HGTV, Tears and Drama

Posted on August 31, 2010 by April

The past couple of weeks, I’ve had the opportunity to spend many hours at home with my beloved HGTV.

There is a bright side to harboring the biggest, worstest (yes, I am making that a word) monster bug I’ve had to deal with in a long time. Over two weeks now people, who knew bronchitis could hang on for that long!!

Anywho, enough of my whining, like I was saying, during my time at home battling the monster bug of the year, I had great fun watching hours upon hours of HGTV. I got to rediscover old favorites like “Design on a Dime” and “Designed to Sell”.

But also discovered some new shows, that were surprisingly interesting, like “Color Splash” and “Holmes on Homes”, those gentleman could come fix up my casa anytime!

(Come on, you know those overalls are sexy)

But I digress, during my hours upon hours of HGTV viewing, I found that there seems to be a trend that even design networks are falling into, reality competition. Even the great Debbie Travis has joined the band wagon with her “From the Ground Up” series.

Since the Big Giant Head behind the HGTV network seems to be releasing more and more of these “reality competition” shows, I seem to be one of the few viewers who really doesn’t care if the token Emotional Girl beats out the token Mean Girl. I noticed one of my new favorites, Mike Holmes, is partaking in the newest addition, “Handy All-Star”. I will probably watch it, only because I like Mike Holmes(again, it’s got to be those overalls!), and I may learn some handy tricks. But the competition part of it, I could do without. I miss the old HGTV, that gave it’s viewers more Home and Garden and less Tears and Drama.

Feeling squeezed

Posted on July 21, 2010 by April

Last night, as I struggled to get around my bedroom to change the sheets on my bed, I got to thinking about storage solutions for small spaces. Particularly, small bedrooms. I am unsure of the exact deminsions of my bedroom, but I do know that with a queen sized bed, and two small dressers in there I really don’t have a lot of space left over to work with. I purchased bed raisers in hopes that I would follow through, and actually use them, but alas, that has not yet happened. But once, I finally do get off my lazy blogging bum and do it that should provide some great space to store out of season clothing items.

However, I’ll still have to find a place to store shoes, in season clothes, accessories (because a girl must have her twenty gazilion vintage broaches and leaf pendents.) So, it got me to thinking about unique yet attractive storage solutions.

Here’s an idea I found on the HGTV website, the homeowners used shelving to create storage and visual interest. I have something similar in my junk room office. Except the version I have is a bit more industrial.

Image Courtesy of HGTV

Here’s another thing I’ve been really excited about, but not followed through with. I bought several really cool vintage looking mirrors at an estate sale a few weeks ago, and still haven’t put them up. Partly because I don’t know where to hang them, and mostly because I’m just a lazy blogging fool. I’m hoping this picture inspires me to hang my cute little mirrors.

Image Courtesy of HGTV

This one, I loved the idea, but I know it would never work for me. Since my house is so small none of the walls are thick enough for something like this. But a pretty picture none the less. Thanks to the writers of HGTV for providing such pretty pictures and great ideas.

Image Courtesy of HGTV

Dream a little dream…

Posted on June 14, 2010 by April

This past March I had the pleasure of visiting the 2010 HGTV dream home. Obviously, I was not the lucky fan to win it, but the generous people of HGTV opened the doors to visitors. I thought I would share a few hundred pictures I took during my visit.

We start our tour in the kitchen:

They had this beautiful glass all over the house. In fact the guest house was practically constructed of the stuff! An entire wall was covered in it!

Yes, the bathroom is SEE THROUGH! I don’t know if I would be comfortable doing my bathroom thing with someone else laying on the bed watching TV. But on the upside you wouldn’t miss anything while watching House Hunters.

Here’s a close up of the glass wall in the guest house:

Here’s a close up of the glass in the kitchen, this also gives you a better idea of how tall the ceilings were, that’s part of a window in the upper left corner:

Speaking of ceilings, I loved the lighting and the exposed wood beams:

The house wasn’t that dreamy to me, don’t get me wrong, I liked it. And if I had been the lucky viewer to win it, I would have enjoyed it ,until of course I had to sell it ,because who can afford $10k a year on TAXES?! But there were a lot of small touches I liked that I might use in my house someday.

I liked the lines of this chair, not necessarily the upholstery, but the lines were interesting:

Here’s another chair, I loved the Hounds Tooth pattern, but I’m unsure of how comfy a chair would be without arms:

And the media room. It was quite interesting, they lined the room with cork to keep the noise down. What a great idea right? Wonder how it would look after the family cat gets a hold of it:

The other bedrooms and bathrooms weren’t that spectacular. Here are some accent shots I took in the children’s rooms, Jack and Jill bathroom, and the office:

I loved the faucet fixtures they used, I am looking at something similar for my bathroom. Someday the sweetie and I will agree on what fixtures should go up in the bathroom.

Here’s a bookshelf in the office. I loved how they had everything arranged. When my office gets set up maybe I will consider something like this:

And now my favorite part of the house, the master bath and closet! What’s so amazing about a closet you might ask. Well, this puppy was as big as my BEDROOM! If you live in a small house like I do, that’s pretty darn spectacular, and, all that storage is just dreamy.

This closet even had a window, but apparently I was so enamoured with the storage that I didn’t get a picture of it.

The bathroom was also quite dreamy:

I loved the tub, of course I always love tubs. Especially since I don’t have one, the heart wants what it can’t have, I suppose.

The funniest part of visiting the dream home, was the pantry. Well, not the pantry itself, but the food they stocked it with.

Apparently, the people of HGTV think all New Mexicans eat is pinto beans, rice, menudo, and pickles! Granted we do eat a lot of beans and rice, but rarely do we pair it with Kosher Dills.

All in all, this was a lovely day spent with my beautiful mother. I didn’t really think the house was that dreamy, but it sure was fun getting to see it. Thanks HGTV for allowing your adoring fans a visit!