I've found that if you view the new season of Flip This House as a completely different show, it seems a little less like stabbing Richard Davis and Ginger in the back. Anyway, I'll review FtH:Atlanta separately as well and more about FtH:SA when I can digest it. Until then...

San Antonio
Armando Montelongo
Victoria Montelongo
David Montelongo
Melina Montelongo

I'll start out by saying that the 'new format' or whatever was a complete surprise as of this weekend. Suddenly the show appeared on the TiVo 'To Do List' and I was really looking forward to the new season. Then I caught the new little promo that hinted at the change in the same way one would talk about the 'relocation centers' that started popping up during the Second World War. Needless to say, Google was called in for a ruling.

Keep in mind that the average viewer of the show was used to a certain amount of flexibility while trying to find this show and/or keep sane when the season restarted multiple times and, as I recall, showed the same episodes fifteen times in a row. As a small aside, I also like the show 'Airline' whose status as an actual show is also in question. If there's some definitive resource out there that maintains a list of A&E shows still in production, I'd like to see it.

There's also something to be said about the fact that Flip This House must have several Puerto Rican Day episodes. But you can buy less than half of the first season for $89.85 plus S&H.

I'm not going to do the full rundown of the episode, but they redid a house. With foundation problems, bees and questionable wallpaper in any era. The house was rather nice in the end. However, some things I'm going to start doing:

• Writing down numbers on a piece of paper and sliding it to people like a jackass.


• Writing redundant zeroes (with slashes) of different sizes... you know, for effect.


• Driving over to a job site with two kid-sized inflatable pools (one for my dog, chained to a tree), filling them up with water and running the fastest-growing whatever in Texas while sitting in a lawn chair submerged in six inches of water.


• Buying what seems like 47 different sunglasses each for my friends and family, all of which were previously owned by the Russian Mafia or were gifts to Tony Parker before being 'lost' at the after-party.


• Spending zero on website development. On a completely unrelated note, go find them online. I did enjoy the Underworld coven-inspired photo shoot, but what are the photographers who turned down the pro bono photo job thinking? "Why didn't she mention that she's sitting in front of a camera crew." would be a guess...


• For later: Participating in 'seminars' which reveal the secrets to untold riches. ("A certain tactic wasn't legal...Most experienced guys thought [the] tactics seemed fishy.")

Also, I'm sure this has been an actual conversation:
"Okay, let's take a vote. Who doesn't agree with me? One, two... three. Well, my vote counts four, so looks like we're going with my idea."

For those who watch it for the transformation, they tore out wallpaper, a wall and window blinds made shortly after the discovery of metal. They refinished the floors, dropped some remaindered granite on some not-so-attractive cabinets and violated the Geneva Convention on Bathroom Improvement. The usual, really. There was an obligatory 'trouble getting into the house' scene and 'trouble finding the contractor standing next to another camera crew' thrown in as a bonus. I found myself missing the 'ordering a soda from a drive-thru' scene and the 'need to talk to Richard' sequence.

Anyway, I'm still loyal to Trademark, although it's not as if these people are unlikable. The dynamic is just different.

If you're still on the hook, here's an excellent review with a slightly different take.