tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3862216000300765627.post4002388623049430391..comments2024-01-16T03:42:46.705-05:00Comments on The Downward Spiral: Extreme Makeover: Reality EditionBill Hickshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17551954408189665078noreply@blogger.comBlogger10125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3862216000300765627.post-63078823958136341712014-12-30T13:05:07.052-05:002014-12-30T13:05:07.052-05:00Thanks for this post. I remember watching this sho...Thanks for this post. I remember watching this show when I was younger thinking "aww man that's awesome I'm so jealous" but now that I know the real life implications of taxes and utility bills, it pains me to see the aftermath of some of these families.Holly Sameshttp://www.terranovabuilders.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3862216000300765627.post-34106445080163946662014-10-16T14:31:48.548-04:002014-10-16T14:31:48.548-04:00Thank you for speaking out against the bullshit. Thank you for speaking out against the bullshit. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3862216000300765627.post-11037845888451557082014-07-25T08:10:49.164-04:002014-07-25T08:10:49.164-04:00It wasn't snooty, it's true.It wasn't snooty, it's true.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3862216000300765627.post-73419337134249103842013-11-12T11:01:46.757-05:002013-11-12T11:01:46.757-05:00The Crafts in Hondo, TX - featured on an Extreme M...The Crafts in Hondo, TX - featured on an Extreme Makeover Home Edition - have divorced.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3862216000300765627.post-66650706905757144522013-03-30T23:57:49.611-04:002013-03-30T23:57:49.611-04:00I was told to avoid reading stuff on the web, news...I was told to avoid reading stuff on the web, newspapers, or talking to anyone out of hand after my family received a makeover in Novemeber of 2008. I followed the advice of the production staff (to a point!) and in the years since have done my best to live, along with my family within our means. After 4+years I thought all the hooplah was done and it might be safe to google my family, the show and see what was up. All I can say is...damn.<br />I find it astounding that people can sit back and make judgement calls about people they know nothing about, and make the wildest assumptions about them and their circumstances. <br />Unlike the Okvaths my family didn't get a 5,000+square foot home, ours with the garage is just around 2,500 give or take. We have had issues with taxation yet we still manage to honor our obligations, all the while helping our sons get through school and be there for our oldest who now serves his country and has started a family of his own.<br />In that time we have prevailed over astounding allegations into our personal character ranging from the banal to the truly perverted, stuff of the likes that were it even remotely true the production staff wouldn't have come near us with a 10' pole. To see another family from the show be subjected to this sort of character assasination is simply heartbreaking. No, it isn't all wine and roses after the show. In our case we have been able to sustain ourselves with some prudent decisionmaking on our part. But for someone to just make a blanket statement about people like the Okvath family says to me that they're the sort who've never been forced to make a decision of mortgage vs. groceries vs. gas vs.utilities, and that isn't an indictment of their intelligence, decision-making or their breeding/upbringing. That is life. Until you've lived someone ele's life and been forced to make the choices their life forced upon them, you have no place making judgements about them. <br />Sincerely,<br />W. Mathew Drumm<br />EMHE Season 6 Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14414202436205546991noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3862216000300765627.post-44223758685746806172012-01-18T18:51:24.835-05:002012-01-18T18:51:24.835-05:00@Megadoom - not at all. My wife and I live in a m...@Megadoom - not at all. My wife and I live in a much more modest house than we could have afforded, which allowed us to pay off the mortgage. Obviously, I'm not referring to those who choose to live within or below their means voluntarily.Bill Hickshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17551954408189665078noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3862216000300765627.post-4005970571746848372012-01-18T09:02:26.156-05:002012-01-18T09:02:26.156-05:00"There is a reason why people like the Okvath..."There is a reason why people like the Okvaths live in shitty houses in the first place: because they either make poor life's decisions, or they are born disadvantaged and don't possess the talent or smarts to rise above their station."<br /><br />That was a snooty statement from you. There can be many slices of the "why" pie. So if I'm not living in a nice house and doing well I'm either disadvantaged or dumb?Megadoomhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06507132110939297753noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3862216000300765627.post-33081610251799918902012-01-17T10:45:29.124-05:002012-01-17T10:45:29.124-05:00I think you are unfair to the Okvaths.
First, mo...I think you are unfair to the Okvaths. <br /><br />First, most people would not be able to handle sudden prosperity on the scale of going from 1800 sq ft to 5300 sq ft. <br /><br />Second, even in ideal economic times, no one would be able to sell a house of 5300 sq ft in a neighborhood that holds houses where 1800 sq ft is the norm or close to it. A backyard carousel? In what neighborhood would that be the norm?<br /><br />Third, I'm sure that having such an extreme house did nothing to help the Okvaths' relationship with their neighbors. If anything, it probably made them a target for all sorts of misery.<br /><br />I think the key here is "extreme." If the show had built them a 2400 sq ft house that fit in with the character of their neighborhood, the Okvaths would have had a much better chance of being able to sustain their windfall. But of course, that wouldn't have made a good story for TV. <br /><br />In the end, the show did what the show wanted for the benefit of the show. It was no gift to the recipients. <br /><br />As a final note, you said "it is also long past time that people stop viewing material possessions as the key to happiness in their lives." I would only say that for the shows I watched (just a few, I admit), the people that the show chose to help generally did not have **enough** material wealth per family member, many of those families through no fault of their own, for example, due to medical tragedies reducing them to poverty. There are circumstances that trap people into poverty, no matter how smart or skilled or willing to improve they are. Everyone should read Steinbeck's _The Grapes of Wrath_ for a good picture of how that occurs.greatbluehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12272481895573751738noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3862216000300765627.post-26956157018024930252012-01-17T09:25:37.129-05:002012-01-17T09:25:37.129-05:00You can do anything you set your mind to when you ...<i>You can do anything you set your mind to when you have<br />Vision,<br />Determination, and an<br />Endless supply of expendable labor.</i><br />--Larry Kerstenstarskeptichttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02661141833059602897noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3862216000300765627.post-12933053840488480232012-01-17T07:29:22.744-05:002012-01-17T07:29:22.744-05:00I remember watching that show when it first came o...I remember watching that show when it first came on several years ago. At that point it was actually a "makeover" show. They would go into people's shitty houses, repaint things, give them some new appliances, do a kids bedroom up to look like a spaceship or something, throw in some pretty landscaping, and bang - the family had a much nicer looking version of their original house. Maybe they'd knock down a wall or add a room if it was really called for, but by and large the people were still living in the same house. Then at some point they added a whole second floor to some family's 2 BR ranch. From there, it was a short jump to: "fuck it, let's just tear the whole thing down and slap together the biggest, most ostentatious eyesore that we can in 5 days. I didn't watch it much longer after that, for largely the same reasons that you didn't like it. They built one here in St.Louis some years ago, and the biggest thing I remember people saying was that it looked completely out of place with all of the other houses on the street. Oh well, it's just another sign of the times I suppose. One less shitty tv show to not watch.Mike Lorenzhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10334801354576738848noreply@blogger.com