I am surrounded by people - work, inlaws, neighbours - that renovate constantly. Half of the effing street is renovating. They watch those shows and think it's reality TV, whereas to me they are just infomercials, run by hardware company. They create a demand with those cute little girls doing design and other tricks.
Is it me, how do you see it? It's a fight with the missus to go sailing rather than renovate all the time. Mostly winning, but not all the time and not enough.
Gee, all those 35+yo that are instructed to cocoon by their TV... The suckers always end up spending wayyyyy more than planned or what they heard on TV too. A builder was telling that he's seeing people nowadays renovating... their brand new home. Just out of habit.
Agree...
The first series of the block was interesting, 'cause it was new and fresh. Now they are nothing more than a vehicle for product placement. The Renovators is woeful TV - as the ratings show...
[}:)]
doing building during the day, the last thing I want to watch is renovations at night, I heard a lawyer on the radio the other day suggesting that with all these home renovations that have occurred in the past 10+ years, its now becoming apparent that there has been an increase in asbestos related diseases which have been caused by these renovations. Lack of knowledge of building products that contain asbestos and I guess lack of OHS, have created a health and legal nightmare for these people that now outweigh the savings of the "Do it yourself" scene
yes , I've spent more than 30 years doing reno,s and construction . don't need or want to watch it on telly . totally over it !
makes for cheap tv production though and it obviously gets the punters watching and buying .
even that up market pommy show sh!ts me . people with to much money and nothing better to do with their time or money . They obviously haven't discovered the joys of sailing or SUP
I've noticed that the man is rarely an alpha male in those couples on TV, at least the pommies one and US.
She decides, he agrees. If he has too much of an opinion her voice or tone changes threateningly.
Perhaps they just choose the couples accordingly...
Sometimes I hear people at work the next day: "did you see yesterday. the show on TV... I'll get Jim to get off his arse and change the entire kitchen now, it's not very expensive apparently and after all it's already 3 years-old so completely out of fashion". Poor bug**r.
The only building design TV show worth watching is " Grand Designs" often inspiring architectural designs with Kevin Mc Cloud providing an educated commentary, as Molly would say,"do yourself a favour"
ive seen some shocker dyi renos and repairs. it seems they only ever call me to fix them. 
im a plumber.
I like Room For Improvement, just to laugh at the stupid cheap ugly things they do. Waiting for the day someone goes off at them for ruining their house.
Renovations are so popular because (speaking for people in w.a) the boom is over.. people cant afford sell a property at a loss cop stamp duty capitol gains and run at a loss... purchase another the sums don't add up. .
Most people are hanging onto the assets they have and are capitalizing on it and gearing up for the next boom/economic cycle.
pierrec45 let the neighbors value up your property! don't complain. Its a win win for you.
I thought the whole home thing was over in the USA with falling values.
These shows may only have a year or so to run in Australia due to the market slowing down here. They died out in the mid naughties but have made a comeback in the last couple of years.
Agreed all they are is reno porn. It's pretty hard work actually fixing up or building a house.
. He is a well-respected lighting-designer in the UK, and I do enjoy watching the show, but I struggle with the same-old format "I can't see how this will work" at the start, and "it's amazing just how well this works" at the end of every show. In saying that, I've got all the series on dvd.
I have a building project for a client, jobs proceeding really well, the other day She rang yelling abuse and then 10 mins later started crying. mmm she has a few personal issues, however I have Had to bring in a new tax Called the " abuse levy" Already been applied to a number of variations, the amount is enough to cover my time for the surf therapy sessions I have to have now
^^^ I hate emotional clients. A few years back I was making some cypress cupboard doors for a kitchen facelift job. The client called a couple of days before & got my 2nd in charge, he casually said "don't know anything about them, haven't even seen the timber yet!"
She went off her rocker, crying, screaming, sobbing...I called her when I got back in & explained that the timber was there & the doors were in our back section of the shed in clamps just needing sanding & oiling...so she started crying & sobbing with joy!
I had a quick chat to the employee who had done nothing wrong except not been in the back of the shed for the past week where I had been working a few hours each night to try to catch up.
(The kitchen came up a treat after all that.)
pensioners are what do my head in.
for some reason a lot of them expect to be priced cheaper than every one else. cranky old ****s.
