HGTV is great at showing people the possibilities of a home, however, I wish you would create a show that would teach people to respect the integrity of a house and the era in which it was built. It would be fun to learn about the Victorian Era one week and the 1960's Modern the next. People need to know what they really should NOT do when renovating. For example, I am selling a 1910 Craftsman style home. Currently, it has a detached garage. Our buyer is going to add a two-car attached garage to the back of the house. It will disturb the windows of a beautiful sun room. One of the two windows of a bedroom will totally disappear. It is just tasteless to make such a change, but people don't understand. You have a great opportunity to teach and what a great service you would be providing.
I believe they understand something you're missing. It will be THEIR house and they are setting it up to do what THEY want it to do. Very often there are trade-offs that must be made between design and utility. Do you have in mind a better way to get an attached two car garage added?
Thanks for responding. This is just the conversation I want to have. I believe that you missed something, too. The point of my idea for the show was that too often people sacrifice the integrity and inherent beauty of a home for "utility" sake. I believe that HGTV teaches that too much. I do have an idea for a two car garage that is closer to the house, would be less expensive and still maintain the beauty. Attaching a huge garage to the house is uncharacteristic of a 1910 Craftsman, especially in our neighborhood. The philosophy of this style is to let nature in, not close it out. Unfortunately our realtor did not explain that. People don't know. An HGTV show on home styles would be helpful and fun. (FYI these buyers are not disabled or elderly.)This message has been edited. Last edited by: antoc's mom,
I agree with you Antoc's Mom. Your comment was not about the legality of what your home's buyers will do with the property. You are only using your house as an example of bad choices for antique homes. Really has nothing to do with your specific house.
Why buy something that has a valuable aspect and then remove that value? Our own house is from 1905 and has its original windows. New windows would be much more energy efficient. But if we replace these windows we are taking away from the integral value of this home. Instead we choose to have storm windows which help retain heat and do not ruin the original house windows.
I agree that such a show informing viewers and educating them about different house styles would be very interesting and maybe make new owners more cautious in the choices they make in renovating older homes.
BTW it really kills me DH and me when programs show new owners going in with a wrecking ball and destroying cabinets and tiles and fixtures and walls etc. and then brag about using "green" products in replacements. What is really green is keeping old things and forego buying new.
