TV Shows Drop Hints for New Houses

By Katherine Salant

If you are seriously pursuing a brand new house, how much can you learn about home building from watching television programs? After several marathon sessions viewing more than 50 videos sent to me by television production companies and networks, I can say with confidence, "you can learn quite a bit."

The two programs that I found to be the most informative were the long running "Dream House," shown on HGTV, and "This Old House," shown on PBS. In a series of 12 to 18 episodes, each show documents a large-scale home construction project from beginning to end. Many topics are covered, but not every topic. After all, this is prime time television. The programs must be entertaining as well as informative, and producers naturally favor those aspects of construction that work well in a television format. Important topics such as contracts do not make compelling television and are unlikely to be presented. To viewers' benefit, these two wide-ranging programs do not overlap.

"Dream House" focuses on the drama of home building, as homeowners confront the inevitable ups and downs that occur on any large residential project. Executive producer Peter Finn said the inspiration for the show came from the "anxiety and ecstasy" he personally experienced in the course of building two houses and extensively renovating two others.

In marked contrast, the focus of "This Old House" is the art and craft of renovating old houses and how the pieces of a house fit together. As a rule, the program host Steve Thomas, master carpenter Norm Abram and general contractor Tom Silva-probably the best known homebuilding team in America-tackle houses that ooze character and cry out for a complete make over. That was certainly the case with this year's 18-episode Winchester project, which I watched. As 80 years worth of paint was removed from the exterior, a recent but poorly installed bathroom and a 1960s kitchen were dismantled, and numerous other changes were made, this 1920s colonial revival house was brought back to its former glory. Though "This Old House" is entirely devoted to renovation work, anyone contemplating building a new house will pick up a lot of helpful information and tips.

As "This Old House" viewers watch an on-going project they can also count on at least one interesting digression per episode. Not all aspects of a project are that interesting and viewers like to know where the new materials come from and what happens to the discarded ones, explained "This Old House" executive producer and director Russell Morash. When the old steam radiators are hauled away from the Winchester house, for example, we follow them to a junkyard where we see them weighed and pulverized (who in the viewing audience didn't secretly wish they were operating the equipment that crushed the radiators into a thousand pieces?). Eventually the rubble will be shipped to South Korea and recycled into automobile parts.

The most creative segue carried the story line from a discussion of the undersized beam on the original rear wall of the house and the forgiving nature of wood (the wall sagged but didn't fail), and the cantilevered second floor to visiting Falling Water, Frank Lloyd Wright's dramatic and multi-cantilevered concrete house in Bear Run, Pa.

While restoring old houses, the "This Old House" crew does not shy away from the latest in building technology. During the new bathroom installation in the Winchester house, for example, the crew highlights a new type of flexible plastic pipe. It is faster to install and it facilitates repairs to plumbing fixtures.

How does a "This Old House" project compare with what homeowners in real life experience when they undertake a project of similar size?

Real life would certainly be a lot more stressful. The lucky owners who engage the "This Old House" crew to do their project do not have to endure an often protracted vetting process to find a qualified contractor to do their work or worry about the outcome. When the crew takes over the job, the owners can count on having a great contractor in charge of excellent subcontractors. Morash noted that owners also get advice from leading experts who are generally unavailable for jobs of this size. For example, the show's landscaper Roger Cook brought in an agricultural expert from the University of Massachusetts to discuss an insect infestation of the owners' hemlock trees.

Another benefit to owners that is always a problem in real life-a "This Old House" project must keep to a television production schedule, so the job will be completed by the target date. "The This Old House contractors fall all over themselves to show up on time," said co-host Norm Abram.

If "This Old House" is home building and renovation as an art form flawlessly executed, HGTV's "Dream House," could be subtitled, "Home Building, Warts and All." Closer to what the average homeowner may experience, the projects are not flawlessly executed, and they may be finished months after the original target date. The only unreal aspect of the 13-episode series that I watched was the astoundingly even-tempered reactions of the homeowners Jim and Dee Sandberg as one disaster after another befell their efforts to turn their non-descript one-and-a-half story rambler in a Minneapolis suburb into a New England styled cottage.

The Sandberg's project began as a bathroom and kitchen remodel, but as they worked with their designer, it soon became much more ambitious-a complete makeover that would nearly double the size of their house.

To save money, the Sandbergs elected to stay in their house while the demolition and construction proceeded. We soon see that five people confined to three rooms with no heat, no hot water and no kitchen is no picnic. The daily routine includes warming water for shaving in a microwave and trooping to their in-laws to take showers. As the summer moves into fall and the work is way behind schedule, they decamp to a town house that is then sold from under them. They finally end up in a hotel.

Early on we learn why anyone undertaking such a project must set aside a sizeable contingency fund to cover the unexpected. High rainfall caused the soil in the backyard to become so saturated the walls of the newly constructed basement buckle and must be rebuilt. To prevent this from happening again, extensive regrading of the backyard is required. The framing crew discovered rotted timbers and termite damage, requiring the contractor to demolish and rebuild more of the original house than originally anticipated. A building supplier's truck destroys the neighbor's $3,000 arborvitae trees, which the Sandbergs must eventually replace.

It gets worse. Again to save money, the Sandberg's elected to use a local custom cabinetmaker who absconded with their money, leaving them with half-finished cabinets. Then Jim loses his job. The project is finally completed, Jim gets another job, the family moves back into their reconstituted house, and everyone celebrates with a big party.

We hope the owners live happily ever after, but they won't be doing it in this house. I later learned that they had to sell it because the project had caused them to become overextended financially.

Does the Sandberg project exaggerate or mirror reality? Most builders would be very reluctant to let owners stay in a house with such extensive construction and demolition, no matter how much money was saved. As to all the costly disasters that occurred, most home building projects do not have all the problems the Sandbergs experienced, but homeowners should plan on a few such unanticipated events and put aside a contingency fund to cover them.

The Sandberg saga was first shown on HGTV in 1998. The network is airing it again March 31 through April 16. Check your local listings for time.