Help me! I can't stop watching HGTV!

[crispini]

paint... plaster.... decoupage... I just turn it on and have it on in the background alllll the time.... now I'm ready to do project X and Y and Z ...plans all over the house! what's the matter with me?!

[Neoma]

1. ummm...

try another channel?

[Shopaholic]

2. I can't stop watching it either

or buying decorating magazines--never mind I don't even have time to read the-let alone do a home project of any kind!

[crispini]

5. ha, Shopaholic!

I should've known you'd be a fan too! :)

[Kathy in Cambridge]

3. Neither can I. HGTV, DiscoveryHome, DIY

I need a support group!

[crispini]

7. Hi, I'm Jane, and I'm a homerenovationaholic!

"HI JANE!"

[Kathy in Cambridge]

9. "I have 3 projects that I never finish, bec. I'm too busy WATCHING HGTV!!"

:P

[crispini]

17. LOL! nt

[Bullwinkle925]

4. I know Crispini - they have me too!

Love all of the home improvement shows I find there and other channels.
Favorites are "Curb Appeal", "Trading Spaces", "The Painted House"
"Decorating for the Sexes" - for pete's sake - all of them!!

[crispini]

8. I like the ones

where they redo a room for like $100 and they just use the things they find around the house, what is that, "Design Remix"? That's EXACTLY my style. No budget, cool look.

[Bullwinkle925]

12. Yup - that's the one. I also like the 'Designer Finals' one - where

the design student comes in and has a crack at it.

[crispini]

19. ooo, haven't see that one!

i'll have to watch for it. :P

[texas1928]

6. Stop watching HGTV and bring me tuna.

Look into my eyes.

Bring me tuna.

[DeposeTheBoyKing]

11. What eyes!

I don't know whether to scream or say "Awwwwwww!"

[crispini]

20. hey, pm me

with your email addy and I'll give you my friend's name who works at Turley Law. When you're ready to start jobhunting. :)

They're environmental, though, so dunno if that's what you're looking for. :shrug:

[crispini]

14. yess...... masster...

[Bok_Tukalo]

10. Decoupage? Sounds French.

<eom>

[crispini]

16. French for

"gluing stuff to a board and varnishing over it."

I watch waaaaay too much of this stuff. Call it Homeowner's Disease. ;)

[Bok_Tukalo]

22. You got to hand it to the French packing all that into one word.

I had a great time making a beautiful home for my ex.

I always liked that stuff. Got pretty good at it. My best was floors. Tiled the kitchen, dining room, and master bath. Laid down a hardwood floor in the den.

[crispini]

24. Ok, now I'm curious....

m-w.com to the rescue!

Etymology: French découpage, literally, act of cutting out, from Middle French, from decouper to cut out, from de- + couper to cut -- more at COPE
1 : the art of decorating surfaces by applying cutouts (as of paper) and then coating with usually several layers of finish (as lacquer or varnish)

Now we all know!

Hardwood floor, eh? that's hard work! (hard work, heh!)

[Bok_Tukalo]

26. "Hardwood floor, eh? that's hard work!" Groan!

The worst thing was the glue. It was like having boogers all over the place.

[mhr]

13. Tough Love, Radical Intervention - What Can Be Done?

eom

[crispini]

15. Fifty lashes

with a copy of "Don't Think of an Elephant!" :evilgrin:

[mhr]

31. Better Make 100 Lashes With The Hardback Version On General Principles

eom

[blue neen]

18. Designed to Sell (I think that's what is is called).

The realtor comes in and analyzes your home before you put it on the market. Then they "redo" the house for $2000 to "maximize the home's potential."

After the redo's no one feels like selling their house; the houses look so good!

You have to wonder about people, some of the houses look like total CRAP. No furniture, gross paint, avocado green appliances in the kitchen. :shrug:

[crispini]

21. See, that's why I get the bug.

Fix it now and live with it and enjoy it for a while, right?

[blue neen]

23. Absolutely!

These shows get me all fired up...I want to paint the bedroom and put a new border up...get a new "Bed in a Bag."

We need a new floor in the foyer and kitchen. I can't decide on laminate, vinyl, ceramic, or this new stuff called DuraStone (a mix of stone and vinyl).

It's spring fever, too. Time to spruce up! :)

[Bok_Tukalo]

25. Ceramic is my suggestion

<eom>

[blue neen]

28. My only concern about ceramic is that this part of the house

is over the garage. The garage is unheated, so I'm afraid that the ceramic floor would be very cold in the winter time. What do you think?

[Bok_Tukalo]

32. Probably. But you can put down rugs, if necessary.

I really didn't have that problem in Texas.

[yellowdogintexas]

42. investigate subfloor heating mats. I found some on a link from

a tile site on the internets, and they are not that expensive.

You don't put it under the entire floor, because it can't be closer than 12 inches to a wall or any heavy object, like say a bath tub or permanent cabinet in a bathroom. If I put them in my den, I will just put it in the basic walkway area. Once it heats up, the heat will radiate into the rest of the tiles anyway.

I plan to tile my kitchen and family room sometime this year, but I will not do it myself because my knees just could not take it. And I want a more complicated layout than the basic squares too. Still cheaper than wood.

[crispini]

27. Whatever you do, take off the old floor first if possible.

I was redoing my bathroom and had to take out THREE FLOORS: tile, linoleum, tile.

And then the subfloor was rotten too. The trauma!

[blue neen]

29. We have to take out vinyl.

Everyone who is giving us estimates is talking about new sub-flooring.

What did you put in your bathroom?

[crispini]

30. Tile.

White on white "octagon and dot" -- old timey tile to match an old timey house. :)



Can't really see that one too well though -- here's the same thing in gray.

[blue neen]

33. That's really nice.

I'll bet it looks great--I like the white on white.

[crispini]

36. I'm still not done. ~groan~

I'm doing the subway tile on the walls too. Something like this:

[blue neen]

39. Wow! You really are getting inspired!

Your bathroom is going to look out of this world.

[bettyellen]

34. i'm all worried about you missing from the koeb, and A HA!! here you are!!

glad you are okay. it was nice and quiet over there because of the lack of keith. i got to reconnect a little tonight.
missed you though!!
hey check us out
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=203&topic_id=341576

[crispini]

35. Hi! Well I got home late

and no Keith, so may as well indulge my other obsession... :)

[bettyellen]

37. atta girl, as long as you're indulging!

[C_eh_N_eh_D_eh]

38. It's better than TLC.

"Our designer, and a team of dissatisfied tradespeople trying to break into acting, have two days to turn your home into a piece of modern art. By the time you get tired of the hideous paintjobs, bizzare sculptures made out of your family heirlooms, and furniture that breaks when you lean on it because it was slapped together in five minutes out of cheap plywood by a carpenter who skipped most of his training classes to hang out at the beach, we'll have moved on to our next victims, leaving you with the expense of hiring real, licensed contractors to bring your house back up to code."

I recently started watching HGTV myself. The only show I'm really into so far is "Holmes on Homes" (which may not be available on HGTV US). That show is about *real* home renovations; they bring in expert crews, take the time to finish jobs properly (a single episode can cover weeks of work), and create rooms that are attractive on their own merits, instead of made-over with garish paint and decorations.

It's also interesting to note that the theme of "Holmes on Homes" is rescuing people who've been screwed over by shitty contractors. I'd like to see Mike Holmes take on a house that had been worked over by the "In a Fix" crew. His head would probably explode.

[ldf]

40. another addict here

but aside from enjoying all the redecorating that we can't afford (yes, i would easily spend $50,000 to redo the kitchen :eyes:), we have turned it into a mst3000 experience.

we comment about everything. and did you SEE what they did to that bedroom tonight on designing cents? that was absolutely atrocious.

as soon as i walked in and "opened my eyes" we would be talking redo, remake, repaint, at least RETURN IT TO WHAT IT WAS!

starting at the bottom, with design remix (like for free), designing cents (like on the cheap) design on a dime (where do they get that trio and WHAT are they thinking?), on up to devine design, which usually looks halfway decent.

then they want to recreate a room that cost $80,000, but only spend a couple thousand. like, can you even tell which room is which? /sarcasm

then there are the "challenge" shows, pitting three designers/teams against each other, with the homeowner picking the absolute tackiest.

or the landscape shows, from the mcmansions, setting in weed lots being reborn with sensational, gracious, luxurious grounds, always managing to get that water feature in (this year's MUST HAVE landscape option), to the incredibly ugly backyard being transformed into a not quite so ugly backyard.

if there is nothing else on, there is always HGTV. gotta love it!

[yellowdogintexas]

41. HGTV has taken second place to DU, but I am addicted too

my favorite is Divine Design, just because I really like the host/designer, Candace Olsen. She is great, and seems like someone you would really like to know.

the one where they rearrange your house without buying anything is good too.

And Design on A Dime too.

I am less fond of the one where they show the 75 thousand dollar room and then copy it for under 3 thousand..

But ...I have gotten many good ideas from that channel. I am not doing them yet but my game plan is formulating quite nicely.