Let me preface this post by saying that I think the people at Extreme Makeover: Home Edition do a wonderful thing. They help people have a better life and any act of generosity and caring for another human being is terrific.
With that out of the way, let me now say how much this show drives me insane. Like yelling at the television insane. Seriously. I can't stand it.
Part one of the primal rage comes from the insistence on calling at least one member of every home a hero. Last night, the mother of two sick children who painted murals in Children's Hospitals was a hero. Forgive me, but no. She's a wonderful human being who does fantastic things, but let's not toss around the word hero all willy-nilly. That guy who jumped into the Red River ten days ago to save a kid, he's a hero.
Phase two of the frustration stems from the general concept of the show itself and how it defines people in need. Yes, this family had a house full of mold and water damage, two daughters who were sick and they needed assistance. However, they don't need it as much as the people in the 9th Ward in New Orleans, all those Iowans whose houses got leveled by tornadoes last year or the thousands of homeless people in North America alone who could most certainly use a place to sleep at night.
Three - why so grandiose?
Giving them a place to live is one thing. Creating a palatial estate with top of the line everything and more indulgences than one house possibly needs is another thing. Sure, you want to make a beautiful home for them that solves their issues; granite counter tops, stainless steel everything and marble floors don't have any barring on a person's well-being.
I would say that easily $500,000 worth of materials, products and manpower went into creating last night's home and while it's wonderful for that particular family, I can't help but think how two $250,000 homes would have impacted more people. Or four, $125,000 homes. You get the picture...
So what do you say: Am I jaded and warped or what?
Monday, May 11, 2009
Am I Out of Line Here?
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
Extreme Makeover: Our House Edition
Thankfully, reorganizing our London living space didn't involve the delicately coiffed Ty Pennington and his band of overly enthusiastic, sentimental carpenters, designers and trades people.
I don't know if there is a group of people on television who annoy me more than the folks riding that big, stupid bus.
It did take about three weeks from start to finish. More correctly, it took three weeks from start to "organized and sorted out enough that no one is going to go postal in the next couple weeks while we finish tinkering with designs and alignments."
You see, Sarah and I are both pretty anal retentive about some things.
Number one for me is cooking - as in, if I'm cooking, why exactly are you in the kitchen, touching my food and taking up my space?
As much as my mother would try to refute this, number two is organization. Everything has a place where it belongs, so why not put it there? Dirty dishes and garbage are my biggest pet peeves, especially when you leave the dishes on top of the dishwasher and the garbage next to the trash can...
Sarah can get screaming mad - literally - when things aren't clean and organized and out of her way. It's a frightening occurrence that I could do without...
So Sunday night, Sarah and I got talking about our plans for yesterday; what we wanted to get done, what to have for dinner, etc.
Finishing the Guest Room / Office was Priority #1 on my list, especially with Garry heading to BC for another two weeks this AM.
Since I spend a ton of time in here, having it organized and inviting is important to me. I couldn't finish it on my own, however, because we needed the shelving unit from downstairs and the new guy to the house doesn't go moving all of his future father-in-law's junk, no matter how many weeks it's been since he first mentioned he was going to do so.
Sarah, however, is a different story. She's Daddy's Little Girl (I might get smacked for that one) and so when she mentions moving the shelving unit, within 30 minutes it has been cleaned off and relocated to the Guest Room.
She also managed to get the basement cleaned up as well. Not only is all the clutter and junk that has just been sitting around since Christ was a cowboy been discarded (or at least moved somewhere else), but the alignment of the basement is way better now.
The final steps in the process will happen later today - cleaning out the fridge, freezer and cupboards and doing a massive reorganization.
Then we're done and we managed to do it without any sappy stories, dreamy carpenters or collection of neighbours yelling, "Move that bus!"
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