Showing posts with label HGTV. Show all posts
Showing posts with label HGTV. Show all posts

Friday, April 16, 2010

House Hunters Explained ...

Like many of you out there I’m a big fan of HGTV’s show House Hunters.  But, also like many of you, I often times wonder about the people who are both buying and selling the houses.  We don’t really learn much about them.  In fact, we don’t even meet the sellers at all and aren’t told anything about them.  So, I thought I would do a quick review of a recent episode so and tell you all about the buyers and sellers. 

The episode was in Orlando, Fl last week.  But, it pretty much works the same in any location on any other episode.  The sellers are a young married couple who need more room and would like a single family home.  They say they need more room for their dogs to run and play and because they like to “entertain.”  I know that a lot of people wonder about this, so let me explain.  The dogs are a trial for kids.  People often times are under the mistaken belief that if they can take care of  dogs, then they can take care of kids.  This is ridiculous, of course.  If you have kids, you can't just put in a little swinging door, about 3 days of food and a big tub of water for them when you go out of town for the weekend. 

“Entertain” means they’re swingers.  I think that one is actually pretty obvious.  That’s why a married couple with no kids says they need 3 or 4 bedrooms and at least 3 bathrooms.   And a dungeon basement.

Okay, first house they look at.  Nice single level with a HUGE backyard.  In fact the outside of the house is very nice.  Unfortunately the inside hasn’t been updated since the Nixon administration.  Shag carpet.  Very old appliances and small, crappy bathrooms. 

You might be wondering how this happened.  Well, the sellers focused mostly on the exterior of the house over the years.  They had intended to upgrade in the interior too, but were killed in a freak accident when the boat they were riding in was attacked by a gang of sharks in the Atlantic Ocean.  The sharks apparently were tired of being depicted as blood thirsty killers and decided that they would simply show people what they can REALLY do when they want to.

House number two was a very nice house.  Completely updated throughout with hardwood floors and brand knew appliances.  Only downside was that there was no yard and the neighbors house was very, very close. 

The previous owners decided to move out when they caught their neighbor, a rather large and lonely gentleman, was spying on their 15 year old daughter with binoculars even though the houses were only four feet apart.  Unfortunately for the prospective buyers, the sellers took the stripper pole out of the 15 year old’s room.  This would have been a great selling feature.

House number three was immediately rejected by the buyers because it didn’t have central air conditioning.  “Are you fucking kidding me?” Said the homebuyer.  “This is freaking Florida you morons!  And we’re swingers!  We can have a great big orgy in the front room without central air.  Window units are way too loud, and listening to everyone’s moaning during the orgy is half the fun. Fuck this house.  Let’s go honey.”

The owners of house number three were selling because it didn’t have central air conditioning and nobody would agree to let them host the monthly meeting of “Knitters and Brewers Club” because their house was always so hot.

So, the homebuyers bought the first house.  It had the big yard for the dogs.  There was also room for naked slip and sliding.  Naked limbo.  And, of course, naked yoga in the mornings.  They will have to upgrade the kitchen, but I think they made the right choice.

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

I Should Do My Own HGTV Show...

First of all, the feisty and insanely hawt Girl is a grandma!!! Congrats to The Girl and her daughter and little grandson. Everyone is doing great and I'm predicting that the little kid will be starting the 2024 World Series for the Phillies.

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So, as you guys probably know, I'm a big fan of HGTV. Well, I used to be anyway. I don't think HGTV is nearly as good as it used to be. They focus so much on real estate shows now and not so much on the gardening, landscape and general home improvement type shows that I used to love to watch.

But, I was thinking that maybe I should get into the field of making my own home improvement, home staging for sale type show too since they seem to be popular. After watching all these shows on HGTV for a while now, I think I know the basics that all of these types of shows need.

- If the homeowners have lots of color in their house tell them to tone it down and make it more neutral.
- If they have a pretty neutral home, tell them it needs more color.
- If they have a room with a really wild paint color on the walls or on one accent wall, tell them that it won't appeal to home buyers and paint over it.
- If they don't have any room with wild paint colors tell them it's too bland and that they need a "drama wall." Paint that drama wall black or a funky fuchsia color.
- Move the all pieces of furniture to the opposite walls.
- Make "focal points"
- If the fireplace isn't a focal point, make it one.
- If the fireplace IS a focal point, de-emphasize it.
- Take the TV out of the living/family room.
- Take desktop computers out of whatever room they are in.
- If a spare bedroom is being used as an office, turn it into a bedroom.
- If there is a spare bedroom with just a bed and table in it, turn it into a home office.
- If you have laminate counter tops, get granite.
- If you have granite counter tops, get whatever knew fad counter tops you can find.
- If you have carpets pull them up and put in laminate wood flooring.
- If you have laminate wood floors get area rugs.
- If you have tile flooring your screwed.
- Us the phrases "Price Point" "In this market" "Buyers in this market" and things like "bring the outdoors in and indoors out" a lot. A LOT!
- If they have a neat front yard with straight lines, make curves and put in plants and shrubs that look more "natural."
- If the front yard has no straight lines and has a natural look, make straight lines and neat trim plantings.
- Replace the dining room lighting with the ugliest, stupidest chandelier you can find.
- Get a moderately attractive, quirky, sweet person to host the show for you like Tanya Memme...
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And by "moderately attractive" of course I mean "hot as hell."

- If the homeowner does something crazy like take a big cardboard box, fill it with Styrofoam to make it solid and strong and then uses that as a bedside table, laugh at them and talk about how ghetto that is.
- If the homeowner needs one more small table for a lamp in the living room, just turn a metal garbage can upside down and put a bed sheet over it and use that a table and congratulate yourself on your ingenuity.
- If the homeowner lives in the South were it gets hot in the summer and is still pretty warm in the winter, take down the ceiling fan and call it an eyesore.
- Always change the hardware on the kitchen cabinets. No matter what.
- If you just can't afford new hardware for the kitchen cabinets, take the existing hardware and spray paint it silver or black.
- Do something that is done on virtually every single home improvement show, like spray painting kitchen cabinet hardware, pretend that you just thought of that right there on the spot and that nobody has ever done it before.
- Get rid of all family photos and mementos.
- Come up with some ridiculous creation using grass, twigs or plastic. Then put a frame around it and call it "Art!"
- Because you want women to watch your show too, you might get a hot host like Carter Oosterhouse...
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- MDF. Use lots of MDF.
- When talking about pricing a home for sale talk about "comparables" a lot. A LOT.
- Stainless Steele appliances are a must have.
- You can claim that a house has an ocean view even if someone has to stand on a box and lean against the wall in a spare bedroom and use binoculars to actually see the ocean.


Okay, so obviously I’m watching entirely too much HGTV. I think I’ll go back to watching Food Network all the time.

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In other news, my good friend Matt-Man has been under the weather the last few days. So I thought I would give him a little shout out here and send one of the nurses from my private staff over to help take care of him. Cause that’s just the awesome kind of guy I am.
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Hope you get to feeling better fast dude! And trust me, you’re gonna love it when she tells you to turn your head and cough.