Last year really beat me up. I still haven’t recovered. The work is a huge slog. We’re writing at about half the usual pace. I’m really tired creatively and have to take frequent breaks. It’s a terrible thing, because normally my brain processes things and chews through the next scene of the book while I knit or wash dishes, going about my day, so when I sit down before the computer, I already know where I’m going. Now there are days when I don’t think about the book at all. And I seem to have lost my ability to tolerate sharp turns in my entertainment.
Don’t get me wrong, I loved the beautiful sparkle of Bridgertons and no force – hehe – in this Galaxy or any other could’ve kept me from Mandalorian. The extent of my Star Wars geekery can’t be overestimated. I love Star Wars, especially the Galactic Republic/Sith Empire in post Great Hyperspace War. But aside from Mandalorian, I can’t seem to handle any stress. Yet I still want to veg out in front of TV with my knitting and I can only take so much of Gordon’s True Crime kick. Joe Kenda has a new show on Discovery+ about other American detectives. We are watching it. My, my.
Enter the renovation shows. Guaranteed to be uplifting and low stress. Below are my three current favorites.
Dream Home Makeover
Dream Home Makeover features Shea and Syd McGee of Studio McGee and is available on Netflix. Shea and Syd are located in Utah. They have two lovely children and they seem like a very nice family. They met in college and worked typical white collar jobs, until Shea decided to start a design firm from scratch in 2013. In 2014 Syd quit his marketing job and joined her. They worked very hard and now they are a well-earned success story. Now they have 80 employees.
This is a show you watch to see how the other half lives. The price tags are high. Even a minor remodel runs around 150K. The anchor points of the show are million dollar homes with basically unlimited design budgets. While the designs are pretty, it’s not that difficult to furnish a beautiful house when you have no financial limit.
From the design point of view, Shea is a California version of Joanna Gates. No matter what Joanna Gaines gets, she turns it into a white farm house with open shelving and shiplap. One time she announced at the start of the episode that she would be renovating a mid century modern. Midcentury modern is known for its use rich earth-tones like browns and oranges with pops of brighter color here and there. I was like, “Okay, let’s see it.” You can see it, here. Spoiler: it’s a white house with open shelving. Okay, she did keep some woodwork and she did put a bright blue sofa into it, so I am probably being too harsh.
Like Joanna, Shea turns everything white. It’s that gleaming I-have-money version of white: white marble, white walls, white overpriced furniture.
This house pretty much exemplifies the show. Her houses are the gold standard of the current affluent design trends. I saw a house just like this one in Austin not too long ago, and when we sold our house north of Austin, we had done exactly what she does. We painted everything white. That house gleamed from top to bottom and it sold in two hours. A lot of this is driven by the clientele. Clients want standard finishes. At some point in another episode, Shea made a brave decision to use a white tile with slightly uneven edges vs the usual white tile and had to convince her client to trust her.
To be fair, Shea is completely self aware. She says things like “A pop of color. Oh, I hate that so much.” Syd kids her about her white obsession at least once per episode. And her gleaming palaces do feel light and bright. I don’t know how they would wear long term – that much white would show a lot of dirt – but people who live in those houses probably have robust maid service. 🙂
It’s a fun show to watch, but I reccomend watching one episode of that and then something else, because houses begin to blend.
Restoring Galveston
And now we are going to make a 180 turn to Texas, where Ashley and Michael Cordray are renovating ruins on Galveston Island. The show is presented by Diy and is available on Discovery+ and Amazon, although it’s not prime so on Amazon you have to pay per episode. Have I mentioned how much I love Discovery+?
Galveston is a barrier island that lies south of Houston and is a premier destination for the Texas beachgoers, despite gray water and muddy looking sand. It’s a fun place. Kid 2 went there with her boyfriend for a weekend one time, and they rode horses on the beach, and went jet skiing, and had an awesome time.
While McGees are working with million dollar homes, Cordrays are working with this.
Galveston is historic, meaning it’s full of old houses with nifty architectural details that are barely standing. I would bulldoze down 2/3 of what’s on that show. Sometimes they buy houses for 30K and then they restore them into these adorable beach places. The couple tries to replicate original features like built-ins and staircases while still making the houses livable and modern. And then they sell them on the open market.
If you ever wanted to know what Texans are like, this is the show. They love their town, they watch their budget, the go to the beach, they have dogs, and they have zero fear about crawling under a teetering two hundred year old house to fix the plumbing. Also, their foreman owns an adorable Chihuahua names Frankie.
Very fun show. You can see some short clips of it here.
Home Town
If you know where the quote “My colors are blush and bashful” comes from, this is the show for you. It’s set in Laurel, Mississippi, a small Southern town, and it is as sweet tea southern as it can get. You can watch it on HGTV, also available on Discovery +. I think the first season might be on Hulu.
The show features Ben and Erin Napier, who are trying to revive the historic district of their small town. They pretty much succeeded at this point. The show is a huge hit, so they have done for Laurel what Gaines’ (Gaineses?) done for Waco. To some extent. Waco is still the armpit of Texas. Fight me.
Unlike the previous show, each of the houses on the show is owned by someone and the Napiers renovate with specific clients in mind. Ben does a lot of construction and woodworking. He has a woodworking shop with hilarious signs in it like, “Measure once, cuss twice.” Erin is the main force behind the actual design. Erin is extremely flexible. If the client wants bright colors, they get bright colors. If they want white and grey, they get white and grey. If the client wants a kitchen and they have only a little money to spend, they get butcherblock counter tops. If they have more money to spend, they might get quartz or granite.
The prices are low. Some houses are so old, that they can be bought for about $50K. Click here and look at the Feathered Friend video. Hehe. Renovation budgets rarely exceed $200,000, and most are less than that. Floors are restored. Walls are recycled. Furniture is often custom made by Ben. They are very careful with people’s money. This video pretty standard for the show.
They seem like very nice people, too. There is a lot of humor in the show. On the latest episode I watched, Ben got a cowboy hat somewhere and it became the running joke through the episode. He was making bad cowboy puns and Erin laughed at them.
This is probably my favorite renovation show right now. It’s warm and uplifting, but it doesn’t attempt to exalt their hosts or their lifestyle. The Napiers don’t try to hold their family up as a standard to imitate. They just want to help their neighbors find a good affordable place to live.
And that’s my guilty pleasure. 🙂 What’s yours?
I’ve been watching true crime, and for the life of me I don’t know why. Give me a John Sanford novel, with some truly sick puppy going around killing people, and I’m all in. But true crime novels scare the bejeezus out of me. I mean, these are real things that real sick monsters did. But for some reason right now, I’m hooked on the TV Shows.
Actually, I’ve veered off into Leah Remini’s expose on Scientology. Which is equally scary. And sad.
I love Home Town! My mom’s side of the family is from Mississippi so I’ve spent quite a bit of time there. I’ve looked up listings in Laurel just to see if I can spot houses from the show.
I also love My Lottery Dream home. It’s what you think House Hunters should be. Everyone is always so nice and it’s usually people in more rural areas who are ecstatic to be buying a $300,000 home.
I also love home renovation shows, and “Home Town” and “Restoring Galveston” are some of my favorites as well. I also really Like “Restored” which works with old California houses, all styles. Check it out, one of the great features in each show is that you are shown a fancy fully restored version of whatever style house the homeowner has, and the host takes design cues from what the home owner likes.
Home show should def give you at the very least a shout out as it is now my next show I plan to watch.
I too am having trouble ‘dealing’ in general. So I read to escape and play Everquest (old school WoW like multi player) with hubster. We are about to do a basement renovation and I use these kinds of show to motivate me to actually go through all of our crap.
Next week we are going to start watching our diet and exercising. So there is a fun adventure I hope works out. Life is trying to really mess with me tho. Hubster just finished his last chemo treatment last Monday then found our kid 1 has COVID on Thursday (mild case thank the stars). Everyone is quarantining and I’m trying like hell to take keep everyone healthy and isolated. Kid 1 is banished to his room and bathroom in the basement. My work from office is just outside his bedroom so I’m working with a mask on most of the day and am considering wearing while I sleep since I’m terrified I’ll somehow get/give to Kevin.
Kid 2 is trying to keep conditioning for baseball so treadmill is going a lot. The animals are unhappy they can’t go see kid 1 whenever they want and we are FaceTime-ing with him way more than I ever see him in normal life. (Which is actually a plus to all this)
But I just downloaded blood heir and will be rereading/ listening tomorrow. And watching some home town diy after I complete some quests and maybe the chiefs will win while I watch the supa bowl commercials.
Thanks for being you. Love ya in a non creepy but totally obsessed way. ????
I also love renovation shows. I love Home Town and Chip and Joanna, while fun to watch turn out house after house that looks the same.
I have been enjoying Escape to the Chateau. A British couple purchase a centuries old French chateau. Their first efforts are hot water and electricity. Watch from the beginning to get the full feel of what they have done. So fun.
I’m with Gordon on true crime and love Kenda. You left off one ‘my’.
I live in Costa Rica so am lucky to get the English language version of HGTV but I too have become addicted to home improvement shows. I love Home Town but have a soft spot for the Gaines, and confess I have become fond of the Property Brothers and the couple on Love It or Leave It. Problem is, I am now obsessed with redoing my kitchen and spend hours pouring over color charts. I have a small house but every blemish is magnified and I would love to import Erin and Ben to find space that does not exist to fix my bathroom, expand my kitchen and paint my bedroom. I moved here to get away from the US demand for open concepts, flow through energy, and ensuites. And yet I would give a lot for a big island with a pantry and lots of storage. FYI, I live alone and cook for one human and two dogs plus a feral cat. I need a life!
Long-time fan of Home Town! I watched so many episodes while on mar leave I got concerned my baby would develop a southern accent and we live in Canada!
I love the Home Town video 🙂
We bought a house two years ago. It has a second story veranda (a luxury I’d always wants but almost never saw) and double front doors in haint blue. The entire inside was painted white. And it DID look lovely and clean and bright.
But they painted it matte white. Matte. Basically primer. And it shows EVERY scuff. And you cannot clean it. I can’t wait to repaint.
Home Town is still my favorite as well. They feel like genuine people and I too believe in the value of restoring and appreciating the history of the home. My house was built in 1911 and I love it’s quirks.
I’m totally going to check out Home Town. Sounds like my kind of show. Thanks for the recommendation! ???? (Going to go pull up Episode 1 in Hulu now…)
Actually, Home Town is my guilty pleasure. For all the reasons you stated. My ability to absorb gratuitous stress is at an all time low.
My major entertainment venues right now include Home Town (all of which I’ve recorded), Restoring Galveston, and anything you’ve ever written. Perhaps for the same reason; I find it both fulfilling and gratifying to witness that which is rough, hidden, or hurting being brought into the light of their own nascent power and beauty. It pleases me to watch the realization of value develop and grow through the auspices of sometimes tentative but ultimately determined love and caring.
My latest guilty pleasure is watching a youtuber called The Farrier as he trims horses hooves and hot shoes them. He’s also a blacksmith so there’s some time spent pulling the horse shoe from the forge and hammering it. Sometimes I watch them before going to bed. There’s something very calm and methodical about his work that is very relaxing. I feel sooo bad about his back though!
I totally get it because I find myself watching people get cool haircuts on FB!
Open shelving always makes me think of having to dust – no thanks.
I sometimes watch Home Town, but my guilty pleasures are Top Chef and Project Runway. I love these shows and always get so happy when they’re on. And for some reason, I’ve watched the Debbie Allen Hot Chocolate Nutcracker documentary on Netflix several times, instead of a one and done. I just love her.
I love shows about buying new homes abroad. I like that someone here suggested that the items The Repair Shop are cursed! But my guilty pleasure is ‘Say Yes to the Dress’ – I have no idea why….
Property Brothers, Buying and Selling is my favourite. The twins are funny, and versatile and I mostly love the designs. (Except for barn doors. I hate them.) My husband is a carpenter/contractor and has built, renovated and maintained houses for about 45 years. Often, while I’m watching one of those shows, he scoffs and says, “That’s not the best way to do that,” among other things. Still, I get good ideas for renovating our house and cottage and often, it’s cost effective.
I gave up TV several years ago so I have nothing to add for the TV shoes, except for Wandavision. My guilty pleasure is and has always been stealing a bit of time for reading. I say a bit of time, but usually 5+ hours a day in addition to my 10+ hours as a nurse.
I read all genres, including fanfiction.
Baking competition shows! Ditto in the level of stress in entertainment. Try them. Creative and yummy. No one dies.
Thank you, Ilona Andrews, for the post. I don’t watch TV so I appreciate your assessment of shows. (Because i am rural rural and refuse to pay the extortion price for cable tv or land line phone service and have to talk with someone who can only read from a script in American English when I need help. When I say I need a technician, I need a technician not a 10 to 30 minute waste of time that ends with a pronouncement of “you need a service technician to come. “. That will be at least a week wait. Sigh sigh Satellite has fascinating / entertaining glitches too. Microsoft at least quickly escalates call to competent computer people.)
As far as your mental health goes… the more you worry about it, the more unimaginative you become. Eat healthy, exercise, work set hours, sleep, take naps, read, play, enjoy Gordon and the kids both human and non human, enjoy being alive. World building takes time and positive energy. Stress is unproductive. Learn a new skill like eating with non dominant hand or writing or painting or… Makes you think differently thus stimulating brain….. good luck.
I love Grand Designs, people on a self build discovery tour. The houses are fabulous even the ones you wouldn’t personally want to live in. There are also Australian and New Zealand versions. I think you can get it on Netflix and 4 on demand in the uk. There are also many of the shows on YouTube.
Easy watching and the payoff with the grand reveal at the end is fab.
Also GB anything, bake-off, pottery throw down, sewing bee etc. Or Landscape/ portrait artist of the year.
Life is so stressful at the moment I want kind, gentle tv, no fighting, contrived conflict or meanness. Can’t be doing with that.
Grand Designs UK. It’s currently on Netflix. My friend and I have been watching on episode per week since last March. We text each other things like “uh oh, they didn’t retain an architect ????” and “they spent HOW much on a staircase?!” It’s a therapeutic hour of sassy texting.
My guilty pleasure is sugar rush in Netflix! I love how creative and skilled the contestants are and I love the Bert balanced feedback the judges give them, always respectful, always pointing out both the good and not so great. Also zumbos just dessert , so great and exiting and fun becasue of it’s totalt crazy dessert.
Bert = both
Autocorrect is having a laugh right now, even I don’t understand what I was going for here, sorry
I love Good Bones. You can see older seasons on Hulu. It is a mother and daughter duo here in Indianapolis. They take crappy homes and turn them into liveable spaces, and they started in their own neighborhood. The mom is a lawyer-turned-DIY artist and the daughter is the driver of the whole show. I love the relationship between the two, and there is a half-brother who runs the demo team. The mom and daughter are right there with the demo team doing the hard gritty work. One time, there was a super nasty old toilet and nobody else was willing to deal with it. The mom cheerfully said, “Oh, I got this.” And took care of it. I saw them speak at a housing conference here in Indy when they were *just* renewed for the second season. The mom said, “Yeah, they sent me a bottle of tequila and said congrats, you’re on for season 2.” And the daughter was pissed because she didn’t get a bottle of tequila. Reminds me of the family relationships in the Hidden Legacy series.
I love Home Town -despite the excess of Southernness which usually sets my teeth on edge. They’re seem extremely real. Erin designs for her clients not just her personal aesthetic which is great! It is hilarious too! I have been coping with the stresses of the current situations and the hot mess in my work life by rereading fav books/series both fairly recent and old. I’m only reading new stuff from certain fav authors like you- honestly without the IA universes to escape to I don’t know how I’d have managed-Grace Draven and Nalini Singh oh and the Liaden Universe! I’ve also gone back to way old friends like Rosemary Sutcliff, Andre Norton and Mary Stewart. I desperately want a creative outlet but can’t seem to stick to anything so my artistic and crafty production has been practically zippo. Walks in the woods or parks help a lot! I love cooking but feeding basically myself most of this time has been an additional drag. This is not the norm for me but with the stresses of work, pandemic and the political mess I am a mess too. I am hopeful that the new norm is not going to stay the norm but if it does I will figure out how to have a real life again lol!
If you’re interested in crossing the pond Project Restoration is people buying grade 1 and 2 listed buildings in the UK some are grand housed and others are cottages. My favorite is the episode features a Welsh gentleman. There’s other shows based in the UK along the same premise. If you like the Great British Back Off and have hbo there’s the Great Pottery Throwdown, and another that’s good is The Repair Shop.
My husband and I had our first official date in Galveston. We played putt-putt. We’d take day trips all the time – from when I was little up until we moved (16 yrs ago) from Houston to DFW & then to MT. My first memory of the ocean is my parents each holding one of my hands and lifting me over the waves as they rolled in. I will definitely be checking out the Restoring Galveston show.
I watch The Antiques Road Trip on Youtube. There are 2 competing antiques experts, they drive a classic car and get the same budget to buy antiques and then face each other at auction. It’s a British show, so you see a lot of rural (and beautiful) England.
My new show: The home Edit on Netflix. Inspiring! And pretty!
+1! That was my “folding laundry” show, too bad there is currently only one season available, I’m hoping they’ll get a second one after CoViD…
I also watch renovation shows. Hometown and Good Bones. I like the ones that are not million dollar homes.
HGTV’s Fixer to Fabulous is the best home improvement show on free TV and I’ve watched all the others. Jennie and Dave Marrs are hired by the homeowners and do everything possible to make the home exactly what is wanted. Then they come up with extra ways to put it over the top. They are an adorable couple without being too sweet or trying too hard.
I love Home Town. One of my major suppliers of transformers has their manufacturing plant and main office in Laurel. A couple of people who work for the supplier have been on the show. So thats fun. I like Nicole Curtis too and the latest huge place she is doing in Detroit.
It’s snowing here again inNYC, again.then temps will drop to 19.
Had to go out and shop , needed bread and meat and olive oil. Bought hot dogs and rolls, got home got only the rolls.Hot Dogs are missing.
I don’t have cable, but I watch on TV
Sarah Richardson, she is home designer in Toronto. She does love white and neutrals , which I hate, but she goes to antique stores and fabric stores. Which I love.She pulls out rugs and bolts of fabric and I just love seeing all the fabrics and textures . She goes to places that recycled old doors, stain glass and old barns.
She liked to mix patterns and somehow it works. She shows people hand designing lamps, furniture and pottery. I miss going to fabric stores with my mom.
There were great old fabric stores in TriBeCa with old wooden
floors and really old fabric. There was a store that only sold tassels, ribbons, old buttons, different kinds of yarn.
I have been reading all my books over again. Elizabeth Peters, Patricia Briggs, Aaron Elkins ,Sarah Maclean , Nalini Singh and you. Anything cozy and light. My old Star Wars books , love Aaron Allston.
With tea and cookies.
This is what keeps me sane.
Thinking about the innkeeper, missing Dina and Sean. May need to read it again.
I think we all need to stop beating ourselves up and just do whatever keeps you going. Who cares if it’s a slower pace, just keep going.
@gailk – I’m assuming with Nalini, it’s more the Psy-Changeling series you’re reading, because Guild Hunter can be brutal.
I’ve seen all these.
HGTV and DIY Network are my jam and have been for probably around 10-15 years now. (Home Town can also be found on HGTV, and Restoring Galveston on DIY Network, sometimes episodes are available free on demand for folks that have those channels as part of their packages on their cable networks if you want to avoid having yet another streaming app). I’ve seen Dream Home, and while I watched it all (in desperation for something new to watch), I didn’t quite care for it as much. It’s not bad, it’s not great, for me it’s middling of the road. But I adore Home Town and Restoring Galveston.
I have the type of mind that doesn’t turn off, that’s always thinking about work. That makes it hard to conk out for my Zs. But most of these shows resolve within their episode, take a problem, or an ugly, and FIX it turning it pretty.
I especially like Holmes Make It Right (and his other shows), it’s a bit less about just design, and a contractor who comes in and fixes home that have (in many other cases) been butchered by previous contractors, or something traumatic happened (house fires, hurricanes, etc.). There’s just something nice about a show that you know is going to fix things that you know are agonizingly stressful for their property owners. Mike Holmes cares about his work, and about people, and it comes through. There’s several shows he’s done, now his kids are becoming involved as they’re now adults and more active in leadership roles within his business. Downside with this show is things don’t resolve usually in one episode, but take a few.
I also really like Maine Cabin Masters, they take these camps and cabins in Maine, places that I wouldn’t even want to be in, and turn them cute. Sometimes it’s just repair and design, sometimes a little light remodeling, and sometimes there’s some major rebuilding and additions. The crew is family, or long time friends, and that camaraderie and teasing comes through. I feel it’s a bit more down to earth. Not like a spokesmodel doing construction as some of the other shows feel like sometimes. “Here let me have my hair and makeup perfect, and wear my cute boots.”
I also like the Scott Brothers (aka the Property Brothers) and their wide assortment of shows, again the sibling camaraderie is magic.
I’ve recently been watching Escape to the Chateau. A british couple buys a french chateau in rough shape, and repairs and reimagines it as both their home, and as a business (weddings, events, gourmet dining weekends, growing their own food. They go get their copper pans re-lined in tin by artisans still doing it. He’s an engineer and does a lot of the work, and she used to run a tea party business, and is a crafter who designs and makes things for the place, and is the party planner. In this case we keep revisiting them over a period of time. As the renovations are done in phases as they can afford to do so. You also learn a bit about French culture. You can watch it free on the streaming service Peacock. It’s not strictly a design show, or even strictly a renovation show, it’s more a docu series with those elements baked in.
I really enjoy Restored with Brett Waterman on DIY Network, he’s a cowboy hat wearing designer that works on period, historic homes in California, restoring character that may have been lost, helping to modify homes for the residents for their needs. Part of it is like a history dive and a bit of archaeology, stripping back finishes to find original details, hitting the historical society, taking clients on inspiration homes that are exemplars of their home’s architectural style. He tackles the home from the viewpoint of what it was originally intended from colors, to architecture, flow, and landscape. I really can’t think of anyone else really doing that historical approach to the homes, and I learn a lot just by watching. You get a whole new level of appreciation for the architecture. He gets so excited when he finds old details. 🙂 His enthusiasm and appreciation is catching.
Mother and daughter duo Good Bones is also a fun watch too, their business “2 chicks and a hammer” take usually homes I’d bulldoze and save them. And they’re helping with the revitalization of a community.
There’s so many good shows out there. ^_^ That being said even I have noticed that the overwhelming majority of these shows are very heavily skewed to one racial demographic in their stars.
Take care of yourself @Ilona. This past blurs-year is taking its toll.
Omg – I have been ‘escaping’ through HGTV for years now. I call it the ‘safe’ channel. You can lave the tv tuned in there and you won’t turn on the tv and see death and mayhem first thing…
My favorites are Home Town, I kind of love their love and joy in each other. I like the brothers… I like, when I can catch it, ‘Bargain Mansions’ and I’m a sucker for ‘Love it or List it’ it’s so corny.
Thanks for sharing your faves, it’s fun to check out new programs occasionally. You have seen the treehouse show haven’t you? For sheer joy in action, that’s my all time favorite, although it not renovation it’s new construction, I find Pete Nelson to be one of the most inspirational people on tv.
I love The Great British Baking Show or Bake Off as the Brits call it. It is on Netflix. It is fun to hear the different accents and speech patterns. They don’t get cash as a prize just the satisfaction of winning so it is a refreshing change. I watch a lot of cooking shows.
I am watching the second season of A Discovery of Witches and wish there were more. It is a little addicting.
Fixer to Fabulous is a new home renovation show based in Northwest Arkansas. It has some similarities to the Joanna Gaines show but the houses are more in a mid level range and the styles are different. It is on HGTV
@Tammy – what I like about Great British Baking Show is that even though it’s a competition, it’s not cut-throat like you’d find on American shows, they’re rooting and supporting each other.
I too watch renovation shows endlessly. My addiction started with Welcome Home and expanded to Love it or List it, Building off the Grid and Maine Cabin Masters. I agree all the white in homes bored me. Now, I watch people do crazy things to update or build their house. It makes my feeble attempts to improve my house some credibility. Life is crazy now, and so are all of us. It makes everything harder. But I just got the vaccine shots and man, I feel lighter and hopeful. There is a light on in the tunnel!
I finished my second time through the two seasons of Grand Designs that are on Netflix and have started searching YouTube for more episodes. It’s a UK show hosted by Kevin McCloud, and each episode follows an individual or family tackling an unconventional construction project, either renovating an existing property or building new. One of my favorites was a couple converting a 150-year-old London water tower into a home, and another was a twenty-something who bought a plot of land in London that looked roughly the size of a shipping container, and build a three story home on it that just barely met the minimum code size requirements for a habitable building. 🙂
I also watch a lot of The Great British Baking Show, and their new year’s episode led me to binge-watch all two seasons of Derry Girls yesterday.
The year we were flooded in Harvey was a bad year all around. My husband lost his youngest brother unexpectedly, our family dog had to be put to sleep, various other things happened and we flooded. I became a complete marshmallow when it came to books, tv and movies. I couldn’t watch anything with angst. I wanted guaranteed happy endings. I get that feeling completely where you just need something uplifting and easy.
My guilty pleasures that year were syrupy books, I could lose myself in action as long as it wasn’t too gritty and had a happy ending. I watched renovation shows since I was getting forced renovation done. I spent way too much time researching everything online that we had to buy trying to keep costs down and not make any design mistakes since we couldn’t afford a designer.
Now, I also enjoy true crime shows. I’m curious about that show you mentioned with the detectives. Do you have a name for it? I still enjoy home renovation shows. I’ve watched some shows about some really wonky court proceedings/investigations where I’m anywhere from positive to pretty sure innocent people were convicted. Netflix if full of those. I binged Lie To Me with my kids over the break before we moved on to Criminal Minds (though both can get almost silly at times they’re guilty pleasures). My whole family watched the Queen’s Gambit and I’m looking forward to the upcoming Netflix movie on Hulu called Moxie, which was written by an English teacher at my son’s former high school. I still like feel-good anything but I can finally handle things that aren’t always light and bright.
I loved renovation shows, but I’m currently in the business of furniture and they are a bit ruined for me. On the other hand my guilty pleasure are crime shows – as british as possible. Slow and with lots of scenery in them. Like Midsommer, Shatlend or Vera. I can knit or embroider and not try constantly to fallow the plot.
My guilty pleasure is binge reading your books, which I recently completed, again! (Sans the Edge; I need to do those, yet.) And now I’m binge reading the Dresden Files because Jim Butcher completed the series at the end of ‘20 and I need to refresh my brain on his world before I read the final two. Sounds like you are suffering from the depression that has beset the world w/ the onset of the sickness. I’m talking more than the co:(. Not my business, not my place, but trust in what faith you have that the world, the country, will be better in due time. It is the only way I can get through a day. I love your blog. You make my heart laugh. Thank you!
I love Home Town too, another fave for me is Good Bones and I really enjoy Restored. It’s were my headspace is too all the best
Korean and Japanese cooking videos on YouTube. And Binging with Babish (another youtube cooking show).
I really enjoy Home Town, also! Erin and Ben are really engaging and other than the resurgence of wallpaper, I enjoy them. I am enjoying Maine Cabin builders .. their budgets are 30,000-50,000 and this includes adding an indoor bathroom :). Fixer to Fabulous is fun and they have done so many different types of houses. It is my guilty pleasure too.
I’m an interior designer and the creative burnout you’re feeling plagues me every few months for about 6 weeks. I battle it by watching the Great British Baking show or shoujo anime that I’ve watched before. Alternatively, slice of life manga along the lines of “I’ve been reincarnated as a villainess in an otome game, what do I do?!” (it’s a shockingly extensive genre: I have probably 16 series on my reading list that release one chapter a month)
I always said the only reason I ever got cable was because of HGTV and DIY, I am really glad you posted this because I had not tried any of these shows yet. My guilty pleasure right now is British detective shows on Britbox from Prime- I really like Father Brown
I love Father Brown! Would love more series to it, but even so, I love it.
It’s mine too! I was so excited to learn we got a free year of Discovery+ with our Verizon service. I’ve watched all of Home Town and I might start over again because it just makes me soooo calm.
My husband and I are addicted to The Repair Shop a BBC TV Series. Amazing Master Craftsmen & women repair a wide range of cherished family heirlooms. The stories are touching and the talented people working on the show are amazing – so much heart energy!
kindred spirit!
I LOVE Hometown. Ben and Erin are absolutely adorable. I want to bee their friend.
Right now they’re actually filming in Wetumpka Alabama. We had a rash of terrible tornadoes, and Wetumpks was especially hard hit. It destroyed a 150 year old church down to kindling.
They’re working on several businesses and some private homes. I can wait to see what they do with it.
I just discovered Victorian Farm, a BBC show from 2009 on Amazon Prime Video. It is historical renovation, kind of. Three archeologists have to use historically accurate techniques to make a Victorian era farm livable and self sufficient for one calendar year. They have to wear Victorian clothes and fix up the house, barn, outbuildings, and build a pig sty. They also have to plant and harvest crops. Ruth is amazing and has so much work to do to feed everyone, keep the house clean, etc. It took four days for her to do laundry!!! It was entertaining, and I felt like I was learning stuff too. There are additional seasons with the same archeologists called Edwardian Farm, and Tudor Monastery Farm where they do the same thing in different time period farms.