I agree. The whole thing has gotten insane.

The local PBS station used to have a show by a guy somewhere in the
midwest, who was an engineer/remodeler. He actually walked you through
how to inspect a fixer upper before you bought it. Then went through
how to finance it, select and write contracts with the contractors you
might need, handle progress payments and lein releases, etc. He also
recomended good "how to" books, so the novice could determine if a
particular peice of work was something they could handle.

That was a great show, but it disapeared here after the first season. I
guess the reality of the situation wasn't as interesting as watching a
herd of professionals, build/remodel something most of us will never
even walk through the door, let alone own.

Charlie Self wrote:

Tom Watson posts:


This season's project, like its first, is a house the show is buying
to renovate and sell. This one is in Carlisle, Mass., a town of 5,300
northwest of Boston.

There is a lot of work to do on this 1849 Greek Revival farmhouse, its
barn, and its various appendages.

With wavy floors, space that barely accommodates a 21st-century
lifestyle and little up to code (and they haven't even looked behind
the walls yet), the $679,000 purchase price may be the smallest
expenditure.

As contractor Tom Silva put it, "Drama is expensive."

The first house only cost $18,000. Drama was a lot cheaper in 1979.


Yeah, well, now we have the reason for my not watching right there. There is no
possible way that a $679,000 fixer-upper is going to impinge on my lifestyle,
so WTF is the point of watching. The costs on the first shows were at least
semi-rational, if beyond the capability of most of us 25 years ago. The current
line up of homes being refurbed is not related to any reality I'll ever know,
unless The Donald drops dead and leaves me a couple hundred mil. In which case,
I'll buy a house around here, anyway, for under a half mil, ready to go.

Charlie Self
"Politics, n. Strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles."
Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary