Castle Chaos: Designing Bitches Break Down HGTV's Castle Impossible Premiere

Rhonda and Shari are back with piping-hot takes on HGTV’s brand new obsession-worthy series, Castle Impossible! In the premiere episode, fearless couple Daphne and Ian take on their first renovation inside a centuries-old French château — a sprawling estate they’ve never even lived in. Bold move? Oui.

They’re turning a former solar (yep, we Googled it) into a dreamy primary bedroom, and let’s just say… not all design choices are created equal. From royal portraits with doppelgänger vibes to budget battles, bats in the bell tower, and a serious lack of plumbing—we break down the chaos, the charm, and the chandeliers that should’ve been.

It’s history meets hard hats, and we are so here for it.

 🕵️‍♀️🔍 Join the sleuthing and comment on Instagram or Facebook if you think Ian is Louis XIII reincarnated.

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Love and Kisses,

Rhonda and Shari

Find us at https://designingbesties.buzzsprout.com, Facebook, Instagram, and X (formerly Twitter).

Transcript

[00:00:01] Shari: Hi there, I'm Shari, and this is my BFF Rhonda.

[00:00:04] Rhonda: And welcome to Designing Bitches!

This podcast is for women

[00:00:08] Shari: and brave men

[00:00:09] Rhonda: who eat, sleep, and breathe interior design and recognize their addiction to HGTV.

[00:00:15] Shari: Whether you're rearranging your living room for the 12th time or here to justify another HomeGoods spree. You're in the right place.

[00:00:21] Rhonda: Let's talk design, disasters, and all the beautiful chaos in between.

This week we're talking about the premiere episode of the new series, Castle Impossible.

[00:00:30] Shari: Ooh, this is HGTVs brand new series, and we are obsessed. In this first episode, Daphne and Ian, the main characters dive headfirst into their first renovation inside the Chateau, which they've never lived into this point, a former solar they're boldly transforming into their dream primary bedroom. Rhonda, talk about starting with a Royal Challenge.

[00:00:53] Rhonda: So I love this episode and this whole series really, because you know that I was obsessed with Escape to the Chateau with Dick and Angel Strawbridge.

[00:01:05] Shari: Yes.

[00:01:06] Rhonda: Now I know you never watched that 

[00:01:08] Shari: No, I did watch it.

[00:01:09] Rhonda: Oh, okay.

[00:01:10] Shari: Yeah, I watched all of it.

[00:01:12] Rhonda: I didn't know that. All

[00:01:13] Shari: I wasn't as obsessive as you were. I didn't like the dried flower shit on the wall as wallpaper. I just assumed dusting that would be a nightmare.

[00:01:21] Rhonda: I think they were butterflies. But anyway, 

go ahead. 

[00:01:23] Shari: Yeah, I wouldn't decorate my house with crafts.

[00:01:26] Rhonda: a super high end craft, clearly, you know,

[00:01:29] Shari: Mm-hmm. Dried butterflies on the wall. Super high end.

[00:01:32] Rhonda: I think so. I think it's beautiful. 

[00:01:35] Shari: I love it's in France because I'm a little Francophile and took several years of French in high school and I like to pretend I can actually speak it, but I can't. The grounds, everything about this is so gorgeous.

[00:01:48] Rhonda: Yes. At the same time. You know, now that I'm a experienced adult with home renovation, yeah. I look at that and think, oh Lord, like what would I do? Right? And I love that they were really honest right off the top. they owe France a million dollars, in taxes. That would probably put an end to it for me. I did read up a little bit on their background and they said. I think it happened like 2019. 2020

[00:02:17] Shari: Yeah, her grandfather died in 2020.

[00:02:20] Rhonda: And that allowed them some time, right, with COVID, to basically plan, right. To plan what they were gonna do and if they were indeed gonna keep this. And they went from, I think they said try, they were gonna plan a small house, a tiny house.

[00:02:34] Shari: gonna build a tiny house in California. That was their original plan, and then her grandfather got sick.

[00:02:41] Rhonda: yeah. And she went to the other end of the spectrum when they inherited the chateau to the largest, basically I think five houses, six houses

[00:02:49] Shari: Yeah, it's crazy how big it is. 

[00:02:51] Rhonda: Yes. In one building. The difference is that she does have that business on the first floor. She does have a wedding business

[00:02:59] Shari: Yeah, and I actually looked this up and they do, they host weddings and they also, it is a film set, they rent it out

[00:03:07] Rhonda: Oh, smart, smart. Yes.

[00:03:10] Shari: and I think even before they started just to pay the taxes, like they had to host weddings and film bookings in order to get that first 

hurdle over with. Can you imagine? I'm with you though. I think I would've been like, I love the idea of this, but first of all, all of the ghosts in the house, I would never be able to live there.

[00:03:30] Rhonda: Why do you believe in ghosts? 

[00:03:33] Shari: I, I, you know, I live in what I call an old home. It's only 30 years

[00:03:37] Rhonda: Yeah. Sound like you're in Salem, 

[00:03:43] Shari: Because of the temperature changes, this house makes some funky sounds and I, don't know.

[00:03:48] Rhonda: You're convinced you're on an Indian burial ground where they move the graves,

they move the 

gravestones, that sometimes there's something with You're gonna need a little

woman to come in here, 

get rid of the Poltergeist. 

[00:03:59] Shari: I have 1900 square feet and I get terrified. I just don't think I could do it. Rhonda. I would want to, I feel like it would be a decision I would regret, and 

[00:04:08] Rhonda: seriously. It would be based on ghosts,

[00:04:12] Shari: I feel like.

Well,

and just the sheer. The sheer magnitude, I don't wanna work that hard. I'm a little lazy, like, I can't imagine I'm gonna run this business and on the weekends I'm gonna renovate. I mean, I could do nothing all week. And then I'm like, oh, Rhonda, like we got all this work to do with the podcast.

Like, I can't even manage that. 

[00:04:33] Rhonda: It's for the young, that's for sure. 

[00:04:35] Shari: I think I would've said no to it. 

[00:04:37] Rhonda: Yeah. It's for the young and fit, and clearly they are fit if they're rocking 70 steps... 

[00:04:43] Shari: Just to get up to, the top floor and they intentionally put their bedroom up there. Like, what the heck? Anyway, so a little bit about the castle. Do you wanna give a little bit of history lesson for our listeners for the besties? it Was built in 1508 little 

[00:04:57] Rhonda: Mm-hmm. 

[00:04:58] Shari: I was born. It's a 500 year old Chateau in Lesigny, France.

I probably. I've said that wrong. Chateau de Lesigny, her grandfather purchased it in 1981, 4 stories tall. He had renovated the first floor and started this wedding business and it being a film location before he passed in 2020, it's on 133 acres of land. The property includes the Chateau, the Hunter's Lodge, 28 horse stables.

A farmhouse, a hangar, a dove tower, a cabin in the woods, two lakes and a forest. And it has a moat.

[00:05:36] Rhonda: What? What's a dove tower? Do you know?

[00:05:38] Shari: I'm assuming it's where they kept doves to

communicate, What?

right? Oh, I

[00:05:43] Rhonda: No, I, I,

I think they eat 'em, don't they?

[00:05:49] Shari: oh, no, no. I 

[00:05:51] Rhonda: Oh, 

[00:05:52] Shari: doves out here and they have babies. I couldn't

[00:05:54] Rhonda: I'm gonna have to, uh, Google What is a dove tower?

Hmm. Okay. So, I looked up Dove Tower. Historically, these towers served as dovecotes. They were built to provide a safe nesting place for pigeons and doves, which were an important source of meat, eggs, and fertilizer.

[00:06:13] Shari: And communication.

[00:06:14] Rhonda: It doesn't say anything about communication.

This isn't Game of Thrones. isn't where the Ravens stay.

[00:06:20] Shari: Fine. Fine. Well, you see it. It's like a little domed building.

[00:06:25] Rhonda: Yes, yes. It, it can also be a place for, calming. In some cases, a dove tower may be a poetic or artistic name for a structure that symbolizes peace, hope, or spirituality, often inspired by doves as the universal symbol of peace.

I, I don't think that's the case here. I think it's was literally where they kept doves and pigeons for food. 

[00:06:46] Shari: Ew. But okay. Back to the rest of the Chateau. So the first floor has three ballrooms and a staircase, and the second, third, and fourth floors have over 20 rooms, and they all need a renovation.

[00:07:02] Rhonda: Big. 

[00:07:02] Shari: And it was built by some lady who was born in Italy, but married into French royalty, I think, Leonora Dori Galigai, also known as the White Witch.

[00:07:14] Rhonda: Oh, get out 

[00:07:15] Shari: She was the mother to King Louis VIII. But she ended up being beheaded

[00:07:21] Rhonda: Oh yeah.

[00:07:23] Shari: she had a fortune that was lost that may be buried on the chateau's grounds.

So I think we're gonna see more of this as the season goes on.

So apparently they lived in Paris with her grandmother while they worked on the Chateau, and they were actually able to move into the Hunter's Lodge in 2022.

[00:07:39] Rhonda: Oh, okay. Okay. Yeah. It's only 12 miles southeast of Paris. Which, , is nothing, right? Like I can see this having a major advantage over Dick and Angel Strawbridge. They're in Normandy, I believe. It's quite a journey to get to their Chateau. This being so close to Paris, the, uh,, business, is probably much better as far as the wedding business, being able to get people to come there and use their chateau. 

[00:08:03] Shari: Did they only have one season? 

[00:08:05] Rhonda: no, they had a couple seasons, but, they've stopped.

I guess the, the popularity was starting to get to be a problem, right? Like people would go into their private rooms, people would come for tours and end up in their private rooms. 

[00:08:18] Shari: Oh, now the downside of being so close to Paris is I assume they'll have more trespassers than they already have

[00:08:25] Rhonda: Yeah. Ghosts don't scare me, but people trespassing on my land with their bikes and, off-road vehicles, it

sounded like they 

had had a problem. So I would definitely, not enjoy that part of the the ownership.

And like he said, Ian said, you know, if people asked, I'd be fine with, yeah, sure. You know, go explore some trails. But just breaking down the fence to get in that, that scares me. Like I said, more than, than ghosts do. 

Although I haven't spent the night there. Who

[00:08:50] Shari: now you noticed something about the Louie the 13th portrait in what 

they call the Louie room. 

[00:08:56] Rhonda: am I the only one that thinks that looks exactly like Ian?

[00:08:59] Shari: You know what? When you first said that I hadn't really paid attention, and I went back and looked, and you are right,

[00:09:07] Rhonda: and the super pale skin. 

dark dark hair. Right.

[00:09:11] Shari: Does it feel creepy or cool?

[00:09:14] Rhonda: Creepy. Like is, is this the reincarnation of Louis the 13th?

[00:09:19] Shari: I don't know. I hope there's no beheading.

[00:09:23] Rhonda: Anyway, maybe he feels very at home there. Maybe he feels very at home. Ian's like, God, I feel like I'm home. Because in a 

past life, Ian, you lived there. 

[00:09:33] Shari: Daphne even says she can go in the dungeons 

At four in the morning and she doesn't feel scared. And there are rumors about hauntings and weird things have happened with people who've been in the house, but 

[00:09:46] Rhonda: Yes, 

[00:09:47] Shari: it, and she's not afraid.

I'm like, Ooh, more power to you lady.

[00:09:50] Rhonda: the business entrepreneur inside of me said, open that thing up for Halloween,

[00:09:55] Shari: Oh my gosh.

[00:09:56] Rhonda: right? Like, get that basement going with some sort of a ghost tour. I

think 

you 

could get a little extra. 

[00:10:01] Shari: you would need to have people in there like that?

[00:10:04] Rhonda: Oh, I didn't even think about that. Stop being so practical. It I know 

to generate some income with a ghost tour of the dungeons.

[00:10:10] Shari: be cool.

[00:10:11] Rhonda: but anyway, yes, I looked at the size of this house and thought, I'm not sure I could, take that on as much as it would break my heart to let go of it.

Um, that whole situation. 

[00:10:25] Shari: It also made me wonder how much a property like that would sell for, I.

[00:10:30] Rhonda: Mm. Yeah. It, it, maybe it's one of those that's just too much to sell.

[00:10:34] Shari: Yeah, I 

[00:10:35] Rhonda: Right. 

[00:10:35] Shari: to like have a pretty big wallet to buy it for

[00:10:39] Rhonda: Yeah, it feels like Hilton Hotels or Marriott would buy it, right? It 

doesn't feel like it, but uh, again, Dick and Angel were out looking for a, a chateau and they, in their book, they talk about, they saw, I don't know a hundred of them, but they saw a lot. There's a lot of these chateau,

abandoned Chateau around France, and it's clear why one, the taxes, and two in this episode when they talked about having to fix the bell tower might cost $200,000.

[00:11:05] Shari: Yeah. They even talk about, and I can't remember if it's on the episode or it's just something I read as part of background, the 

maintenance for the moat.

[00:11:13] Rhonda: Yeah.

[00:11:14] Shari: They couldn't even find a company that would even give them a bid to maintain it.

And so they start a process where they have to go through and cut everything back and clean stuff off, and by the time they get done with the process all the way around the moat, it's time to start again. And just, yeah, just the maintenance for a, it's actually buildings like that. I. I can't imagine. I mean, the people who originally bought and built these places had staff.

[00:11:43] Rhonda: Yes, absolutely. And income from the surrounding tenants. 

 Now they chose to renovate the solar, which is from the Latin for solace for alone or a retreat.

[00:11:56] Shari: Oh, it does feel like a little retreat.

[00:11:59] Rhonda: It does, and I thought the shape of that room was just so beautiful, 

right? 

[00:12:03] Shari: The architecture of that room. 

is gorgeous. It's also referred to as the bell tower bedroom,

and they budgeted 35k. They actually spent 40k, which I actually thought was very reasonable considering everything they had to do. 

[00:12:19] Rhonda: Yes, 

yes. 

[00:12:20] Shari: bring in Tony as the master craftsman, and I 

[00:12:22] Rhonda: Mm-hmm. 

[00:12:23] Shari: like him. I hope we get to see him

throughout the season. 

[00:12:25] Rhonda: Me too. Nice British guy. Yes, absolutely.

[00:12:29] Shari: Um, the funniest thing was the cameraman in the bat situation,

[00:12:33] Rhonda: He couldn't, couldn't fake it, couldn't

[00:12:35] Shari: and they break the fourth wall and they show him running away from the bat, and they just keep saying, stand still, and the bat will leave you alone. Stand still. So I learned something new. If I'm in a situation where there's a bat in my bellfry you, like I just know 

[00:12:48] Rhonda: Mm-hmm. 

[00:12:48] Shari: and the bat will leave me alone.

[00:12:50] Rhonda: Well, I don't know if I believe that. I'm always worried it's gonna get stuck in my hair. I dunno why. I heard once upon a time somebody got a bat stuck in their hair. And so that, you know, I have ever, I have thick hair, I worry about that.

[00:13:00] Shari: I've heard that too.

 So Rhonda, why are there so many nails in the joists?

[00:13:09] Rhonda: That's a good 

question.

[00:13:10] Shari: see all those nail holes, like what was nailed up there before? Do you think they had drywall there before?

[00:13:17] Rhonda: no, I think it was lath, right? Like didn't they have to do that lath for the plaster,

[00:13:24] Shari: Oh, those like skinny pieces of wood. And then when they said they could take out like the, the joist in between, I just thought, okay, where's the structural engineer? Like, is that okay to take those out?

[00:13:39] Rhonda: I presume that those were just there to help with the lath, right? If you've got

these little skinny things you've gotta put up that, you have to have something to nail it to. I don't know.

[00:13:47] Shari: I thought that when they were taking those out, and then I thought it again when they were worried about the bell tower coming down and Tony says, uh, 200 K and he comes up with a fix. It was beautiful to see the old world craftsmanship of a mortis and tenon joint, which you would never see on most shows.

Also I, I would've definitely thrown that wood out the window too.

[00:14:08] Rhonda: Yes. I don't know why she was so weird about it. You know, breaking a window, really, I, no, I would've been look out below. So that would be one of my major, not major. One of my issues with them is. Like, why didn't you plan this better? And this is something that I'm only mentioning because this is exactly how my husband and I do projects, right?

We race in without really thinking about what we're 

[00:14:33] Shari: It's how I do all my projects.

[00:14:35] Rhonda: As I was watching, I thought, take a window out, build a little landing, get a little lift going. I think she even mentioned we should have done an elevator first. Like they just like carrying all that stuff up 70 flights of stairs seems ridiculous when you could, like I said, set something up so you could actually have a little, an operation going.

That's not quite, uh, there's a, a quote and I don't know who said it. Um, you know, one of those, Abe Lincoln, George Washington, Albert Einstein quotes from the internet, but it says, you know, if, if I had 24 hours to save the world, I'd spend 23 hours planning what I was gonna do.

You'd save a lot of time, I think, and effort. They're young and fit, they've got a little advantage. But I just feel like that at a certain point, the exhaustion takes over.

[00:15:22] Shari: Sometimes when I think through everything that needs to happen, like the Rubik's cube of moves that have to happen before I do a certain project, it almost mentally stops me from even starting the project. If instead I go in with my whole like first I shop, 'cause I'm good at that.

I do all the shopping for it, then I procrastinate. Then I finally get everything together. I'm like, how hard can it be? And once I figure out how hard it can be, I'm so far into it that I have to finish. But I'm regretting it.

And sometimes I think if I, if I did that whole process of perfectly planning, I might just get nothing done.

[00:15:59] Rhonda: Well, I, yeah, I, again, I think there, there are many, many more projects down the road for them, if you set your operation up a little better, I think you might've,

uh, saved yourself some agony. 

[00:16:09] Shari: One of the things that made me go, hmm, is we know from previews they're going to put that chandelier in over the staircase. They're gonna need to access from the solar room in order to hang it, but they've covered that all up with wood.

Will they have to cut through what they already did in order to

hang it or pull it up. I presume they fixed that and that the editing just finished the solar. 

 Oh, maybe. Maybe they got all the wiring in and it's just sitting there 

[00:16:39] Rhonda: exactly. Or maybe they already did the chandelier and we just don't see it yet. We'll see it in a future episode. 

[00:16:44] Shari: We've been missing the drama in Rock the Block. But it's really cool how weather brought up the drama for this

show. 

[00:16:50] Rhonda: yeah, absolutely. Yes,

[00:16:52] Shari: Now, if you were in the middle of a windstorm, would you be up there in that bell tower knowing it could collapse? No, I would not have been up there.

[00:16:59] Rhonda: Now I'd be over in my little hunter's lodge hunkering down with some soup.

[00:17:02] Shari: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

[00:17:04] Rhonda: Yeah, I have a feeling this is the skeptical uh, uh, reality person Rhonda talking, but every week is gonna be the same drama of some high priced item they can't afford. Something they can't afford to do or to put the plumbing in here is gonna cost a million dollars.

Or some crumbly part of the castle like when she said, we gotta replace all these windows, , and it's not just 10 windows, it's several hundred windows. I'm hoping that it, it doesn't get to this routine of just the same thing every week.

I'm hoping that they keep it a little varied, and I think they will. 

[00:17:35] Shari: I feel like just based on what they have to face, as they go through and do each room, it will be different problems to solve each 

[00:17:41] Rhonda: Yeah. Yeah. 

I was just gonna mention they brought in Allison, a designer, an actual designer friend,

to help them. she wants to go Art Nouveau. ,I'm not exactly sure that she's gone Art Nouveau with that room. 

[00:17:56] Shari: I was sort of wishing that Alison from Windy City Rehab would

[00:18:01] Rhonda: a Alison, 

she loves Paris, Shari. 

[00:18:05] Shari: she does. If they offered her a chance to go shopping in that hangar.

[00:18:10] Rhonda: Oh, absolutely. Yes,

[00:18:12] Shari: In exchange for her giving them design. With their work on that room and Alison from Windy City Rehab's design skill, imagine what that room would've looked like.

Like I think about the finished room and the sconces look really undersized and 

[00:18:29] Rhonda: yes. 

[00:18:30] Shari: forgettable.

[00:18:31] Rhonda: Yes.

[00:18:32] Shari: And I just feel like, oh my God this Chateau needs Alison Victoria to help with the actual design. Not to, not to denigrate or put down the Allison friend,

but I just felt like, I don't know. I was underwhelmed with the overall design of the space.

The architecture was. Fabulous. The actual design to me was a little underwhelming.

[00:19:00] Rhonda: Yes. I thought this room needs a bed. And I say bed with a capital BED. Like it needs a four poster, but it needs something substantive.

[00:19:08] Shari: mean, was that a full size 

[00:19:10] Rhonda: yeah, it looks small it.

it looked dorm room small to me when I saw it. That's not enough.

That's not enough. it needs to make a statement in a room like that. The room is so big. Yeah. And I could see why, and I actually thought it was cute through little design discussions, 

him suggesting things and her just getting quiet and starting to circle him like a shark.

[00:19:29] Shari: Yes. That was funny.

[00:19:31] Rhonda: did think that was, it was cute and showed their relationship a little bit.

I I was really underwhelmed by the design in the room. It felt very short, right? It felt very, this giant room. 

[00:19:41] Shari: Yeah, when they put the furniture in there, it makes you really be able to see how big that room is.

The scale of it just felt off, again, the scale of the sconces, which she insisted on having felt underwhelming. 

[00:19:55] Rhonda: It Needed a chandelier. And when I say chandelier, I mean gigantic, the biggest one they could afford. And instead they put that little like coach light 

the lantern. 

[00:20:05] Shari: Yeah.

[00:20:07] Rhonda: So yeah, I felt like it needed a statement piece, certainly to make, draw your eye up 

[00:20:12] Shari: Now they are the clients, so to speak in this project. So I guess part of it is she loved it. She loved it. I just kind of looked at it and I thought, oh, please, Alison Victoria volunteer. You're on every other show on HGTV. Please go to France and help

[00:20:29] Rhonda: Yeah, 

you can stay for free at the the, at their, uh,

[00:20:33] Shari: They'll let you shop in the hangar where her grandfather collected all those antiques. Woo.

[00:20:38] Rhonda: . You're onto something. Manifest it. 

[00:20:40] Shari: Yeah. 

Now let's talk about the trespassers again. ,it just was sort of funny, him yelling out the window in English at them, so were those actual dirt bikers or treasure hunters? 

[00:20:54] Rhonda: That's a good question. Yeah, I don't know. That's a good question. I imagine that's a problem

[00:20:59] Shari: I know that they, at some point, I guess in 2014, the moat was drained, so they know that the treasure is not somewhere hidden under the water in the moat. Wouldn't it be cool if when they're doing this renovation they actually find a hidden treasure I could really get around like all these like weird hidden doors, but like an actual hidden treasure.

That would be

[00:21:19] Rhonda: Ah, so

Leonora, wherever, 

where did Leonora put it? Where is it?

[00:21:24] Shari: now that they're so public with this, how much is this gonna cause more trespassing? Like now they're gonna have more treasure hunters wanting to come on their property and, and try to find it.

[00:21:37] Rhonda: Yeah, I didn't even think about that. But yes, that's clearly a risk if you talk about the hidden treasure that might live in your house. 

[00:21:44] Shari: I was really glad that we got to see the solar finished. I was worried that they were just gonna partially finish spaces like on This Old House because I'm assuming some of these spaces are pretty massive and doing it in one episode.

I just thought, oh, please let us see actual finished spaces each week. So fingers crossed that's what we'll continue to see.

[00:22:05] Rhonda: yes. think that's important, 

[00:22:07] Shari: I really like That With my short attention span, I don't wanna have to wait

[00:22:10] Rhonda: I don't wanna remember. Yeah.

What was the, what did the, what was this before? Um, also the flies

[00:22:16] Shari: Oh,

[00:22:17] Rhonda: that, that actually happened to Dick and Angel. Remember they laid the eggs in the wall and the wood, I

guess. And then 

[00:22:22] Shari: that's right. 

[00:22:22] Rhonda: to warm up, right? When they turn on the

fireplaces or the 

heater. Yeah. They all come out.

So, um, yeah. 

[00:22:29] Shari: that was gross. 

[00:22:30] Rhonda: Ugh. 

[00:22:31] Shari: When she's like, they're going up my pant legs. I'm like, oh. Oh,

[00:22:36] Rhonda: Would you ever get that feeling off of you? You know, so, yeah, apparently, um, this is a problem in France,

or at 

[00:22:44] Shari: well. 

[00:22:45] Rhonda: know, century old Chateau.

[00:22:47] Shari: Yes. Well, thanks for tuning in and dishing with us about the Castle Impossible premiere, we met Daphne and Ian, a fearless young couple who've inherited a centuries old French Chateau. Yeah, seriously. And they kick things off by turning the old solar into a stunning primary bedroom. It's history meets hard hats, and we are so here for it.

If this is just the beginning, Rhonda, I can't wait to see what's next. Of course. We've got some hot takes, nitpicks, and more than a few strong opinions about those design choices.

[00:23:17] Rhonda: So my nitpick this week is the episode not explaining the bigger picture. Like, where's the bathroom? Where's the kitchen? Where's the closet for their clothes relative to this gigantic sleeping chamber 

[00:23:28] Shari: It does beg the question, are you gonna go like 70 steps 

down? They have that little table to have their breakfast overlooking the garden,

but are you 

gonna go 70 steps down to go get that coffee,

which will be cold by the time you pop up to the top? 

[00:23:45] Rhonda: Yes. Are they really sleeping in that room when they don't have access to running water on that floor? Right. 

You know, you spill something, you need to wipe something up. we all imagine how wonderful it would be to live in this castle, but not if it means marching up and down 70 steps to use the restroom.

[00:24:03] Shari: Yeah. Yeah,

[00:24:04] Rhonda: Let me add, if walking 70 steps in daylight is tough, Shari, imagine doing it when you're half asleep at two in the morning.

What about the dog? The dog? Your dog would be like, I have to go out.

[00:24:14] Shari: Mm-hmm. Of course, 

of course. Or I need another snack. Mommy. Go get a snack. Which is also, you know,

[00:24:21] Rhonda: 70 steps. Exactly. it didn't look like there was any kind of, and I'm using quotes here, Royal Throne, so to speak, up near the solar. So I guess they are living, you know, the philosophy of who needs a gym when you have that, that kind of adventure every night. So that's my little nitpick as I would like to know the bigger picture and 

can 

they actually sleep there? 

[00:24:42] Shari: super exciting to see how it plays out.

[00:24:44] Rhonda: Yes, yes.

[00:24:45] Shari: Well, besties. If you like our vibe and are obsessed with HGTV like we are, please like, subscribe and leave a review wherever you listen to our podcast. You can also let us know on Facebook, Instagram, and at designingbitches.com what HGTV shows you're watching and what you think. We would love to hear from you.

[00:25:03] Rhonda: Also, we've done a special posting for this week's episode.

[00:25:07] Shari: Ooh. 

[00:25:08] Rhonda: the reincarnation of Louis the 13th? I mean, is it just us that thinks he looks exactly like that giant painting of the long dead King of France? With his long hair, Ian has basically that 17th century Louis the 13th vibe down pat I half expect him to start speaking with a heavy French accent shouting royal commands.

[00:25:30] Shari: Show 

us 

your detective skills, 

besties. 

[00:25:33] Rhonda: let us know what you think.

[00:25:34] Shari: As always, we have some apologies to make. I'm sorry, to people who like old stuff and aren't afraid of ghosts.

[00:25:43] Rhonda: I apologize for the snoring you might be hearing in the background. This is Hector, my French bulldog, appropriate for an episode taking place in France. He's got some breathing problems and I can't, I can't get him out of the, sound sorry. 

[00:25:56] Shari: Well, until next time, besties. Bye.

[00:25:59] Rhonda: Bye.