From Newsgroup: alt.folklore.urban

On Thursday, March 27, 1997 at 12:00:00 AM UTC-8, Steven Tyler wrote:

eq...@mindspring.com wrote:

On Thu, 27 Mar 1997 00:41:52 GMT, hip...@spacelab.net (Hipster)
wrote:

Folks:

You know that guy from "This Old House" and "The Renovation Guide"? I >remarked to my wife that he seemed like a decent chap (at least as
much as any other TV muckety-muck, anyway) and she said "Oh no!
Someone in my office said he sold a house to someone and the pipes
were all rotten, and the porch was falling off, and they are suing
him, etc., etc." I tried searching for recent events and news items
that might confirm or deny this, but no luck. Anyone know anything
about this?

Bob Vila originally hosted "This Old House", a PBS home improvement program. He then started doing commercial advertisements for Sears
tools. "This Old House" producers felt that hosting a PBS program
and doing commercial advertisements were incompatible and asked him to choose one or the other. Mr Vila chose commercial television.

Bob Vila now hosts a syndicated home improvement program called "Home Again", sponsored by Sears. Some years ago they renovated a home on
the California coast. In Malibu, I believe.

That house was later sold to Conrad Bains, a television actor. You
may remember him as the dad from that program with the little kid who
kept saying "What you talkin' bout Willis?" The name escapes me at
the moment.

According to news reports, Mr Bains is suing the production company
and others involved in the renovation. He claims the house suffers
from substandard construction, including leaking plumbing, making the
house unlivable.

I've often wondered about the quality of workmanship on programs of
this type. Often they showcase new and untried materials and
techniques. Likewise, having construction interrupted for a camera
shot can't help the quality of workmanship.

Much of the labor and materials are donated. Small, local companies
donate their time in order to stand in front of a camera wearing a
"John Doe's Plumbing and Heating" t-shirt. How much time are they
actually willing to put into a project for which they aren't paid?

Steve Delurks:
Permit me to join your thread. Conrad Bains never appeared on Diff'rent Strokes as a regular character. He played Mindy's Father in Mork &
Mindy, much as it shames to realize that I still know this fact. Bains bought the house from Vila and later sued Vila for fraud and Breach of Contract (?). I don't know if the suit was settled yet.
Here's the kicker: At his deposition, Vila admitted that: A) He had
never worked as a contractor. B) He had never worked for a contractor.
C) He had never worked as a builder. This was in a news cast. I don't remember the news show.
Thanks,
Steve

Just finding this now in 2022. For the record, his name was Conrad Janis, not Conrad Bains. I was friends with him and his wife Maria Grimm. They both died in the last year. Back in 1997, my ex (Hans) and I ran a construction company called Renaissance Builders. Because of my friendship with Conrad and Maria, we stepped in and helped them with the Bob Vila situation. The house was a mess. We evaluated the problems. Wrote recommendations. Hans even attended a deposition about it. Once Conrad won the lawsuit, Hans did some of the repairs. Bob Vila was a hack and should never have been involved with construction.
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