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Have you ever met a guy who guy who really annoys you as much as this walking Sears commercial????
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Bill Clinton?
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>Good old bob truly rubs me the wrong way. being a hands on carpenter I hate hearing him say "we did..." when everyone knows his part of the work was barely showing up in time for the shoot and maybe some contracting. I also just watched an old episode of 48hours that showed a "smart house" that bob built that in fact is quite stupid and just plain doesn't work. At the time of the original airing bob was being sued by the houses current owner, who happened to be the actor who played mindy's father in "mork and mindy."
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Ken Starr?
I especially loved the sensative restoration of an old home, and Bob slaps in some Home Depot Track Lighting. What a hack!
As for some of the products, while they are nice to see, I often question them as well. Can someone tell me why they love housewrap so much?
I also saw Tom Silva once use yellow glue on an exterior stair rail, yeah like that will hold after the first 15" of rain!!
*b Not worth Quoting often....find my "Shingle Siding" rant if you can......Jack : )
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who thinks Bob Villa is worthless?????
Actually I think he is probably worth a ton of money right about now - at least he should be!
Does he deserve it is the real question?
I get a special kick out of his show when one of the "carpenters" uses 26 ounce framing hammer to nail the trim in place with 2 inch mails; the sign of a true craftsman!
*Scooter you answer about villa has me wondering what is wrong with housewrap
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stuff,
See the thread "sidewall weatherproofing - tyvek or felt" in the Energy folder. Or perhaps in the archives by the time you read this. Not one post in favor of Tyvek.
Rich Beckman
*[repost]Everyone, it's Bob VILA. Vee-ya. Not villa, that's a summer home in Italy. If you don't believe me, visit: Bob Vila's Personal Site! He even has his own domain! Don't think he doesn't p*ss me off as much as the rest of you ... I mean, as much as he p*sses off rest of you, oops. I probably don't catch half his mistakes. But does he really DO anything -- I just remember him wandering around bothering the real tradespeople with stupid scripted questions. (Duh, so you hit the nail with this part of the hammer? Wouldn't you rather use a Craftsman® cardboard hammer?) But even ignoring the bad advice, the grandstanding, the know-it-all attitude, the commercialism kills me.Granted, he is getting rich... How many of us are? Would you go for the brass ring if it meant being like him?P.S. The story i heard about him was that his fledgling remodeling business was on the rocks when the offer from WGBH came up. True?
*I've been seduced. One look at Bob Vila's Web site and his bulletin board contributors makes PBH look pretty weak. I like the animated frame at the bottom trying to sell me various Craftsman tools. And catch the advice on how to use a toilet plunger on your kitchen sink drain -=- this is neat, unique stuff. C'mon, let's mosey over there a while. Some subjects haven't had postings since January 9, so they must need our help.
*Heard that he was a ice cream salesman before he hit the remodeling crazy of the 70's. But I alway's figured that all them northern yankee carpenters were like that.!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
*If Bob says the tool will work and Norm doesn't have it in his pouch , the tool stinks. I watched an old episode of This Old House and Bob was doing the final walk through , Bob went up to an antique desk ,opened the drawer, broke the drawer front and quickly walked away.
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OK. What about his carpenter Riley? Did any one see the episode where Riley had a fight with a table saw? Guess who won. Then he tried to hide he bandaged hand during the show.
FrankN
*WHen Bob picks up any sort of tool or offers to help, I want to yell LOOKOUT!Why do I watch? Techniques used by the real workmen on the show. I also tape and use FF PAST COMMERCIALS and stuff that's of no interest to me. Viewing time: 10-12 minutes.Riley the carpenter doesn't bother me. He looks real.Jerry
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I found the last of the This Old House shows, when it still was on PBS, to be very different than than the first ones. In the early ones Bob and Norm are clearly just figuring it out. And Norm is clearly figuring it out a lot quicker. But Bob was doing some hands-on stuff and looking VERY 70's. And Norm weighed about 85 pounds less. Didn't we all.
Wasn't there an eventful last project? Somewhere in Southern California. They left the roof uncovered and there was lots of water damage. The homeowner were noticeably unamused in the project wrap-up segment. "Well, Bob, we really didn't expect the project to go $60,000 over the estimate!" or whatever it was.
But they did create the whole genre (Hometime, etc.) and Home Depot is worth about billion dollars more today because of two hammer-swinging hippies from PBS.
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I'm not a contractor and If I were having my home remodeled, I would have a restraining order written up to keep Bob Riley from coming within 500 yards of my house!!!! His work looks very sloppy to me though he does seem like a nice guy and seems to know what he's doing. Tom Silva can work on my house any day.
As far as Bob V goes, I recall way back before he left This Old House (because he wanted to do Rickel commercials), he had rubbed some people the wrong way on the Pasadena,CA project. This was a Craftsmen-Style Bungalow. These homeowners hated him. He showed 5 minutes before the taping and left 5 minutes after though he constantly said "we" did this and "we" did that. Apparently, he also talked them into a lot of "might-as-wells" that they thought they would get some donation help with. It's funny to watch the old episodes of that project to see the steam coming off the homeowners as Bob does his thing.
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If you can't turn the tube off, just change the channel.
*You can turn some tubes OFF? Change channels?!? What brand? How? We've had ours running at full volume since we bought it, on the Home Shopping Network. Tried unplugging it, no luck. It's starting to get on my nerves... nerves... nerves... nerves...
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I find it very interesting that This Old House is doing a project in Key West,FL and the attention it is getting from the local carpenters, I being one.The notion that NORM is in town has elicited responses from "what's that old phoney doing down there" to"I'm going to wear my company T shirt just incase the camera pans on to me"(spoken by a carpenter on the"chosen"house) We all know where the real drama is in our business, and it's in thoses day to day successes and failures when we try to do something nice with wood. Why it has to be mediaized and then talked about by real woodworkers who spend their lives working this medium is curious. I guess it's just plain fun.
*What I can't figure out is why they just don't tear down some of that old crap and start new. Hmmm??
*Has anyone, anywhere, ever seen one of those TV show renos come in on budget?????
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What Northern Yankee Carpenters? Vila is a Cuban name. We all know that there weren't any Cubans on the Mayflower!
*Weasal, Has any one EVER seen a renovation come in on budget?Remember, "The Money Pit" is not just a movie. It's a documentery.
*Ha-ha-ha! You posted at almost the same moment I was thinking that!What strikes me about the shows is how much the homeowners have to spend. They spend so much on high-end stuff that I, like most people, wouldn't even consider (being very VE-minded, to adopt a concept from Gene). My wife and I just laugh. $3000 for a refrigerator??? Oh yeah, you're a smart shopper. Or check writer. And products that are brand-new, possibly faddish, are emphasized at the expense of the bread-and-butter construction techniques.With deference to Alan, I actually find the show very discouraging -- it routinely emphasizes how great the the "pros" are. If I took it seriously, I would assume that I could do little. Ever seen the homeowner working on the house?
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Oh come on, people! If he is so terrible, you wouldn't be watching him. Is it to make you feel "superior"? Well, brother, you missed the boat! You're here, and he ain't; he's at the bank! Bunch of damn whiners!
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Brain...as my 15 year old daughter would say " Do you want some cheese with that whine ?" I have enjoyed reading these posts on Bob Bashing. Havn't seen him lately though. I walk away from his Sears spots to go watch some paint dry. Does he still have that 56 Buick parked on his forehead ?
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How much money did that couple in Calif win in that law suit against Mr I Know It ALL? Big bucks for representing himself as a qualified contractor when in reality he has no qualifications. Without Norm he would have been a one episode wonder.
*The people who own(ed) ? the Pasadena project wrote an article several years ago, about their "disaster".To make a long story short, they blame TOH / Bob V for cracking all thier lath & plaster walls during the process of jacking up the house and installing a new foundation.Apparently the concrete used for the house's grade beams were made with beach sand (high salt content), and were crumbling to dust.Without anyone's intervention, the house would have fallen in upon itself sooner or later.As far as rubbing the Pasadena people the wrong way ? Who knows. Maybe he did. However, the homeowners struck me as the Yuppie type who throw all sorts of money at a project, go on vaction for a few weeks to a month, then come home and tell all the neighbours "Look at what WE did !".The whole episode sounds like someone trying to blame TOH for their poor choice in a home, or lack of reasonable pre-purchase inspection.
*I just hate the way Bob pushes everyone around on the job-site, and how he takes credit for all of the hard work that everyone else does. And coming from Minnesota, I dis-like Riley's accent almost as much as his overalls!
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A Minnesotan critiquing another's accent? Oof Da!
*Bob is not a Yankee, he is a Floridian. Bob Riley is everything in a carpenter/GC that I do not want to be, where Norm and Tom Silva are. In my opinion, Bob gives all of us professionals a bad reputation. He is arrogant, rude and abrupt.
*Brian. No ad hominum arguments allowed on this site. Over one years time on that show, tell me how many errors: code violations,unnecessary framing,improper installations of materials, and so on ad infinitum,were, committed?. And please don't reply by saying "no one is perfect." Norm often gets into trouble--but less so tht Bob-when he gets into fields he really knows nothing about. Take, as an example, his lesson, in the Louisiana house, on how to install gypsum board.We learned how it is done not how it must be done.GeneL.
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Well, I guess you could write Judge Starr, and tell him that if he would just indulge in a few sexual perversions in a national shrine, with, oh, say! -- your daughter!! You'd think a whole lot more of him!! Don't start a battle of wits half armed!
Buck
*I think that Bob Vila's ancestry is Portuguese. He is a New Englander, and was doing some small scale improvements on his own properties in the Boston area while he was still with PBS. (I remember the local beaureaucrats nailed him for an illegal addition -- making him a man I can admire.) Yes the show is simplistic. So is the average viewer. Most of the posts here drip with both contempt and envy, and you can't have it both ways. I think he makes about $100,000.00 a week. And if his work is sloppy, so be it. You always learn to crawl, then toddle, then walk, then run. Everybody improves as they go along. (Well, most people, any way!) Perhaps the underlying resentment here is that for every DIY, there evaporates dozens of billable hours per year. If you wanted a monopoly, you should have become an M.D.!! Lighten up! He's got his rice bowl, you've got yours.Buck
*I have a lot of issues with Norm Abrams on quality in furniture work, but he is not and never was a "hammer swinging hippy". He was a carpenter when he hooked up with Vila, and he is the son of a life long carpenter. I also admire his work ethic. Lot's of TV shows, lots of books, and lots of appearances.Buck
*I have a lot of issues with Norm Abrams on quality in furniture work, but he is not and never was a "hammer swinging hippy". He was a carpenter when he hooked up with Vila, and he is the son of a life long carpenter. I also admire his work ethic. Lot's of TV shows, lots of books, and lots of appearances.Buck
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Buck,
I like Norm's furniture shows too. I consider him hands on and very skilled these days.
He's come along way over the years...has more clamps than the stores that sell clamps...Maybe that's the real reason for his drive and energy to do all the homeshows he's involved in....More clamps!
You know his shop is only a few hours drive away...Next time I need an extra dozen clamps(I only own a mere 20 or 30 last count)...maybe he'd let me borrow them between shows?
Norm's a busy boy,
Jack : )
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Gene
It's entertainment, for Gods sake! And thank you for spelling my name correctly: the other dummy didn't.
*Fact is gentlemen, that doing the TV show that BV hosts is anything but simple. Having done a few TV commercials and TV shows myself, there may be a crew of 20 support staff all getting paid and hanging about waiting for the next "take". There is constant pressure to get it in the can before you lose light and then of course, BV has to count on all the "real contractors" to have the right materials at the right time and get the work done within the time frame they have allocated to shoot the show. It ain't easy to do if you only have a couple of "shoot" days budgeted to do it in and did I mention that everybody on the production is getting paid and housed in hotels, etc. Take a look at the "credits" at the end of the show to see how many people it takes to film those simple little programs! As an Executive Producer myself, you gotta kick butts sometimes to keep things moving along. Give BV the benefit of doubt, he's gotta deliver a completed segment to whoever (Sears?) is underwriting the production without spending way too much money on production. It's his job, remember? You may also notice that they try to shoot the shows in such a way as to require minimum editing after the fact. It's an expensive process...that's why movies are so expensive to make. Would you believe it....everybody wants to eat at the show's expense and take breaks too on these productions! Tom Silva gets my vote to work on my house someday...Norm is a real carpenter but little creative flair for furniture and Riley is a hoot!
*Well, if the rest of you are like me, the only reason I end up watching old BV is because there is nothing else on the the ole tube. and there are interesting tours he takes into some of the different manufacturing plants. (but, of course he knows more about the production line than his guide)
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I just saw my favorite Bob Vila show last nite on TLC, the one with Riley's hand bandaged an Bob actually having to drive a nail. Norm, Tom S., and Richard T. are good (but the orange boilers are way to expensive).
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Around here BV's show is only on at 5am sundays and its not worth taping so I have only seen it twice(while taking care of sick kid)I must admidt I watch a lot of the other shows extensivly because I find them very good entertainment.Complete escapism fanatasies.Wouldn't we all love to have customers with endless checkbooks and material and tool suppliers who donated free promotional materials (therby subsidizing our projects?And WHERE does This Old House find their endless supply of rich yuppies with way more money than brains to finance these projects.(I mean on tv these people seem so dumb and yet can afford these projects mean while most of us average IQ types would never pay those prices.)All in all, I can't believe that anyone takes these shows to seriously from a how-to standpoint.To me , they are clearly meant to be fantasy type entertainment.Now if only This Old House would remodel a house for the casts of Baywatch ,Melrose Place,Friends or even Ally McBeal..............
*Brain - he he! My brother used to get so p--- when we'd call him that!! So the old goat still has a show? All I ever see is some stupid re-run of another personal project of his, and then, when I realize who the jerk is in the leather holding the whip over Riley the lackey, I get near panick stricken in my efforts to change the d--- channel. QUICK!! -Genius
*Ever notice how the "pros" get irritated when the old goat (he really ought to shave) tries to interfere with the task at hand. I'm amazed he doesn't have any "accidental" work related injuries.
*I thought Brain would be a compliment. By the by, you seem to be on the wrong web site. Let me take a moment to direct you to the local Sears page (you aren't working there, are you?)
*Again, that Sears home page is:
*Finally! Some one who also thinks Old House has a pre-req for mid-age yuppies with lots of spare time and pockets so deep they can easily drop half a mil on the old dump they want to "fix-up". I would recommend a careful demolition crew- bring down the price of the original structure by having it deemed "un-safe" (our gov. does it all the time!), and then harvest or salvage what hasn't rotted, or been broken or has little or no historical value. Sell all of this to the other yuppies who want 100 - 200 year old technology, and start fresh with a padded budget so you can afford all of those new extras that always seem to find their way in to these shows.Sorry, but I MUST disallow the Ally McBeal effort. There are plenty of available women out there who actually look like women, not skeletons with skin and short skirts. Somebody feed the girl. (Hey Adirondack Jack... where's that pig?)Am I the only one who would be scared to close my eyes on a stormy night in one of these old traps??The insurance rates must go out the roof. Literally.
*Bob is not a Floridian. He is A-N-N-O-Y-I-N-G. Other than that he is a yankee: he yankee everybodys chain!
*I thought Brain would be a compliment. By the by, you seem to be on the wrong web site. Let me take a moment to direct you to the local Sears page (you aren't working there, are you?)
*Since the shows are so expensive, you'd think a little more effort would be spent on QUALITY? If the producer is dumb enough to feed the crew... well, you can lead a horse to water, and I HOPE you know how the rest goes. Have you EVER met a crew that didn't try to con a free meal out of the g.c.? Heck, my accountant and ins. agent are always trying to get a freebie. I just tell 'em I already fed 'em. Then I point to their check.
*Holy Smokes! I knew it would eventually come to that! So Bob finally drove a NAIL through poor Riley's hand? My, my, my...
*I think the whole show is funny with poor old Riley and all his bandages. My Brother calls Riley "The how not to use tools poster boy"
*All right guys!I have been sort of following this gritch session as I happen to agree with a lot of it. But as I was trying to find something to watch this weekend that wasn't sports, politics, or violent, I started paying attention to a BV show. He was just starting the series in Charleston. It occured to me, that more than any other group of shows I have ever seen, Bob has exposed the general public to the vast and endangered built heritage of this country. So what if he is a lousy GC and can't hold a hammer? He DOES continually make the case for historic preservation, renovation, and rehabilitation. He has done an incredible job of bringing these ideas to the masses, and I would bet, brought the lot of YOU a lot more work. So what if his clients have more money than brains? I'm sure YOU would tell them "no, don't buy those cool gwidgets, save your money for retirement!" I wouldn't spend that kind of money either, but then, I wouldn't allow a bozo with a camera in my house in the first place.I don't like a lot of the things that go on in these shows, from quality to design and environmental sloppiness, but I haven't promoted and encouraged preservation of our national architectural heritage to millions, so I won't throw stones.Sorry if this seems like ranting, but it is time to get back to work.Mondayly, Lisa
*I also agree with the comment of another that Bob is rude, insensitive, arrogant; a personality that seems to push his way through workers and/or home owners, condescending in his approach to the work that is being completed. Too bad that he couldn't be a bit more informational on a more personal level. Can't imagine what a son-in-law would have to put up with ?Don
*Bob Vila is an arrogant self-centered, know-nothing moron who constantly interrupts everyone on his shows to spew his know-nothing nonsense. He very rarely lets people finish their sentences and ,in general, is very rude. Maybe at some point in the future he'll be able to get a "robogrip" on himself and se(ars)e that he will never be a true "craftsman".
*Ok,Who is teasing Bob by putting a link to this thread on his page in the carpentry section???
bob vila
Bob Vila IS A FLORIDIAN AND CUBAN. He was born in Miami and went to the University of Florida.
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I saw a TOH Classic this weekend. It was a hoot to see Norm using a corded drill to drive in drywall screws. He did have an pneumatic brad gun, which Bob described as "high tech." But the big yuk was an entryway being tiled with alternating white and black tiles, and here comes Bob bounding down the stairs and walking across the fresh tile to talk to the trademan on his knees. It's a good thing trowels aren't sharper.
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Actually, you meant to say it's too bad trowels aren't a lot sharper. Could have saved poor Riley future humiliation.
*To be his son in law, she would have to be a d--- fine lookin' woman....
*Wish I'd a thunk of it. That's rich!
*Agreed! I've always disliked Bob. glossing over the details seems to be his specialty. As for Riley, I like his overalls, but that's about it, he's a hack, wood butcher, etc!And another thing about Bob: I guess he was never told to keep his hands at his sides and not to touch EVERYTHING. That annoys me to no end.
*Kudos Mr. I Do; Couldn't have been said any better :)
*This "Breaktime" is better entertainment than watching Riley almost dismember himself on each show
*i thought i was the only carpenter out here that noticed BV AND RILEY having too much fun.my favorite show is the one where they are tearing down the porch on nantucket.riley almost bites it several times.
*TOH and affluent yuppies! Read the latest issus about that Watertown house wher the shower enclosure ( NOT the bath just the shower!) costs $20,000. Then this guy on the project says " Well it seems like a lot for a shower but once you run your hand over the marble it all seems worth it." Makes me think I am poor!
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I say "tear the old shit down!" And burn it!
Blue, sick of the good old days!
If it was built so good, why does it need renovation?
*why ... because we know more now, not better ...i i was thinking yesterday how people gravitate towards styles that have been around 100 years, not the generally creepy modern stuff (a house of curved windows and concrete arches? not for me). I wonder if building styles reached their aesthetic peak back then. In a world that likes Bondi-blue computers, people still want muntins in their windows (even if they are RIDICULOSLY fake fall-apart clip-ons -- which bothers me more than vinyl siding ever will. One townhouse we looked at, the muntins between-the-panes were falling down.... Beautiful craftsmanship).The thing that bothers a lot of contributors here, and me too, is how pathetic many of the falsies are...Trying to digress from the above-titled rant-a-thon, Renovator Andrew
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Have you ever met a guy who guy who really annoys you as much as this walking Sears commercial????
Bob Vila TOH
A sub contractor who worked on a TOH project told me that after the TV episode that his company appeared in was aired Mr. V. asked him for some $ under the premise that the sub's company had received TV publicity.