Missing DIY

Dish Network recently took away DIY Network from my lineup. I was really into watching "Yard Crashers" and the various home improvement shows. When HGTV decided they were going to concentrate on new home owner, real estate shows, I switched. I like learning how to lay glass tile to sparkle up my kitchen and arrange bushes to give my yard "texture". We don’t have the money to hire contractors, so we used DIY to learn how to do stuff (and usually we mess it up, but that’s beside the point). Now I’m stuck hoping that HGTV shows something interesting through the day and on weekends, instead of all the real estate shows.

Yes, those shows are mildly interesting. But I’m really not interested in watching people look at 1100 square feet homes that cost $700k. All that does is frustrate me. I think “Why don’t these people move to Ohio? Our real estate is so much cheaper!” I’ve got a 3/4 acre yard, 1900 square feet, 1 1/2 bath home for $90k. See what they’re missing? I understand more those that are moving to places with ocean or mountain views, but boring neighborhoods that don’t have views? They’re homes really aren’t that special.

We have an area close to my home where the houses are kind of higher priced—between $300k-400k. They’re decent houses with a little bit of yard in a cute little town (more like a village, of course, because they don’t even have a mayor!). So, these people come down from Cleveland to look at these houses in the winter time. They love the neighborhood, the houses, the greenery. They buy their big-ticket homes. They’re happy. Until summer rolls around.

Not 5 miles from these subdivisions with the fancy houses is the Stark-Tusc dump, which just started expanding another 25 acres. This dump gives off the most foul odor in the summer time and that smell drifts for 5-10 miles around the dump. When we drive up the highway, past the dump, we have to roll up our windows. It smells like rotten eggs. It’s absolutely horrid. The people that just paid for those enormously expensive homes can’t even open their windows in the summer. There have been some residents that have complained to the EPA and other agencies about the odor. But the EPA around here is a complete joke. The people that own the dump bring in garbage from our county, another county and out of state. They make a lot of money on trash and spend that money taking care of the county boards of [insert your favorite local government body]. The smell is worse every year, every year the dump gets a warning and every year they get a permit to expand. But the people buying up these houses don’t know that until too late. They’re stuck.

So to me paying that much for a house without fully vetting it for at least 6 months is just craziness. Why? Because look at the people who buy the land close to the dump. I don’t want to end up like that—in the whole for upwards of $400k. Sadly, HGTV doesn’t document these kinds of incidents. They don’t show where the agent conveniently forgets to mention the big ol’ trash dump in the back yard, or the crazy neighbors up the street or any of those things that can’t be easily investigated by home buyers. And first time home buyers aren’t going to know to look for this nonsense. I think if HGTV did a show documenting that, I would definitely watch. They don’t, so I’m not interested. I want more home improvement.

Luckily I can get on DIYnetwork.com to get my instructions. But 5 minute videos on a small screen are just not as fun.

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