Design Star

[Ana Bannana]

I was pretty shocked at Tracee bringing up Trish's wedding ring incident as a possible reason they didn't tile the kitchen. It was just the nail in the coffin. She never owned one mistake - not one. And when she was in the elevator, she made some sideways comment about the people on the show - not good. If I were a client of hers, I think I would likely find someone else to do business with.

[Google]

 

[Kao]

Originally Posted by Ana Bannana

I was pretty shocked at Tracee bringing up Trish's wedding ring incident as a possible reason they didn't tile the kitchen. It was just the nail in the coffin. She never owned one mistake - not one. And when she was in the elevator, she made some sideways comment about the people on the show - not good. If I were a client of hers, I think I would likely find someone else to do business with.

That COMPLETELY disgusted me. Blame blame and more blame for the others all the way to the end, that's the Tracee way. And the fact that she brought up the ring incident--tacky.

On the other hand I can't say that the lack of personality of the kitchen was ENTIRELY her fault, since she wanted to discuss it and the rest of the team didn't want to know. The people I feel the most sorry for were the poor family who had their kitchen redone because they got absolutely NOTHING that they asked for. The wife stated in paticular that she wanted a blacksplash and the husband wanted color. Instead they got something that was nice, but bland and uninspired.

[prhoshay]

Didn't Mikey V. say, before Tracee left for her shopping marathon, that he wanted to start tiling by 2:30?

[ChristoferHawke]

Originally Posted by Bunny555

Mikey (I think it was) was on the money when he said "these people are supposed to be getting a new $10,000 kitchen not a $5,000 make-over". Seriously, where did the money go, did they ever say how much of that they actally spent? To me that kitchen (minus the new appliances) looks like something they could do on Trading Spaces for $1,000.

And the appliances were not part of the $10,000. They got a gift certificate from Sears to pay for those.

[justCoz]

Originally Posted by prhoshay

Didn't Mikey V. say, before Tracee left for her shopping marathon, that he wanted to start tiling by 2:30?

Yes, that was what Mikey V said, and it was in Tracee's schedule, but she chose to ignore it. It's not that they said exactly that she would bring the tiles back before she did more shopping, but without the tiles how else would he be able to start tiling according to the schedule? She said after she bought them that if she didn't make it back they could just paint the back splash. It sounded to me like that's what she just decided to do, and tried to blame them for the problem. She took forever shopping. She should have sent someone else to do the shopping since that was something she never managed to do in a timely manner.

Pretty bold to blame the ring incident for part of the time management problem when it was her shopping for hours on end that used way more time than the ring.

[Kao]

And her whole "I think the family will care more for the kitchen utensils (ie: plates, knickknacks, utensils, etc) than the workmanship and design done to the actual kitchen" remark really rubbed me the wrong way quite a few ways. Her attitude REEKED of "Oh, you people are getting a brand new kitchen and new appliances anyway so it really doesn't matter if you don't get EXACTLY what you asked for since it's a freebie." Somehow, I don't think she treats her paying clients in that fashion.

I really hope that some professionals went in and gave that family more of what the actually asked for (like a backsplash).

[ChristoferHawke]

Originally Posted by Kao

And her whole "I think the family will care more for the kitchen utensils (ie: plates, knickknacks, utensils, etc) than the workmanship and design done to the actual kitchen" remark really rubbed me the wrong way quite a few ways. Her attitude REEKED of "Oh, you people are getting a brand new kitchen and new appliances anyway so it really doesn't matter if you don't get EXACTLY what you asked for since it's a freebie." Somehow, I don't think she treats her paying clients in that fashion.

I really hope that some professionals went in and gave that family more of what the actually asked for (like a backsplash).

I know that on past kitchen makeover shows they've had to send the HGTV crews in to redo the shoddy work done by the design contestants. I remember one black tile counter with white grout (should have been grey) that was so poorly done that they had to rip out the whole counter and replace it. But then there was the dining room that Sparkle did that was an extension of the kitcher that was spectacular.

[Bunny555]

Originally Posted by ChristoferHawke

And the appliances were not part of the $10,000. They got a gift certificate from Sears to pay for those.

That's what I thought too but I wasn't sure. Since that was the case, there's no excuse for that kitchen being as lacking as it was. Granted, 24 hours is not a lot of time but with that kind of money to work with, they could have given the family exactly what they wanted.

[jmb]

Originally Posted by Bearcata

What part of "we are not afraid of color" and "red is my favorite color" did Tracee not get. If that countertop was black or mainly black with little flecks of white and grey and either red porcelin tile or red glass tile it would have really popped.

My thoughts exactly. A red backsplash would have been awesome, and more in line with what the customer wanted... not just red accessories.
Tracee definitely did herself in on this episode. I was yelling at the TV when she said "no one told me I had to bring the tile back". Yikes girl - you made the schedule, and you didn't know that the tile was needed earlier than the end of the day? Give me a break. And then trying to blame it on the ring incident that took 20 minutes? Pathetic. And I agree, her exit was NOT classy at all.
I will also miss Mikey V. I really thought he should have made it to the final two, and that Jennifer should have been gone a while ago. Again, these team challenges suck. If this had been an individual challenge, I think the results would have been very different. Also, if there had been more individual challenges early on, I think Tracee would have been gone long ago, and would not have been able to hide behind her teammates' work.
I did like Matt's commentary, and agree with the other poster who mentioned his "groovy" references. I thought it was very cute, and removing the grooves was a very big part of the makeover.
All in all, I've been fairly disappointed in the quality of design from the contestants this year. Even my husband (who barely watches), stated that none of them could hold a candle to the awesome work that David Bromstad does. Every room he does seems like a work of art.

[prhoshay]

Originally Posted by swissmiss150

I don't understand why they called the fire department to cut off the ring. Why didn't they just take her to a doc-in-the-box or the local emergency room after they were finished for the day's shooting? A lot of unnecessary drama. Let's hope the show made a nice contribution to the fire department. Seems like a doctor should have looked at it anyway - maybe a splint or something.

Choice #1 probably does not have the equipment necessary to get the job done, so that would be an unnecessary waste of time.

Choice #2 can take forever...and probably will...huge waste of unnecessary time with a low priority emergency, unless the finger is blue. People go to ERs for colds and general medical problems (non-urgent) anymore. They treat those places like they are their normal doctors' offices, and the back-ups are ridiculous.

FD was a smart and expedient move; of course, her going to them (instead of vice versa) would have been an even better move.