Design Star

[Allie]

Originally Posted by Miss_Griss

Seriously? I've never heard that before. Say more. Is this a new discovery, or have I just not been paying attention?

There is debate on the issue on the risk. Some emits more than others. The issue has been raised periodically over the years.

Radon

What’s Lurking in Your Countertop? - NYTimes.com

[Google]

 

[Arielflies]

Originally Posted by shoepie

Given the time constraint and limited shopping locations both did the best they could though Jennifer hit a home run with the red cabinets. I hope that next year they see this as something to correct.

I am voting for Jennifer. Her personal sense of style tells me she is someone who will be interesting to watch. The challenges were not that compelling and limited their ability because the spaces were way too big with not enough time or money to really fill them out in most cases.

Still I love this show and hope to see it evolve. I loved the final challenge in Bromberg's season. The glass rooms in Central Park were exciting and of a scale where grand decorating was accomplished. I also loved the pet store challenge. We complained about too many challenges in those 3 sided rooms but this year we didn't get enough of them!

HGTV, now listen. Give them more time. Go ahead, you can do it. Certainly you have enough money to spring for assistants too. Let's really see what they can do when not limited to 2 furniture stores and no help. Oh, and no kitchens. The viewers do not like them. They are in a different catagory and really require skill in a different arena than decorating. Enough stainless steel appliances and granite counters. They bore me to tears. Ok, done.

Good points all, though I think the producers place as much stress as possible into each situation to check stamina and breaking points. The visiting designers all told them that "if you think this is hard, just wait." It becomes a survivor situation, almost. I remember David's pre-show where he met with producers and interviewed for assistants, he also visited Lisa LaPorta at a Designed to Sell project. He had to run to keep up with her...no time for chit, chat - and he got this worried look on his face.

Oh, and no kitchens. The viewers do not like them. They are in a different catagory and really require skill in a different arena than decorating. Enough stainless steel appliances and granite counters. They bore me to tears. Ok, done.

Totally agree with this point. What is the next big thing?

DON'T FORGET TO VOTE! Voting closes tomorrow, Wed, July 30th at 10AM Eastern....really early.

[Bearcata]

I hated that Matt had to paint the kitchen cabinets chocolate brown instead of staining them, what a waste. I don't understand that his 3 carpenters kept painting over wet red paint. One thing I have learned from HGTV shows is that red paint is difficult and that it is best if the first coat is primer mixed with the red paint. They didn't do that here? One thing that did really impress me is that Jennifer managed to do a red kitchen. All I can think of is that poor family from the kitchen challenge wanted a red kitchen and they didn't get it. I must admit that those kitchen cabinets popped. Still overall while I like Matt and want him to win I was not overly impressed with either room.

What I find unbelievable is 3 yrs after Katrina that homes of working folks are still either abandoned, or barely liveable. What happened to all that disaster relief money, all the donations, the insurance companies? It certainly does not look as if any made it to the regular working population. Yes, Mr. Bush another wonderful failure of your reign thankfully presidents can't serve more than 8 yrs else we really would be in trouble. Can't they at least haul away the debris??

[Arielflies]

HGTV re-designed the VOTING PAGE! Hooray! It is easy as pie and makes much more sense now.

Don't forget to VOTE!

[shoepie]

Originally Posted by Bearcata

What I find unbelievable is 3 yrs after Katrina that homes of working folks are still either abandoned, or barely liveable. What happened to all that disaster relief money, all the donations, the insurance companies? It certainly does not look as if any made it to the regular working population. Yes, Mr. Bush another wonderful failure of your reign thankfully presidents can't serve more than 8 yrs else we really would be in trouble. Can't they at least haul away the debris??

I agree. Bush also refused aide from other countries, claiming "we can take care of it." It is disgraceful.

[Broadway]

Originally Posted by Arielflies

HGTV re-designed the VOTING PAGE! Hooray! It is easy as pie and makes much more sense now.

Don't forget to VOTE!

They did? It still looks the same to me. That darned black button blends into the contestants' dark clothing. Nice design but poor execution... cannot believe someone didn't catch that and do an outline around the button or something.

The Summer Showdown voting is fun, however. You have the ability to vote for which two designer/carpenter groups you'd like to see pitted against each other. I am voting for Vern vs David. Someone has been steadily voting for Lisa vs David all morning, however. That combo has been jumping in the half an hour since I've been on the site.

[Harmony2000]

I love the idea of the Summer Showdown and plan on watching it to replace this one.

I grew up 45 miles north west of New Orleans and my entire family still lives in the same town, it touched close to home watching this episode and I (even being from that area!) have such a hard time comprehending that there is still so much devastation. However, when you consider that a large percentage of the uhmmmmm.....working class?......did not return to the city? It does make more sense. They, for the most part, stayed wherever they fled to when they evacuated.

I actually love kitchen make over shows, so I don't agree with the poster above who commented on viewers not liking kitchens. HOWEVER, kitchens CAN NOT be done on a time crunch. One of my favorite shows is "Spice up my kitchen".

I agree that the kitchen Jennifer did was really good, Matt's wasn't. It looked odd not having any cabinets on one side of the room, regardless of what the woman said. It's not like he entirely listened to her anyways. I, for the most part, didn't like either living rooms. The sofas were ugly and I wouldn't even call them practical. What I did love was the emotion on this episode and how well everybody worked together, how much the final four seemed to genuinely like each other. That's not common on these competition shows. I'd be happy with either winning. Will I watch? Probably not. I have my set of shows on HGTV that I watch and I don't have the tv time to add another show to my line up (that isn't a replacement to a show going off air).

[prhoshay]

I found voting to be simple and the button obvious if you go into the site through HGTV - Decorating, Home Improvement, Remodeling, Gardening & Landscaping Ideas : Home & Garden Television. I've not even seen any black buttons.

[Broadway]

Originally Posted by prhoshay

I found voting to be simple and the button obvious if you go into the site through HGTV - Decorating, Home Improvement, Remodeling, Gardening & Landscaping Ideas : Home & Garden Television. I've not even seen any black buttons.

That's the only place to vote online. And it's still a black button for me (even though the instructions now say to click the white button.) I don't have a problem with it NOW, but that first night I was clicking all over the place. Heh.

I'd enclose my view... but I can't get it small enough to upload. But the button that you select that's placed squarely in the middle of their chest is black and blends in with Jennifer's shirt.. and close enough on Matt's.

[roses4me]

This is what I see on the voting page where both finalist are shown ( a bit edited for brevity's sake):

Your Vote Decides: Jennifer or Matt?

Choose the white button beneath your favorite contestant to highlight it and then click Vote. Watch the season finale on Sunday, August 3 at 9/8c when we'll reveal the winner.

Jennifer Bertrand
See Why She Should Win

Matt Locke
See Why He Should Win

The buttons that are underneath Matt and Jennifer are black with a white arrow. When I clicked on that button for Matt, I didn't see the word VOTE anywhere. Then I tried Jennifer's = same thing.
I'm just giving up. HGTV's site has always been user-nonfriendly.