Jon & Kate Plus 8 - Bye Old House

Bye Old House
Now that the Gosselins have settled into their new home, they visit their old home one last time to tie up some loose ends and discover absence makes the heart grow fonder.

~*~

Hmm...this should be interesting. Cleaning out the old house.

Due to the fact that the family had to move quickly, they only took what they needed immediately and left the remainder for another time. Kate said that they came back 3 months later to finish cleaning it out.

I have to interject a few things here. Kate looks unnaturally tan. The fact that she's wearing an orange shirt doesn't really help out her cause. Also, I hope they realize how lucky they are that the house didn't sell right away and that they could have the old house to store their things for awhile. Most people have to get out ASAP and can't afford to pay mortgages and bills on 1 house, let alone 2. Especially in this economy. Somehow I don't think she realizes this. Especially because she says how annoyed she is to still have to pay for this house.

One of the first things the family has to have all the ceiling lights taken down. It's hard to believe that they were in the entire house. But as Kate was cleaning out, she couldn't believe that they lived in that house for *2* years. I admit that it was a tighter space, but it was a modest house. And if they didn't have someone filming them all the time, it would have been a lot more spacious.

While all the cleaning out and fixing was taking place, Jon had a real estate agent take some pictures and get the house listed. I actually looked at the listing and I think it was overpriced. Especially for the area. But Kate wanted to be sure that they didn't show the front of the house originally because she didn't want her house to become a tourist attraction. I think that might be a bit of an inflation of one's own important, but okay.

During the clean out, Kate was sorting out all of their stuff and the kids had the run of the house. Literally. Going through everything, Kate didn't seem to happy to see all of their old stuff. So the majority of it, she considered trash. A lot of the stuff looked like it was still in good condition and could be donated, but she didn't seem to care. She also didn't care when Hannah asked why she was throwing away some of Jon's things, too.

Throughout the clean out process, neither parent really paid any attention to the kids. So we saw the kids yelling and running in the house. I don't know why they didn't use the nanny to help. Weird. The kids were entertained by a large roll of paper and crayons. They seemd to have fun being able to *draw* on the floor.

While Kate was throwing out Jon's stuff, Jon disassembled the family's swingset. Kate wanted to leave the swingset but Jon insisted on bringing it. It was revealed that it was a gift from Jon's dad, so that kind of makes more sense. Although it's shocking that he did keep that but was able to get rid of his golf clubs at the yard sale. I guess there's no rhyme or reason to these people. And I really shouldn't judge...what is important to one person might not be to another.

Since the kids were really starting to get bored and needing some entertainment, Kate started blowing up balloons. I don't know how long this will hold their excitement, but let's give it a whirl. It was funny to hear Mady say that Kate doesn't have a lot of air. Really? I thought she was full of hot air. LOL

Ahh...the truth is revealed. Kate gets all pissy with Jon when he starts looking through things and decides what he wants to keep. She told him to stop being sentimental and just get through it. Kate says she doesn't need to hold on to physical things because she has the memories. Jon said he likes to save things. And he hates throwing away things that are from his Dad. Kate sits and stares blankly, although you can tell she doesn't seem happy. Give the guy a break. If I suddenly lost a parent, I know it would be hard to part with things that they gave me. I know you can't keep everything they've ever given me, but I don't think Jon has an extraordinary amount of things from his Dad. Especially after that garage sale.

It's now dinner time and the family is sitting down for some pizza. While they kids are continuing to run amuck, Jon and Kate tackle the attic. Jon wanted to save his soccer trophies and stuff from high school. Kate decides that she's just going to start throwing stuff away because they just don't use it. She just comes off as being cold.

One of the last things Jon cleans out are the pinecones. We see old footage of them arguing about fitting everything into this box and getting into the ceiling shelf. Jon is kind of laughing about the memory of the day, but Kate has this horribly nasty face. She barely had anything nice to say and played with her earring the *entire* episode.

As the day wound down, you could see the family left a ton of crap behind. I only hope that they returned to clean it out and didn't leave it for the new person. Because I would be so mad if I moved into a junked up house.

The show ends with memories of the family in the house. It's kind of sentimental for me and I never lived there, nor do I even know these kids. And it's sad that Kate isn't really into looking back and remembering that they were a family in that house. Lots of good memories and family time happened there. Instead, she just keeps looking for the future and her great big mansion. I think it's good to look towards the future, but I'd be sad to leave the past behind for at least a minute. And I didn't see any sort of nostalgia from her. They came a long way in that house and if it were me, I'd be sad to leave it behind.

SassySarah's Review: Kate was cold, nasty, and ungrateful during this entire episode. Two thumbs down.