I know you warned us about it being "picture filled", but I just can't. That woman's blog is tiresome! I also know that's not even the gist of this thread, but I can't make myself read through the whole thing. Good grief ... Bloggy overload!

I like it because it's so picture rich...basically I love before and afters.

Found a couple of things interesting in the post

Clint (furniture maker) no longer lives in the hse they reno'd

&

Another popular question:

“Do Chip and Joanna really pick out three houses for the owners to chose from?”

One
truly phony part of the show is at the beginning where Chip and Joanna
drive the couple around offering them three houses to buy. In
actuality, the couple usually already owns the house to be redone. The
contract states that they must be willing to spend a minimum of $30,000
on its renovation. Since they are also Real Estate agents, Chip and
Joanna do sometimes show a house to a client, but that is a rarity.

Another:

“Do the owners pay for the renovation?” Yes,
the owners do pay for the work done. The scene where Joanna adds a
final choice of three extra decorative renovations - that is paid for by
HGTV. In addition the Gaines receive a flat fee of $30,000 per
episode (I”m sure they make much, much more now than this for the
show.) The renovation cost is paid by the owners straight to the
Gaines’ renovation company. In other words, HGTV does not pay for the
renovation – the owners do.

I enjoy seeing the before and afters but I agree with Jen. Her writing style makes me crazy. So many exclamation points!!! And "quotations"!! And CAPS!!! And that simpering font. It's like 14 year old girl's twitter account.

Edited to add - I think most of her news about the Gaines has already been discussed in our other Fixer Upper thread. But it is great to see all the pictures in one place.

She has NO CLUE about how to size pictures appropriately for the Internet.

Chijim, I think those are pretty standard for these kinds of shows, no? The whole "shopping" for a home part is never true, I think-- the owners already own the property-- and on Love It or List It, the home owners also pay for the reno.

I had no idea this show was so popular. I must be living in a cave! Her style is fine but it seems to have a formula, like most things. I am shocked that people are making Waco their destination based on this show, but I'd rather stay in a cozy B and B just based in my style vs one of her homes.

anele_gw

Chijim,
I think those are pretty standard for these kinds of shows, no? The
whole "shopping" for a home part is never true, I think-- the owners
already own the property-- and on Love It or List It, the home owners
also pay for the reno.

*****************************************

Agree, the decoy homes are standard on these kind of shows

I had no idea how the Fixer Upper financial agreement worked, and yes, the HO usually picks up the cost

On shows like House Hunters Renovation the HO is given $25k towards the reno, I didn't know FU was so cheap/stingy with what the HO's are given by the Gaines'/production company,

Very interesting, I've seen most of the shows.

Interesting article, if you can stand to scroll through and read all of Joni Webb’s thoughts and sanctimonious opinions at the end, that is. Although Joni was initially very complementary of much of the Gaine’s contributions to the economy of the Waco community due to the popularity of the show, and seemed to be in approval of Joanna’s decorating abilities, her digs about “selling the brand” and other latter criticisms reeked of jealousy to me. By the end of the article, she was downright critical of their future intent and sounded as though the Gaines concerns for selling the brand were only worthy of her distain.

As an interior decorator herself, this criticism came off as unjustified jealousy to me. If Joni herself had been asked to do a TV show whose popularity snowballed within the first couple of years into an opportunity to profoundly expand the business into furniture, paint, fabric, wallpaper and home accessories, like Joanne and Chip Gaines business has, you can’t tell me that she wouldn’t jump on that wagon at the first opportunity! It was bad enough to have to read through her tedious blog, but to hear her criticize the motives of the Gaines at the end was too much for me.

I can never open her blog on any device! I hate it. I bet I would love her photos but it takes over twenty minutes to open and than always crashes on my MacBook, iPad, and phone. It is a bit better on my pc and Samsung but it is ridiculous.

Somebody found their niche and are exploiting it. Doesn't always happen for folks.

I will say she works hard, and I don't much care for her show. I can admire her drive.

FYI the phrase "jumped the shark" jumped the shark, about 5 years ago.

I watched 1 season of it on Netflix and the thought of plodding thru a gazillion more episodes of the SAME OLD makes me ill. I was hoping they might take the Fixer Upper concept and apply it in different cities - like This Old House. That would be fun - get different designers, different styles, different social mileius.

But no - its endless loop of Chip and Joanne and all the french doors and the whitewashed stuff. I dont understand reality tv. The concepts .might be interesting the first 1 or 2 episodes, but tall the repetition same scenes over and over and over within the episode, and the sameness of it all from episode to episode... ughhhh.....

d_gw: "simpering font" wins a prize.

Whatever my opinion on the the show, I think Joanna is incredibly beautiful.

Fixer Upper is a specific look, just like Candice Olsen had a specific look, but you can only take so much of it. It works for Waco, but it doesn't work everywhere. At least it's an American look. Better than all the 1,300 sq. ft. Tuscan villas that were so prevalent a few years back. I don't begrudge the Gaines for trying to leverage their success into a Martha Stewart like organization. They have a brand now.

I'm wondering what happened to this ceiling? Crazy! The transformations are neat, but when they are all presented together they get old quick.

I watch the show but not invested in the series. It's on the TV while I'm working with my back to it. I turn around when they "choose" the house and again at the "reveal." At first, I thought the Gaines' style was refreshing but now it's prosaic.

I went to Boston over the summer and struck up a conversation with a local. When she learned I'm from Texas, she says that her and a couple of friends were planning on a vacation to Waco. I didn't want to burst her bubble but just said she should add a trip to Austin to her itinerary.

BTW, this was the first time the Cote blog loaded effortlessly for me.

For me the metal roof was the most interesting... I did not know it came in quite that variety of finishes it is certainly not the galvanized look…

Link to metal roof styles

They are nice guys and all(Gaines I mean) but something about the show is incredibly boring to me. Still, I watched sometimes. Then I got to the episode with a cockroach..from reading an older thread here I knew there'd be something about cockroach, but well..I still was unprepared:) So I don't know what happened next..:)

Anyway. We don't have cable. For years already. Maybe ten years? So I can watch whatever is on Netflix..which means not much. Or in a doctor's waiting room. That's the most harmless program I guess. HGTV. After the weather channel:)

I wish the HGTV shows could be more upfront and honest. It seems that there would be a way to make the shows interesting without all the pretense.

I usually have HGTV on in the background when I'm getting ready for work in the mornings. Is there someone at that network who actively goes out and finds as many women with Munchkin voices as possible to use in their programs? I have never heard such an assemblage of squeaky, tiny-little-girl voices coming out of the mouths of grown women anywhere else on television.

Follow the yellow brick road.

Someone ought to tell Chip to wear a respirator, a P100, or he's gonna have a raging case of COPD by the time he's 50. Probably getting lungs full of lead dust too whenever old plaster gets knocked down.

It gets irritating when everyone says multiple times, "That's awesuma!" Some of us Texans like to add as many syllables as possible. ;-)

It's "reality tv" of course everything they portray is not real. It's for entertainment. It's not like this lady is uncovering a huge secret. It's TV PEOPLE!!! They are a hard working family with a business, so it seems fair to me that they are pushing their business. I'm not really understanding the point of this blog. I did like to see the homes without the Magnolia furniture. A lot of their designs & "fluff" accessories are not practical. I do like their style, even though I wouldn't put most of it in my home. They seem to be good people, just let them be.

Yeah, we know it's "TV PEOPLE!!!" Just let us discuss it without yelling, please.

But have to say that this one before/after is a huge indictment of the comfy stuffed leather couches.

http://ths.gardenweb.com/discussions/4127449/staging-example?n=7

I think that whole look has jumped the shark. It all looks the same, as so many of her houses do. It's mostly white, turquoise, with weathered woods and black iron accents. The look is still prevalent in the mid-market level, but I'm starting to see some changes at the industry level. Indigo shades are big now, and warmer tones are being desired. I see a lot of deeper paint shades in the shelter publications, and brown leather sofas are still being purchased.

I've seen the Magnolia furniture line in person. It's ok, perfectly fine, but not fantastic. Expense is relative to the person making the purchase, but I don't think it's expensive, though I'm sure the name is factored in. It's not furniture that I would call forever furniture, but then that's not what the new buying generation wants. So I would say that she has given the market what it wants; her look at a price affordable enough that you wouldn't mind passing it on and buying something new in a few years.

The problem with the crumbling ceiling looks to have been water damage. Water stains are visible here and there--brownish halos. Leak upstairs.

There are brown leather couches and then there are brown leather couches... :)

Lol! That is surely true :-)

What I was alluding to is that everything is so white and beige linen these days, and a few well known bloggers have made statements like "your brown sofa is so 2006" or something like that. Those kinds of statements always bug me, because a brown leather (real leather) chesterfield is always nice in my eyes.

I totally enjoyed looking at the blog. No problems loading it. Thanks chijim! I enjoy her style (everyone has one) even tho I don't use it in my own home. The couple was in the Dallas metroplex yesterday or the day before at a Nebraska Furniture store. From the crowd I saw on the news, Fixer Upper and the Gaines are still going strong :) Don't know why anyone would begrudge them their success. There are plenty of HGTV and Food Network shows I don't care for. I don't complain about them, I just don't watch them.

Oh, and a BRIEF USE of capital letters doesn't mean someone is SCREAMING for crying out loud. It's simply accentuating as we often do in our daily conversations. Monotone speech is BORING ;)

ETA: I think my daughter would love the scales for her Southern Living OLD (I'm not screaming) farmhouse.

Em11, yes to brown leather Chesterfields! DD snagged one for 25.00 from some frat boys who had no clue what they had on their hands.

As far as the Gaines. I like that they don't have any of that nasty and breathless "banter" of that love it or list it show.

.