Laurie is another one I usually always like(d) and has the fewest failures, this one I'd place somewhere in the middle. I kind of liked it, the dislike from the homeowners seemed a tad extreme (as you say, it could have been so much worse.)
And maybe this is me as a single, childless, person not grasping the point but Ms. Homeowner's "where are the [kids] going to play?" struck me as an... "odd" complaint. I mean, in some other shots of adjacent rooms in the house it looked like a good amount of kid stuff was laying around, they have bedrooms and other places in the house to play. Is it that bad to have an "adult space" somewhere in the house that's not centered around the kids? I get having kids and wanting them and all of that, but I'd think for your own sanity you'd want some place in your home that just feels "adult."
The wall structure around the TV I'm mixed on, it looked nice but I had a "Joey Tribianni Reaction" to it.
Let me explain.
In an episode of "Friends" Joey is talking to Ross and his new girlfriend and Ross mentions his TV's been broke and he's not taken the time yet to get a new one, so he hasn't been watching TV. His girlfriend, and some of Ross's coworkers or professional colleagues start talking about them not even having TVs. Joey, confusedly, says "You don't have TVs? Then what's all of your furniture pointed at?"
It's my TV-centric life and one many of us have (thus this thread and the entire BBS) so having my TV in an impractical place or covered up in some manner seems dumb, because I'd pretty much always have to have it open. So it's bugged me in the past when TVs are placed in rooms as an "after thought" and the furniture in the room isn't "pointed at it" or something. This was kind of like that. Having the TV in a cabinet for me would just be a PITA.
But, in the end, I mostly liked both rooms. I think the series revival so far has yet to show a room I truly disliked.
Hildi will get me there eventually, I'm sure.