Maine Cabin Masters - General Discussion

[chessiegal]

21 minutes ago, roughing it said:

Dang, I like MCM and want to watch the new and old episodes, but I don't want to contribute to this Gaines' Magnolia network.  And by contribute, I mean, that they can count me as a viewer.  Me being just one viewer makes absolutely no difference, but it's the principle of the thing.  I guess it's "cutting off my nose to spite my face" kinda thing. 

I understand what you mean.

[annzeepark914]

On 1/12/2022 at 3:34 PM, roughing it said:

Dang, I like MCM and want to watch the new and old episodes, but I don't want to contribute to this Gaines' Magnolia network.  And by contribute, I mean, that they can count me as a viewer.  Me being just one viewer makes absolutely no difference, but it's the principle of the thing.  I guess it's "cutting off my nose to spite my face" kinda thing. 

Exactly the way I feel. I can't stand the way Chip behaves & that's the worst for me. The way Joanne decorates? It's ok, but I loathe open shelves (why do decorators keep putting these  stupid, dust-collecting things kitchens?

[RoxiP]

Somebody was going to take over DIY - at least it isn't a platform for reality shows where people do stupid things to be on television.  You may or may not like Chip and Joanna but I seriously doubt whether they are going to put on shows that are questionable taste content (and I know because I watch a lot of them) like the 90 Day Fiance or something like that.  

[RoxiP]

I just read this morning that the last season of Maine Cabin Masters (season 7?) will start streaming on Discovery Plus on June 13.  Good news for those people like me who have been waiting to see it and trying not to read or watch clips...LOL!

[luvmylabs]

Where's Dixie?. Haven't seen him in the new episodes.

[annzeepark914]

Enjoying an oldie but a goodie: S1E3. I prefer the way the show used to be, when they'd stop & grill clams or hot dogs, Dixie made a seafood stew. And, of course, sweet Lance 🤗.

[Daff]

Barnwood Builders, S15,E7 “Vacationland” (04/06/23) went to Maine to take down a New England Barn, and met up with Maine Cabin Masters at Surry Seafood Company-Lobster Rolls all around (the real ones, consisting of lobster meat and butter on a bun). Scene was way too short.

[annzeepark914]

I watched a rerun last night in which Ryan's brother's place was torn down & rebuilt. Ryan did a lot of the talking about what was going to be done. I could barely understand anything he said. Ashley swallows most of her syllables, but last night she was easier to understand than her husband! Chase, Jared & Dixie, and the rest of the crew, are easy to understand. Ryan's brother got a brand new summer house (& parking area) for only $55,000. Such a deal 😁

[Mondrianyone]

The local news ran a segment on Ashley's new product line a couple of nights ago. She's doing throw pillows and tea towels and other home accessories printed with "her art." I guess she has to find a way to cash in now that the show seems to be winding down--I could be wrong about that, but all the new shows seem to be best-ofs and recaps. When she wasn't talking, she was seen pressing linoleum prints onto fabric. It was all pretty ho-hum. I'm still holding to my earlier belief that Ashley isn't the show's real designer. Nothing on this news segment changed my mind.

[RoxiP]

According to Ryan's dad, who runs the Facebook fan page, they show the same amount of seasons as they always have, and if fan involvement on that page (and the number of people who make the trek up to The Woodshed and the Headquarters) there seems to be a very high number of loyal viewers.  I have also heard that it is the highest rated show on Magnolia.  I suspect the show will be around for a good while or at least as long as the team wants to continue doing it for the foreseeable future (and as to the number of shows - it takes a long time to renovate these cabins - what we see in 45 minutes or so can take months of hard work and battling extreme weather).  

I have honestly never been a huge fan of Ashley's designs but I'm not a cabin in the woods type of decorating person.  Kudos to her for finding her niche and capitalizing on it while the opportunity is there.  Honestly to me it seems that Chase has as much of an influence in some of the design decisions as Ashley.

 

It works for them!

[Mondrianyone]

43 minutes ago, RoxiP said:

I have honestly never been a huge fan of Ashley's designs

I guess where we differ is that I've never believed they were Ashley's designs. I figure her brother felt obligated to give her a role in the business, so poof! she's a decorator. But there's still a name in the closing credits for "Design Supervisor," which is interesting. I think that's the person who's actually responsible for the look you're not crazy about.

I think they're pretty clear about how long each renovation takes, and I'm intimately familiar with Maine weather. It's just Ashley I'm leery of.

[annzeepark914]

3 hours ago, Mondrianyone said:

The local news ran a segment on Ashley's new product line a couple of nights ago. She's doing throw pillows and tea towels and other home accessories printed with "her art." I guess she has to find a way to cash in now that the show seems to be winding down--I could be wrong about that, but all the new shows seem to be best-ofs and recaps. When she wasn't talking, she was seen pressing linoleum prints onto fabric. It was all pretty ho-hum. I'm still holding to my earlier belief that Ashley isn't the show's real designer. Nothing on this news segment changed my mind.

I read somewhere a couple years ago that Discovery had a design team.  So now I always roll my eyes when she takes stuff out of the old cabin to create something "cool". I still love this show and the good old Mainiac pals. They're good people. But I surely miss the shows from back in the day (e.g., when Dixie made his seafood chowdahhh). Still, I'm glad these good Mainers have such a successful series *and* are spreading the wealth by featuring small companies that are truly benefitting from the exposure (like the creators of Adirondack chairs that are, for the first time, comfortable!!)

[Mondrianyone]

1 hour ago, annzeepark914 said:

Still, I'm glad these good Mainers have such a successful series *and* are spreading the wealth by featuring small companies that are truly benefitting from the exposure (like the creators of Adirondack chairs that are, for the first time, comfortable!!)

That's our friend who makes those chairs! I posted about them when that episode aired. They really are comfy--thanks for remembering!

[annzeepark914]

5 minutes ago, Mondrianyone said:

That's our friend who makes those chairs! I posted about them when that episode aired. They really are comfy--thanks for remembering!

I remembered because Adirondack chairs had been *forever* so awful (and that was way before I started having back issues!) Kudos to this company for creating Adirondack chairs that one can sit in without discomfort while enjoying the good life, wherever! 🤗

[Daff]

Season 10 is unfolding slowly with a mix of new eps sprinkled with compilation eps where they just talk about past accomplishments. One new one revealed the purchase of an old lumber company. Property has lots of acreage, numerous out buildings and sales warehouse that they’ve now refinished and turned into a massive, fully equipped woodworking shop! Most recent episode featured a geodesic dome that had more damage than estimated. That doubled the budget, but the owners took it in stride. The team of 5 have evolved into a small army. The property where the store is (Manchester?) now has a restaurant fronting on the main street.

[freeser]

On 11/29/2023 at 6:06 AM, Daff said:

The team of 5 have evolved into a small army.

I guess since they are taking on much bigger projects, it was to be expected that they would need a lot more workers.  But it makes me miss the older shows where they were doing simpler jobs and it was just the basic crew plus a plumber or a few extras and some dogs.  I felt I knew those original folks.  They only seemed to appear sparingly in the new shows.  During the lumber company show, Chase kept mentioning the restaurant.  I didn't know they had expanded into food service.   

I was not very interested in the lumber company show or the one with the geodesic dome.  It felt like a big production instead of a more simpler show about rehabbing old cabins (or should I say 'camps').

[Mondrianyone]

The last two projects made me think of the Peter Principle. In case no one knows what that is, it's when someone does a good job at one kind of task and is promoted to a level beyond their competence. That's what the restaurant seems to be. What culinary skills make them up to running a restaurant? I feel like we're in the process of jumping the shark about now. Which is too bad.

[chessiegal]

You can own a restaurant without culinary skills, but you need to hire someone who does know the business.

I liked the original group and their renovations. I stopped watching because I refuse to watch anything on the Magnolia Network.

[Mondrianyone]

Ashley doesn't even seem to have the skills to do the job she's supposed to be doing. Maybe she'd be better at running a restaurant.

[annzeepark914]

Egads, that geodesic dome looked awful. Re: the restaurant? At least Chase & Co. are spreading the positives from MCM. He most likely hired Mainers to run it. Local businesses get mentioned/shown in the show & they soon reap an increase in sales. Next time I watch the show I'm going to use closed caption to see what Ashley is saying 🙄. She swallows half her syllables. The first two seasons were, IMO, the best. But I'm happy for this nice group of Mainers that their show continues.

[RoxiP]

If the restaurant you are referring to is the one in The Woodshed it has been up and running for several years and seems to be doing pretty well and I've never heard anything bad about it. The menu appears to be a lot of Maine-specific dishes (i.e., seafood) so it isn't in my wheelhouse but I am on a Facebook page run by Dave Emith, among others, and people are very happy with both their experience at the restaurant and in the retail shop.

I have never seen Ashley's resume so I have no clue as to her qualifications. We each have our own concepts of style - her's is not exactly mine but she's not designing for me!

[RoxiP]

I liked the first episode of their sojourn to Italy a lot more than I thought I was - the scenery was breathtaking and seeing the houses they were considering was interesting (and also Chase's analysis of why the houses would not work).  I also liked seeing the kids more than their usual brief appearance - one of them (Nouri?) is a dead ringer for Ashley.

[TVJunkee]

I still can't over Fletcher cutting his long hair off.  He looks so grown up.  Loving the Italy episodes although I was confused when they talked about getting it ready for summer.  Isn't that prime cabin rebuilding time in Maine?  Chase is going to miss that to jet off to Italy?  

[RoxiP]

We've seen Chase take vacations during building...I think they've got a system in place now where different individuals supervise the building of individual cabins, the MCM crew supervise, and Chase oversees all of them (or at least that's what I suspect).  For instance, it is obvious that Brad now has a substantial role in overseeing the initial work on a lot of the builds.  Ryan seems to be the one to drop by and check on things.

With their popularity and the undoubted growth of their business they had to expand - they now run the restaurant, the store, the new huge shop at the old lumberyard - I suspect it never was just 5 guys and Ashley even when the show started out - I remember reading that Dixie and Jedi have always had their own businesses.  

Fletcher is almost unrecognizable with his shorter hair and yes, he now looks a lot more mature.  It is nice to see them working together to build their home in Italy. It is also nice that there is an expectation that they all work on it.

[Daff]

They really messed up the season numbering when they changed the network. This Italian House special is listed as season 1 (because of the extended name), episodes 1-6. They finished by April 1 so they could return to Maine for the new building season. 

[annzeepark914]

I'm not watching the Italian episodes. But it should be considered separate from the Maine shows.

[luvmylabs]

When will the new season in Maine begin?  Have they been cancelled?  What's going on?

[RoxiP]

No they haven't been canceled.  I have read on their "Friends Who Like Maine Cabin Masters" Facebook page that it takes a long time to film each season and of course they threw in the Italia season so that probably makes it seem longer.  At this time they do not have an official start date yet.

This is a good Facebook page.  It is run by Ryan's Dad and their business development manager and I also think a former cabin client is active on the page.

[annzeepark914]

12 hours ago, RoxiP said:

This is a good Facebook page.  

Well, yes and no. I haven't been to the page in a couple years as a few of my posts were jumped on. One time I wondered why so many houses were so close to the lakes that you couldn't see the front lawn from the porch. The comments sneering at my use of the word "lawn" were obnoxious. And using the word "house" was also considered a snooty description of these buildings. Maybe it's better now?

[RoxiP]

Well when you put it that way it does look bad...but for the most part I doubt that was the people who manage the page - there are just some major jerks on Facebook pages that love to put other people down and pretend to know everything about anything.   For instance I once posted that I felt like in the first season they were very misogynistic towards Ashley (who really isn't one of my favorites) and you would have thought I was evil (or maybe it was on this page...LOL).  Some people just don't like you to not agree with their opinion.

I was referring to the information on the page.  I'm pretty good about ignoring the jerks.

[annzeepark914]

Oh yes. I once made the mistake of saying Ashley was hard to understand because she swallows half of her words (I think the  un-technical term for it is a lazy tongue). Your comment sounds familiar, though. I remember someone posting something about the way the guys were treating her early on.

[Denize]

I remember the FB comments about Ashley being hard to understand, lawns, houses and also the use of cabin vs camp, which I pointed out varies regionally (& I've been in cabins & bunkies in 23 states, 6 provinces and 2 territories over 67 years) but was shot down. I haven't been back.

Edited October 26 by Denize

[chessiegal]

Took a look at that FB page. Wow. Nothing but rainbows and unicorns. I didn't realize they have a booming tourist trade visiting. Lobster bakes and merch sales. They don't need the show or doing rehabs to pay the bills anymore.

[annzeepark914]

I'm glad they're doing well. They've created lots of good jobs for small businesses up there and they come across as good people.