What is happening at the PBS stations? Maybe they lost all their viewers and decided they have to get back on track.
I turned on NYW and Norm did a whole show on router basics. Different types, bit profiles, how to use them. Next week is going to be on the use of a router table.
When TOH came on, I was stunned that they are actually going to work on a rehab of - - - - - - - an old house! How will we keep up with the latest fully automated appliances and personal zoned heating and cooling systems? What if I have $750.000 and need guidance as to what hand carved marble vanity and gilded faucets to buy? It looks like they may be trying to educate the average homeowner and will leave us wealthy yuppies to fend for ourselves to design a kitchen with ebony cabinets.
Think of it as the "wreck for the hoi polloi"(sp?). Every now and then someone forgets to DAGS before asking whether they want a left tilt or a right. Or, you've been watching too much TV? (insert smiley-winking-face emoticon here) Tom
At least you guys still have these shows. NYW is still nonexistent around here and TOH can be caught on a fuzzy channel. If I'm lucky. About all they show is Ask This Old House.
On 2/12/2006 7:28 AM George mumbled something about the following:
I'm middle-class, and I can't afford a 250k house. Well, I can't afford it and still be able to do all the OTHER things I like/want to do. Everyone I know who has 250k house around here who is in my income class, struggle to find the money to enjoy doing half the things I enjoy doing. For me, 5 acres of land and a doublewide trailer, is perfectly fine. I have a total of about $85,000 invested in the property, the trailer, the shed/workshop, etc., refinanced a couple of months ago to shorten my term and knock some points off, and to pay off a few other bills, and now only have 10 years left to pay instead of 17 and pay about the same per month as I did before.
Now, I do plan on building my retirement home in about 10 years (right now thinking about a geodesic), but it's all going to be paid for cash. I have no intentions of having anything but basic bills (elec, water, cable, internet, etc) to pay when I retire in 15 years.
Good. I miss the old Bob Vila kind of TOH. Its more like these days that TOH is being showered with rich people wanting cheapie construction work while the common people who gladly participate are left out in the cold. The last episode with the single guy spending obscene amounts of money and only participating in color selection was boring.
I saw the last episode of that modern house they did. I think the money spent on materials for that "remodel" would buy adequate housing for a dozen families. They imported teak beams from asia. They had the cabinets built in Italy. I guess that USA built cabinets were not good enough. The imported rock from Bulgaria and paid a mason for weeks on end to place a million little peices of stone on a couple of low walls in the front yard and chimney.
I am surprised they did not have a toliet carved out of gemstone. What I don't understand is the need to hook up everything in the house to a digital controller of some kind. They had the capacity to electronically lower and raise window shades from a wireless controller. What is the extra cost to include NASA style controls into a house? And wouldn't this type of video game fanaticism in household controls add greatly to the lard on the owners butts?
I could go on and on. If I had some big bucks to spend on a house, I would not be importing crap from around the world or installing a super compuer to run things. It is a house, not a space ship!
I would spend the money on a good home gym, a wood shop, metal shop, a small blacksmith facility, a quilt room for the missus, etc. Ya know, practical things where real americans make things with their hands. Talk about an anachronism.
On Sun 12 Feb 2006 08:13:10a, Odinn wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@adelphia.com:
Here in Madison WI, all we have to do is stay here a few more years, and we'll have that 250k house. :-) Whether we like it or not.
What's frustrating me most about Norm these days is the move to expensive machinery. For that shop clock, he says, "I'll just cut this cove on my molder-shaping machine here" and just runs it through his molder. SWMBO and I both bust out laughing. Sure! Just fire up the ol' shaper-molder and away we go!
Then he says "If you don't have a molder of your very own, you can go to your lumber yard and probably find something pretty darn close". No mention of using the table saw to cut any molding.
Sigh. I really like his old stuff and I still get something out of his current shows, but it ain't like it yoosta bee. Funny how often I say that these days.
He's been around only since 88? I could have sworn it was longer than that.
Far be it for me to defend a lot of this stuff but some observations:
A number of years ago I got to talk with Steve Thomas, then the host of TOH. I asked him why they were now in the business of showcasing all of the latest doo-dads and the high-end construction. He replied that I should not forget that this is a television show and is meant to be entertainment for the masses, not a blow-by-blow how-to-do-it show for the DIY crowd.
Nevertheless, there are real people who live like that. I was looking at the latest issue of "Tucson Lifestyle" at the dentist's office the other day. They were featuring ten of the most expensive houses (currently for sale) in the area. Number 1 was on the market for $19.5 M and was something like 26,000 sq ft, seven baths and six bedrooms, etc...
I have a friend who lives in a gated community in the nose bleed section of the foothills overlooking Tucson, who reports that many of the multi-million dollar homes in his neighborhood are empty most of the year. The owners only use them a few weeks when the come out to play golf in the winter.
BTW, our PBS station is still showing the "modern house" series. The last episode was the one where Norm visited the cabinet shop, which wasn't located in Italy but New England.
I'm not a professional cabinet maker but there are some in this forum and I'll bet a lot of them would love to get (and maybe have) commissions from some of these rich folks. At least some of the wealth is getting spread around to some craftsmen. Can't be all bad.
The thing that got to me the most was the garage...those plastic slats are ok I guess, but that one wall of cabinets...$15K!! And the host says something like "gee, now no one has an excuse for a dirty garage".
Same in Tucson. The tax assessor couldn't be happier.
Sheese. I could probably afford some of the machinery... it's the lumber I can't afford. "I'll just glue up these six 12" wide planks of sixteen-quarter, quarter-sawn Brazilan mahogany to make our table top."
Yeah, I'll just run down to Home Depot and pick up some black walnut moulding.
And here in the SF Bay Area, my 1750sf semi-fixer-up'r cost $333k in 1997, and is up 800K now. 3 bd house across the street sold for 1.15M last year! A 1200sf dump down the street sold for $458K 2 years ago. But it's okay because we were the first place to have gas hit $3/gal last year, so it all works out!!!
The original concept was more of a DIY than a showcase. As you point out, people do live like that, but not the masses being entertained. My guess also is that the typical PBS supporter and contributor has a higher income level that Joe Sixpac and that is the part of the masses they want to court.
The higher priced is usually the most profitable. If you have the talent, that is where I'd want to make my living.
Okay. The last episode shown here was Program #2514.
formatting link
Rhode Island shop was doing stair treads, a bathroom vanity and the cabinets for the library.
So we are kinda behind out here in the AZ desert where we don't need radiant heat under the driveway. (I'm in Tucson but watch it on the Phoenix PBS station)
Given the obscene sizes of some of the later TOH houses, I've found it amusing how much space they fill with areas "where you can sit down and read a book". They always say that. It's all they can do with that 200 sq. foot alcove in the hallway between the den and the entertainment room, or between the master bath shower's foyer and the antedressingroom.
HomeOwnersHub website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here.
All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.