I have what might be called a love/hate relationship with HGTV. The love part is easy to explain and shared by thousands of other people. We love to watch people shop for a home on shows like "House Hunters," "Property Virgins," and "My First Place." Like falling in love, buying a house is an adventure that most of us don't get to experience first hand more than a couple times in our lives. So it's fun to relive the trill vicariously through others. We also love to witness a room/house/yard transformed from shabby to chic before our eyes, all neatly within the space of a half hour. As we unconsciously put ourselves in the place of the homeowners, we're allowed to share their gratification with the result while being spared the expense, the inconvenience, and the sheet rock dust in our teeth. So, what's not to like?
As I see it, the down side is that all this moving-up and home-improvement fever tends to engender a spirit of discontent that we might otherwise have avoided. In the real world, we aren't normally exposed to the "Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous" (is that show still on?). Oh, we may have an acquaintance or two who live pretty high on the hog. But most of our friends aren't much better off than we are. On HGTV, however, we see it daily - the young couple, barely out of college, house hunting with a million dollar budget; the bachelor looking at a four-bedroom home and complaining that it's really too small for his needs; the folks buying a weekend get-away in some tropical vacation spot, sighing that the interior will have to be completely gutted because they couldn't possibly be expected to live with the 1980's decor. I think what I find most offensive, though, is the obvious contradiction (obvious to me, anyway) between the pressure to, on one hand, "go green" and, on the other, to haul all your old stuff to the dump and buy new.
Now, we built our house in 1991, and, despite the fact that a couple of the then-new appliances have already bit the dust, I still occasionally think of it as "our new house." Yet by HGTV standards, the whole place is hopelessly dated - from the laminate counter tops and white appliances to the brass light fixtures. I guess I should be miserable that I don't have slab granite in the kitchen and brushed nickle fixtures throughout. I should be regretting that I didn't continue the hardwood floors down the hall and into the bedrooms, which seems to be what everybody wants today. But the truth is, I prefer the warmth and quiet of carpet under my bare feet. And, for the most part, I'm not dissatisfied with the finishes I chose when we built; I liked them then and I still do.
I suppose it's a sign of my deep-seated rebellious tendency that I'm resisting this adult form of peer pressure. If someone tells me I must like/support/believe something, I'm far more likely to go my own way than to go along. Here's an ancient example. If you're my age and remember when The Monkeys were the hot new band, you'll know that all the girls went crazy for lead singer Davey Jones. But I, with all the considered wisdom of a adolescent, defied the majority rule and decided I would like Mike Nesbitt instead, just to be contrary. That's why when I replace our dying dishwasher, I might pick a white one again instead of succumbing to the pressure to go with stainless steel. After all, in another ten years, someone is bound to decide that stainless is "out" and I might find myself on the leading edge of fashion once again.
