Fixer Upper on HGTV

[MamaJunebug]

Stumbled across this program and began to like the ease between Chip & Jo - so refreshing after so many years in a bad marriage myself.  The rehabs were initially interesting but quickly way too much the same. Kept watching just for background noise, a little humor and occasional pretty room tableaux.

Heard about their pastor's anti-LGBT bushwa* and was satisfied to read Chip's statement that they personally love everybody (especially with $$ in hand, but I kid, I kid). Kept watching because it was habit.

Then I chose their book CD for a long drive home  & wish. I. hadn't!

Joanna:  vacuous.  Everything good that happened was Gawd's perfect plan.  And G speaks to her all the time. I've sympathized in the abstract with FJites who abhor people who think God is their errand boy while millions suffer -- this is the first time I've actually heard the concept reported from the horse's mouth and so merrily and with such certainty!  Nearly drove off the road slapping at the controls to stop the dang thing playing.

Chip:  disingenuous.  He is just the nicest guy EVER! He saw to it that the kid with Down Syndrome was included in pickup football games. He was a gifted athlete and worked hard and made his daddy proud! He used to buy anything a door-to-door salesperson was offering because his heart is just so darned big! Chipper -- if you have to say you is, you ain't.  

At least he acknowledges God "or luck" for things.

I'm gonna listen to the whole thing but I already know I need to have the car parked when Jojo Joey JoANna tells how Chip unilaterally decided for the umpteenth time that the family was moving -- and how she again cries but again ultimately never thinks to call him on his failure to treat her like an equal rather than be big cavemanchild and decide for all of them, because he's got the male organ.

Wish I had never picked it up.  It's ruined the show for me.

---

* bushwa--AKA bullshit

 

[catlady]

i watched a few episodes of their show a few years back (can't remember how long), before i knew anything about their faith.  but they struck me as annoying.  their super-happy relationship came across as fake and performed for the camera, and they presented their personal lives as just so perfect--like that FB friend you haven't seen in 15 years and wants you to believe that she has no problems or stress, her husband and kids are the best ever, her job is fabulous, she travels and has amazing hobbies, and so on.

but the thing that really got to me, and it was probably just the few episodes in a row that i saw, was that Joanna always came back to the homeowners with a big added-on expense that she either miscalculated or forgot to consider.  it came across as unprofessional and inexperienced, and i remember thinking at the time that i'd never hire her because of that.  (granted, it was probably producer-driven drama, but it made her look bad that it happened multiple times)

[PennySycamore]

@catlady,  or those people that write those annoying, braggy Christmas letters.

I watched an episode or two,  but was turned off when Chip was helping just his boys with something and not his girls.  I can't remember what it was they were doing but it seemed so damn sexist.   I've not watched it since.  If I'm going to watch a house flipping show, I'll watch Flip or Flop.  I'll take Christina's slight vocal fry anyway over Joanna and Chip.

[snarkysuki1724]

I'm a "Nate and Jeremiah" fan myself, and their little girl Poppy is soo adorable!  

[SilverBeach]

Property Brothers, and odd house shows not on HGTV like Nashville Flipped, etc. DIY and FYI channels have several of these programs.

The Gaines' camaraderie doesn't bother me. I rather like silly Chip. But they have a one-note style I find boring. Joanna did a contemporary design once and it was quite refreshing.

I wonder how much it costs if the homeowner decides to buy Joanna's interior design as is.

At least Waco is now known for more than just the Branch Davidians. 

 

 

[MamaJunebug]

1 hour ago, SilverBeach said:

At least Waco is now known for more than just the Branch Davidians. 

Bwah!  I've been vaguely interested in Waco since a friend moved there to work at Baylor. In my reading up on it, I discovered that the Koresh compound was much closer to Crawford, TX, than to Waco -- we might recall Crawford as Dubya Bush's retirement home. But of course at the time media were probably moving their crews in and out through Waco, so that's how the deadly mess got identified.  

A friend who really likes food and who also really doesn't give a darn about home decor wound up in Waco on business totally unrelated to the Gainses and reported that the Silos store "was pretty" and that the bakery's goods were "great!"

For all my side-eyes at the couple, I can't wait til the new season starts. 

Is Jimmy Don still his hot, adorable, dusty self? Does "my carpenter, Clint" still tremble a little when Jojo comes into view? 

And most of all, do Jo & Chimp (typo and it stays) ever ADD a wall -- oh, forgive me, what am I thinking?

Here's the truly big question: will there ever be an interior reveal that DOESN'T make me think I just walked onto a furniture store's showroom floor?

YMMV, that's what makes the world go 'round. 

[MamaJunebug]

Annnnd -- we are done, after S5, anyway. 

I don't think I'll ever miss the words 

shiplap

open-concept 

or 

Jo-JO!!!

[PennySycamore]

Shiplap looks fine in the right setting, say a house on the Cape (Cod) or on the coast of Maine.  Other places it strikes me as weird and not appropriate.  Open concept is overdone, too.

I will not mss Chip and JoAnna one bit.  I will admit, though, that I admire that they are sticking with their deal for a home goods design  for Target despite getting some pushback from upset fundies.

[MamaJunebug]

16 minutes ago, PennySycamore said:

Shiplap looks fine in the right setting, say a house on the Cape (Cod) or on the coast of Maine.  Other places it strikes me as weird and not appropriate.  Open concept is overdone, too.

I will not mss Chip and JoAnna one bit.  I will admit, though, that I admire that they are sticking with their deal for a home goods design  for Target despite getting some pushback from upset fundies.

I had not known about that. Well good. 

I'd say, I'd like to see them do the house for a gay couple, but how many of those are going to be out in Waco?

[Maggie Mae]

I hate open concept so much. I think it's because I detest tv noise when I'm not specifically watching it. Why does every room have to share with the tv? I want to be able to go to the kitchen and turn on the sound system and cook with my music and have a separate space for conversations, not cook while watching other people watch the game or some terrible movie. 

[catlady]

I'm with you, @Maggie Mae.  And in addition to the tv noise, I hate having the kitchen visible to (or part of) the living room.  

 

[clueliss]

I only made it through season 1 plus a few of season 2 and I have to say I will not miss this utterly predictable, stuck in a permanent rut decorating show.  (and only checked it out due to FJ).  

[PennySycamore]

@Maggie Mae and @catlady,  I was reading through a post on Houzz this morning where interior designer Becky Harris was talking about this family in a St Louis suburb had faithfully renovated a house built in the 1920s.  It was so NOT open concept, but not at all closed in feeling.  The house was beautiful!

[MamaJunebug]

50 minutes ago, PennySycamore said:

@Maggie Mae and @catlady,  I was reading through a post on Houzz this morning where interior designer Becky Harris was talking about this family in a St Louis suburb had faithfully renovated a house built in the 1920s.  It was so NOT open concept, but not at all closed in feeling.  The house was beautiful!

Oo, I gotta find!!! Thanks for the heads-up

Big Mama JB hated that the last house she shared with BDJB didn’t have a door between the kitchen and the room with the tv.  

[MamaJunebug]

50 minutes ago, PennySycamore said:

@Maggie Mae and @catlady,  I was reading through a post on Houzz this morning where interior designer Becky Harris was talking about this family in a St Louis suburb had faithfully renovated a house built in the 1920s.  It was so NOT open concept, but not at all closed in feeling.  The house was beautiful!

Oo, I gotta find!!! Thanks for the heads-up

Big Mama JB hated that the last house she shared with BDJB didn’t have a door between the kitchen and the room with the tv, so she could talk on the phone or listen to her music. That impressed me as an adolescent, and I still kind of like one cozy room after another.

House I’m in now is as open as it can be without a total gut tear-out of ductwork & plumbing (I inquired a while ago,  in a fit of envy over a sister’s brand-new, OFP ranch). In fact, I won’t be surprised if the folks who buy it choose to raze it and build new.

Each to their own. I smh when parents on the TV reno shows bemoan the lack of “clear sight lines” in a house, to be able to monitor their kids’ indoor perambulations. I raised quite a few in a similarly walled-off cottage — the trick was getting myself out of the kitchen and to where they were. Watching them was way more fun than being enthralled with my kitchen and hanging out there, but MV, and that’s fine. (My idea of cooking then was “set it & forget it” and/or freezer-to-oven, so that made a difference, too.)

[LadyCrow1313]

Hello, my name is LadyCrow1313 & I love Fixer Upper. I freely admit to watching many marathons of FU (haha, just realized those two letters; that's funny), and I get a kick out of their interactions w/each other. She'll occasionally get this "I'm sick of your shite, Chip" look on her face, & that makes me giggle.

I do like the work that they do (not all of it, but you can't be expected to like everything), & if I had the $ & lived in their area, I'd hire them to work on my house. She's also pregnant with child #5 (if she hasn't had it already), so it makes me wonder if they're planning on having a large family.

That being said, I also like some of the other home renovation shows: Flip or Flop (& some of the spinoffs), the Vegas couple show (the one where the dude is an MMA fighter; some of their designs are a bit much, but I get a kick out of seeing them), Property Brothers, & the show where it's a mother/daughter team (& they're both redheads). There was another one w/a blonde lady as the lead designer/property buyer, but it was moved to another station.