While You Were Out - General Discussion

[FormerMod-a1]

... is coming back March 16 at 9/8c on HGTV and TLC.

[biakbiak]

Any mention of 2gether is always welcome.

[Maverick]

 So this is basically Trading Space without the trading.   Between the two houses, all the TS designers and no one from the original show, it doesn't feel much like WYWO.  I also find it hard to  believe they're going to keep anything secret in this day and age.   Surely the neighbors will be posting on social media about a TV show filming in their neighborhood, if not outright texting  the family who's away.

[Jaded]

Well shit.....

I was kind of excited about this until I read that TS people will fill out the cast of designers and carpenters. The inclusion of Hildi Santo Tomas peeves me off the most. 

[friendperidot]

I have neighbors I detest, I am not alone in this. I would love to do a WYWO style makeover to their front yard while they were gone a few days, fill the trees with birdhouses and wind chimes all around their front porch, paint in colors like lime green and pink/purple with orange trim, build a 10 wall between our houses, and have a mural painted on their side, some sort graffiti, street art, but including the woman of the house blathering on the news about her horrible neighbors (I didn't live here then) and then a small spot of my little nephew's grave which if she hadn't been blathering other things may not have occurred and he would be 7 now, not dead and buried at 3. Bitter? who me?

[DVDFreaker]

On 3/5/2019 at 12:06 AM, Jaded said:

Well shit.....

I was kind of excited about this until I read that TS people will fill out the cast of designers and carpenters. The inclusion of Hildi Santo Tomas peeves me off the most. 

She never fails at her awful designs, grass on the ground? Red tape everywhere? Fur on the wall? I am glad the homeowner nixed them but she should have not signed up for the show if she did not any of her ideas but I did feel bad for Hildi getting her feelings hurt

Edited March 17, 2019 by DVDFreaker

[alexa]

4 minutes ago, DVDFreaker said:

She never fails at her awful designs, grass on the ground? Red tape everywhere? Fur on the wall? I am glad the homeowner nixed them but she should have not signed up for the show if she did not any of her ideas but I did feel bad for Hildi getting her feelings hurt

I can’t ever feel bad for Hildi. She has ruined too many homes by doing things to their walls, etc. And it makes no sense to put fur on the wall. The rooms were much better having her ideas nixed. It is about time. Honestly they should not have brought her back. 

[ams1001]

I really liked the bulldog room with all the dog drawings. (I might just be a sucker for dogs.) I thought the gray flannel came out pretty nice (at least on TV). 

[Toodleoo]

I almost wonder if all that tape/fur/grass were red (haha) herrings, but the end result was still pretty bad in that smaller room. The other room with the wood panels on the walls turned out great and must have been 90% Ty.

I really cannot stand Hildi and as a fellow Southern woman I about DIED at that homeowner’s face when she was shown the crime scene sketches. That was “OH HELL NO but I’m trying to find a way to be nice about telling you HELL. NO.”

Edited March 17, 2019 by Toodleoo

[DVDFreaker]

4 minutes ago, alexa said:

I can’t ever feel bad for Hildi. She has ruined too many homes by doing things to their walls, etc. And it makes no sense to put fur on the wall. The rooms were much better having her ideas nixed. It is about time. Honestly they should not have brought her back. 

That is true, you make a good point, I just will never understand why they continue to use Hildi unless they want the entertainment factor 

[alexa]

27 minutes ago, SHD said:

I know Hildi’s ideas are nuts, but I do see her point. You agree to do this show but then nix all the ideas from the designer. Then don’t sign up for the show and just do it yourself.

I can’t really agree with that because the majority of the designers are trustworthy and do a great job. Hildi doesn’t care and chooses things that are outside of what anyone wants. I don’t think it is the homeowners fault if they get assigned to her instead of someone they could trust enough to see their idea through. She is a subpar designer and shouldn’t be designing anything. 

[theschnauzers]

The other thing is that Heidi totally shut off Ty, who is supposed to be the equal co-designer, and they had a carpenter on top of that. (Don’t forget the mother-daughter team from one of the HGTV shows were the o-designers of the other house. Ty ended up with only a day to get the second room done from scratch and barely pulled it off. His design was so much better than what Heidi had in mind. The crazy part is that Ty is a big Bulldogs fan being from that area originally. It’s too bad they weren’t able to get UGA’s paw print as originally planned. And as Ty pointed out, Heidi doesn’t know what compromise is, I bet the on-site producers had to step in and insist Heidi back down.

[DVDFreaker]

2 minutes ago, theschnauzers said:

The other thing is that Heidi totally shut off Ty, who is supposed to be the equal co-designer, and they had a carpenter on top of that. (Don’t forget the mother-daughter team from one of the HGTV shows were the o-designers of the other house. Ty ended up with only a day to get the second room done from scratch and barely pulled it off. His design was so much better than what Heidi had in mind. The crazy part is that Ty is a big Bulldogs fan being from that area originally. It’s too bad they weren’t able to get UGA’s paw print as originally planned. And as Ty pointed out, Heidi doesn’t know what compromise is, I bet the on-site producers had to step in and insist Heidi back down.

Ty’s designs are mixed to me, some good and some bad but he did a good job with the Bulldogs room 

[DVDFreaker]

21 minutes ago, alexa said:

I can’t really agree with that because the majority of the designers are trustworthy and do a great job. Hildi doesn’t care and chooses things that are outside of what anyone wants. I don’t think it is the homeowners fault if they get assigned to her instead of someone they could trust enough to see their idea through. She is a subpar designer and shouldn’t be designing anything. 

That is another good point that you made and I agree she is a subpar designer, I honestly do not think we will find any designer that is worse than Hildi

[DVDFreaker]

Did anyone think the Auburn room feels underwhelming? The girls usually do a great job on their designs but this one was not good

[buttersister]

As I used to say in old TP days, if Hildi’s in the neighborhood, I’m calling the police.

I see nothing’s changed.

[Kitty Redstone]

3 hours ago, alexa said:

I can’t ever feel bad for Hildi. She has ruined too many homes by doing things to their walls, etc. And it makes no sense to put fur on the wall. The rooms were much better having her ideas nixed. It is about time. Honestly they should not have brought her back. 

Totally agree.  I'd enjoy both WYWO and TS much better if Hildi was not involved.  You know she's going to make some poor homeowners absolutely miserable for two days and ruin the room of their friends/family on top of it.  When she threw her tantrum ("We can just paint the walls white!") when the homeowner didn't like her awful ideas was particularly funny. 

At one time Hildi could turn out a nice room - in fact, two of my favorite rooms ever on TS were done by Hildi.  The first one was a dining room that she painted a beautiful shade somewhere between cranberry and plum, and she did very subtle alternating, horizontal stripes using polyurethane.  The second was the living room of a newly married couple and all their furniture was hand-me-downs.  Hildi slipcovered the couches in a pale yellow and used thin plywood in a pretty, tasteful pattern above the fireplace.  She's become very rigid, apparently, and thinks just because she's stapling something new to a wall or painting a slightly different pattern that she's not repeating herself.

Anyhow, Ty saved those rooms.  I liked the other house as well and you could tell that both husbands were happy.  All in all I'm glad this show is back!

Edited March 17, 2019 by Kitty Redstone

[mlp]

If Hildi had gone through with her design, the whole family would have ended up on Ritalin.  I felt sorry for the poor homeowner who was probably mentally reviewing the contract and also trying not to appear disagreeable on TV.  In the end, the room turned out very well thanks to Ty.

I like not-Paige.  She has a nice voice and manages to be enthusiastic without being hyper.  And she didn't have her hands all over other people.  

I don't believe that the husbands had no idea that something was going on.  Neither of them looked a bit alarmed when they first pulled up and saw a crowd.  With cameras.  My first thought would have been that something terrible had happened.

[ChicagoCita]

I was not impressed. It seemed like a watered-down version not only of Trading Spaces but also of While You Were Out.

I agree with everyone's opinions on Hildi, but hell, that was the only interesting part of the show. I'll give it another episode, but I was less than riveted.

[SHD]

11 hours ago, alexa said:

I can’t really agree with that because the majority of the designers are trustworthy and do a great job. Hildi doesn’t care and chooses things that are outside of what anyone wants. I don’t think it is the homeowners fault if they get assigned to her instead of someone they could trust enough to see their idea through. She is a subpar designer and shouldn’t be designing anything. 

This is a fair point, but I also think part of these shows is that it’s a risk. You might get a perfectly nice design that you just hate because it’s not your style. Or you might get the nightmare designer. It’s part of the game. If  someone wants the guarantee of a beautiful room that will have everything they want, these shows aren’t for them.

[DVDFreaker]

8 hours ago, mlp said:

If Hildi had gone through with her design, the whole family would have ended up on Ritalin.  I felt sorry for the poor homeowner who was probably mentally reviewing the contract and also trying not to appear disagreeable on TV.  In the end, the room turned out very well thanks to Ty.

I like not-Paige.  She has a nice voice and manages to be enthusiastic without being hyper.  And she didn't have her hands all over other people.  

I don't believe that the husbands had no idea that something was going on.  Neither of them looked a bit alarmed when they first pulled up and saw a crowd.  With cameras.  My first thought would have been that something terrible had happened.

Next time they should put a police car in the front of the house so they can start being alarmed, haha! 

[friendperidot]

the new format of 2 homes and with crossover designers from Trading Spaces is going to confuse me for a while. The budget, having 2 designers and a carpenter could be a boost in getting a decent room, but having to do 2 homes in close proximity or with 2 sets of friends to help the premise of sending 2 friends out on a bogus trip might be a problem, one the one hand, it might be logical for 2 friends to go off on a fantasy trip to something they enjoy, I could be bought for a trip to a doll convention with a friend, but I don't live in a house where $10,000 would be feasible, that could almost redo the entire house, but one $10,000 room would be out of place. And I'm too controlling and know what I want in a room, I don't want someone coming in with different ideas. And doing two rooms in two different homes makes it more like trading spaces. I think I'd like it better if it went back to one room in one house, two friends going off a trip might be great, but maybe one friend could be in on it and keep the other friend busy. Or even if they wanted to keep the 2 homeowners format, the people sent away could each be in on it for the other one and sworn to secrecy, then be surprised when they got home to their own new room. 

But Hildi isn't much of a team player nor is she big on compromise. I think Ty was more than a little pissed about that. I don't know enough about the other team yet, I haven't watched much HGTV for a long time, since it became the Scott Brothers and Chip and Joanna channel, I have no interest.

I'll give it another chance, oh who am I kidding, I'll be watching every week.

[vibeology]

10 hours ago, mlp said:

I like not-Paige.  She has a nice voice and manages to be enthusiastic without being hyper.  And she didn't have her hands all over other people. 

I loved Ananda Lewis growing up. She was the serious MTV veejay who could talk about guns or AIDS and still talk pop music. I was always bummed that she never transitioned to more mainstream media but I love seeing her here. 

[irisheyes]

It was so obvious that Karen and Mina work together all the time and treat each their as equals. Their plan was cohesive and not overwhelming to complete in 48 hours.  I loved the sectional and the gaming area. Wasn’t crazy about the bar area, but that was a pretty awkward set up to fix. Hildi, on the other hand, fell into her superior attitude that she’s the “artist” and the peasants just don’t understand her vision. Plus, she didn’t treat Ty as an equal, but still as just the carpenter. I liked her “gentleman’s lounge” idea (without the flannel), but I think the homeowner had some valid complaints about the sensory issues in the workout room. Listen to the expert, Hildi!  She knows what will and won’t work for her son. 

[Jaded]

18 hours ago, DVDFreaker said:

That is true, you make a good point, I just will never understand why they continue to use Hildi unless they want the entertainment factor 

I wonder how many people actually find her entertaining at this point.

[Cyranetta]

Quote

but I think the homeowner had some valid complaints about the sensory issues in the workout room. Listen to the expert, Hildi!  She knows what will and won’t work for her son. 

That to me was the key thing about the wisdom of denying Hildi  her way - it wasn't just because her ideas were fugly for that room, they could be actively harmful for her son. And how on earth would you keep a furry wall from being a nightmare dustcatcher, possibly leading to respiratory issues?

[DVDFreaker]

56 minutes ago, Jaded said:

I wonder how many people actually find her entertaining at this point.

Probably anyone who likes Hildi and her designs 

[Bucket]

Back in the 90s Hildi was a wild child who some enjoyed.   Shock jock decorating never really appealed to the masses and now it is dated and just bad.   This show should have made some major changes, it won't survive long if they keep the same format and budget. $2000 is just an inflation adjustment.  The same old tired show right down to the dialog.  Perky Paige would benefit by acting more like the adult she is.     

Edited March 17, 2019 by Bucket

[Bucket]

Man caves where they can watch games makes me wonder.  Why do they insist on having a special basement room to do this.  Seems immature to me.  Shrug 

No more basements please!  

Edited March 17, 2019 by Bucket

[Kitty Redstone]

2 hours ago, Jaded said:

I wonder how many people actually find her entertaining at this point.

Same here.  I think she's obnoxious and tiresome.  I watch shows like this to see happy people having fun in the process and not for their shock and stress.  People who don't like their rooms probably can't be avoided but it should be an unfortunate circumstance instead of the desired result.

[walnutqueen]

22 hours ago, alexa said:

I can’t really agree with that because the majority of the designers are trustworthy and do a great job. Hildi doesn’t care and chooses things that are outside of what anyone wants.

The same could be said for Doug, who is as stubborn about his vision as is Hildi.  But at least he occasionally has a vision.

21 hours ago, buttersister said:

As I used to say in old TP days, if Hildi’s in the neighborhood, I’m calling the police.

I see nothing’s changed.

If Hildi's in the neighborhood, I'm hanging garlic and an upside-down cross on my front door.  Then I'm getting my gun out of the safe, and loading it with silver bullets.

[FoundTime]

7 hours ago, irisheyes said:

It was so obvious that Karen and Mina work together all the time and treat each their as equals. Their plan was cohesive and not overwhelming to complete in 48 hours.  I loved the sectional and the gaming area. Wasn’t crazy about the bar area, but that was a pretty awkward set up to fix. Hildi, on the other hand, fell into her superior attitude that she’s the “artist” and the peasants just don’t understand her vision. Plus, she didn’t treat Ty as an equal, but still as just the carpenter. I liked her “gentleman’s lounge” idea (without the flannel), but I think the homeowner had some valid complaints about the sensory issues in the workout room. Listen to the expert, Hildi!  She knows what will and won’t work for her son. 

I almost think it wasn't fair to have one design team that is clearly used to working together (and really good at it) and another -- with Hildi on it, for heaven's sake -- that is not accustomed to working together and where one member is a prima donna. Also, between this and the Trading Spaces reboot, I am beginning to wish they would just run old eps of the original shows. A few years ago I stumbled on reruns of While You Were Out on some obscure cable channel; the eps were dated but I don't know that I like this new formula of two houses in the same ep.

I was kind of cracking up that both wives had the same long white-blond hair and was wondering if that was why one of them was wearing a hat for a while, so we could tell them apart 🤔

It struck me as downright rude and tone deaf (or maybe just "good" television🙄) for Hildi to outright ignore the advice of the mom with the son on the spectrum. That mirror with the red tape on it was giving me fits just seeing it on my teevee.

[MsTree]

15 hours ago, friendperidot said:

I haven't watched much HGTV for a long time,

If you're boycotting HGTV, WYWO is also on TLC at the same time.

[friendperidot]

14 hours ago, MsTree said:

If you're boycotting HGTV, WYWO is also on TLC at the same time.

I didn't know WYWO was on HGTV. I'm not really boycotting, I just have no interest in the Scott Brothers or Chip and Joanna and every time I scroll through tv schedules, HGTV has one of them on, so I scroll on by. I don't watch much on TLC either, I've kind of quit Say Yes To The Dress, so I'm pretty much down to Trading Spaces and While You Were Out.

[jcbrown]

I thought this first episode was kind of a hot mess that bore little resemblance to the show I used to watch. I'll give it another shot but I am not encouraged yet. I think the two house gimmick detracts and makes the show too chaotic. And Hildy can take a seat.

[proserpina65]

On ‎03‎/‎16‎/‎2019 at 10:10 PM, ams1001 said:

I really liked the bulldog room with all the dog drawings. (I might just be a sucker for dogs.) I thought the gray flannel came out pretty nice (at least on TV). 

The room in general looked nice, but I could've done without the dog drawings.  (Dogs are okay, but not a big fan.)  However, it seemed a little dumb to think that, just because the guy was a fan of the Georgia Bulldogs, that meant he liked bulldogs in general.  But he seemed okay.

Hildi's original ideas for the gym area were horrible, and while I'm sorry the homeowner couldn't just shut that crap down herself, I'm glad the host was able to.  Yeah, it all sounded way over-stimulating for a kid with autism.

Meant to say that the other house's design was fine, although I'd have been pissed to lose the pool table.  There was more than enough room to play pool where it was.

Edited March 19, 2019 by proserpina65

[proserpina65]

On ‎03‎/‎17‎/‎2019 at 9:31 AM, SHD said:

This is a fair point, but I also think part of these shows is that it’s a risk. You might get a perfectly nice design that you just hate because it’s not your style. Or you might get the nightmare designer. It’s part of the game. If  someone wants the guarantee of a beautiful room that will have everything they want, these shows aren’t for them.

The thing with While You Were Out original recipe, though, is that the homeowner had a little more input into the design.  Not all of it, and sometimes the spouse/partner/bf/gf still hated it, but it wasn't as completely designer driven.  Whereas now, whenever Hildi is involved anyway, it's what the designer wants and to hell with the people who live there.

[proserpina65]

On ‎03‎/‎17‎/‎2019 at 11:03 AM, friendperidot said:

the new format of 2 homes and with crossover designers from Trading Spaces is going to confuse me for a while. The budget, having 2 designers and a carpenter could be a boost in getting a decent room, but having to do 2 homes in close proximity or with 2 sets of friends to help the premise of sending 2 friends out on a bogus trip might be a problem, one the one hand, it might be logical for 2 friends to go off on a fantasy trip to something they enjoy, I could be bought for a trip to a doll convention with a friend, but I don't live in a house where $10,000 would be feasible, that could almost redo the entire house, but one $10,000 room would be out of place. And I'm too controlling and know what I want in a room, I don't want someone coming in with different ideas. And doing two rooms in two different homes makes it more like trading spaces. I think I'd like it better if it went back to one room in one house, two friends going off a trip might be great, but maybe one friend could be in on it and keep the other friend busy. Or even if they wanted to keep the 2 homeowners format, the people sent away could each be in on it for the other one and sworn to secrecy, then be surprised when they got home to their own new room. 

But Hildi isn't much of a team player nor is she big on compromise. I think Ty was more than a little pissed about that. I don't know enough about the other team yet, I haven't watched much HGTV for a long time, since it became the Scott Brothers and Chip and Joanna channel, I have no interest.

I'll give it another chance, oh who am I kidding, I'll be watching every week.

Part of my I enjoyed it originally was that, by not needing a friend with whom to trade, there was always a chance that someone might decide to get them to do a room in my house.  Can't do that now.

On ‎03‎/‎17‎/‎2019 at 12:30 PM, vibeology said:

I loved Ananda Lewis growing up. She was the serious MTV veejay who could talk about guns or AIDS and still talk pop music. I was always bummed that she never transitioned to more mainstream media but I love seeing her here. 

I had no idea who she was, but I did like her as the host.  I appreciated that she was more low-key (read: less excitable) than Paige.

[proserpina65]

On ‎03‎/‎17‎/‎2019 at 6:16 PM, Bucket said:

Man caves where they can watch games makes me wonder.  Why do they insist on having a special basement room to do this.  Seems immature to me.  Shrug 

No more basements please!  

In these two houses, it was more like the basements were rec rooms used by the whole family, rather than just man caves.

That's the part of my house which most needs a makeover - my partially finished, two room basement.  So I'm always interested in basement renovations for ideas.

[Chairperson Meow]

The commercials teased Hillary and David from HGTV's Love it or List it.  I literally need those two going against Hildi because I need the contrast of a beautiful Hillary design next to a weird Hildi mess, plus the combo of Hillary and David sass.   I don't care how nerdy I sound.  I literally squeed.   If only we could get Allison Victoria to put brass everything.  

[DVDFreaker]

Aubrey and Sabrina did a great job on the rooms, it was really good to see Sabrina again, she is my favorite designer and she has so much personality! 

[suebee12]

Wow, call me surprised! I didn't hate the room the Las Vegas Flippers did....well, I did hate the one gold chandelier but everything else was really nice! I also like the room that Sabrina and Carter did. One thing I wondered about was when this episode was filmed...it looked like Carter was starting to grow a mustache..maybe the one he sported last week on Trading Spaces?

[DVDFreaker]

14 hours ago, suebee12 said:

Wow, call me surprised! I didn't hate the room the Las Vegas Flippers did....well, I did hate the one gold chandelier but everything else was really nice! I also like the room that Sabrina and Carter did. One thing I wondered about was when this episode was filmed...it looked like Carter was starting to grow a mustache..maybe the one he sported last week on Trading Spaces?

I hope not, I said last week that the mustache is not a good look for him

[alexa]

I am sure this was because of the lack of time, but Sabrina and Carter’s room looked unfinished to me. I loved the deatails on the other room. 

[Chairperson Meow]

I actually don't hate all the designs that Aubrey does on FoF.  I know she goes a little over the top with color, but if she reigned it in a bit, she actually has a good eye.  

[suebee12]

9 hours ago, DVDFreaker said:

I hope not, I said last week that the mustache is not a good look for him

That is the mustache I was referring to...I think he was growing it out for the "Burt Reynold's 70's" look Trading Spaces and these shows were just shown out of order. Hopefully he isn't growing another one!!!

[Jaded]

I'm thinking when the part where the people drive up in their vehicles acting shocked is staged. I can't think of another way they'd get footage in there of them unless a camera a hidden camera gets put in the vehicles beforehand by whoever is staying home while the other person is away. Recreating people driving up to their homes would explain the way the guys in the first episode didn't seem truly shocked.

[Koalagirl]

5 hours ago, Jaded said:

I'm thinking when the part where the people drive up in their vehicles acting shocked is staged. I can't think of another way they'd get footage in there of them unless a camera a hidden camera gets put in the vehicles beforehand by whoever is staying home while the other person is away. Recreating people driving up to their homes would explain the way the guys in the first episode didn't seem truly shocked.

It was very quickly narrated when the women were driving up to the house that a secret camera was planted in their car to get their reactions.

[buttersister]

Vern! So nice to have you and your good taste back on my TV. His fabrics were lovely, that room was wonderful. Wishing the best for that family.

Note to Hilary: Time and a pro crew are so your friends!

[DVDFreaker]

Both did a nice job in their rooms but David needs to stick to being a realtor

Edited March 31, 2019 by DVDFreaker