On 03 Oct 2004 13:41:13 GMT, otforme (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.

I hate to admit it, but SWMBO and I watch a lot of the "drama" shows,
NYPD, Law and Order, etc. She sometimes gets caught up in the plots
and makes comments like, "They should have convicted him." or some
such.

I have to remind her that, "It's only a TV show" and not reality.

I met and talked to Steve Thomas once and I made a comment similiar to
my wife's, "Why do you do such expensive projects?"

His response was pretty much like mine to my wife, "It's just a TV
show. It's entertainment, not reality."