Erin and Chad 4: Hoping She Loses the Polka Dot Cape

[QuiverFullofBooks]

13 hours ago, VelociRapture said:

I know about the episode on the Duggars’ old show, but I was talking about the Bates kids redoing their parents’ room on “Bringing Up Bates.” I think it was one of the first seasons. I remember Erin helped redecorate it while Kelly and Gil were traveling (as usual.)

Wasn’t it just last season? Or have they redone it multiple times?

[nickelodeon]

There's also the time the kids decorated Gil and Kelly's room for their anniversary night, with streamers and flowers and confetti all around the bed.

[TeaELSee]

3 hours ago, just_ordinary said:

Just to add: in many countries there are no such things as built in closets/ walk in closets (or en-suite bathrooms or pantries). There are just the normal rooms. Many even don’t have guest rooms as they need the rooms for the children. Some have a home office/guest room combination. But you wouldn’t want to store all your clothing there either I guess. So there is just no other room to put your wardrobe/dresser apart from your bedroom.

I think a lot of the amenities listed above are relatively new in the states. I grew up in the 60’s and 70’s in a small brick urban home that was built in the 40’s I believe.  My entire neighborhood was well established. It was an adorable house with no extra rooms or big closets.

I remember going to friends houses in new developments when I was in high school and I was in awe of family rooms and powder rooms! It’s funny, the neighborhood I grew up in is now considered one of the most desirable in the city.

 

Edited February 3, 2019 by TeaELSee

[singsingsing]

Most Americans don't live in the gigantic swanky houses you see on TV an in the movies. Yes, houses over here are generally a lot roomier than houses in Europe, but keep in mind how freaking enormous our countries are. We have a lot of space. We can afford (just in terms of space) bigger houses, bigger yards. But the closer you get to a major city core, the more restricted space becomes and the wealthier you have to be to afford it. I'm sure there are plenty of Europeans who sleep in king sized beds because they're rich and they can afford the space. 

[Mrs.Right]

14 hours ago, nickelodeon said:

There's also the time the kids decorated Gil and Kelly's room for their anniversary night, with streamers and flowers and confetti all around the bed.

Cause that’s not super weird...

[rebeccawriter01]

They did some re-decorating in 2015 of the master bedroom. 

[CarrotCake]

I have a kingsize bed (+extra length for my boyfriend) and I know a lot of people who do so definitely not uncommon here in the Netherlands.

In Southern Europe it is more common to have queensize though. And the beds are so short there. When booking a holiday house in Italy I always have to check the pictures to make sure the bed doesn’t have a foodboard (is that the right word?).

[lumpentheologie]

3 hours ago, rebeccawriter01 said:

They did some re-decorating in 2015 of the master bedroom. 

Ooh, I like the before better than either of the redos.  It's so warm and inviting. 

[nausicaa]

55 minutes ago, lumpentheologie said:

Ooh, I like the before better than either of the redos.  It's so warm and inviting. 

Same. Also--Erin, you couldn't iron the dang curtains? C'mon girl, I expect more from you. 

2 hours ago, CarrotCake said:

I have a kingsize bed (+extra length for my boyfriend) and I know a lot of people who do so definitely not uncommon here in the Netherlands.

I was wondering about how the lanky Dutch (and people in the Dinaric Alps) deal with the bed issue.

My (American) brother and SIL have a California king, which sounds excessive until you realize he's 6'5"/195.6cm and she is 6'/182.8 cm. With the Dutch being so tall on average, how would couples deal with full size or queen size beds? Do Dutch houses and apartments have the low ceilings and shower heads you find in the rest of Europe?

[Bobology]

1 hour ago, nausicaa said:

Also--Erin, you couldn't iron the dang curtains? C'mon girl, I expect more from you. 

Curtains? I thought they were bed sheets and that's why they weren't ironed.

[CarrotCake]

2 hours ago, nausicaa said:

Same. Also--Erin, you couldn't iron the dang curtains? C'mon girl, I expect more from you. 

I was wondering about how the lanky Dutch (and people in the Dinaric Alps) deal with the bed issue.

My (American) brother and SIL have a California king, which sounds excessive until you realize he's 6'5"/195.6cm and she is 6'/182.8 cm. With the Dutch being so tall on average, how would couples deal with full size or queen size beds? Do Dutch houses and apartments have the low ceilings and shower heads you find in the rest of Europe?

Our ceilings are generally around 2.50m, for newly build houses regulations say they have to be 2.60m. I don’t know what is normal in the US. 

My bf and I are not super tall (I am average with 1.67/5’6’’ and my bf is a bit above average with 1.90/6’3’’) so except for a bed of 2.10 instead of the standard 2.00 we don’t have any problems with showerheads here or in any Northern European countries (like the UK, Germany, Sweden etc.)

But as I said, my bf does have problems with beds and showers in countries like Italy and Spain. So it definitely depends on where you are.

Edited February 4, 2019 by CarrotCake

[lumpentheologie]

I'll the apartments I've lived in in Germany have had gigantically high ceilings--about 3 meters/9ft 10in.  It's amazing.  Also showers are always with handheld shower heads. Sometimes they don't even have a place on the wall to hang it, but if they do it's either fairly high or on an adjustable-height rod.  The beds aren't really very long though--I'm 5'9"/175cm and if I were any taller my toes would hang off the bed. (I have a double/full size bed, that's pretty standard for most of the bedrooms I've been in here.) 

[Marly]

My SO and I have only had a queen-sized bed for about a year now (160 by 200 cm). Before that, we shared a 140 by 200 cm bed, and that was really small for two people, but we just didn't have enough room for a bigger bed. We moved to a bigger appartment two years ago, but the first year we lived there we didn't have the money to buy a new bed and mattress. Last year we finally had enough money so we upgraded a size, and I love how much more space we have in this bigger bed. We can now both turn on our sides without any danger of pushing the other out of the bed. ?
We still don't have enough room for a kingsized bed. With a bigger bed than what we have now, we would not have enough space left in our bedroom for closets and drawers for clothing, and our bedroom is the only space we have where we can put those closets.

[JillyO]

17 hours ago, nausicaa said:

Do Dutch houses and apartments have the low ceilings and shower heads you find in the rest of Europe?

That's so funny. For me, American ceilings and shower heads tend to be super low. Shower heads especially. I've showered in so many American showers where I've had to duck, and while I'm very tall for a woman (almost 5'11"), still lots of men are significantly taller than me, so I always wonder how they do it. Maybe that's a California thing, but "sufficiently high shower head" was definitely one of the criteria when we were apartment hunting. ?

[JordynDarby5]

You know it would be funny if Erin constantly redecorating her parents' house and bedroom was her way of getting back at them for not being allowed to decorate her room all those years she was growing up and having to deal with whatever Kelly picked out. "You decorated my room in ways I hated all those years I'm going to pay you back by decorating your house how I like it without any say from you."

[Italiangirl]

Erin posted an instant story with Brookie and Max, so they still have him, in case someone was wondering about him

[Carm_88]

Screenshot from Erin's video. 

[fluffernutter]

I think I'd be totally skeeved out if my kids tried to surprise us with a re-do on our bedroom. First of all, it's kinda private and they don't frequently even enter our room, unless they ask to get something out of it.  (they are 17, 21, and 25 and two don't live here). Second, it's our room. If anyone is going to redecorate it would be us, not them. 

[mstee]

I think Kelly and Gil aren’t the type to be bothered by it as long as it isn’t their money funding the project. I think that for the longest time their house was purely about function and frugality and they haven’t adjusted yet to being able to pick out a style by liking it, not by just its price. Also, they seem to be laid back and probably see it as a caring gesture by the kids. I once redid my parents’ bathroom while they were on vacation as a surprise and they loved it. I wouldn’t have done their bedroom without input, though. I see that more as a private space than a bathroom. 

[backyard sylph]

I got this California King waterbed 23 years ago with oak headboard and posts, and have been sleeping alone in it for the past 9. I love the heater in winter. It hasn't fit well in every bedroom I've had (have moved several times, which I hate, but will be doing it again in a little over a year,) but I don't mind figuring out how to make it work.

It was fun and also sweet to snuggle with the kids when they were little, and now I just spread out with books, computer, etc., in the evening in winter. Of course I do not sleep with these things on the bed. I don't travel often, but when I do, it seems so odd to sleep in a regular bed. ? The only thing I don't like about it is changing the sheets, but I buy flat queen sheets at places like Tuesday Morning, instead of trying to manage special ones, and they cost less than deep pocket king sets, which I'd need if using a fitted sheet over the feather bed I have on top. I can also use queen-sized comforters and blankets since they tuck in rather than hang down the sides.

[Hisey]

On 2/9/2019 at 7:48 PM, fluffernutter said:

I think I'd be totally skeeved out if my kids tried to surprise us with a re-do on our bedroom. First of all, it's kinda private and they don't frequently even enter our room, unless they ask to get something out of it.  (they are 17, 21, and 25 and two don't live here). Second, it's our room. If anyone is going to redecorate it would be us, not them. 

I think it's all staged for the show, for Kelly's big reaction. Most adult kids have better things to do than decorate their parents bedroom. And I agree, it's skeevy. Get out of my bedroom, kids. I wouldn't redecorate my kids bedroom (they're teens)--that's something they'd want to do themselves.

For that matter, what is all the focus on constant decoration and re-decoration? While I'm sure Hobby Lobby is happy, I think these girls need more to do. My adult daughter keeps busy by studying, attending class, hanging with her boyfriend, doing things with friends, visiting new restaurants, attending campus events. Decorating any bedroom--mine least of all-- is the last thing on her list.

[just_ordinary]

Do we have any idea how Chad’s new business is doing? The furniture thing clearly didn’t work out. I think it was a risky move to leave secure employment (and what about health insurance) to start the furniture thing. By all they know, Erin will be pregnant again soon and needs shots. And are there enough people to hire someone without reference/training? Sure he might rely on   word of mouth but I wonder how he finances his family and pays people he employed (one of Erin’s brother at least, right?). I don’t doubt that you can make good money in the business but to run a successful business long time is not something you are prepared after just a year of working in the trade. What about insurances, taxes the books and so on. It’s not as if he had what I would call a proper education. 

Well, I guess they still got Erin’s money and UP. Don’t get me wrong- I think it’s great if both partners have a commitment about who contributes how to their life but with their ideas it’s like Gil 2.0

[miss_batson]

7 minutes ago, just_ordinary said:

Do we have any idea how Chad’s new business is doing?

Kelly posted about Chad and his business recently.  

Spoiler

 

 

[rebeccawriter01]

2 hours ago, just_ordinary said:

Do we have any idea how Chad’s new business is doing? The furniture thing clearly didn’t work out. I think it was a risky move to leave secure employment (and what about health insurance) to start the furniture thing. By all they know, Erin will be pregnant again soon and needs shots. And are there enough people to hire someone without reference/training? Sure he might rely on   word of mouth but I wonder how he finances his family and pays people he employed (one of Erin’s brother at least, right?). I don’t doubt that you can make good money in the business but to run a successful business long time is not something you are prepared after just a year of working in the trade. What about insurances, taxes the books and so on. It’s not as if he had what I would call a proper education. 

Well, I guess they still got Erin’s money and UP. Don’t get me wrong- I think it’s great if both partners have a commitment about who contributes how to their life but with their ideas it’s like Gil 2.0

I have a lot of family like this. They get it from my grandfather, who was incidentally born and raised in Anderson County, Tennessee. They learn a new skill, usually part way, and decide they are going into business. I do a lot of freelance work in addition to my job and school that includes designing logos, websites, and writing copy for ads, etc. A month doesn't go by that I don't have a call from my mother about "helping" out one of my cousins who wants to flip houses, paint cars, start a garbage collection service, sell boiled peanuts, open a restaurant when nobody knew how to cook more than three meals, and the list goes on and on. 

It's always the same thing. They talk a big game and make an announcement to family and friends to try to raise money for whatever new equipment their venture will need. My parents have been approached with people asking for $30,000 for some scheme. However, if you ask them about insurance (liability as well as health insurance), taxes, costs, staffing needs, and the rest, they get this glazed over look and say that they'll figure it out. Within six months they are out looking for a job and fending off bill collectors on the doctors, hospital, and credit cards. 

Meanwhile, I sit back and try not to say I told you so. I would love to work for myself or as a freelance writer. I don't do it though. First, I'm aware that I suck at the money side of things. If someone doesn't pay me, I don't have it in me to collect. Second, I like having health insurance, a steady paycheck, and clothes and the like. I don't enjoy those late night calls to parents, aunts, uncles, and cousins to beg for money and won't be making them if I can help it. 

Gil and it appears Chad are just like that. Gil acquired his aboriculture skills and Chad has some natural talent/ability with restoration and construction. Neither bothered with additional training to get certifications, experience, or solid basics. They simply hang out a shingle and hope for the best. They use this how and Gil previously used the TLC show and 19 Kids as free advertising for his business. However, we never see either at a desk doing the business side of owning a business or performing all the tasks that come along with it. Most Mom & Pop businesses are called that because it takes both spouses to make it work while you're getting your business off the ground. 

Chad's business sounds like this to me. No offense, but I don't want a house that was renovated by a self-taught handyman and some teenagers who were taught with wisdom booklets. I prefer licensed and bonded professionals. 

No offense, but if I'm a child of either family, I don't care about Daddy's dream job if I'm piled in a bedroom with my siblings like firewood or fighting to eat leftover bits of steak because Mama needs a reward for getting knocked up again. You don't have to spoil you kids, but you should be able to care for them. 

[Hisey]

1 hour ago, rebeccawriter01 said:

I have a lot of family like this. They get it from my grandfather, who was incidentally born and raised in Anderson County, Tennessee. They learn a new skill, usually part way, and decide they are going into business. I do a lot of freelance work in addition to my job and school that includes designing logos, websites, and writing copy for ads, etc. A month doesn't go by that I don't have a call from my mother about "helping" out one of my cousins who wants to flip houses, paint cars, start a garbage collection service, sell boiled peanuts, open a restaurant when nobody knew how to cook more than three meals, and the list goes on and on. 

It's always the same thing. They talk a big game and make an announcement to family and friends to try to raise money for whatever new equipment their venture will need. My parents have been approached with people asking for $30,000 for some scheme. However, if you ask them about insurance (liability as well as health insurance), taxes, costs, staffing needs, and the rest, they get this glazed over look and say that they'll figure it out. Within six months they are out looking for a job and fending off bill collectors on the doctors, hospital, and credit cards. 

Meanwhile, I sit back and try not to say I told you so. I would love to work for myself or as a freelance writer. I don't do it though. First, I'm aware that I suck at the money side of things. If someone doesn't pay me, I don't have it in me to collect. Second, I like having health insurance, a steady paycheck, and clothes and the like. I don't enjoy those late night calls to parents, aunts, uncles, and cousins to beg for money and won't be making them if I can help it. 

Gil and it appears Chad are just like that. Gil acquired his aboriculture skills and Chad has some natural talent/ability with restoration and construction. Neither bothered with additional training to get certifications, experience, or solid basics. They simply hang out a shingle and hope for the best. They use this how and Gil previously used the TLC show and 19 Kids as free advertising for his business. However, we never see either at a desk doing the business side of owning a business or performing all the tasks that come along with it. Most Mom & Pop businesses are called that because it takes both spouses to make it work while you're getting your business off the ground. 

Chad's business sounds like this to me. No offense, but I don't want a house that was renovated by a self-taught handyman and some teenagers who were taught with wisdom booklets. I prefer licensed and bonded professionals. 

No offense, but if I'm a child of either family, I don't care about Daddy's dream job if I'm piled in a bedroom with my siblings like firewood or fighting to eat leftover bits of steak because Mama needs a reward for getting knocked up again. You don't have to spoil you kids, but you should be able to care for them. 

I agree completely! It seems like these guys learn a skill half-way, and think that's good enough to go into business. Lack of experience doesn't matter. Who is going to do the electrical wiring for that house--Evan, the student electrician? For that matter, has Chad ever flipped a house before? It takes more than construction skills. It takes knowledge of the market, good timing, and some knowledge of financing. How is he paying his brother-in-laws during this process? How is he paying himself?

On a certain level, I think this shows some really grandiose thinking. Well, I'm good with tools and everyone admires my furniture. I must be smart enough to time the market, figure out a good location, choose a good house, figure out a good price to buy it, completely renovate it, determine a good sales price, and market it. Nevermind that people have spent years learning those skills.  I'm sure I can outbid all those season real estate agents who are trying to do the same. And renovating a house? How hard can that be? I'll figure it out. 

If he and Erin had delayed starting a family, and Erin was working, he might have the freedom to start a business like this. Though personally, I think he should have worked for a construction company for a few years, first. 

I think the UP money is giving them some freedom to try this venture. But Chad continually looks stressed to me. As for "Paine Construction", it doesn't even have a website. I think "Paine Construction" is Chad spending their savings on a house, working as fast as he can to fix it up, and desperately hoping for a profit that will keep his family afloat.