Holmes and Holmes

[GoingMyWay]

I started watching the second season of Holmes and Holmes on DIY Network.  In case you're not familiar with the show Mike Holmes has partnered with his son, Mike Holmes Jr. to start buying properties to renovate and flip for a profit.

I couldn't help but notice in the second episode that Mike Holmes is now using Festool.  He used to be a DeWalt guy.

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I really liked his original show Holmes on Homes and even his later Holmes Inspection.  I find this new Holmes and Holmes to be very annoying.  Too much made up drama and not enough actual construction work.  I guess that's the direction most home improvement shows are going or have gone.

Anyway, I thought it was cool to see Mike Holmes using Festool.

 

[chrisrosenb]

I really liked his original show Holmes on Homes and even his later Holmes Inspection.  I find this new Holmes and Holmes to be very annoying.  Too much made up drama and not enough actual construction work.  I guess that's the direction most home improvement shows are going or have gone.

Anyway, I thought it was cool to see Mike Holmes using Festool.

I also liked his original show. I also do not like the new show for the reasons you stated.

 

[DeformedTree]

I think it was his son that drove the Festool stuff, he has been using them in pervious seasons.  Some of the episode were more of a commercial for Festool (demonstrating the sander for removing popcorn ceiling). But it looked like in earlier series Mike Jr was using them just because he liked them.

I still like all his stuff, but yeah, Holmes and Holmes has a weird reality show side.  I think it's part of some odd origin story.  Since the first season was doing Juniors house, it had a natural deal of covering him getting engage, which then rolled into this season with getting married.  I hope later season just get back to the old formula.  I think some of this happened due to Sr. coming to the US and doing some shows for Fox which were awful reality shows.

What has bothered me more is where the series they did before were good because of real ness.  But on season 2,  their is stuff not being said that is showing it not being as it seams.  If you watch the previous season you will know the "country house" was his daughter sherry's house in season 1.  So either they faked it being her house in season 1, or it was her house, and now they never mention that and act as they just bought it from someone.  I don't know Canada Realestate but 900 grand for that place sound way off.  So I wonder if it was a way to funnel money off to her, or that are just purely making up numbers or something.  It's not like it would hurt the story if they said "I bought my daughters house to flip it and show her what she could have done".

Additionally, if you watched his Garage Series, you will quickly notice Mike Sr lives directly across the street. So he's fixing up the property across the way which may be his daughters or one he all ready owned.  I don't know if in some ways he just doesn't want to talk about how many problems his daughters house had which is certainly would have looked at when buying it before she lived in it.

This has been bugging me all season.  If he just said "I bought the neighbor house years ago and my daughter lived in it for a few years till getting married, we found it had some major issues over time, even I miss things, and now I'm going to fix it like I do the other homes and show you can do this and make a profit". I'd be more than ok with that.

 

[BMAC]

$900K is a steal here on the West Coast of Canada in Vancouver. We have some of the most expensive real estate in North America and many parts of the world including as much if not more than New York City for residential single-family dwellings. This article is from 2016 and prices have dropped only slightly since then but this article is representative of what it’s like to buy housing in Vancouver!
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/vancouver-teardown-real-estate-1.3449869

 

[kevinculle]

I would presume that in a commercial TV program like this the featured tool supplier is whomever offers thye most generous terms (all show tools free, here's some extra tools for you to use at home Mike, a one minute segment highlighting a tool gets the show paid at TV commercial advertising rates, etc.).  When that is not the case you usually see the tools with logos taped over so as not to discourage other tool suppliers from advertising.

 

[DeformedTree]

I would presume that in a commercial TV program like this the featured tool supplier is whomever offers thye most generous terms (all show tools free, here's some extra tools for you to use at home Mike, a one minute segment highlighting a tool gets the show paid at TV commercial advertising rates, etc.).  When that is not the case you usually see the tools with logos taped over so as not to discourage other tool suppliers from advertising.

In the early series he did, there was the progression.  From using what they had, to getting corp support so then their were heavy. Dewalt and Milwaukee phases.  Since those shows ended they have been doing more small random shows without the same corp support.  Tools always changing and you see all brands of tools being used.  Even now with the Festool stuff more common their is a ton of non Festool used, even in the same scenes. 

They list the products they "approve" on the Holmes website, Festool isn't there. "King" was there, they show up in the woodshop with a shop full of them. 

I think maybe they got paid to do a random plug for Festool but in general unlike the Dewalt and Milwaukee periods I think they might simply have bought some of them because they like them.

 

[GoingMyWay]

I think it was his son that drove the Festool stuff, he has been using them in pervious seasons.  Some of the episode were more of a commercial for Festool (demonstrating the sander for removing popcorn ceiling). But it looked like in earlier series Mike Jr was using them just because he liked them.

I still like all his stuff, but yeah, Holmes and Holmes has a weird reality show side.  I think it's part of some odd origin story.  Since the first season was doing Juniors house, it had a natural deal of covering him getting engage, which then rolled into this season with getting married.  I hope later season just get back to the old formula.  I think some of this happened due to Sr. coming to the US and doing some shows for Fox which were awful reality shows.

What has bothered me more is where the series they did before were good because of real ness.  But on season 2,  their is stuff not being said that is showing it not being as it seams.  If you watch the previous season you will know the "country house" was his daughter sherry's house in season 1.  So either they faked it being her house in season 1, or it was her house, and now they never mention that and act as they just bought it from someone.  I don't know Canada Realestate but 900 grand for that place sound way off.  So I wonder if it was a way to funnel money off to her, or that are just purely making up numbers or something.  It's not like it would hurt the story if they said "I bought my daughters house to flip it and show her what she could have done".

Additionally, if you watched his Garage Series, you will quickly notice Mike Sr lives directly across the street. So he's fixing up the property across the way which may be his daughters or one he all ready owned.  I don't know if in some ways he just doesn't want to talk about how many problems his daughters house had which is certainly would have looked at when buying it before she lived in it.

This has been bugging me all season.  If he just said "I bought the neighbor house years ago and my daughter lived in it for a few years till getting married, we found it had some major issues over time, even I miss things, and now I'm going to fix it like I do the other homes and show you can do this and make a profit". I'd be more than ok with that.

I hadn't seen the first season.  I think the last Mike Holmes show I watched was Holmes Make it Right - well I did see that show he had on Fox where he was giving away a home, but I think we turned it off mid way through because it was so bad.

Any else bugged by the fact that Mike Holmes Jr. is wearing a wedding ring in most of the shots even though part of the storyline is that he's preparing for his wedding?  I'm operating under the assumption that he had already gotten married when they were filming the show.  The producers thought it would be a good idea to add in the wedding part (extra drama) and just edited it all together to make it look like he was about to get married when in fact it had already taken place in the past.

I never really realized how sneaky you can be when editing video until I watched some YouTube videos on how to use Final Cut Pro and then actually edited the travel footage I shot.  You can really make something look totally different from what actually happened.

I would presume that in a commercial TV program like this the featured tool supplier is whomever offers thye most generous terms (all show tools free, here's some extra tools for you to use at home Mike, a one minute segment highlighting a tool gets the show paid at TV commercial advertising rates, etc.).  When that is not the case you usually see the tools with logos taped over so as not to discourage other tool suppliers from advertising.

That's a good thought, but wouldn't that relationship have to be disclosed?  I just checked the credits and Festool was not listed.

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[Cheese]

I watched the Holmes shows when they were going through their Milwaukee tool phase, I rather liked them.

However, just reading the above comments on the current Holmes show, it reminds me of American Chopper and what happened to that program as they felt the need to add more & more drama to each show... [eek]  At some point I just quit watching.

 

[GoingMyWay]

I guess I missed or never saw the episodes when they were in their Milwaukee phase, or I might not have been paying attention.  DeWalt is what most noticeably stands out in my mind.

I also really liked the American Chopper show.  I still kinda like it - I watched the reboot (if you wanna call it that) that was on back in May.

I'm also going to finish watching the second season of Holmes on Holmes.  I'm a masochist and like to watch programs that annoy me just so I have something to complain about.

 

[sancho57]

I dont watch Home Improvement shows to much anymore. I never can to what they do build a porch etc in a half hour to a hour...... plus most of them never really show the actual issues ya run into during a remodel, its mostly just do this and just do that and yer done. especially now with all these husband and wife teams.

Most of the shows I see on the networks are these house flipping shows. People think its easy peasy buy a beater remodel it and flip it make some good money doin it.

Folks, Its not that easy.........

 

[Packard]

I could do with far less “human interest” and a near elimination of “demo, baby”.

My guess that demo makes for “action”, but it is not informative.

I personally do not enjoy demo and I cannot identify with the apparent joy they get from demo. 

But it does offer the director more action than doing the re-building.

 

[squall_line]

I could handle some problem-solving demo.  Such as finding metal plates on a stud indicating wiring or plumbing bored through a stud, or other "oh, that can't just be removed with a sledgehammer" demolition.  It seems that the only time that comes up is with load-bearing walls, which they usually identify ahead of time (thankfully).

If I want to watch demo, I prefer to watch preservation/salvage-type demo.  Unless one is demoing a kitchen from the late 80's/early 90's... preservation of blonde oak isn't necessarily on the top of my "must watch" list...

 

[Packard]

There is a British export show (For the Love of Kitchens) on Magnolia Network, and they have “removal day”.  Nothing gets destroyed (cabinets, etc.) but carefully removed. 

They feature quite literally “old world craftsmanship”.  They hand brush paint their cabinets. I like that show.  It is all about the kitchen.  No personalities involved.

 

[Lincoln]

Not sure what we get down here in Aus these days, regarding Holmes, but I definitely watched the original 'Holmes on Homes' show on paytv and quite liked it. Once 'drama' starts creeping in, I'm out, so sounds like the other related series aren't for me.
Off topic, but I still really love 'This Old House', though I haven't watched it for a while. They used to have some fascinating segments, as well as some great renovations.

 

[GoingMyWay]

I also liked the show, Salvage Dawgs (sadly it was canceled in 2020).  Reruns are still airing on Magnolia Network.  They'd go in and remove items worth saving from buildings that were set to be demolished.  They either resold the salvaged items as is or repurposed them and turned them into something new that they'd sell in their shop.

[member=69760]Lincoln[/member] There have been several Mike Holmes spinoff shows.  I liked Holmes Inspection too.  This Old House is a great show, as is Ask This Old House!

 

[Lincoln]

[member=66216]GoingMyWay[/member] - I definitely remember a series where he lived across the road from one of his kids, or something along those lines. Wasn't very interesting, so I checked out.
One of the This Old House segments that really interested me was when they visited a stone quarry and showed the process of cutting the huge blocks underground, right through to cutting the finished slabs.

 

[GoingMyWay]

I think I saw one of those episodes.  That wasn't a good series at all.  I think he also had another bad show where he was giving away a new house.

Was this the episode you were referencing:

I have learned so much from watching This Old House.

 

[Lincoln]

[member=66216]GoingMyWay[/member] - yes, that's it! Will give it a re-watch later today.

 

[luvmytoolz]

We used to have good home improvement shows in OZ too but now they are just fake sensationalised crap full of "drama" and "dummy spits", etc.

I don't see the entertainment in watching a bunch of people proudly acting like a***holes to create manufactured tension and drama while pretending they are actually renovating a house, which is actually done by the myriad of tradies in the background. My nephew is a builder and he's been called out to work on sites for "The Block", and the day consisted of the tradies doing the work, then the contestant builders dropped in for a couple of hours of posing and pretending to do work for the cameras.

 

[Lincoln]

We used to have good home improvement shows in OZ too but now they are just fake sensationalised junk full of "drama" and "dummy spits", etc.

I don't see the entertainment in watching a bunch of people proudly acting like a***holes to create manufactured tension and drama while pretending they are actually renovating a house, which is actually done by the myriad of tradies in the background. My nephew is a builder and he's been called out to work on sites for "The Block", and the day consisted of the tradies doing the work, then the contestant builders dropped in for a couple of hours of posing and pretending to do work for the cameras.

Haha, yeah, it's a ridiculous show, that went from a reasonably genuine renovation competition to a vehicle for 'influencers' and Z grade 'celebrities'. We haven't bothered with it for years.
Last year I priced a custom built in robe against one of the companies that features on 'The Block'. Their list of things that they WON'T DO was a full A4 page long. And, they were more expensive.