MrsGreenThumb

I am a lover of horticulture, gardening and the environment. At age 8, I sent away for a package of Zinnia seeds for 10 cents and I've been hooked ever since. After 25 years of being self-employed, I retired. That only lasted 4 years and I now work in a water conservation program: I buy grass from homeowners who are willing to convert to desert landscaping and lose that thirsty green stuff. I pursue what interests me and you can blame my sister for getting me into this blogging thing.

Friday, July 07, 2006

HGTV

House and Garden Television:
I swear I am addicted to this particular channel. We never had cable or a satellite dish until 10 months ago. Occasionally I would watch HGTV when we visited my cousin in San Diego. Now I watch it incessantly. My favorite shows are Curb Appeal and House Hunters. I also like Landscapers Challenge and What You Get for the Money. This is a perfectly acceptable way of peeking into other people's lives. Come to think of it, this is real reality TV, not those silly shows where people eat worms and let spiders crawl on their faces. This is not my living room but one I hunger to have. No country, no clutter, just sleek modern space and furniture.

HGTV also has a web site and they send out an email newsletter. Once a year they raffle off a dream house. It was pretty neat. I was drooling over that dream house. That's how they hook you, you have to go on line every day and enter. The next home will be in Colorado, you can watch the progress at: http://www.hgtv.com/. They spare no expense building these houses. All I can say is they're making a lot of money from the advertisers on their web site. I'm never lucky, never won anything to speak of. I think I won a fishing rod from a punch board once. So I can vicariously enjoy the thrill of winning when the actual winners are picked. I always say "good for them" and hope it brings them some happiness.

But the best part of HGTV is learning how to remodel things in your house and yard. This is the fireplace I want to do over. I love projects and this station feeds my ideas. The next project is to take the man-made stone off our fireplace and put in real stone. I'd like a mantel too. So far, I've gone to some stone places and brought home several samples. Our ceiling is almost 15 feet tall and even though I'd like to put the stone to the ceiling, it may be overwhelming. Everything has to be coordinated so I drag my floor tile and photos to the stone yards, I visit model houses looking for ideas and eventually we'll get to the real work. We will live a long time with the results of this project. I'm not sure enough research has been done. I savor the project, the planning, the execution and the compliments after it's finished. Anyone have any ideas or suggestions? All suggestions welcome.

5 Comments:

Blogger Alipurr said...

I love HGTV too, and so does mom. You listed some of my favorite shows, though mine have changed over the years. I like Curb Appeal and House Hunters, but also like Cash in the Attic and Mission Organization. There are a few on TLC that are good too. Don't forget to show us the before and after pics :). I am sure it will be beautiful

July 08, 2006 5:26 AM  
Blogger Judypatooote said...

I use to get HGTV but I had to cut costs somewhere, so I cut my cable down to basic, which is local channels and then I kept the digital box, which cost 7$ extra so my bill is now 22.00 I saved $33.00 a month.....and with the digital I get Discovery Home channel and that has a lot of the channels that HGTV has.... The one thing I can say about that channel is it can get me in the mood to do some redecorating......

July 08, 2006 3:29 PM  
Blogger Carole Burant said...

I love watching all these shows about redecorating...it gives you so many ideas! As you said, though, some projects can become huge and very expensive. I wish I had a fireplace in the first place to redecorate! lol Good luck with your plans!!

July 08, 2006 9:03 PM  
Blogger Motherkitty said...

I think you need to continue to watch HGTV continuously so you can gather more ideas. In fact, you should TiVo ALL the programs so you can rewatch them at your leisure to gather more ideas. You could spend your life watching HGTV. I know I tend to spend much to much time watching these same shows (aren't you glad I talked you into getting a dish?). What I'm trying to say is, you have good ideas already and good taste, so it shouldn't been a hardship coming up with a fancy-schmancy way of fixing up your fireplace. Whatever you do, don't forget to add a few glass tiles for extra pizzazz.

July 09, 2006 6:59 AM  
Blogger Franny said...

I am not much of a decorating diva, but I do think that the wall about the fireplace could be a warm, lively colour, like burnt orange or bright burgundy... I have no idea how a mantle will fit in though!
Also, I work at a college and we have a fireplace in the common area that has the copper piping exposed...copper and stone look really nice together!
Your house seems spacious and has good "bones". That's a wonderful place to start.

July 11, 2006 5:24 PM  

Post a Comment

Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]

<< Home