This Old [millionaires] House

[Tom G]

I find it hard to understand the shows where they are shopping for a new house or adding onto the old because the old house was only 4000 square foot. We've raised two kids and never lived in anything larger than 1450 sq. ft., except for an old farm house we rented when first married. How on earth do they pay the taxes on those big places. Here in N. Illinois, I know of people paying over $12,000 per year Real Estate taxes, driving big SUV's and Lexus' and I read that the high paying jobs have left this area. Must be a lot of people dealing drugs or something.

Tom G.

[clot]

Responding from the other side of The Pond, I used to watch TOH with Norm on it. Whilst it was quite interesting and useful, my main facination with it was as a mild comedy. We all have these workshops, right?

emcee - no idea? Please help!

[aemeijers]

Norm is a machinist, who just happens to work in wood instead of metal.

As much as I like his one-man show (which is presumably why he isn't on ATOH), I'd like to see him do some projects with just the skill saw, jigsaw, hand drill, and hand tools that most limited-budget, limited-space DIYs have. (In the real world, if you have a cheap table saw at home, you are considered lucky, much less a planer and joiner and biscut cutter, ad nauseum.) A couple years ago, they made a big deal on a few shows of showing how to do a particular procedure without the expensive tools, but I guess the sponsors who equip hos shop bitched about that, because it seems to have gone away.

aem sends...

[larry]

I agree, the sponsors might get most of the credit for upselling and making the shows DIY for doctors ;-) Several years ago, our local PBS carried several "home grown" DIY shows from an upper midwest PBS station. Two were dad/son shows that really had a lot of good how-to's and tips on each 1/2hr show. Only lasted a few seasons.

-- larry / dallas

[Doug Miller]

emcee = M.C. = Master of Ceremonies

[clot]

My thanks, much appreciated.

[Bob F]

Thank you. That's good info.

Bob

[Red Green]

larry wrote in news:6zbSi.11885$ [e-mail]:

This one used no modern power tools.

[J.A. Michel]

I agree. They seem to show the same sets of shows on an endless loop on DIY. They are hopelessly out of touch from what the common slob can afford to do. They did that house in Carlile, MA. What a joke. You could have fit my house in the basement of the "L" they added on. They hire exterior designers, and closet designers. (there's a carrer is designing closets????)

And what's up with the HVAC systems they put in these houses??? Shit, I bet they are spendy!!!!

Did anyone see the shows where they did George's (ugly) house? What's up with that guy? How could one person need so much space? He must be gay!! They spent 80,000 on a teak staircase! I'll bet he has over a million into that ugly ass house.

What's up with Kevin O'Conner? He looks like a grown up version of Ralphie from a "Christmas Story" and is a dumbass to boot. I seen a show where he was helping Tom Silva do something, and all Tom got done was telling Ralphie how to do stuff.

I still watch the show infrequently, but it doesn't relate to the kinds of projects I would do. I always thought "Hometime" did a much better job of that.

[dpb]

I caught it late enough in the process I don't know the product itself, but it could be improvised readily enough. Would probably be good to find the particular adhesive as it was a two-part system--first there was a wetting agent, then the adhesive; not just a single acrylic-like caulk.

--

[willshak]

on 10/20/2007 8:44 AM J.A. Michel said the following:

From:

"Kevin O'Connor is the current host. Before O'Connor joined the cast, he was a homeowner who appeared on /Ask This Old House/ having problems with wallpaper removal"

They apparently liked his demeanor.

[dpb]

dpb wrote: ...

By that I meant the mechanical fasteners portion. The adhesive is probably significant to identify anyway...

[hillacc at yahoo.com]

Here's the recap from the TOH website:

"Repairing cracked plaster

Tom helped a homeowner repair an old, cracked plaster wall using a new system for securing the plaster back to the wooden lath underneath. Tom started by drilling a series of holes in the plaster and then vacuumed out the loose debris. He then sprayed a "conditioner" and injected a special adhesive into each hole. Tom then used plastic washers and screws around the cracks, which acted like "clamps," pulling the sagging plaster back tight against the wood laths. Once the adhesive had set, Tom removed the plastic washers and applied joint compound over the entire area to fill the holes and smooth out the plaster.

Where to find it?

Big Wally's Plaster Magic Brattleboro, VT 05301

802-254-1330 "

(All above from the website, not my personal referral or anything.) Jo Ann

[dpb]

hillacc at yahoo.com wrote: ...

...

...

"The adhesive is a resin-based, acrylic emulsion. It has a thick, shaving cream consistency that is white when wet, turning translucent when cured. The conditioner is a thin, liquid, acrylic mixture; it is white when wet and dries clear. Both must be kept from freezing."

Interesting. Tried to find a link to the MSDS -- none provided. A Google didn't make any hits for the combination, either.

My guess is it's a repacking of some 3M/GE/somebody's adhesive w/ somebody's (is there a real "Wally"? :) ) clever idea for a way to repair plaster walls.

Power to him...

--

[alvinamorey]

I've felt that way for the last 10 years. In fact I used to enjoy those shows but rarely watch them anymore. They are not suited to the average home owner/repair. Heck, when my furnace breaks down, I get out my tools and fix it myself. I dont replace the whole thing and have some company do all the work too. I am older and I lived in the days when everyone had to struggle to get by. These days I still struggle like most people, but these shows are designed for the upper crust crowd only. I am all for recycling, and these shows are so wasteful too. I recall one of them where they took an old house, gutted it, and tore down half of it too. In the end, all that remained of the house was the frame, and only half the house. And the original house was much nicer than mine. Whats the point of that. Why not leave someone live in the old house and just build a new one. On that same show they tore down a nearly new 2 car garage and just destroyed it. I would have died to own that garage, but for the millionaire crowd, it had to be a 4 car, and be attached to the house. Dumb dumb dumb....

###########_______________##############

[Norminn]

clipped

As my county assessor likes to say, "more money than brains". During the land rush around these parts, loads of waterfront homes - perfectly good - have been torn up to replace with McMansions. The McMansions all have the same architectural quality - one of every kind of window and decorative element from the catalog. They cover every inch of buildable space on the lot, dwarf neighboring homes, and are rarely occupied. One huge condo complex, built during the hottest time of the land rush, is almost totally dark at night - maybe three or four units with lights on. Investors, living elsewhere.

[Cindy Hamilton]

Kevin O'Conner asks dumb questions so that Tom Silva will be able to present the material to the audience in a way that seems natural. Think of Kevin as the shill in the audience. If I recall correctly, they "discovered" Kevin when he sent a question to Ask This Old House. He'd done a lot of work on his own house, but had some issue that they thought would be interesting to have on ATOH. He looked good on camera, and his predecessory (Steve) was ready to leave, so they hired Kevin. Before being on TOH, Kevin was an attorney.

Cindy Hamilton

[DerbyDad03]

I was watching TOH last night. They were installing the tank for a septic system. As the scene opened, Richard Trethewey had his hands on the septic tank as it was being lowered into place by the crane. He was calling out commands - "Easy", "Slowly", "OK, keep coming". Kevin appears on camera and starts talking to Rich about the system. Rich takes his hands off the tank, and begins walking with, and talking to, Kevin about the installation process.

Meanwhile, the camera shows the crane still lowering the tank into the hole, and I'm like "OK, if Rich was *really* guiding this massive tank into place, who's doing it now?" It was obvious that it was all for show and they didn't need Rich's help at all. I had to laugh!

[Cindy Hamilton]

That's good. I'd expect the real guide was using hand signals, or maybe a radio.

Cindy Hamilton

[George]

I was watching an interview of that blond who was on one of the "you can do it" type shows sponsored by home cheepo. It was the show where just her and her male partner would accomplish stupendous stuff in a weekend like remodeling the basement and adding a sauna and steamroom after relocating the gas service and sewer line. Or adding a huge wraparound deck on a home.

She went on to describe that she was a model and didn't have a clue about construction and that someplace else would place all of the tiles for example and they would pose her and film her placing the last one.