Carboys Desire wrote:
I just want to say that it must be really, really hard for the designers to come up with something great with only 26 hours of worktime. That 26 hours includes their planning time and when Clive says "Your time starts NOW." I would be a messy ball of stress. I can't imagine!
For most people that equates to a long weekend project, and in that time you'd expect to get maybe one thing done...like laying floors. No way in hell would I attempt to decide on floors and have them delivered and laid.
And what about the fact that they get help from some bloke they've never met who may have never done what they are asking them to do before?
Yikes!!!
How many stores can you go to and say "I want that sofa, and that table and chairs and they need to be delivered today. Oh, and I want that hardwood and the installation needs to be finished by tomorrow afternoon. Kthxbye!"
Yeah, right! Just as we saw with Matt, the designers end up settling for something they don't want. Jenn settled for carpet, too...that's another example.
I gotta say.....if HGTV ever wanted to bring the Design Stars to my house to conduct a "challenge" (which is exactly what it is!) I would most definitely say "Are you crazy? No fucking way. Send your winner back next year when he or she has time to do something great." Because what you get in 26 hours...is not great. It's shit.
And yes, I know last season's designers and the season's before had some contestants who maybe could pull it off, but in reality all of their challenge rooms were lacking as well.
Yeah, I agree. I've never understood that shit. I realize it makes for good tv, but is it ACCURATELY assessing their design ability? Why should I care if the person had 26 hours of 26 days. Both are relatively short periods of time. If you're gonna do it, take the time, do it right...like the old song. Materials need to be secured, contractors need to be scheduled. Think about 3am shift sister. Redoing the floors (which probably need repairs/replaced boards/etc) would have taken 3-4 days. Couldnt tell on square footage, but let's say 15x18 room = 270sf x $5/sf for dustless refinishing. That's a $1,500 job. She probably spent $1000 on the carpeting. So, for $500 less and just to say 26 hours, they settled for what she DIDNT want and could have given her what she REALLY wanted. A $10K budget was definitely enough to redo the floors. I would have said, I have 26 working hours, I'm getting the floors finished and buying the furniture I need and sticking it in the garage. Since she's my sister, I'll finish the room a couple of weeks later. This way, it's still the same room and the client is getting EXACTLY what she wants. I could understand if she had a $1000 budget, but she had $10K. What a waste of money.
Not to mention Trish's room. Her parents house looked relatively decent. Nice big room. Adding some shit grade Pergo (poorly installed with seams next to each other) is a great way to DE-VALUE the house. Why not spend the money and do proper hardwoods? $5/sf for 3" red oak vs. $3 for shitty Pergo.
As for the furniture companies, yeah, no one buys furniture like that. So you are stuck with what they have in stock. Since you are going to be living in these rooms for the next 10 years, why not order the furniture in the fabric you want and wait the 4 weeks versus HAVING to get the shit now to meet the deadline.
