Were the vet and the pediatrician buying the home together? The MD kept talking about his time there being vacation time. I’m glad they got the place close to the DVM’s work. That was the top of the list consideration. Oh, I want to pet wallabies!

Edited July 7, 2018 by LittleIggy

[Rosebud1970]

On 6/22/2018 at 9:15 PM, LittleIggy said:

I can’t believe that she is so freaking invaluable to the place she works at that they would let her work from Spain. BTW, isn’t Stiges where the redhead widow with the two young boys moved?

For $50 more a month she should have let her husband have the decent kitchen since that was his profession.

And it was the only kitchen with gas burners, which he clearly wanted. As well as being right on the beach. Her, with 'what difference does it make if it's gas? It all tastes the same.' She certainly doesn't look like she's all that indifferent to food.

And her carping about he beachfront apartment being over budget. Yeah, OK. By all of $50! I really did not like her at all.  She's overbearing and obnoxious.

[doodlebug]

26 minutes ago, LittleIggy said:

I learned to socialize just fine. 

Perth: Were the vet and the pediatrician buying the home together? The MD kept talking about his time there being vacation time. I’m glad they got the pace close to the DVM’s work. That was the top of the list consideration. Oh, I want to pet wallabies!

Yeah, they’re planning to be married.  The one guy is a vet who specializes in dermatology (who knew?) while the other was an MD in family practice. They both live in California most of the year, but the vet owns part of a clinic in Australia and practices there part of the year.  For an MD with a US medical degree to go to Australia and practice medicine probably would probably mean he’d have to repeat his residency which is several years of training; so he cannot practice medicine  there.

The medical system and the way docs practice in Australia is very different than in the US and he probably, at his age, doesn’t want to jump through hoops for it.

[LennieBriscoe]

London to Paris: Man, I got a serious vibe of resentment throughout from the no-job, "I guess small bathrooms are French" husband!