On Sun, 12 Feb 2006 10:32:41 -0500, "Lee Michaels"
wrote:
"Leon" wrote in message
news
"Edwin Pawlowski" wrote in message
. ..
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.
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.
Whaddaya expect from a curmudgeon?
grumble, grumble, bitch, bitch
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.