And not to mention that some of them doing the painting are doing it in designer clothes and high heels!

My other beef is the landscape shows. One we watched the other day, they hit the phone & cable lines. And then they broke a drain line while augering a hole for a tree. (don't get me started on the tree placement choices!). Have they never heard of UTILITY LOCATING?? Utterly irresponsible.

They do it for about ten minutes to get the shot, and then the PAs take over. Cutting in takes precious time and isn't all that fun to watch, so the production usually skips doing it on camera.

And drama makes good TV, so, utility locating isn't high on the "to do" list for the program.

*((>*

Terriks,

You've hit on something that I've noticed long ago on these shows...
* 3 people on a wall with DIFFERENT tools...
* some painting up high, while others are random elsewhere...
* usually they're starting at "eye-level"...
* spreading paint Waaaayyy too thin-I've noticed some are spreading a color 6 FEET or more with 1 roller-full...
* I've never noticed any discussions of "cutting-in" with modern paints...
* Priming of new or patched work...seen it a couple times??

I'd like to see some of these paint-jobs IRL. No, wait...I'd probably "hurl"...

>>> This should be brought up/discussed on the Paint, Home-Dec., and Remodeling Forums too!!

Faron

If you look closely as they pan across the completed makeover, you will sometimes see the crappy paint jobs.

And don't forget painting over switch covers.

And then putting decorations on and against the walls woodwork before the paint has had adequate time to dry.

And landscape shows! A couple weeks ago I was shouting at the TV, "No, you are planting that too close to the house!"

You hit on a pet peeve of my DH as well. Formerly owned a painting business and did alot of it. Being a former painter, it drives him particularly nuts seeing how they do these projects. Between the painting and the fact that most if not all of these shows are under the gun for completion of the overall project in a weekend, he is screaming at the TV asking what's the rush? The list includes Holmes on Homes, Extreme Home Makeover and goes on and on and on. I've gotten to where I don't even turn to these shows. Before it was crazies switching houses, now it is how to improve your house for sale. There are times that I like the "before" better than the "after".

I wish they'd show more of the Holmes-on-Homes painter...

I don't think he's too bad. They just show so little of him/them. If they did it right, 15 seconds of explanation would do a world of good on some of their painting problems!

Faron

Wow. It's a multi-thousand-dollar fine here if you don't do utility location (it's ONE freakin phone call to DigSafe and they do everything else). I suppose they just budget for the fines in the show's budget. We put pegs in the ground to mark where the water, sewer, etc. lines were so if we decided to do something like plant a tree we already have the locations; in my state that's acceptable since we'd already had DigSafe out to locate everything.

I stopped watching any of these shows a couple of years ago.

Not directly related to painting but I saw just about the worst idea EVER on some show (sorry, don't remember what show it was - I don't normally watch tv anymore but it was the only thing on when I was at the gym). They were giving a facelift to a kitchen using salvaged materials and they used old doors for countertops.

Now why is this such a bad idea? Picture old salvage looking doors. You know the kind, right? Painted but losing some paint so it looks nice and old? They do know that the white and light colored paint on all of these doors very likely has lead in it, right? I mean, I know they were planning to put glass over the top of them for a smooth surface but lead paint is pretty much the last thing I want on a food prep surface! What about the edges??

The part that drives me absolutely batty is when they start painting in the MIDDLE of a wall!! And then the host of the show (painting in her Sunday finery) stops to talk to the homeowners while the paint is quickly gumming up on the wall. And then the clueless three go back to painting oblivious that the paint has started to dry and you won't be able to roll over it without creating a mess.

The worst offender was the redheaded host on Decorating Cents. How many years was she on that show? A decade? She was supposedly the one who was painting the walls, along with the designer. In all that time she never learned how to paint! She'd start in the middle of a wall and roll along not covering the upper or lower part of a wall. If she really painted all those rooms somewhere along the way you'd think she would have learned how to do it properly but in 10+/- years she never did. Either she was a complete ditz or it was all a ruse and she never actually painted one wall for that show.

My other pet peeve is when they paint a completely different color right over a dark color without priming first. And they do it in one coat. The producers of most shows are too cheap to spring for two coats and much needed stain blocking primer.

I also can't stand to see painting done without first removing doorknobs, light fixture plates, switch plates, door knockers, hinges, and cabinet knobs. GRRRRRR!!!!

What about those shows that paint a room so fast they get everything done in one day...the same afternoon the painting was done all the furniture, bedding, art work goes back into the room. Can you imagine how badly the room must stink? And how gummed up the walls must look behind the art work hung so soon after painting?

I laugh every time I see them painting like this. On the one hand, it's kind of like watching a cooking show where they begin to saute the chicken, then, push that pan aside and chop herbs. You and I both know that you need to watch that chicken, and that it will take 20 minutes, but for the sake of timing and the need to get everything in the 30 min cooking spot, they can't realistically show the chef standing over the mushrooms while they cook or making sure the roux thickens up, etc. But I always wonder if a novice cook will realize that this is not the right way to do it. Will they walk away too and chop herbs? Same with painting. Anyone who paints knows this is craziness with high heels and 4 paintbrushes all ready to collide. But if I am watching to learn, then, I might just grab Aunt Bee and Uncle Ernie and give them all rollers and brushes and maybe even let the kids do the cutting in along the baseboards while we're at it!

Red

**just for the record: LOVE Mike Holmes. Love him. Started out completely annoyed to find my favorite Sat & Sun morning decorating shows that we read the paper by, replaced with Holmes on Holmes on Holmes, ad infinitum. Who wants to see the insulation anyway? I don't want to look at ditra. Why am I watching someone welding a pipe fitting instead of someone hanging pretty curtains? And the overalls! My daddy wore overalls everyday but he wouldn't have been caught with an earring!
So, I don't know how good Mike did it, how he managed to suck me in and win me over, but somehow, while I read the movie times and the financial news, drank cups of hot coffee and discussed our own lives with my DH, letting Mike do his contractor thing in the background.......I became less interested in the decorating show to follow and more interested in the ugly guts of houses.

My biggest question in all of this is where do these people get the money to fund the kind of gut work and re-do the stuff that Holmes on Homes needs to accomplish most of that amazing work. You never see the township inspector with his clipboard. God, I hated that guy when we were doing our work.

I've also wondered about the permits and markouts and such that appear nowhere in most of these shows. I do see permits appearing in those few and far between Flip this/that House that were all the rage years ago. Seems that other than those flip shows, permits don't exist in TV land. We couldn't proceed IRL without those permits and the inspections thereafter at every turn. Where are the nerve wracking inspections. Don't you just wish life imitated art in that regard?

I was never taken with the makeover shows. If they would just show me the BEFORE and the AFTER, I think I'm smart enough to realize that they painted the walls, changed out the light fixture, and did some stupid thing to the fireplace.

If shows would talk about why things work with real design tips, they would be more interesting. Instead, they show 2 minutes of homeowners nervously giggling when the paint can is opened.

The public's attention span (our attention span) is hotly debated. One side is clamoring for more quality and more details and the other side of the debate criticize every second and pixel that experts declare "isn't necessary".

If a post on a blog, forum, online magazine is more than 300 words then, according to the experts, it is too long. If it doesn't have pictures inserted every three sentences, then no one will read it. Widely held belief is no one reads it anyway, we just look at the pictures. So why bother with text at all let alone ludicrously over-editing a piece until it makes the keyboard scream.

If a show put people on TV using correct methods and practices to for painting, the "experts" say no one would watch them.

If blogs wrote about home decorating and design topics that are really important and matter most to quality and saftey, the "experts" say the blog will not have a following. The topics have to be happy. Light reading at most. Lots and lots of over-sized, colorful, professional quality pictures.

If a podcast can't speak to a topic and get a point across with all the sordid details in seven minutes or less, no one will listen.

It seems we have the media "experts" saying it all has to be short, encapsulated, over-edited and over-illustrated in order for it to get even a few seconds of our pathetically short and unfocused attention.

And then there's our opinion and what we say we want.

We're claiming what's out there for us to read, watch, and listen to is  for the most part  poorly executed crap. It's nothing but a showcase for half-azzed craftsmanship and uncreative, unrealistic design. The instruction and ideas are sketchy and incomplete and if one were to follow any of the haphazard examples, it not only would be an aesthetic assault but there's a real threat to our safety.

Sometimes I wonder if both sides have given up. Maybe we don't expect much from the "experts" any more. Maybe those who produce various media know it. Maybe it's come to this  why bother exerting the effort for anything more than mediocre at best. They *know* in all their all-knowing expert-y-ness that we're only good for a few seconds any way.

Fun-C,

Once again...you've nailed & encapsulated the "attention-span properties" of a good portion of the viewing public.

It's getting so that many Americans, etc., wouldn't know a good paintjob, high-quality paint, flooring-job,....yada-yada...if it bit-'em in the a$$.

There are SO many details that can make a BIIIIG difference in the final outcome....but they're NEVER discussed!!

>>> Just today, I watched Lisa L. staining a butcher-block(?) counter for a fancy bathroom sink. All she did was "mention", "After it's Polyurethaned...".
* The reveal "in situ" didn't look too hot IMO.
* What should've been mentioned was that 4-5 coats of Oil Poly should be used. Normally, 6-8 hours are needed between coats!! If water-based Poly is used...6-8 coats finally gives a decent wear-layer.
* Again, 3 people were on a wall, 2 with rollers, and Lisa briefly cutting-in a baseboard. Uffda....
* Trouble is, when these projects start wearing-out WAAAAAYY to soon, people will blame the PRODUCT!!!

Faron

I miss the shows where they showed you, start to finish, how things were made/done/etc. I get so sick of these speedy flash spots. And I REALLY get sick of the blahblahblah hipster yakking while one person is running after something and another is waiting for them to return. Or they chitchat about thing irrelevant to the project. Maybe I'm just showing my age, but I want FACTS not flash.

And don't get me started on the crazy camera angles! I always enjoyed Designed to Sell, but when they started filming in the east with a different crew they went crazy with the wacky camera work. I almost got sick from watching. I used to like watching Christopher Lowell - who showed step by step how he did things. Now everything is done for the drama.

All this discussion reminds me of an Ooooollldd sales-adage...
"Sell the SIZZLE...NOT the steak!"

Whether it's cars, flooring, homes, electronics...doesn't matter; as long as it "sizzles", who cares about the details?!?!

Faron

I wasn't always a fan of Christopher Lowell, but I loved the show because I felt like I learned something or at least looked at something in a different way. Lynette Jennings, the same way. I still remember as a kid sitting on the floor watching her talk about designing a floorplan for a more fluid life.

Reality design shows didn't do anything for me. When they weren't predicatable, they were horrible. I can't recall learning a single thing from them, yet all these years later, I can still remember segments of CL and LJ.

Lynette Jennings and Kitty Bartholomew - good ones!

The first decorating concept I remember learning was from Lynette Jennings. She was demonstrating the concept of grounding items in a room. She took a light colored vase and placed a black plate under it. She added the plate, took it away and then repeated it a couple times. That sort of pacing would be completely unacceptable now.

You learned by watching her. You don't learn from many of these yahoos.

Yep, all of the above. Plus, when will Candice Olson learn she is not a comedienne?

Lynette Jennings, what a class act and such a talented woman.

Now everything is done for the drama.

Exactly. And that's sadly indicative of how television programming has degenerated overall. It's all designed to cause the masses to sit on the edge of their seats, titillated and salivating for what's coming next. I can't watch "reality" shows (as if there's really such a thing - they're all heavily scripted) due to the high drama factor. And those home and gardening shows where there's a project to complete within a certain "time limit", and everyone's scurrying around like mad and talking about how worried they are that things won't come together "in time" ... oh, give me a big fat freakin' BREAK!

::sigh:: Just about all I want to watch anymore is old black and white movies. :-/

I've given up on the decorating shows with artificial drama--the self-imposed two day deadline, the artificially low budget. Because that simply isn't real life.

Design on a Dime used to have some good ideas on how to decorate well on a budget, but even that became a "how to decorate to a theme" show.

Christopher Lowell had his "7 Layers of Design." Even though I think most of his rooms would have been better if he had stopped at 6 layers, you learned something about decorating from his shows. Same with Lynette Jennings and Kitty Bartholomew.

These days, I do watch Sarah Richardson's shows, when I can figure out when they are on. Although her style is a bit too modern for my taste a good deal of the time, she does explain things, like why various fabrics go together, or how to arrange furniture so a room flows well and works for the people who are going to be using it.

"Just about all I want to watch anymore is old black and white movies"

I love old movies too. Some of the set designs are as good as any of the decorating shows. With better scripts too.

Hehehe! Sizzle/steak ;-)

Yeah, let's face it, the advertisers pull the strings on these shows and they're selling product not details. They want the audience to think it's easy, inexpensive and can be done in a weekend.

I just don't get why advertisers would pay for shows like House Hunters International - what's up with that?

I find that "This Old House" is pretty authentic in how they show the progression of home renovations. I truly wish they would let the viewer in on the price, though, but they mention that building and labor costs vary from area-area. (But nosy me still wants to know!)

"I just don't get why advertisers would pay for shows like House Hunters International - what's up with that?"

I'm just assuming, here, but I'd wager that the demographic of that show is what draws them. Travelers and/or second home owners usually computes to $$$ and disposable income.

But does that demographic watch HGTV, home of the $1000 makeover? Doesn't seem logical.

House Hunters International is about the only show I will occasionally watch on HGTV, and that's because I enjoy travel - even the very idea of travel - and am interested in seeing how people in other countries live.

I still have a VHS crammed full of HGTV shows my mom recorded for me in the mid 90's--it's great. Lots of Lynnette J., Kitty B., Room by Room, and some actual GARDEN (gasp!) shows. But my favorite was Chris Casson Madden's show.

All, gone now. *sigh*

I hate the crazy camera work and the shift towards "reality show" status. I want information!

We did make up a great drinking game for House Hunters--take a swig every time someone says "nice." Warning: you'll be trashed before the second set of commercials.

"We did make up a great drinking game for House Hunters--take a swig every time someone says "nice." Warning: you'll be trashed before the second set of commercials."

Too bad we don't drink anymore. DH used to have a "nice" count. Nice, that's nice, very nice...and on, and on, and on. :)

LOL! I think one could drink oneself into oblivion with all the "greats" thrown about on House Hunters as well.

HHI - love to check out the kitchens and bathrooms! Such variety and so different from the *standard* in my hood.

I hate the crazy camera work and the shift towards "reality show" status. I want information!

Yeah, don't think it's going to happen. Because the new kids on the block don't seem to have much experience, knowledge, or information to share. Nothing like the folks in the line up you listed in your post, tomorrowisanotherday.

I really believe that has a little something to do with this new metric that all our media MUST be short, short, short and illustrated ad nauseam. Keep it short and use lots of pictures and no one has to worry about being smart or actually having a coherent opinion to share. It's a convenient strategy.

If you've ever seen the movie "Idiocracy", this is all eerily reminiscent of the unbelievably dumbed-down future depicted in that flick. I'm afraid that's where we're headed ...

Oh reallly, auntjen!? No, I have never heard of that movie. I am going to have to look in to finding that one. Very interesting...

Yep, I looked it up too AJ and FC... there is a very good complete synopsis available on imdb. I would have had a very difficult time sitting through something that silly, hmmmm or is it? ;-)

((snort)) very funny, gtf. :~D

We loved Idocracy. But then again, we like very off-the-wall/black humor stuff.

Can't pick up a Gatorade now without saying "It's what plants crave!"

WHAT???......You don't love all home improvement jobs?
{{gwi:1504640}}

Those boys are lucky they are soooo cute!

"Welcome to Costco. I love you."

Here is a link that might be useful: ;-D

I think that watching people paint on TV is the reason I have high blood pressure.

I still miss Room By Room. Matt Fox knew how to paint.