In with the Old

It's a shame to watch something that's outlined as being sensitive to old houses and their history, yet the show is filled with trendy, wanna be influencers who destroy so many perfectly good original features of all of these places. Original beadboard, tile, plumbing fixtures, windows and more is all destined for the landfill so these hipsters can get the latest Chinese made trend they've seen on Instagram and purchased at HHome Depot. Painful to watch as you realize that most of these girls are eyeing a potential hosting gig with Magnilia Network who produced the show. You see them creating look and learn projects for no other reason than to play TV host. No husbands, partners, or other experts/consultants seem to be willing yo say anything to slow these girls down from their own, personal old house destruction. This is original fabric that cannot be returned. The hippest, greenest way to restore a house is to KEEP as many original fixtures, finishes, etc as possible.

Watched this expecting to see old/historic homes being renovated with an eye toward retaining the historic look and feel of the house, similar to This Old House projects. Instead, for example, I see them destroy every bit of charm from a beautiful Cape Cod brick house and turn it into a shame to look at. Typical to a lot of shows, it starts talking about how horrible the shape of the house is and really all you see are a house that needs the trim stripped/painted, new roof, and landscaping cleanup on the outside as well as minor reno on the inside. The example house winds up the host's personal vision of a modernized style-less thing. If you want to see someone retain all the charm of truly old homes, watch Nicole Curtis on Rehab Addict.

I love restoration stories, especially of beautiful buildings which have been abandoned. But I couldn't take more than 15 minutes of this show. Loads of "look how cute my family is" footage. Loads of "look how pretty the landscape around here is" footage. Not a lot on the design and construction of this project. And to top it all off, the narrator is vapid and annoying. So disappointed. Love the concept but hate the show.

I just found this show and see that's it's not even on demand. I hope the powers that be aren't going from the single review before mine to base their decision on whether or not to renew this show. I watch a LOT of these home improvement shows, and honestly this is the second one only that has a couple where I enjoy both of their personalities! I also love the show Home Town. It's difficult to watch shows where people are yelling at each other or are so hard-core that you can't follow how to do a project on your own. I really enjoyed that they explored the history and spoke to the people of the town about the house they were working on. And I really liked their easy-going personalities and they are obvious joy for what they choose to do for a living. Now that this is Magnolia Network, they are probably testing new shows right and left. But this is a keeper!

And BTW, PLEASE bring back at least one landscape show. There are zero on the air!

I literally made an IMDB account just to write a review on this show. It passes itself off as a revivalist/restoration home renovation show. But honestly all it does is exhibit obnoxiously pretentious people that basically modernize beautiful historic homes into these ugly Pinterest-esque monstrosities. I love historic homes and vintage/antique things in general and this show is insulting. The only reason I gave this show a rating of 4/10 rather than a 1/10 is because of the beginning of each episode that shows the original state of the featured home and the history behind it. Other than that it just aggravates me.