I'm about to take this into the competitive shows thread, but how did you guys like the first episode last night? I thought it was pretty good. This whole sob story, here-is-my-wonderful-cause-for-why-I-deserve-the-house is a nice twist. Of course, the much nicer twist IMO is that Flor got to stay. I was completely expecting her to get the boot.

Also, I heard that George Wendt is a huge reality tv fan, which is why he is hosting this show. Its good to see him on TV again. He's like everyone's favorite uncle.

What twist? They showed scenes from upcoming episodes and she was in them. That made it, oh, not quite suspenseful, that she "survived" the first elimination.

The House of Dreams thread is in Competitive Reality.

New series. First episode. Already I don't like these people. Or their design.

[sigh] It's going to be a long ten weeks.

Ack! Missed it! Thanks for the heads-up, GB.

I'll have to catch it on the repeat. Since I'll never be able to afford to build my own custom house, this is the best show ever for some judicious schadenfreude.

I watched the episode last night, the wife seems EVIL in a shrewish sort of way.

I got a crummy vibe from them straightaway.

- She says that they've always dreamed of building their custom home.
- He calls her on it, and eventually gets her to back-pedal and say that they've HOPED to build a custom home.

WTF was going on with that? Why would it matter whether they dreamed/planned/hoped/imagined/whatever to build it? What an inconsequential and ridiculous point to make, unless, of course, you're a control freak.

Oh, yeh, and Mrs is way too glassy-eyed. I wonder what she's taking so that she can get through a day with Mr.

Note to both: The design is crap on its own and doesn't fit in with the surrounding homes either, so it doesn't matter which roof material you choose.

I get the feeling that this is ALL her idea and that he is providing the financing to back it up. The new house will be as bad as Brandon's Dream House (what a tool).

Mr. S. thinks they're going to end up divorced or close to it by the time the floorings go in. I'm not liking the family, which is good. Nightmare House is lways so much more fun when you don't have a shred of sympathy for the homebuilder's huge arrogance and fuck-ups.

And the renderings of the new house make it look like a health club.

I didn't even know new episodes were beginning. Hopefully I'll catch a repeat since it sounds "good" already.

Heh.

OK, wife isn't so bad, I actually am liking her now.

I still hate the curved roof--I like the standard roof, especially the low-pitch one that was reminiscent of what FLW would have designed. It's more interesting and the end effect isn't so "gymnasium" like the current one.

Oh, and what's up with burning the house down? I know it was for training, but if I was a neighbor with an important meeting in the morning and fire trucks going all night, I would not have been happy. Perhaps a "day fire" would have been just as good.

Well, they're certainly not making any attempt to blend in with the architecture of the neighboring houses or anything.

I love that they're behind schedule already. Dream House, you never disappoint.

Yeh, they didn't seem quite so awful this time. I wouldn't go so far as to say I like them, but I think I can tolerate them [unlike Bruno from a few years ago].

Regardless of the roof style, it still looks like a community center, not a house. Are they trying to get picked for Extreme Homes after this series is over?

I think my closest public library looks like something similar--small fixed windows, curved roof, massive fortress-like walls.

I think the design is interesting (all designs are interesting to a certain extent), but I think my fundamental issue is with the architect (at least I think it was the architect) who said that he purposely didn't want to incorporate any design style from other established architects because his design would "always be judged against theirs." Sorry guy, your design will still be judged against other works, if for no other reason than it is human nature, so you might as well find a way to better work in a "modern" loft-like home on the inside with an exterior that is less, umm, commercial. I'm not saying make it a tudor or FLW-copy, but more of a modern interpretation of a classic exterior.

With that said, I am still a bit green because Riverside is truly a beautiful place to live.

That would have been so cool, having an Amish cabinetmaker build custom cabinets by hand, and for HALF the amount that other carpenters bid.

Too bad he quit.

Only now are they thinking that the roof of the house looks like a silo? Did they not look at any of the architectural drawings that showed the roof?

And on tonight's episode of Dream House, the future homeowner realizes he hates the house he's having built and is overcome with depression so bad he wants to stick his head in an oven. Fortunately, construction is so behind on the house that the city hasn't issued a permit for a gas line on the home site yet.

I'm confused [always]. The store told them that the glass tiles are no longer being produced, so they just BELIEVED them and bought some different ones? Was that the only store in Chicagoland that sells glass tiles?

Maybe it's the only store that's giving a kickback in return for being featured on Nightmare House [™selkie].

Note to the producers: Please don't show another freeze closeup on Mrs HO's face again, or flash a warning before you do so that I can look away in time. I will probably not sleep again for a few nights ...

They're building a 3500 square-foot home, and now they're concerned that it's too small?!

Most boring season ever. It even makes me miss Brandon.

I do hate the stonework they ended up with on the front of house, though, so that's something.

Oh, for dog's sake, you horrible woman. Just leave the fucking sink alone. How much time and money do you think they wasted redoing an entire section of their (custom built, mind you) cabinetry just to fit in a stupid vegetable sink? I'm glad their marble countertop cracked, too.

Aw, c'mon, queasy, don't hold back. Tell us how you really feel!

How clueless are they that they'd make those jokes about their heads while they picked out pumpkins, and then let it be broadcast on TV? Especially him, with the forehead that ate Chicago. What a comedy setup!

I enjoyed the bathroom vessel drama more than 'one sink/two sink/big sink/little sink,' especially when they were trying to decide between the pasta bowl and the salad bowl. The pasta bowl was so shallow that it wouldn't be practical no matter what the angle of the faucet. The salad bowl was so tall, deep and narrow that it would look fugly anywhere but the laundry room. It reminded me of a toilet bowl sitting on the vanity.

I can't pity them too much, after all, they've got a Lexus urban assault vehicle.

Heh, I forgot about the Vessel Tragedy. But those things look pretty splashy to me no matter how carefully you wash. I've seen some that use decorative pebbles/glass rocks in the bottom to help disperse the water. (I think there was even one on a recent ep of EM: Home, right?)

Did we ever see the name of the tile showroom the Cains used? Because those salespeople haven't so much aquitted themselves well. I suppose when companies sign on for the free publicity, it never occurs to them that they could end up looking like a bunch of chumps.

Oh, and right up there with the ridiculous pumpkin-buying segment was the time wasted showing us the Cains' current home and hearing them VO about how they've outgrown it. Do the producers think we've forgotten that it was simply a house they rented while they demolished theirs?

queasy I thought that they bought the house they demolished just so they could have the lot, but they had been living in the one that just sold.

The colors they used in the house are soooooo trendy, I just have to think they are going to hate some of the choices they made.

JuliaMac I agree with you about the colors being trendy. I bet they'll be repainting in 5 years.

Maybe they are jealous of the couple that built the 11,000 sq. ft. dream house.

He quit his job to take a 12-week consulting contract? Did I hear that right?

This Money Pit house just gets uglier & uglier. The colors, the barn roof, the boulder fortress, etc. And they will have tiny bedrooms from the start, to begin with. The patio ate up the entire back yard...

What were they paying that architect for ? He didn't seem to hold a clue as to how anything would look or fit, once it was finished. I noticed he did get a hair cut after the first episodes though, I guess ? Heh

While the exteriot is fugly, and did end up looking like a health club, I'm surprised to find myself liking the inside quite a bit, even if the colors are considered to be trendy.

Mom and I were guffawing over that. Way to get out of having to do any of the packing, dude.

We also couldn't figure out just what was the deal with the curved granite counter top. Was it that one half was slightly higher than the other? Or that one side came out a little further than the other. How could that not have been caught? I'm glad they decided to leave it instead of breaking more of those beautiful glass tiles.

How could a LOT of it not have been caught. Like, the giant patio. The house being way over budget before even building even began (wasn't someone adding up the cost of all those fancy windows etc.?). The size of the house being too big.

OH and the driveway going the wrong direction, so that trees' roots had to be severed - in a town where preservation of the natural surroundings - especially trees - is a key and defining feature. Right next to a Frank Lloyd Wright house, to add insult to the injury. (He was great at making a home seamless with its natural setting).

I really hated that architect. And after his haircut, he looked like a whole other person. I think he was trying to hide (in plain sight)... before the preservationists came after him ?! :OP

I really liked a lot of how the house ended up, but there was a lot to be desired.

The colors in the main living space are just so trendy. Lime green in 2004 = seafoam green in 1984. Loved the girls' rooms (that is where you go nuts with color). The master bedroom was meh, especially because of furniture placement. I'll never understand why he had to have a disco bathtub. The basement cracked me up, with all of their old furniture down there.

Did I miss a formal living room, or do they just have the casual den, kitchen, dining area, bedrooms and basement? I know that it is because of the loft-style, but it seems like they have a lot of house, without much place to live.

The outside I didn't love, and I haven't from concept to finished product. The landscaping helped soften it a bit, but it still looks fortressy or health-spa-y. I didn't think any of the patios were too large, but I'm not a big fan of large lawn. The landscape was fairly boring, but I'm hoping that she'll add some color.

Now, how long until the next one starts?

One week. Guess what? It's Brandon again, come back to punish us.

At least it's not Bruno!

Was that really the last ep? Did I miss the final tour with the furniture in and everything? Dang. I wanted that last close-up of the dreaded 1/2" off countertop.

And since they brought it up (your honor), Publishers Weekly said Janan's book "treads familiar ground here with a picture book that pales in comparison to Jamie Lee Curtis's subtler and snappier Today I Feel Silly...Though energetic and bright, the cartoonlike illustrations skate close to being strident, while the verses are pedestrian."

They ran two episodes last night- the one where it took a second try to get the CoO, and one with the completed house walkthrough.

Kind of a dry season overall. I like it better when there's more of a Things Go Horribly Wrong feel to the season. Brandon wasn't that interesting either, IMO. I'd almost rather go back to the Many Loves of Bruno.

Just came across this show last week-episode with the spoiled brat Brad Pitt wannabe trying to build an ugly "house" on top of a steep hill. Hope that some folks who saw the whole thing earlier will chime in - if it's not too painful.

My biggest question: doesn't anyone on a construction site in Oregon ever have to wear a hardhat? I mean, they are excavating the side of a hill that could collapse and everyone's wandering around bareheaded!

I haven't seen enuf yet to know but it looks like his "dream house" is going to be in the yard of his neighbor. I bet the neighbor is real happy about that.

Brandon? seems like a pretty dim bulb - good thing daddy bigbucks is hanging around cuz I don't think the kid has a clue what's going on.

I'll probably keep watching, mostly because there's nothing else I want to see on at the same time and I'm so hoping that one of those clay cliffs will collapse - not on the construction workers - maybe on the kid - he won't see it coming with all that "very chic" hair hanging over his eyes.

The first 6-1/2 pages of this thread are about Brandon's series. We were all so funny, so witty, so clever in our snarkery [I just re-read the whole thread and now have a headache from laughing] that we might not be able to top ourselves!

I don't know how I missed during the first go-round with this house that Brandon is 30 years old! I guess with the dippy hairstyle, fratboy clothing, general airheadedness and his insistence on a 1 bedroom party pad I thought he was 24-25ish.

And going on vacation with Mom and Pop when you are 30? Yikes! It would be different if it was Grandma, Grandpa and the kids & grandkids, but this was just wierd. Doesn't he want to go partying with his friends at Marti Gras or Rio or something, you know, hip & kewl. Of course maybe his friends won't foot the bill like Ma & Pa did.

Is the Brad and Anita house a new one? Because I think I may already hate them. Mainly, it's because of her bangs. But also because they don't need a bigger house, they just need to throw some of their shit away.

I am so glad that the Brandon preschool, er, "dream house" is almost finished. He was wearing me out.

Oy! I couldn't sit through Brandon again. For that matter, any of them. This isn't the kind of series that I could watch over and over again.

The Feders are new, and I agree that they need to do some purging. Of course, it's hard to flaunt your nouveau richeness without being surrounded by the trappings of your new wealth. Too, it's a healthy way to teach values to your children. Yeh, really healthy.

So far, they seem like nice folks, but I'm pretty sure I'll end up despising them. FOUR lots?! Oy!

I find the design of the house to be a cross between the Getty and the LA Music Center. Both are architecturally stunning, but as commercial buildings. I'm not as wild about such a design as a private residence.

I look forward to just how over budget they will go!

So glad someone bumped this topic back up. I think I saw the last of the Brandon dream house last nite. I kept watching this series b/c it was such a disaster that I couldn't turn it off. That has to be the most incompetent bunch of contractors that ever walked the face of the earth. I wonder if any of them ever got hired for another job after this fiasco aired. Every time the inspector showed up I fell out laughing cuz I knew she wouldn't pass them.

And somebody's previous comment about how the giggling architect "so wanted to get in Brandon's pants" was SO true! My god, he was salivating every time he got near him!

So spoiled rich brat kid finally got his ugly ass house - with any luck at all there will be a forest fire or mud slide or earthquake that will destroy that mess. Mother Nature doesn't like such obscenities marring her landscape!

Brad and Anita are the new series. I'm already hating them,and the best seasons of Dream House have always been the ones where the HO's come across as raging assholes who deserve to have things go terribly wrong during the construction process. So I'm thinking this is going to be a fardo-filled good season.

Last episode of spoiled rich brat last nite. What a godawful ugly house that turned out to be - inside and out. Here's hoping one of those infamouse CA mudslides wipes it out one day soon.

Yippee! Another giganto house with unlimited possibilities for screw-ups, hand-wringing, and drama.

I'm so glad the owners decided to go for the steel support, because seeing that installed is gonna provide an entire month's worth of schadenfreude. Which, after all, is why I watch.

They are cracking me up with all this talk about the budget, the budget, they've got to stay on budget! They're cutting corners and sharing supplies and this and that and the other to stay on budget.

So, they've got eleventy million dollars to spend, but if they go over by a hundred dollars, they'll be bankrupt. Oh, the drama!

Did I hear correctly, that Anita's twin sister is... Bonita? Please tell me I mis-heard. I'm still hating Anita, based solely on her hair.

I feel sorry for the builder, with Brad hanging over his shoulder every minute of every day second guessing every move. That would wear me out.

I feel sorry for the builder because his teeth are all jacked up and he can't get a spot on Extreme Makeover and have Dr. Dorf weld in some big ol' DaVinci veneers. But then, I watch too bleebleeblahblahboo.

His teeth are distracting, though.

Did we ever learn what Brad does for a living? I wonder if his partners are pissed about having to shoulder whatever load there is because Brad wants to take time off and play (as the show put it) junior builder?

That fireplace would have been way too big if they'd left it; what was the architect thinking?

The Feders are taking "boring" to new extremes.


Yes, we did, but you can use his name to Google more information than you want to know about him.

Dum dee dum.

I mean, I suppose it's interesting to watch three people fly to North Carolina to shop for 19 roomfulls of furniture, but generally I find my mind wandering:

"Hmm, has Brad lost weight...his face looks thinner to me...hey nice leather pantsuit from 1982, Lori...I wonder how Anita gets her hair so full and fluffy all the time...can she possibly wear rollers to bed...good lord, how much is all of this costing..."

Not that the decision on exactly which 7400 sf of imported floor tile to buy wasn't riveting or anything.

Oh, queasy, you can get out of my head now! I was mentally comparing the cost of the furniture with the cost of volumizer for Anita's hair.