Home Town - General Discussion

[DonnaMae]

On 4/9/2023 at 9:24 PM, buttersister said:

They often don't show rooms they haven't renovated and they didn't show the bedrooms or bathrooms here

You just know those bathrooms had to be in terrible condition.  How could they live there until they spend more money and renovate them?  Also, the bedrooms weren't redone.  I bet the closets are tiny.  This is a pet peeve of mine when we don't get to see the rest of the house, even if Ben and Erin don't renovate those rooms.

On 4/10/2023 at 5:36 AM, CrazyInAlabama said:

 I bet the baths, and bedrooms were simply cosmetic changes,

Those are old bathrooms.  Did you see what the rest of the house looked like?  

[MsJamieDornan]

Bens table was very nice but not even close to big enough to hold all the family.

[pasdetrois]

17 hours ago, chediavolo said:

maybe they’ll rent it out now that’s why they have all those rooms with so many beds in them . The rich get richer.

I think a lot of the homes on this show are renovated to be rental investment properties.

[RoxiP]

5 hours ago, MsJamieDornan said:

Bens table was very nice but not even close to big enough to hold all the family.

I thought the same but then again with 25 people is there a table big enough...LOL!  

[MsJamieDornan]

7 hours ago, RoxiP said:

I thought the same but then again with 25 people is there a table big enough...LOL!  

Very true but I think this table only held 6. 

[RoxiP]

I do agree that designers at times get so intrigued by their idea of doing something unique and special (and that table was cool but I agree - not practical for a large family) that they lose sight of the big picture.  If it had been me and I wanted a table that represented Ole Miss I would have preferred a rectangle with the decals showing...LOL!  I mean - if you are going there go all the way!

[CrazyInAlabama]

I suspect that if they have all of the family members in town for a holiday event, they'll either use rented tables, or use folding tables and chairs they store between uses.    

[CrazyInAlabama]

"The Maui of Mississippi".   Jack and Iris Andrews. A Canadian couple who always lived on islands, Salt Spring Island in British Columbia, want to move to Mississippi, and downsize, but wife still wants a craft room.  The couple promise to have Ben and Erin over for poutine.   Now I'm so hungry.   Iris was born in Hawaii. 

1-Holifield House-in the country, 2 bed w bath 1600 sq ft, $130,000.   Huge lot, with lots of trees. Living room has a very low ceiling, because it was once a porch.   Kitchen is tiny, and strange, stairs are badly placed.    Downstairs would be a crafting/guest room.   Upstairs is the main suite, with real hardwood floors, with a huge ensuite.  Renos would be $110k, so $240k total. 

2-Hudson House-in town, on a smaller lot, 2 bed 1 bath 1,024 sq ft, $110k.  living room is lovely with built-in bookcases, and a nice fireplace.   The nook off the living room would be the crafting room. kitchen will need to get bigger, and have a lot more cabinets.  Erin wants red kitchen cabinets.   Eat in kitchen.   Bedrooms are small, but Erin wants to lose a bedroom, and make it a larger bath, walk-in closet, and enlarge the main and only bedroom. $220k with big option, $205k without the bath move, and bedroom enlarger.  Iris says since they have a one bedroom, they'll get a pull out sofa bed,in the living room,  or guests can stay at one of the many bed and breakfasts in Laurel.  The bath won't be an ensuite, so the couple can use it, and guests also. 

They pick #2 the Hudson House, with option 1 enlarging the bath and bedroom. 

Erin mentions that before starting work, they test every surface for lead, and this house has it. 

Adam Trest is making tile now, and I love that. At the price of his cement tiles, for me they would only be a back splash, and never on the floors where they could be damaged.  

How awful, they ordered boxes of mural tile for the shower wall, and a lot of them were broken.  So, David will picture frame it, and they can finish on time, and I love it. I love the Adam Trest tile back splash when it's installed.   

The dodge ball tournament for charity looks like fun. 

The bathroom sconces look cute, but they're a pretty odd arrangement with the water filled globe.   The house is lovely at the reveal.  Iris's crafting room is beautiful.  The kitchen is wonderful.  I love that the couple embraced color, instead of the usual cabinet colors.  The Andrews house is the first use of the Adam Trest tiles.  

 

 

 

 

Edited April 17, 2023 by CrazyInAlabama

[buttersister]

1 hour ago, CrazyInAlabama said:

guests can stay at one of the many bed and breakfasts in Laurel.

Love you, Iris.

The water-filled globe lights otoh? Hard pass.

Not my taste, but I thought the house was cohesive, well-thought out (that craft room was really nice, so much more character than say, a Hilary craft room;-) and you could see how they' be very happy there.

[3 is enough]

I just can’t understand leaving Salt Spring Island for Laurel Mississippi. That part of Vancouver Island is called the Sunshine Coast and they don’t get super cold winters (think Seattle). Add the exchange rate and I am really baffled. 
Nice house though.

Poutine is a Quebec dish though the rest of the country has embraced it.  But if you want the real deal you have to get it in Quebec. And though English Canadians pronounce it poo-teen in Quebec they say poo-tsin. I just find it funny that the couple from BC talks about poutine and the couple from Quebec a few seasons back did not. 
 

The citizenship test is not difficult at all.  Some of the questions I was asked were  how many stripes are on the flag, how many states there are, and what are the three branches of government.  Certainly was not asked who was President during World War 1 or details about the Constitution. 
ETA: at the very end when Ben was quizzing him with the index cards those were the real questions. 
But when they said they were waiting to hear they made it sound suspenseful and it is not. Once you meet the requirements to take the test ( green card for 5 years, or, I suspect in this case, you have a spouse who is a citizen), you just have to wait to get your interview and test date.  It can take up to a year. Then you have the interview and test, and they give you a swearing in date. It took me over a year because somewhere my application got lost in the system.  My husband was sworn in within 6 months of submitting his application.

Edited April 17, 2023 by 3 is enough

[Barlowe]

https://www.instagram.com/p/Cm6pniMA45W/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

https://www.instagram.com/p/Cm66HJqgMQR/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

I checked Adam's instagram since the homeowner mentioned seeing him post about the tile and not realizing it was for her house.

He posted about the tile back on January 2nd as the first design reveal of the collection. I liked how Erin used the design as the backsplash but I think it's too busy as a floor tile, at least based on the rendering.

[3 is enough]

What colour were the kitchen cabinets? In some lights they looked orange-y, in others more red.  In one shot you could see a bit from the hall and they looked almost magenta. 
I did not like the colour of the craft cabinets.  Looked like pea green on my tv. 
The tile was very busy.  Too much for a whole backsplash, IMO.  If they had just done the area around the stove and the rest in a solid colour I think it would have been better.  Found the shower tile a bit much too.  
But the homeowners loved it and that’s all that matters.

[abbyzenn]

I can see people moving back home to Laurel but I just don't get the attraction for people with no connection to move there.  While I've seen some beautiful houses on this show the town itself doesn't look like a cute downtown.  Summers have got to be brutal - I lived in southern Georgia and the summers were hot, humid and lasted from April to October.   I'm sure one could find much prettier southern towns to relocate to.

[chediavolo]

12 hours ago, 3 is enough said:

I just can’t understand leaving Salt Spring Island for Laurel Mississippi. That part of Vancouver Island is called the Sunshine Coast and they don’t get super cold winters (think Seattle). Add the exchange rate and I am really baffled. 
Nice house though.

Poutine is a Quebec dish though the rest of the country has embraced it.  But if you want the real deal you have to get it in Quebec. And though English Canadians pronounce it poo-teen in Quebec they say poo-tsin. I just find it funny that the couple from BC talks about poutine and the couple from Quebec a few seasons back did not. 
 

The citizenship test is not difficult at all.  Some of the questions I was asked were  how many stripes are on the flag, how many states there are, and what are the three branches of government.  Certainly was not asked who was President during World War 1 or details about the Constitution. 
ETA: at the very end when Ben was quizzing him with the index cards those were the real questions. 
But when they said they were waiting to hear they made it sound suspenseful and it is not. Once you meet the requirements to take the test ( green card for 5 years, or, I suspect in this case, you have a spouse who is a citizen), you just have to wait to get your interview and test date.  It can take up to a year. Then you have the interview and test, and they give you a swearing in date. It took me over a year because somewhere my application got lost in the system.  My husband was sworn in within 6 months of submitting his application.

Yes, their leaving that  beautiful area where they possibly have family? To go to Mississippi in a really dicey area to downsize had my husband and I wondering just what is up with these two? The house was way too small for my liking, but it turned out beautiful. And yes, that was a great crafting room although you wouldn’t be able to do much in there it’s very very cramped for anything but small projects. 

8 minutes ago, abbyzenn said:

I can see people moving back home to Laurel but I just don't get the attraction for people with no connection to move there.  While I've seen some beautiful houses on this show the town itself doesn't look like a cute downtown.  Summers have got to be brutal - I lived in southern Georgia and the summers were hot, humid and lasted from April to October.   I'm sure one could find much prettier southern towns to relocate to.

Exactly. They only show the good parts. Photography is everything.  It is not somewhere that is a desirable area. It’s very crime ridden and unsafe. 

[RoxiP]

I rather liked downtown Laurel - it is actually larger than I thought it was.  I can't speak about the brutality of the summers though - I was there in August and it was raining.  Super nice people though.

I would be a hard pass on those water globe lights also.  Just no.  Although a random fighting fish might have been cool...LOL!

That house was just too small in my opinion.  

[chessiegal]

I've driven through Laurel and been through it on Amtrak several times. Laurel is a "smoke stop" for Amtrak. No smoking on the train, so they do a 15-minute stop there so smokers can get their fix. I'd think being on an Amtrak stop would be a plus. Not too far to get to NOLA. It seemed pleasant enough to me. Mississippi doesn't tax retirement income, so that's a plus.

[DonnaMae]

5 hours ago, chediavolo said:

And yes, that was a great crafting room although you wouldn’t be able to do much in there it’s very very cramped for anything but small projects. 

That room would be better used as a library.  When crafting, a person needs room to work.  There's no room there for a table.

[retired watcher]

I wonder if they are still going to have a house in Canada and this is more of a vacation/snowbird type house?

Ben, Jack is already an American. Canada is in North America. He is studying to become a citizen of the United States.

[ECM1231]

Although the new, huge bath(wash)room was lovely, I'd never give up a 2nd bedroom. If it went from a 3 bedroom to a 2 bedroom, then absolutely. But now they have a 1 bedroom house. Where's the value in that?

Also, when they replaced the vinyl shingles with the cedar shake shingles on the portico facade, they shingled over the vent. Doesn't the heat need an exit? 

I wasn't familiar with the artisan who designed the backsplash tiles, but they were kind of cool. A little would have gone a long way, though. I disliked the shower tiles and wasn't crazy about the kitchen cabinet color.

I, too, don't see the appeal of Laurel. Hot, humid, and prone to tornadoes. The people seem lovely, though.

[chediavolo]

6 hours ago, ECM1231 said:

Although the new, huge bath(wash)room was lovely, I'd never give up a 2nd bedroom. If it went from a 3 bedroom to a 2 bedroom, then absolutely. But now they have a 1 bedroom house. Where's the value in that?

Also, when they replaced the vinyl shingles with the cedar shake shingles on the portico facade, they shingled over the vent. Doesn't the heat need an exit? 

I wasn't familiar with the artisan who designed the backsplash tiles, but they were kind of cool. A little would have gone a long way, though. I disliked the shower tiles and wasn't crazy about the kitchen cabinet color.

I, too, don't see the appeal of Laurel. Hot, humid, and prone to tornadoes. The people seem lovely, though.

I did not like how they redid over the door. Agree about the one bedroom.  
 

[DonnaMae]

12 hours ago, ECM1231 said:

I, too, don't see the appeal of Laurel

Laurel is now famous.  It's on TV.  We see only the parts of the town that they want us to see.  I would want to make a trip to investigate Laurel before I made the huge decision to move there.  Did this couple do that?   Laurel is extremely far from British Columbia, so I wonder how often friends and family will visit.

I wonder how happy they are going to be in this very small house.  I didn't see the backyard.  Was there a patio?  The crafting room was too small.   The kitchen was nice, except for the red cabinets.  This was probably my least favorite renovation.  The size of the house would be fine for a single person, but I think it's going to feel too small for a couple.

Edited April 18, 2023 by DonnaMae
additions

[retired watcher]

I really did not like the red cabinets. It's nice that it isn't white but that is a hard color to live with.

[chediavolo]

If you search, How safe is Laurel Mississippi? This is the first thing that comes up:

One's chance of becoming a victim of either violent or property crime here is one in 19. Within Mississippi, more than 98% of the communities have a lower crime rate than Laurel.

[DonnaMae]

That's terrible.  I wonder why there's such a problem in this city.

[buttersister]

The mayor's been featured on the show more than once. I wonder if he knows?

[chediavolo]

Poverty, rural location, lack of employment, lack of culture, religion  & politics? From what I read it’s about 3 blocks of what you see on tv & the rest of the town is a dangerous dump.  

[CalicoKitty]

I would worry about the vacant lots on both sides of the house.

[CrazyInAlabama]

Good point about the vacant lots.  You never know when someone will buy them and build some towering house right next to you.   I think the home owners should try to buy the two neighboring lots. 

I's amazed that there are comments by viewers in articles raving that the takeover locations (Wetumpka, and Ft. Morgan) will instantly revive.    It takes years of effort, businesses moving back downtown, and a group effort by residents to even start getting a downtown back, or becoming attractive to new businesses.    Laurel has a main street group that has tried to keep activities, and businesses thriving, it doesn't happen overnight. 

Edited April 22, 2023 by CrazyInAlabama

[3 is enough]

Wow.  No comments at all on Home Town Takeover? I must confess I did not watch but I am curious about how others felt about it.

[CalicoKitty]

My take:  The murals were nice, I don't know why the horse lady was chosen to have her house redone, and the coffee shop looked terrible.  I would think the grass/greenery covering the ceiling would hold a lot of dust, and people are eating under it.  My thought on the swings Jenny Mars put along the wall was that I hope the owners have accident insurance.  Someone is going to fall.  So far, I'm not very impressed.

[buttersister]

Wasn't impressed. Here's hoping Fort Morgan doesn't turn out to be the kind of small town that arrests little old ladies for feeding and trying to contain feral cats. Looking at you, Wetempka and wondering if the asshole mayor who made all the trouble was the same one during the makeover.

[BradandJanet]

I agree that the coffee shop was terrible mostly because I couldn't get past the plastic greenery on the ceiling. How can the owners possibly keep that clean? As a customer, I'd be keeping my eye on the ceiling to make sure nothing crawls out to fall on my food. 

Also, the seating didn't look practical for a coffee shop (swings?), but I didn't look at it long because of the ceiling. 

Since the only coffee shop in town is now a trendy mess, maybe someone will come along and open a regular one where people can just sit at tables, drink coffee, and use the wi-fi. 

[CalicoKitty]

The also took out the 4 tops in the cafe and put in 2 tops.  Round 2 tops.  You can't even push them together to make room for more people.  I'm not sure how that translates into more seating than then had before.  I feel kind of sorry for the owners.

[BradandJanet]

4 hours ago, CalicoKitty said:

The also took out the 4 tops in the cafe and put in 2 tops.  Round 2 tops.  You can't even push them together to make room for more people.  I'm not sure how that translates into more seating than then had before.  I feel kind of sorry for the owners.

I do too. I'm surprised the owners signed off on the design if they knew in advance. It looks like something Hildi Santo-Tomas would have done to an unsuspecting homeowner on an episode of Trading Spaces. 

This remodel doesn't make any sense. 

[RoxiP]

I wasn't a fan of the greenery on the ceiling either - how do you keep it clean?  I kind of liked the swings but wondered about the liability - they would be a draw but some kid (or some adult) is going to get out of control.  I did like the pink neon sign though.  My main complaint though is that they took out what looked to be an antique bar and put in a generic sales station - granted the older one took up a lot of space but it looked attractive.

I liked what they did with the horse woman's place and equine therapy is wonderful.  Perhaps she put all her money into the therapy and none into her personal space and that's why she deserved the makeover.

The murals were very nice and certainly better than the flat walls that were there before.

[absolutelyido]

On 4/24/2023 at 10:08 PM, CalicoKitty said:

My take:  The murals were nice, I don't know why the horse lady was chosen to have her house redone, and the coffee shop looked terrible.  I would think the grass/greenery covering the ceiling would hold a lot of dust, and people are eating under it.  My thought on the swings Jenny Mars put along the wall was that I hope the owners have accident insurance.  Someone is going to fall.  So far, I'm not very impressed.

If I was told my business would be getting a free makeover, and Jenny Mars would be designing it, I'm afraid I'd have to say, hard pass.

[RoxiP]

On 4/29/2023 at 11:22 AM, absolutelyido said:

If I was told my business would be getting a free makeover, and Jenny Mars would be designing it, I'm afraid I'd have to say, hard pass.

I would take it in a minute - not necessarily because I like her style but because an upgrade is an upgrade, and I can easily remove what I didn't like after they left.  (The first thing would be that nonsense on the ceiling.)

[buttersister]

And this week's swings from the ice cream shop. Was she ripping off RTB or do TV minds just think alike. 

I dunno. Maybe I just don't care for their work. I pretty much stopped watching their show and while I still like Ben and Erin, the Marrs and loud Ty are putting Fort Meyers on the skip list.

[sadtvjunkie]

Are Ben and Erin phoning it in? Is something going on with them? Erin didn't look too hot in some of the videos I saw.

[CrazyInAlabama]

In Mississippi, the altitude is so much lower than Fort Morgan, so the altitude change might make a big difference.    

[CynicalGirl]

20 hours ago, buttersister said:

And this week's swings from the ice cream shop. Was she ripping off RTB or do TV minds just think alike. 

I dunno. Maybe I just don't care for their work. I pretty much stopped watching their show and while I still like Ben and Erin, the Marrs and loud Ty are putting Fort Meyers on the skip list.

The RtB swings were the first thing I thought of too. Maybe I should take this to their thread, (which I don't watch often) but I'll try to keep it brief. Hot tubs are another thing that didn't go over well on RtB but she still seems to like them. And slides for the kids. The last thing that really bugged me was a vented pizza oven built into the wall in the kitchen. I don't know about anyone else, but if I handed over $180k for renovations, they better be damn sure I wanted a pizza oven in my kitchen. Which I don't. No to the hot tub too.

[RoxiP]

An article I read said that Ben and Erin were reluctant to do the show this time because Helen was getting older and they had just had baby Mae.  They only agreed to do the show if they were able to stay in Mississippi more and travel less.  Perhaps being the mother of a newborn was showing in her demeanor.  I suspect she's not the kind of mother who relies on a lot of outside help when her baby is small.

[Minivanessa]

I agree with the comments above about the coffee shop swings (I swear, my first thought also was "liability insurance!!!"), and the idiotic fake greenery ceiling (pure "WTAF???").

Last night I watched episode 2 of the Fort Morgan takeover. I hope the ice cream shop flourishes and I swear, the next time I'm in Fort Morgan I'll be a customer. Yep, I live about 90 minutes away and have occasionally been to FM. This sounds lame, but mostly it relates to an activity I started during pandemic stay-at-home times: train watching online. FM is a stop on the Amtrak California Zephyr route. A quick stop, and not nicely timed for ordinary schedules, but it does stop. A local guy goes out and videos the Westbound Zephyr's stops and posts the videos daily on his YT channel. So of course I've now driven over to FM a few times to see the Zephyr arrive and talk to the guy, when the train's schedule, and mine, have made it workable. Now that I know about Hometown Takeover, I'll have to go there again, and snoop around.

I thought the business and home makeovers this time were better than in Episode 1. Especially the ice cream shop - no junk on the ceiling or swings, for one thing. Also, the layout is much better and I loved all the colors. The ice cream cooler bike was a really good idea.

As to the coach's house, I liked what Dave and Jenny did. Just punching that opening through the wall between the kitchen and living room did so much to improve the flow, and I'm a fan of those stair banisters they installed. 

But. no matter how many projects the TV show does, as has been said here, that doesn't turn around a town's fate. OTOH I suppose it can't hurt and may help a bit. A few months ago I told a friend I'd been a little seduced by this show and idly thought of selling my condo and buying a house in Laurel. Until I remembered: it's in MISSISSIPPI. The last time I was in MS, I thought I was going to die from the sweltering humid heat. The comments above about the realities of Laurel are a good counter to the show's sentimentality.

[CrazyInAlabama]

I saw the rerun of the first Fort Morgan episode.  Unfortunately the coffee shop 'remodel' was as hideous as everyone said on here.  The Marrs makeover for that was horrible. 

Fortunately, the few strange updates on the ice cream shop would be easy to remove.   

[MrPissyPuppy]

So that bottle drying rack that Ben & his buddies found when out scavenging reminded me of this by Marcel Duchamp circa 1914 - I guess we should be happy it wasn't a discarded urinal!  

 

[buttersister]

This is hard for me to watch, so I checked out the home redo at the end. WTF was Jenny wearing? No wonder her "designs" leave me cold.

[RoxiP]

I did like what they did with the family's house this weekend - that lady was so grateful.  I also think the remodel of the event space was nice (and did I miss it or were there no swings involved?).  I thought the sign was kind of superfluous but I don't know that much about "branding."  Sometimes I think those projects are just a way for Ben to show off his cool tools.

[paramitch]

I've been idly watching "Home Town Takeover" and have been entertained and also utterly gobsmacked.

Season 1 in Wetumpka was sweet and well-meaning, and there was a lot of nice work there. Although I admit that if there was a drinking game about the number of times Erin chooses "a nice buttery yellow" for a house, room, etc., we'd all be drunk. I thought the business choice renovations were very smart (the restaurant, the event center, etc.) and I was moved by many of the townspeople and definitely wish them all well.

Although I did feel a little sorry for the show that they couldn't even assemble more than maybe a dozen people for Sheryl Crow's big live appearance at the end. (I mean, really?!)

Fort Morgan, on the other hand, oh boy. The equine therapy house was beautifully done, but almost everything else after it has gone downhill, and for me has included at least one WTF moment.

Jenny and Dave seem like nice people, but she's bonkers when it comes to design, and Fort Morgan seems to have unleashed her inner freak flag to the fullest. The horrible shop renovations! They're so terrible! The fake-leaf ceiling?! The SWINGS?! I can't with the swings. They are ridiculous choices as seating unless they're attached to a tree in a yard. Period. And definitely aren't going to attract people wanting to sit down and eat food.

And can we talk about that terrible bowling alley?! They put 90% of their focus on that dingy, sad, open "recreation area" outside the bowling alley, and then beyond the added "order window" (the one good thing), they simply staged the whole area with astroturf and a bunch of really cheap-looking furniture and weird games.

It's just all empty staging. Nobody is going to play that giant chess set. Nobody is going to play the cutesy stagey oversized games. The furniture is garish and looks uncomfortable and cheap. The area is completely open to the elements (and potential thieves), will be a disaster within a month, and leave the place looking even worse than before. 

It's just seriously some of the worst work I've ever seen on this show.

That was also my issue with Erin's outdoor park in Fort Morgan. It wasn't as bad as the awful bowling alley, but still -- everything was too small, too spaced out, too twee. Nothing looked durable enough or heavy enough to survive long-term in a park.

And I didn't like the lounge. What is it with Jenny and choosing the hardest, most uncomfortable seating imaginable? There's so much wasted space in it, it's not inviting, it doesn't ask people to stop in and eat, drink, and hang out. I mean, they did fix some major issues, but the furnishings were a massive fail for me.

I will say that the coach's house was well-done, the murals in Fort Morgan have been good, I liked the new town signage, and Juanita's fire department house was nice (but what was with the teeny round coffee table in a house with three people?).

As always with HGTV makeovers, I'm also always amused at how the "befores" of every single house include these huge TVs that are the focus of the living room, and the "afters" there's nary a TV to be seen. You just know the moment the HGTV crew leaves, those poor families are putting their TVs back on the mantels.

Erin does seem tired and very checked out this season. I swear, even the new middle part in her hair feels so un-Erin! 

On 4/24/2023 at 8:08 PM, CalicoKitty said:

My take:  The murals were nice, I don't know why the horse lady was chosen to have her house redone, and the coffee shop looked terrible.  I would think the grass/greenery covering the ceiling would hold a lot of dust, and people are eating under it.  My thought on the swings Jenny Mars put along the wall was that I hope the owners have accident insurance.  Someone is going to fall.  So far, I'm not very impressed.

That was my one issue with the equine therapy woman. She seemed so affluent and well-off, and she's also completely outside the town proper -- it just didn't seem like a reno that (while one of the few I've liked from Jenny) would contribute to the town's actual revival.

On 4/26/2023 at 11:46 AM, CalicoKitty said:

The also took out the 4 tops in the cafe and put in 2 tops.  Round 2 tops.  You can't even push them together to make room for more people.  I'm not sure how that translates into more seating than then had before.  I feel kind of sorry for the owners.

This! Jenny does not seem to be able to think about practicality at all. She is so stuck on her particular aesthetic, and on making things look the way she wants, that time and again, she seems utterly willing to ignore the actual needs of the people who will be using the space.  I felt sorry for the owners too. Honestly, I felt sorry for all the businesses she designed for this season so far. With the exception of Horse Lady, I guess, although she still feels like an odd choice for support from the show.

Edited May 15, 2023 by paramitch

[CalicoKitty]

I totally agree with the above post.  What is the deal with Jennie and swings?  The bowling alley "makeover" had a table with swings, too.  And those stools with pedals along the wall in the event space.  Really?  My idea of an event space is not the same as theirs.  How are they supposed to hold an "event" or party with small tables and stools along the walls and one seating area for four people?  I was so happy that they did not try to "update" the inside of the vintage bowling alley, but the stuff they put outside looked like a yard sale.  I would run screaming if I had to let Jennie "decorate" any place I lived.

[Tess23]

I used to live 120 miles from Ft. Morgan. It was a given that if there was a tornado/severe storm to be found in spring and summer, it would involve Ft. Morgan. So I was shocked to see all the loose furniture and decor sitting outside after the bowling alley remodel. Plus, this isn't the south - all that cutsie stuff is useless in a high plains winter with howling winds and snow. 

If Erin and Ben are so checked out, why did they even bother to come north this season? They clearly couldn't care less and that makes me sad. Ft. Morgan deserved better.