A Thought I Had While Watching HGTV
Tonight, as I was watching "House Hunters" on HGTV, it really struck me how spoiled Americans are. I was watching this couple with three kids go looking for a house in Savannah, on a good, but not fabulous budget, and they were going through these fabulous houses. However, all I heard out of them was "oh, I don't think we could make this work. This breakfast area is too small. We couldn't possibly seat five people in here". "Oh this family room is too small. We might have to sit in the same state as another family member". What struck me was the matter-of-factness of the statement they kept making: "We couldn't make this work". Really? You can't fit your five fat asses in a 4000-square-foot historic house? Do they have any idea of how people used to live and many still do? In a perfect world, I'd like a house bigger than the one I grew up with, and definitely would like a second bathroom. But a family of four could easily have fit in that house. You fully finish out the basement, and five would be no problem. And that house would still fit in a corner of the houses these people were looking at.
It's one thing to say "oh, I'd prefer this-or-that" with an air of realizing that it's just a wish, but life isn't perfect. But there's an air of entitlement and a closed mind as to what their exalted status demands they live in that's downright unappealing. And you're seeing it in the first-time-homebuyers on these shows as well. They're living in their parents' basement, but if the place doesn't have a three-car garage and a basketball court, they're just not having it on their $125k budget because they need everything, now. It's beneath them.
While I like to watch the house porn on HGTV as much as the next person, it's really making selling a place difficult, too. People expect to see these perfectly furnished, staged houses and will bitch because 'there were some baby toys around" or "wow, that closet had a lot of stuff in it" or "that switchplate is crooked" or "that wall is just the wrong shade of taupe". Yes, a house shouldn't smell strongly of cat pee or fish, and you shouldn't have to wade through huge stacks of garbage, but jeez people, learn to look at the bones of a house, and yes, you can lift a paintbrush.
Tonight, as I was watching "House Hunters" on HGTV, it really struck me how spoiled Americans are. I was watching this couple with three kids go looking for a house in Savannah, on a good, but not fabulous budget, and they were going through these fabulous houses. However, all I heard out of them was "oh, I don't think we could make this work. This breakfast area is too small. We couldn't possibly seat five people in here". "Oh this family room is too small. We might have to sit in the same state as another family member". What struck me was the matter-of-factness of the statement they kept making: "We couldn't make this work". Really? You can't fit your five fat asses in a 4000-square-foot historic house? Do they have any idea of how people used to live and many still do? In a perfect world, I'd like a house bigger than the one I grew up with, and definitely would like a second bathroom. But a family of four could easily have fit in that house. You fully finish out the basement, and five would be no problem. And that house would still fit in a corner of the houses these people were looking at.
It's one thing to say "oh, I'd prefer this-or-that" with an air of realizing that it's just a wish, but life isn't perfect. But there's an air of entitlement and a closed mind as to what their exalted status demands they live in that's downright unappealing. And you're seeing it in the first-time-homebuyers on these shows as well. They're living in their parents' basement, but if the place doesn't have a three-car garage and a basketball court, they're just not having it on their $125k budget because they need everything, now. It's beneath them.
While I like to watch the house porn on HGTV as much as the next person, it's really making selling a place difficult, too. People expect to see these perfectly furnished, staged houses and will bitch because 'there were some baby toys around" or "wow, that closet had a lot of stuff in it" or "that switchplate is crooked" or "that wall is just the wrong shade of taupe". Yes, a house shouldn't smell strongly of cat pee or fish, and you shouldn't have to wade through huge stacks of garbage, but jeez people, learn to look at the bones of a house, and yes, you can lift a paintbrush.
Labels: HGTV, television
posted by Lily @ Sunday, October 25, 2009
3 Comments:
At 2:19 PM ,
Duke said...
No Lily, they can't lift a paintbrush. Those shoppers want the house perfectly decorated to their tastes without lifting a finger. As you say, they are totally spoiled but also terminally lazy.
Everything you point out is 100% true.
Probably what gets me the most are how people expect a house to have every fad decorating scheme. They'll walk in a 5 year old house, which is practically new, and then start up on how much it will cost to "modernize" it. They want the latest stainless steel appliances, the newest multi-head shower sprays, and whatever floor tile is hot at the moment. They demand perfectly good kitchens and bathrooms be torn apart simply for looks. Nothing is wrong with the house at all yet they aren't satisfied.
What's worse is they will even pay for it themselves. HGTV is full of shows where some idiot homeowner takes a perfectly good kitchen and spends $50,000 to replace it with another perfectly good kitchen.
There may be a handful of people who can affort to piss away $50,000 on nothing but I doubt it's very many. Still, shows like that create an entitlement attitude that's very obnoxious.
I suspect a lot of those morons are the ones upside down in their house and/or bankrupt.
At 10:00 AM ,
The Calico Quilter said...
Amen! Growing up, my family didn't die because we only had one bathroom. And there were five people in 1200 sq. ft. People need to get a grip.
I've only seen one reasonable house-shopping couple on HGTV. The wife had no-nonsense clothes and sensible hair and didn't sound like a spoiled brat. I liked her at first sight. She walked into a kitchen with oak cabinets and a Formica countertop (both really no-no's in today's taste) and said she loved it and it would suit them perfectly - because a) they had been living in a tiny rental house with three kids and a kitchen the size of a shoebox and b) she wasn't an idiot, and could differentiate between "likes" and "needs". And I bet you they didn't default on their mortgage either. These are the people you want to see win in life. Not the spoiled brats.
At 7:36 PM ,
Bet said...
I think you said ALMOST no pictures of NTC². I want at least one, or you can tell us what his costume was.
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