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Post by Bearcata on Apr 5, 2023 1:37:12 GMT
Rock the Block - the exteriors were all pretty good (except for the fireplace that blocked the view), but I did like Bryan and Sarah's the best with the wood and stone. The posts were kind of goofy, but maybe you could put solar lights or flower pots on some of them. It does feel like an hour long Wayfair ad. Thankfully the finale is next week... Please please please please please no episode 7 with behind the scenes shots.
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Post by Bearcata on Apr 5, 2023 1:40:53 GMT
I found Sarah Richardson's Mountain Escape on Hulu. That is a design show. It takes a whole crew of contractors, realtors, architects, structural engineers, and a design team.
LUV LUV LUV Sarah's design team to see them work with the themes, the fabrics, and what that woman can do with tile is ecstasy. A Sarah Richardson bathroom is my happy place.
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Post by waywyrd on Apr 7, 2023 12:22:05 GMT
Flipping El Moussas - I knew I was in for disappointment when they rolled up to a mid-century ranch in that hideous Mercedes they love to keep showing. They managed to take all the MCM out of it by the end - exterior was black and white, awful pink tile with marble in one bathroom and gray/ivory picket tile with busy flooring in the other bath, a dark little kitchen with black backsplash and dark lowers, and an electric fireplace with the surround wrapped in...boring wallpaper. I hated it. But someone with more money than taste didn't, it sold for asking.
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Post by Kao on Apr 7, 2023 15:01:31 GMT
Nate and Jeremiah's Home Project:This week's episode was really cute because their clients were a newly married couple who were literally starting from scratch, so on top of renovating the home (a really cute 50s kinda MCM but not really) they also wanted to find things they could grow into as a couple and future family. There was this weird but cute sitting area with a lovely built in hutch they decided to keep but unfortunately couldn't stain so they decided to paint it. Jeremiah is embracing color more and got really inspired by the spice collection the bride got from relatives in India, and he decided to use those colors as the house's palette. The couple was also gifted a piano from the house's previous owners (let's be real here, they just didn't want to move it, lol) so they decided to make the room with the hutch a music room and moved the piano in there. They also puttered about in this rather expensive antique store (i almost died with Nate when he said that a cute dresser/hutch thing he was looking at was 12k! ) and found a really adorable antique French key display box where with a little retrofitting became a very nice home for the aforementioned spice collection. This home had incredibly good bones, it just needed to be shaped up a bit and N&J did this by removing the weird window coverings in the dining and living rooms to showcase the beautiful wide windows, installing beams on the already vaulted ceiling, and creating a smaller hutch in the living room to match the one in the music room that was stained a nice maple to go with the furnishings they procured for the couple. The kitchen was fabulous; it was white but a nice, soothing pearly grayish white for the cabinets instead of a stark flat white and I'm not sure what stone they used for the countertops but it was lovely, and complemented the cabinets. They had a dining room table specially made to fit the narrow dining room but still able to accommodate a lot of people. There was a moment of sweat for Nate when the bride said she loved a particular piece of word art they had in their old apartment but upon hearing that it was the phrase she was attached to rather than the art Nate commissioned an artist frind to create a beautiful painting of a forest scene with the phrase handwritten on the bottom of the painting. The bride was scared at first of the bold coral color Jeremiah chose for the foyer but upon seeing the finished look with all the furniture in place buth she and her husband loved it all as they should; it was a really, really gorgeous house when thy finished it. This is definitely a N&J episode to watch because the house was great, and it was a lot of fun watching the entire reno/procuring process because the couple literally had nothing but the piano and a ottoman that doubled as shoe storage so N&J had to source pretty much everything. Also funny was Jeremiah teasing Nate about his bland palate and general confusion about spices (apparently Nate doesn't use spices in his cooking at all and confused fennel with...a spice far from fennel, lol).
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Post by Kao on Apr 7, 2023 16:32:10 GMT
The Flying Flipping Messes:
Once again there was some gold sprinkled in the tin, but quite frankly a lot of what they did was an improvement because that house was a gut job on top of being dark as hell. My quibbles are with some of the design decisions that were made.
The Good: I liked the addition of the small mid century style windows in the living room and the sliders in the kitchen and primary bedroom because they let in much needed light. That house was dark as hell otherwise, and the end result was light and airy. Loved the new fireplace with the built-ins that replaced that monstrosity of a brick fireplace that was there before. I also liked the pink bathroom that Heather was quaffling about earlier in the show because it was a nice light pink with gray accents.
The Bad: The design elements in the kitchen clashed. You have to be really careful about introducing texture and pattern in things like countertops and cabinets and in this case the striped pattern in the tan cabinets fought horribly with the bold streaks in the marble countertops. Tan and grey can go well together depending on the shades used but in this case everyone failed Color Theory because these particular shades did not get along, and adding insult to injury was that black backsplash. I'm a fan of using black in kitchens but it has to be used in the right way and putting it into an otherwise light kitchen was jarring, plus I hated the small rectangular tiles. The gray patterned wallpaper on the fireplace was subtle but I really didn't like it, but that's just my personal taste.
The Ugly: What the hell at the whole "we're going to televise giving my mama an expensive car for clout" thing. Wouldn't it had been better to give Mom the car away from the cameras? Not only does it reek of "having non altruistic motives for doing what would normally be a decent thing to do" it was also tacky as hell and I'll bet any amount of money HGTV paid for that car. Also, what order did they shoot this in? During the car scene at Mom's where she announced her pregnancy she was barely showing, yet in later scenes when she's going through the house with Tarek she's heavily pregnant, and while renos take time it wasn't that big of a time gap for her to be that pregnant.
Overall, it was a wreck of a house that they managed to make look really cute sans the kitchen, and while it wasn't my taste I could see why someone else would love it and why it sold at list price.
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Post by Bearcata on Apr 7, 2023 21:38:36 GMT
Nate and Jeremiah
My big take away from this week's episode is that they did COLOR. I was not a fan of the color palette. The sage green looks grey on my TV screen and the grey looks grey on my screen. I saw off white, a clay color, and a grey, with a touch of black.
The wife's first reaction to the Cayenne was her trying to be very polite and not scream.
Liked the finished product. The Cayenne color was not my favorite but I have it in my family living room for a long time so I am tired of it.
While N&J can be very neutral they do classic elegance. Family room was fabulous with the vaulted ceilings, and floor to ceiling windows. Luv'ed the curved beams, the black trim dividing the ceiling from the walls. The walls were a putty, pewter grey, they had a depth to the color, was it the plaster finish?
I wish we had a couple of different different angles to the kitchen to see if it was larger or not. Luv the finishes. Slab grey doors, plaster finish, smokey grey marble or granite for the counters and backsplash. While I like the idea of a spice cabinet and I liked the antique French brass box they converted was it practical to hang it on the wall farthest away from the stove and countertops? It looked more like a display piece and not a functional day to day piece.
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Post by momrek06 on Apr 8, 2023 0:54:45 GMT
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Post by Kao on Apr 8, 2023 1:30:39 GMT
Bearcata: The sage was a very pretty greenish gray on my computer screen but my screen is color calibrated for print projects. That might be why the colors looked more vibrant on my screen than your TV. The cayenne was more of a coral which wasn't my favorite when they had the initial walkthrough with the couple but looked a lot better once everything was finished. In addition to that cool pearly gray of the kitchen cabinets they also looked like they had texture as well, which was neat. I loved that house a lot; the bones were great but N&J made it even better.
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Post by newsboi on Apr 11, 2023 11:15:09 GMT
Rock The Block: I actually picked Michel and Anthony to win after the final walk through. Good for them. But how in the heck did they do an estimated value on the homes when none of the upstairs rooms were completed?? That's at least three bedrooms and two bathrooms that are still completely unfinished.
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Post by nennie on Apr 11, 2023 12:11:48 GMT
In my opinion not one of those houses were worth 2.75 million dollars. I saw a lot of space made into rooms that weren't going to be used much. I wouldn't have chosen the winners but I wasn't impressed with any of them that much. Opulence without functionality. Just give me down home style that I can live in and be comfortable. This country girl just likes simple. Just want to say also the swings by the bar was the dumbest design feature I have ever seen.
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Post by Bearcata on Apr 11, 2023 20:09:04 GMT
In my opinion not one of those houses were worth 2.75 million dollars. I saw a lot of space made into rooms that weren't going to be used much. I wouldn't have chosen the winners but I wasn't impressed with any of them that much. Opulence without functionality. Just give me down home style that I can live in and be comfortable. This country girl just likes simple. Just want to say also the swings by the bar was the dumbest design feature I have ever seen. I was waiting for Kristin to slam her head into the counter. The other really dumb thing was in Jonathan and Kristin's house. The prep kitchen. No dishwasher in the prep kitchen. No dishwasher in the basement bar. You only need a small one.
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Post by Bearcata on Apr 12, 2023 7:16:42 GMT
Rock the Block finale, even the fans have mixed feelings about it.
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Post by waywyrd on Apr 14, 2023 12:52:03 GMT
Flipping El Moussas - this week's house was better, I guess it was modern farmhouse-y? Baths and kitchen were pretty. Props to this week's designer, which wasn't Heather. I'm generally not a fan of accent walls but the one they did by the stairs was nice - and Tarek made sure to let everyone know it was HIS idea. Still too much cooing and talking and personal stuff with these two and not enough design/reno/rehab. And I really could have done without the shots of their stupid dog crapping on the floor and dragging his butt across the poor stager's nice rugs. Seriously?? I saw that Flipping 101 and Fix My Flip are coming back early next month, both are much better shows.
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Post by Bearcata on Apr 14, 2023 15:07:12 GMT
Flipping El Moussas - this week's house was better, I guess it was modern farmhouse-y? Baths and kitchen were pretty. Props to this week's designer, which wasn't Heather. I'm generally not a fan of accent walls but the one they did by the stairs was nice - and Tarek made sure to let everyone know it was HIS idea. Still too much cooing and talking and personal stuff with these two and not enough design/reno/rehab. And I really could have done without the shots of their stupid dog crapping on the floor and dragging his butt across the poor stager's nice rugs. Seriously?? I saw that Flipping 101 and Fix My Flip are coming back early next month, both are much better shows. I just can't do Tarek at the moment so Flipping 101 is out. I hope they don't include Clone Two as the show is Tarek centered and when he is not competing against Christina or mentoring Clone Two he does his best as a very wooden host and really keeps his huge ego in check. I do like Paige in Fix My Flip. It shows her drive as a business woman and I get to bemoan the stupidity of the clients or cheer for them when they listen to Paige. I really do appreciate HGTV having Paige and Egypt Sherrod as hosts of their own shows. I like that they have beautiful, self made, curvy woman as the leads and not skinny fake everything that seems to be what (some) women think a "woman" should look like and the majority of us normal sized ladies can never be. Season 2 of Houses with History has started. I also watched Luxe for Less after the Rock the Block finale. Way much better than I thought. Lots of design and materials discussion. Green is not my favorite color but the owners in this week's episode do like green and Michele and Andre did a good job renovating the foyer, living room, dining room, kitchen, and laundry room for $70,000. I liked that the living room had a green and gold cork wallpaper, the dining room was even darker wallpaper that leads into a white walled kitchen but with a mix of green, white, and wood cabinets. Not too many walls knocked down more a widening and centering entrances that made a better flow between the rooms. I liked the difference a larger and wider black steel framed window over the kitchen sink can make, making it a feature wall, letting in more light and letting the owners look outside and enjoy their yard.
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Post by Kao on Apr 14, 2023 23:42:04 GMT
Lux for Less is such a cute show!
Flipping El Messy:
I have to admit the house looked super cute when they finished. Loved the new kitchen and baths, and the wooden detailing on the fireplace was really cool. The whole beginning scene at the smoothie shop wasn't necessary, nor the scene with the dog taking a poo in the house and dragging his butt on the floor. Once again, we have Tarek using a cheap flipper mentality on an upscale property; while the neighborhood had a lot to do with what they paid for the house if you want to play in the big leagues and do upscale sometimes you have to spend money, and I'm glad Heather gave him a reality check. With the slowdown in the market going on right now I wonder how long that house is going to sit on the market.
Hometown: This week featured siblings purchasing a house so they could have a family place to stay instead of crashing with their dad. I was really glad that they picked that big Southern Arts and Crafts looking house as it had AMAZING bones with a lot of the original woodwork and details throughout the house. One of the things that Erin and Ben do extremely well is respecting the provenance of a home by bringing back/refreshing original details while making it look fresh, and one of the first things they did was recreating the huge wrap around porch the home had in the past before it was torn down by the previous owner to make a smaller entrance. Generally I'm not a fan of wallpaper but I really liked the subtle designs Erin chose for the living and dining rooms, and it looked really good with the wainscotting and dark trim on the doorways and windows. Kitchen was fabulous as usual and really fit with the age of the house, and the "expanding" table Ben built with the star in the middle was remarkable. Like the Nate and Jeremiah episode last week this episode is worth watching just for the house porn.
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Post by Bearcata on Apr 16, 2023 0:29:21 GMT
Nate and Jerimiah Home Project
A male male couple bought an older home in the suburbs. The house is earlier 1920's - 1940's Tudorish style without the stucco and beams but the arched front door.
Very masculine, lots of grey on grey on grey. A little bit of white. Luv'ed the Vancian plaster finish in the kitchen cabinets. Budget $215,000. Amazing what widening and centering the openings between the kitchen and dining room, and the dining room an foyer can make such a huge difference.
Not my favorite palette, the many shades of grey with hint of white, and the brown stained wood trim. Where the soft plum dinning room chairs and the redone zebra chair now in green supposed to be the pops of color?
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Post by Kao on Apr 16, 2023 14:57:17 GMT
While I loved what they did with the kitchen and the sunroom (the Vancian plaster finish on the kitchen cabinets was fabulous) overall I was underwhelmed but that's because of my own personal taste. I'm a huge fan of color and this was rather subtle and understated. I had to laugh at Jeremiah saying that the only time he wanted to see zebra print was on a zebra.
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Post by waywyrd on Apr 19, 2023 12:08:16 GMT
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Post by Kao on Apr 19, 2023 13:48:19 GMT
I watched the finale of Rock the Block and I have to applaud Michel and Anthony's decision to convert the second garage into a Makers Studio. There's a lot of people ( especially in CO) including myself who are creatives who often work from home, and a Makers/Creative space is entirely different from your regular office space.
While I'm happy for the winners I hope we don't have another season like this one. Unlike earlier years, there was no conversion of the bedrooms or ADA/Mother in Law suite shown because they had so much sq footage to cover, and it got ridiculous. Oh look, there's a second garage and study; let's convert it into something else! :eyeroll I don't expect realism with these show but I do expect some sort of relatability, and other than people with 3+ kids/a lot of relatives visiting all of the time who is buying 6500 foot houses right now? I think Jasmine Roth was all of us when she dinged every contestant who had multiple kitchens in their house, and poor Egypt falling out of those ridiculous swing chairs. On the plus side, all of the designers knew that these were upscale spaces and designed accordingly; nothing looked "flippy."
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Post by dagwood on Apr 19, 2023 19:22:42 GMT
I just can't imagine paying that much for a house. I do love the showers, though. Just not 2.5 mil worth of love
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Post by Bearcata on Apr 19, 2023 22:23:41 GMT
I watched the finale of Rock the Block and I have to applaud Michel and Anthony's decision to convert the second garage into a Makers Studio. There's a lot of people (and in particular in CO) including myself who are creatives who often work from home, and a Makers/Creative space is entirely different from your regular office space. While I'm happy for the winners I hope we don't have another season like this one. Unlike earlier years, there was no conversion of the bedrooms or ADA/Mother in Law suite shown because they had so much sq footage to cover, and it got ridiculous. Oh look, there's a second garage and study; let's convert it into something else! :eyeroll I don't expect realism with these show but I do expect some sort of relatability, and other than people with 3+ kids/a lot of relatives visiting all of the time who is buying 6500 foot houses right now? I think Jasmine Roth was all of us when she dinged every contestant who had multiple kitchens in their house, and poor Egypt falling out of those ridiculous swing chairs. On the plus side, all of the designers knew that these were upscale spaces and designed accordingly; nothing looked "flippy." Absolutely. Could not agree more. I would be more impressed if they could renovate a Block of houses, townhouses, or apartments in a low income area. Or maybe design housing for low income families. The excess was TOO MUCH. The only good thing about this show was that you saw what a multi million dollar home can look like and it was not crap that Tarek & Clone Two are producing lately.
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Post by waywyrd on Apr 21, 2023 12:01:14 GMT
Flipping El Moussas - yet another MCM ranch done up in grayscale with blonde flooring while Heather cooed over how mid-century it looked. Okay. I didn't love the kitchen backsplash, nor the massive shower they did - I think it was bigger than my spare bedroom. Too much wasted space. They spent wayyy too much time on the original floor tile drama, I literally have a piece of leftover tile from Lowe's that would have matched it perfectly. I think there's only one of these shows left, thankfully.
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Post by Kao on Apr 22, 2023 0:47:55 GMT
I'm pissed; apparently Nate and Jeremiah is only going to have 8 episodes this season and they've already aired them all. Can we please have more?
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Post by Bearcata on Apr 22, 2023 4:43:53 GMT
Rock the Block - the exteriors were all pretty good (except for the fireplace that blocked the view), but I did like Bryan and Sarah's the best with the wood and stone. The posts were kind of goofy, but maybe you could put solar lights or flower pots on some of them. It does feel like an hour long Wayfair ad. Thankfully the finale is next week... Please please please please please no episode 7 with behind the scenes shots. Yes they did, thankfully I fast forwarded past the repeats. The new footage was clearly marked with a big graphic.
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Post by Bearcata on Apr 22, 2023 4:45:56 GMT
I'm pissed; apparently Nate and Jeremiah is only going to have 8 episodes this season and they've already aired them all. Can we please have more? I will say the Blessed Words: You Are right. per the Futon Critic:
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Post by Kao on Apr 24, 2023 22:16:13 GMT
Flipping While Messy:
After this episode a lot of Tarek's mentality makes sense. He mentioned that they had 54 houses in their inventory. If you have that much product, a lot of love and care you would normally put into a home goes by the wayside; you want the work done as cheaply as possible with maybe a sprinkling of incentives so you can make the most profit. If you have a 250k raggedy townhome that you're flipping that's one thing because like the gut job they had a few weeks ago a little will go a long way to make it look nice. However, you can't have the flipping mentality with the "special" homes (ie: MCM, Arts and Crafts, Victorians, Bungalows, etc) because those properties require special care.
Things that were nice: Heather does have a good head for certain design elements, like when she talked Tarek into keeping the original stone entryway and fireplace piece; she rightfully assumed that people would happily pay for that original touch, and she would be right. Tarek wanted to put some cheap flooring in so I'm glad she stuck to her guns. Replacing the stone walls and the curved walls with the Venetian plaster walls was a great idea; it looked lovely and most people replace stone walls anyway because they're dust magnets that are horrible to clean. 2 out of the three bathrooms were lovely and building appropriate. Replacing the entryway door with a wood mod one was a great touch, and the living and dining rooms looked great. The outside of the house also looked great; I would definitely stop to see what was inside.
Things that weren't so nice: The whole point of a MCM is natural colors and light. That black kitchen not only looked odd, it literally sucked all the light out of the room and the backsplash was busy as hell. A nice light wood like birch or pecan would have looked great, fit in with the time period of the house, and reflected light better. To make matters worse, they also painted all of the trim on the windows and doors black as well. Ugh. The shower area in the master bedroom was wasted space; even with the bathtub in the area it was still too big. There were so many things they got right with this house that's it's a shame that the things they got wrong were dealbreakers; while the house was lovely I would pass on the the house based on the kitchen alone.
My advice to them would be to take a trip to Palm Springs and go on one of their mid-century modern architecture tours. Most of those homes are on the National Register of Historic Places, (which means there's certain guidelines you have to follow when renovating your home) and a lot of people who live there are experts in renovating without destroying the charm and beauty that makes a MCM home so valuable. I would tell them to take notes and pictures of the interiors, and figure out why these homes are successful while theirs are not. There are people who would happily spend top dollar for a nice renovated MCM home but they aren't going to spend that money on something that looks like your average flip. That first MCM they renovated in Silverlake should have flown off the market; the fact that it hasn't has a lot to do with how they renovated and staged it.
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Post by Kao on Apr 25, 2023 17:17:53 GMT
Besides "Rock the Block" it seems like CO is having a bit of a renaissance on HGTV; this season of Home Town: Takeover is set in the small town of Ft Morgan, CO. This week's episode showed the reno of the house on a horse farm whose owner helps people who have panic attacks and anxiety, and a cute cafe whose owners had a bit of debt opening and couldn't afford to make the cafe look as great as they wanted. Dave and Jenny Marrs from "Fixer to Fabulous supervised the cafe reno and instead of just having standing room or seats by the window eating area they had...SWINGS? Are swings now a legitimate seating selection now, or just on HGTV? In their defense, the swings were implemented a lot better than the ones in the kitchen on "Rock the Block" as the seats were wider and thicker and the strings farther apart and overall looked easier to get into and a lot more comfortable; when they filmed the cafe reopening there were a lot of people sitting in the swings eating and they seemed to be having a good time. The cafe looked like a really fun place to hang out on Main Street and hopefully will give a boost to the area.
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Post by Imperfect1 on Apr 27, 2023 12:30:53 GMT
Besides "Rock the Block" it seems like CO is having a bit of a renaissance on HGTV; this season of Home Town: Takeover is set in the small town of Ft Morgan, CO. This week's episode showed the reno of the house on a horse farm whose owner helps people who have panic attacks and anxiety, and a cute cafe whose owners had a bit of debt opening and couldn't afford to make the cafe look as great as they wanted. Dave and Jenny Marrs from "Fixer to Fabulous supervised the cafe reno and instead of just having standing room or seats by the window eating area they had...SWINGS? Are swings now a legitimate seating selection now, or just on HGTV? In their defense, the swings were implemented a lot better than the ones in the kitchen on "Rock the Block" as the seats were wider and thicker and the strings farther apart and overall looked easier to get into and a lot more comfortable; when they filmed the cafe reopening there were a lot of people sitting in the swings eating and they seemed to be having a good time. The cafe looked like a really fun place to hang out on Main Street and hopefully will give a boost to the area. Oh my gosh!!! I LOVED the 1st episode of this season's HOME TOWN TAKEOVER!!! The episode gave me happy tears and I didn't want it to end! I hope there will be many more renovation shows that do commercial spaces, and meanwhile, I can't wait to see what Episode 2 will have on this show!
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Post by momrek06 on Apr 27, 2023 14:57:24 GMT
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Post by momrek06 on Apr 28, 2023 6:10:26 GMT
COMPLETE BORE. DO NOT EVEN BOTHER WATCHING THIS SHOW. Hubby and I deleted it not even halfway through. Kendra has NO clue what she is doing attempting to sell million dollar homes in Hollywood. Even though we were watching S1 E1 it feels like we were watching in the middle of the Series.
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