Lately, Kathy and I have been watching a number of real estate and house renovation themed shows fairly regularly. As eagerly anticipated as nightly screenings of Voyager and CSI were, so too, now, are the shows “House Hunters”, “House Hunters International”, “Holmes on Homes”, “Buy Me”, “The Unsellables”, “Designed to Sell”, “Hidden Potential”, and a few others.
Now, normally I watch television shows for a couple of reasons: 1) As research for a writing project that I am currently planning/working on, 2) For sheer entertainment, or 3) For general educational purposes, in the case of informational documentaries found on the Discovery, History, or National Geographic channels. But these house shows are for something entirely different. I watch them specifically to educate myself on all the pertinent information, attitudes, practices, and strategies that we will need when we purchase/build our first house as a family.
Growing up, my own family moved around a few times, but, of course, I was never really involved in any of the decisions. As for viewings, I only got to join my family when we moved here to Vancouver. But for most of the moves, I was too young to appreciate the kind of thought that went into choosing a new home. I thought that purchasing a house was not much more different from choosing a new book or toy.
Well, there are many people who still think like I once did, and thankfully there are resources like these shows to help educate people.
There are so many variables to consider when buying, renovating, and selling a house, and if you are not aware of them and you end up with a shoddy realtor or contractor, then you’re in trouble. Kathy and I have learned a lot of these things just from watching these shows, which give us some confidence for the future.
Also, these shows are just so darn fun.
“House Hunters”, and its sister show “House Hunters International”, are two of my favourites. The show follows families who are ready for a change. In the case of HH, it’s usually a family or single person looking to leave their former house and buy a new one within a certain price range and following certain parameters (e.g. an office, a pool, neighbourhood, etc.) The realtor will then take the buyer around and show them a number of houses fitting the bill, with the show presenting the viewers with three houses from the buyers’ shortlist. What I like about this is that it’s an inside look at many the choices that have to be made when looking for a house. The ability to compare three houses almost side by side is an invaluable experience. I personally like seeing three houses of similar price, but wildly different, say, bathrooms. Does the house with the smaller master bedroom with a large kitchen outweigh other house with the small living room but large office? Does the huge back yard with no pool in one house beat the other house that HAS a pool, but no garage?
Fascinating, because these are likely the kind of questions Kathy and I will ask ourselves.
It’s nice seeing other couples, some young with children, some old, wrestle with these decisions, giving us a glimpse of a possible future.
HH International is similar in style but involves Americans deciding to uproot themselves from their home states and seeking to live in places like Roatan in Honduras or Costa Rica. I like this show for all the same reasons I like the other one, but this one has the added benefit of seeing a massive paradigm shift in people’s lives. So many people don’t realize what they are missing out on, and it’s wonderful seeing them make the choices necessary to build a new life with a completely different attitude than what they came from. A lot of Americans realize that all the modern first world conveniences cannot beat a life which is easier in the tropics, a life where they don’t have to worry about snow, big bad cities, or the like. Instead, they can hire maids and drivers and live in beautifully relaxing houses by the sea.
Makes me miss Manila.
On the flip side, I also like seeing homeowners deal with the exciting, but challenging, mission of selling their house. Again, there are just as much, or even more variables to accomplishing this, and it can be either a light, breezy experience or a very long, very messy, headache.
And this is what I shall write about tomorrow.
(Taken from Kathy)
3 Things I’m thankful for/happy with today:
- Eating my Spaghetti, even if there wasn’t much left.
- Reviving my blog.
- A new story idea!
- (Bonus) Kathy.
