Although budgets feature prominently, the network’s house-flipping shows aren’t really about money. Rather, they offer the thrill of watching something deteriorated revive. Replacing corroded pipes and shoring up sagging foundations is as important to the drama as ripping out hideous wallpaper or installing new countertops. The makeovers aren’t merely cosmetic. Something deeper than fashion is at stake. On HGTV, decay isn’t a permanent condition, and anything can be repaired. Things get better.Ditto the car renovation shows. If something isn't working and a part isn't available, they don't just stare at the customer like a fish on ice, they pop into the shop and manufacture what they need. It's "can do" all the way down. Yesterday's "This Old House" had a terrific segment on marble mining. They showed miners cutting out a block of marble weighing many tons, as big as a garage. No one sat around saying, "Oh me, the marble's in the hillside, however will we get it out. Let's have another drink."
Postrel contrasts these popular shows, popular though unhip in their blandness, with "train-wreck TV," which I take to be the endless parade of series about people with horror-show families who are wedded to their dysfunction.
I have minor crushes on the carpenter and plumber from "This Old House." I want to sit at their feet absorbing their knowledge. They know how everything works, and can make it work better.
Decay is a permanent condition, but only in the long run. We live in the short run.
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We just put a new roof on our house, and need to re-do the back deck and driveway. I'd be happy to have one of these HGTV people come over and do it for me, in order to show me how it's done but also so I could stop having so much of it to do myself. :)
This Old House, the only one I used to watch regularly (and the lessons learned meant I could build my geodesic dome house in Las Cruces without the need of a contractor except for code things like plumbing and electrical), routinely busts the homeowner's original budget, too.
It's like NPR, which carries the show, is some sort of government or government-funded agency....
Eric Hines
Do you read Sippican Cottage?
Yes, I love Sippican Cottage. But I really enjoy watching video of the guys doing things.
Sippican Cottage had a series of postings last year on plumbing issues. Well worth the time. Sippican Cottage: Search Label "Plumbing."
I've learned a heck-uv-a-lot from Mike Holmes over the years. On the down side, it means I can spot sheetrock trouble, plumbing disaster waiting to unleash, baaaaad carpentry, and other stuff very easily, even when I'm not supposed to (like at a reception at a very, very high-end custom built house. Observing that the contractor had bollixed the cathedral ceiling by using nails that were already pulling loose did not win me points, since the homeowner happened to be walking past behind me and overheard what I thought was a private comment to a friend.) Oops.
LittleRed1
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