"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.

"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

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.

"Wes Stewart" wrote in message

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.

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.


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 higher priced is usually the most profitable. If you have the talent,
that is where I'd want to make my living.
--
Ed
http://pages.cthome.net/edhome/

Edwin:

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.

My sense, PBS, which I support by the way, has gotten away from more
"show me" programming to showcase events. Even the cooking shows are
better on Food Network then on PBS. I remember watching Julia cook up
a storm and she showed you step-by-step how to do make whatever. Not so
anymore. For the "show me" kind of shows, the cable channels
(DIY/HGTV/Food Network)
have filled that in.

I don't blame Morsh and company for TOH direction (don't forget they
are now
owned by Time/Warner) any more then I blame HGTV for showing a couple
building a house on a slope in Boulder and not taking care of the muddy
driveway.
It's TV, not a how-to show. I think it's enteraining to see all of the
various
gadgets, whatever available for homes. I mean, I built our house just 2
years
ago and had put in a whole house video/audio system. Wouldn't have even
thought about that until I saw the first one they did on TOH. Take
shows
like TOH with a grain of salt people. The TOH of years ago disappeared
12-15 years ago. I think the turning point was the Concord barn. That
was
the first time, my memory serves, that they rebuilt (in this case
actually
build) a whole house vs just updating the kitchen.

My wife and I watch TOH as always, but they have moved away from
everyday
affordable remodels to whole house rebuilds years ago. The topper for
me was
when they did that Shingle Style home in Manchester. Now that was a
major
rebuild that cost over $2m.

If you want more "hands on' things, Hometime is still there for the
DIY's
and of course, HGTV and DIY can fill in as well.

Oh, a million dollars in my neck of the woods for a home doesn't put
you in the "rich" category at all. Now $2m, does!

MJ

On Sun, 12 Feb 2006 18:04:48 GMT, "Edwin Pawlowski"
wrote:

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.

But you have to remember that most of the people who are donating to
PBS aren't the Joe Sixpac DIY crowd, it's the upper crust
more-money-than-God people who want all the latest overpriced gadgets.
They don't want to do it themselves, they want to pay someone else to
do it while they sit around and watch PBS.

"Wes Stewart" wrote

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.

Some furniture and glass fused tiles were made in New England. The kitchen
cabinets were made in New England.

The big, tall, dark cabinets and bookshelves were made in Italy.

On Sun, 12 Feb 2006 14:56:14 -0500, "Lee Michaels"
wrote:


"Wes Stewart" wrote

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.

Some furniture and glass fused tiles were made in New England. The kitchen
cabinets were made in New England.

The big, tall, dark cabinets and bookshelves were made in Italy.

Okay. The last episode shown here was Program #2514.

http://www.thisoldhouse.com/toh/tvpr...062246,00.html

The 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)

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".

On 12 Feb 2006 08:12:27 -0800, wrote:

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".

Because he'll pay to have the dust cleaned off it once in a while.

I particularly liked the steel reinforced half wall behind the vanity
so that it could cantilever off the wall with nothing under it for no
reason.


-Leuf