Why Can't I Stop Watching House Hunters?

I admit that I watch too much TV. So for me summer TV really sucks. My wife always says that the only thing on TV in our house is "Family Guy" and hockey. Well, there's no hockey being played in July and and Family Guy is in reruns over the summer. This has led me to discover some new shows and channels that I wouldn't normally watch.

One of the shows that's caught my eye is HGTV's "House Hunters". Let me just say that I don't normally watch HGTV. Nothing against the station but home renovation shows aren't normally my thing as I'm probably the least handy person that you'll ever meet. Ask me to nail a hammer into a board and I'll ask you if I could use a left handed hammer. The point is, I typically like to watch shows that involve car chases, explosions, bad animation from the 80's, and laugh tracks.

(I think this is a left handed hammer...)

"House Hunters" has a very basic concept. A couple or young family are looking for a new home because they either have to move because of a new job or their family has outgrown their current home. There's also "House Hunters International"  which is basically the same show but it has rich people looking for homes (or mostly vacation homes) in places like Italy or some small Caribbean Island that nobody has ever heard of. I prefer regular "House Hunters" because there's some good stories about families buying their dream homes. (On a side note my swears that the International version is better because it gives her ideas on where we will live when we finally win the lottery....)

(Saying "International" is better than regular "House Hunters" is like saying "Baywatch Nights" was better than "Baywatch")

 On the show the family looks at three houses and by the end of the episode they make their home buying decision. This also includes a follow up 2-3 months later after they've moved in (this is very similar to HGTV's other show "Property Virgins"). It's fun to see a couple or family go through the process of making a decision on the biggest purchase of their lives. While the show is great you could probably create a drinking game out of the following things that happen in just about every episode:

- couple talks about how loud the street is in front of the house

- wife complains about the kitchen cabinets

- husband complains about how much lawn there is to mow in the back yard

- husband walks into the basement and says how "this would space would make a great man cave"

- couple talks about how they would like to do more entertaining

- they want something that's in a central location for cheap (which never exists)

- husband's a jerk by sending in an obscene lowball offer that never gets accepted

I know these are all things that any average realtor hears about 100 times each day but there's something about it that makes for great TV. Of course, the best part is when the couple makes their decision because as you watch you're like "why did you take the house with the shag carpet" or "why didn't you take the house that has enough space for a pool table".

I don't know if I can honestly say that I'll keep watching "House Hunters" when hockey starts back up in the fall but until then I'm going to enjoy watching people argue over kitchen cabinets and breakfast nook's.