On ABC right now, tune in, it’s a hoot. Tear a dingy tract house down to the studs and redesign/rebuild it – in 7 days.
Now this is great TV!
I never met a tool I didn’t like!
Discussion Forum
Discussion Forum
Up Next
Video Shorts
Featured Story
Dangerous electrical work and widespread misconceptions cause fires, deaths, and $1.5 billion in property damage annually.
Featured Video
Highlights
"I have learned so much thanks to the searchable articles on the FHB website. I can confidently say that I expect to be a life-long subscriber." - M.K.
Fine Homebuilding Magazine
Fine Home Building
Follow
-
Fine Homebuilding
Dig into cutting-edge approaches and decades of proven solutions with total access to our experts and tradespeople.
Start Free Trial Now -
GBA Prime
Get instant access to the latest developments in green building, research, and reports from the field.
Start Free Trial Now
Replies
Dammit I was trying to watch "A River Runs Through It" now I got to do the surf thing.
designer takes the carpenter's chisel...and he's still in one piece?
View Image
It knows it must run faster than the fastest lion or it will be killed.
Every morning a lion wakes up.
It knows it must outrun the slowest gazelle or it will starve to death.
It doesn't matter whether you are lion or a gazelle:
When the sun comes up, you'd better be running."
Carp realigns designers realty clock wrt 'borrowing' his $150 chisel.
I never met a tool I didn't like!
7 days my A.
yeah, I could do it..... Stick that chisel........ That big contractor and his brother should have sat on that dud.
Bet it took a year to go thru the permitting and inspection process.
7 days times 50 guys times 24 hours is 8400 man hours. Times probably an average rate of $17.50, gives $147,000 in labor. Not counting the camera crew of course. Some of the materials were donated. Probably cost them $200K for materials. No actors to pay. Probably comes away being as cheap to produce as any 1-hour TV show. Obviously they bought most every stick of lumber way in advance. Must have used a private inspection service. Don't think the county could get inspectors out at 3 AM to give an OK for close-in. Also, all the argument over plans was bogus. They did more than a remodel, almost a total demo. Only thing they saved was the foundation and roof and exterior walls. They had plans and engineering done far in advance. Not a bad show, but I would have switched to the Three Stooges if they were on. Also would have fired 90% of the designers on the first day. No, I really don't want you to cut my truck in half and make it into a couch for watching TV in the garage.
permits?
permits?
we don't need no stinkin' permits! ;)
we don't need no stinkin' permits!
I heard an interview with Ty and he said they had an inspector on duty all the time. Probably paid them to moonlight.
Anyone notice some of the scenes were out of order? The first bit showed them doing a roof tear off and the next scene showed a brand new tile roof in place the same night. Hard to believe.You get out of life what you put into it......minus taxes.
Marv
and here I thought everything takes only two weeks
Go figure
Be well informed
andy
My life is my practice!
http://CLIFFORDRENOVATIONS.COM
Monster House on discovery is better.
I heard a piece on NPR just yesterday that the workmanship on many of the "reality" shows is really terrible and often costs thousands to repair or re-do. What a surprise! I assumed a crew of 50 all working on the same house at once and then having the final painting done by all the neighborhood kids would constitute fine homebuilding!
I wonder if these shows are a potential problem for real-world contractors. Soon, everyone will expect a total make-over to take one week and will never appreciate the time and care required to do most jobs well.
Al Mollitor, Sharon MA
I'll agree with the other posters that there were months of planning involved in this process, despite their wanting to make it look like the designers just popped in and whipped up a plan. At a few points, there was footage shot at what looked like a large warehouse, where you'd need to have all the materials stockpiled prior to starting construction.
Regarding the quality of the finished product- no one is trying to pass this off as Fine Homebuilding. But given what the homeowners started with (and their situation), I think they got one heck of a deal- I'll take $300k worth of work for free and be willing to live with a few paint runs and rough spots in the drywall. Overall, I thought the house looked great (nice interior doors, cabs, tops, tile, etc)- especially compared to the butchery I've see on Monster House, and some of the horrid design ideas seen on Trading Spaces, While You Were Out, et al.
There'll probably be some real-world implications- some owners will be stupid enough to think you can blow out their whole-house remodel in a week since it was done on the show. Personally, I'd be willing to take that challenge as long as the owners were willing to make all their selections up front (down to the door stops), go on vacation for a week, convince all their neighbors and the police that the noise won't be a problem, and pay the exhorbidant premiums for overtime, having crews on round-the-clock standby, private inspections, work lights, etc.
Heck, I'd make more $$ in a week than most contractors do in a year by the time I tacked my fee onto that project......lol.
I once built an in-ground swimming pool in less than 5 hours when I lived in Las Vegas- it usually takes 4-6 weeks- it's amazing what money can do to expedite a schedule.......
Bob
ok... they got a free trip... i'm sure all expenses paid... say 15k? they got the construction work done... 300k?
now someone has to pay some taxes I'm sure it will be counted as "income"...... not counting that their property taxes will double...
hope they can afford to keep the house....
I'm sure 90% of the interactions shown were staged... also sure they couldn't show what kind of real interaction you'd have on a job like that... Guess it was a win win deal for sears anyway
Pony
The taxes will be a big deal on this.
On one of the TOH projects, near the end, they where dicussing the budget with the owner. I don't remember these exactly, but this is about the way that it went. Budget -$250k, over runs $175k, donations $150k, then taxes on the donations about another $50k.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1483&e=2&u=/fool/20031204/bs_fool_fool/1070540040
It seems that Sears is sponsoring the show and paying for product placement. But if all of the shows are like last nights, I don't think that they are getting their money's worth.
http://www.msnbc.com/news/1000876.asp?0si=-&cp1=1
I knew Sears had to sponser the show (and told the DW so) when I saw so many Crapsmen tools, and then the carp taking back his $150 chisel. A guy that buys a chisel for $150 isn't going to buy a Craftsmen router. He may be given one and use it so he would get paid, but he wouldn't buy it.
Still, I enoyed the show. I didn't look upon it as fine home building, nor as even a pretense of such. And we all know there were tons of materials, designs, and permits all made well in advance. To me, the end justified the agony of suffering thru the (staged) antics of Preston (the chisel stealing thief/designer.) The family deserved a break, and got one. Even the carp was crying at the end. The Pirate ship and pickup truck stunt (bed and drive-in) were great, as was the Tiki bedroom. The family's reaction made it worth while. The only thing I missed was an hour out of the Duke/MSU game, which had turned to a rout by then anyway.
I never met a tool I didn't like!
For that little girl to have Leukemia when she was 2 or 3 and now she's ok and to watch her face and her families faces when they saw the house is worth everything.
What Ty did to her room and they saved it for last was perfect and alot of nights she would walk onto her parents room to sleep for comfort Ty made a little cubby hole with a door going into the parents room that said Comfort Room on it.
That family deserved it no matter how far fetched the time line for doing the project was. I could still watch a million shows like that one. I taped it for my wife and she watched it last night crying as I did also.
Joe Carola
Edited 12/5/2003 7:06:06 AM ET by Framer
Many years ago US Homes had a thing going between their different divisions to see how fast they could build a standard 3/2. They built one here from bare ground to move in in 3 days. Their Phoenix division topped that with a 2 day build out. So naturally the Fort Myers division had to beat that. Of course everything was preplanned to the second but they went from dirt to turnkey in something like 23 1/2 hours. Even considering the preplanning it was pretty impressive. The rockers were hanging boards before the framing was finished. Naturally they paid the county to have inspectors on-site the entire time. Not something you would want to do every day but an amazing feat nonetheless.