Rant: home improvement shows

The forum for ranting, raving, complaining and praising
Post Reply
User avatar
ThatGuy
Perennial All-Star
Posts: 5106
Joined: October 15 06, 4:40 pm
Location: Knoxville, TN

Re: Rant: home improvement shows

Post by ThatGuy »

That looks awesome so far, AW. Good work.

Also, as somebody who works for the company that owns HGTV and DIY Network, a lot of the comments in this thread have been fun to read. :) Some of you were right when you said that HGTV started as more of a do-it-yourself tutorial channel, but the game changed when House Hunters was introduced. It was the first show HGTV aired that didn't focus on fixing a house or doing some kind of project, and as evidenced by the fact that it's still around almost 20 years later (along with several spin-offs), it's been pretty successful. IIRC, over 400 new episodes will be produced this year alone. It's a juggernaut.

Shows like Fixer Upper and Flip or Flop have far and away been HGTV's most popular series ever - they basically set new ratings records with every episode. I was at an event in New York this March where Chip and Joanna Gaines were in attendance, and the line of people waiting to meet them was incredible. I saw more than a few people on the verge of crying from excitement. While I don't particularly love Flip or Flop, I will say that I try to watch Fixer Upper when I can. Chip and Joanna are wonderful to deal with, as well, so I definitely don't begrudge them their success.

DIY Network has a little more of the stuff you guys are looking for, but I'm not sure we'll ever see straight up tutorial shows again. There's really no audience for them.

Diddy
Perennial All-Star
Posts: 3636
Joined: April 18 06, 7:45 pm

Re: Rant: home improvement shows

Post by Diddy »

I hate fixer upper for the sole reason that we are designing a home right now and every time we watch a new episode my wife completely changes things. Other then that I enjoy it.

Any chance for some web based content by DIY/HGTV professionals? I think that's why I've always shyer away from you tube, because you never know how knowledgeable your source is.

User avatar
ThatGuy
Perennial All-Star
Posts: 5106
Joined: October 15 06, 4:40 pm
Location: Knoxville, TN

Re: Rant: home improvement shows

Post by ThatGuy »

Diddy wrote:I hate fixer upper for the sole reason that we are designing a home right now and every time we watch a new episode my wife completely changes things. Other then that I enjoy it.

Any chance for some web based content by DIY/HGTV professionals? I think that's why I've always shyer away from you tube, because you never know how knowledgeable your source is.
We launched a studio last year focusing solely on digital content, so you'll definitely see a lot more of that in the future.

AWvsCBsteeeerike3
"I could totally eat a pig butt, if smoked correctly!"
Posts: 27270
Joined: August 5 08, 11:24 am
Location: Thinking of the Children

Re: Rant: home improvement shows

Post by AWvsCBsteeeerike3 »

Yeah, you can find a lot of incorrect advice on youtube. That said, if you have a general understanding of how things work, you can generally pick it off right away.

For instance, I was looking for ways to clean eifs siding. It's pretty well known that it's extremely fragile, so power washing should be done at a distance if it has to be done and definitely not done up close. But, sure enough, go to youtube and type in eifs cleaning and one of the first videos is a chucklehead 5 inches away from the surface power washing away.

AWvsCBsteeeerike3
"I could totally eat a pig butt, if smoked correctly!"
Posts: 27270
Joined: August 5 08, 11:24 am
Location: Thinking of the Children

Re: Rant: home improvement shows

Post by AWvsCBsteeeerike3 »

Sounds like a pretty sweet gig, ThatGuy! Do you enjoy it?

User avatar
ThatGuy
Perennial All-Star
Posts: 5106
Joined: October 15 06, 4:40 pm
Location: Knoxville, TN

Re: Rant: home improvement shows

Post by ThatGuy »

AWvsCBsteeeerike3 wrote:Sounds like a pretty sweet gig, ThatGuy! Do you enjoy it?
Absolutely. It's a great place to work.

I've been here for just over two years now, and I still feel lucky to come to work every day. I'm surrounded by extremely smart, creative people all the time, and our executives have made a concerted effort over the years to let employees know that the company actually gives a [expletive] about them. It's not lip service like some of the other places I've worked. That's huge to me.

I think the perception of Scripps Networks is a little skewed for some by the fact that we're located in Knoxville (many people ask us why we're not in New York, California, etc.), but it's hard to argue with success. Our CEO was given $25 million to launch HGTV back in the early 90s, and he's turned it into a business that generates nearly $4 billion of revenue each year. I'd say HGTV is one of the top five most desirable cable channels at the moment - pretty incredible to think about.

Anyway, I could go on longer, but yes, I love the company. Please keep watching (or tell your wives to keep watching) our shows! :P

User avatar
IMADreamer
Has an anecdote about a townie he overheard.
Posts: 12654
Joined: December 6 10, 1:09 am
Location: Illinois

Re: Rant: home improvement shows

Post by IMADreamer »

ThatGuy wrote:
AWvsCBsteeeerike3 wrote:Sounds like a pretty sweet gig, ThatGuy! Do you enjoy it?
Absolutely. It's a great place to work.

I've been here for just over two years now, and I still feel lucky to come to work every day. I'm surrounded by extremely smart, creative people all the time, and our executives have made a concerted effort over the years to let employees know that the company actually gives a [expletive] about them. It's not lip service like some of the other places I've worked. That's huge to me.

I think the perception of Scripps Networks is a little skewed for some by the fact that we're located in Knoxville (many people ask us why we're not in New York, California, etc.), but it's hard to argue with success. Our CEO was given $25 million to launch HGTV back in the early 90s, and he's turned it into a business that generates nearly $4 billion of revenue each year. I'd say HGTV is one of the top five most desirable cable channels at the moment - pretty incredible to think about.

Anyway, I could go on longer, but yes, I love the company. Please keep watching (or tell your wives to keep watching) our shows! :P

Oh I don't think you have to worry about anyone stopping watching. If you look at my DVR Michelle has it pretty much plastered with HGTV shows.

AWvsCBsteeeerike3
"I could totally eat a pig butt, if smoked correctly!"
Posts: 27270
Joined: August 5 08, 11:24 am
Location: Thinking of the Children

Re: Rant: home improvement shows

Post by AWvsCBsteeeerike3 »

ThatGuy wrote:
AWvsCBsteeeerike3 wrote:Sounds like a pretty sweet gig, ThatGuy! Do you enjoy it?
Absolutely. It's a great place to work.

I've been here for just over two years now, and I still feel lucky to come to work every day. I'm surrounded by extremely smart, creative people all the time, and our executives have made a concerted effort over the years to let employees know that the company actually gives a [expletive] about them. It's not lip service like some of the other places I've worked. That's huge to me.

I think the perception of Scripps Networks is a little skewed for some by the fact that we're located in Knoxville (many people ask us why we're not in New York, California, etc.), but it's hard to argue with success. Our CEO was given $25 million to launch HGTV back in the early 90s, and he's turned it into a business that generates nearly $4 billion of revenue each year. I'd say HGTV is one of the top five most desirable cable channels at the moment - pretty incredible to think about.

Anyway, I could go on longer, but yes, I love the company. Please keep watching (or tell your wives to keep watching) our shows! :P
Dude that's awesome to hear. Glad you're liking it. The more work I do around the house, the more I like it. Have started watching more and more home improvement stuff online. It's pretty interesting.

Anyway, it rained here all freaking weekend. Didn't get all the decking complete, but it's getting there.
[SHOW]
Image
Image
Image
Just have to replace one deck board, trim the ends of a couple boards, put the trimming boards on, build the stairs and let the ivy grow. The end is finally in sight. Oh...still need to drive about 1000 screws as well.

User avatar
Swirls
gone fission
Posts: 8308
Joined: December 11 07, 4:15 pm
Location: South Korea

Re: Rant: home improvement shows

Post by Swirls »

I have a rant about home improvement [expletive], but it's more attributed to [expletive] tenants that get evicted for not keeping the property clean than anything.

Backstory:
I still own my house in Iowa, which I last lived in in the Fall of 2009 before I moved to New York. The housing market was beyond awful in that town, so it remained on the market without much interest whatsoever for almost 18 months before I finally said [expletive] it and rented the place out. The lease was set up as a lease purchase/rent-to-own style, whereby after completing the two-year lease term, half of the rent paid would equate to exactly a 10% down payment on the house. The selling price was written into and agreed to on the lease. The thought was that if they are going to buy the property, they're much more likely to take care of it during the period that they are renting it.

The first tenant moved out about six months prior to the lease ending because they had an Oops Baby and no longer had the space, so they got a housing subsidy from HUD and moved somewhere bigger. The next family moved in and paid rent occasionally, but eventually moved out a month or two early after I threatened an eviction for them not paying rent. They left the house trashed. The third tenant moved in last Fall - he was the handyman for my property manager and agreed to move in early (with the house still trashed) with the caveat that he would take care of all necessary repairs.

Well a couple months ago the housing inspector came by for the triennial inspection, and it failed miserably. The house was literally a dump now, which was absolutely infuriating since I had invested tens of thousands of dollars into a full-on cosmetic remodel right before we moved to NY. All new flooring, fixturing, windows, siding, etc. Looks like total [expletive] now. Oh yeah, the inspector also found a giant pot plant in the backyard that they had been growing in a 5-gallon bucket.

So I begin proceedings to evict the tenant in small claims court. We come to an agreement in the hallway outside of the courtroom whereby I will make all necessary repairs from the housing inspection using their security deposit and give any leftover money back to them. Now, legally, they aren't entitled to get [expletive] from their deposit back, but if the thought of getting a few hundred bucks back as a refund prevents them from trashing the place before they leave, I'll give it to them.

Last weekend my dad and I showed up at the place to spend a few days remodeling it, and holy [expletive] it needs a lot of work. It turns out they never actually cleaned the place up from Tenant #2 trashing it. We took over a full metric ton of trash/rubbish/debris from the basement, backyard, and inside the garage to the landfill, as well as another 600 lbs of overgrown brush/weeds/limbs to the city compost facility. We're going back this weekend to do more work.

The kicker though is that when we got there, the AC didn't work. I dropped $3k on a new furnace in October 2014, and apparently when I did, Tenant #2 had them pull out the evaporator coil from the furnace so he could sell it for scrap metal. They then drained the freon from the AC unit outside and cut all the tubing going into the furnace for scrap metal also. I had to spend almost $3500 on a new AC unit and evaporator coil last weekend.

The worst part is that wasn't the fault of evicted Tenant #3, but [expletive] Tenant #2. So all summer Tenant #3 hasn't had AC but never mentioned it.

Since it became a rental property, I've now replaced the hot water heater, furnace, and AC. The only big expense that has not been completely replaced is the roof (which is about shot and will require a new layer of shingles within the next few years). I'm thinking once we get this remodel finished I'm going to put it back on the market rather than rent it out again. If I rent it out, I'm going to raise the rent about $300/month to try and get better tenants. Jesus I hate rentals.

Arthur Dent
Hall Of Famer
Posts: 12317
Joined: April 25 06, 6:43 pm
Location: Austin

Re: Rant: home improvement shows

Post by Arthur Dent »

Sell low and walk away.

Post Reply