What Home Improvement Shows Don't Want You to Know About Real-Life Renovations
We’ve all seen it, that magical moment when homeowners hold their breath and cross the threshold of their once dumpy home to encounter miraculous transformation: the floors are polished, the table is set, the candles are glowing, the curtains give way to a perfectly gentle breeze. And, the designer looks like they never even broke a sweat. Listen, I’ve been part of transformations like that, and even I would love to believe the design team casually snapped their fingers and, “poof!” - the magic happened, just like that!
Maybe I’m cynical in my old age, but I always wonder about the parts of the project they left out. Like the fist-fight erupting between carpenter and electrician, or the bank calling about insufficient funds, or a furniture piece the homeowner was so excited about being dropped on a freeway during shipment. Maybe that’s extreme, but most certainly, the designer sweat their little heart out!
Truth is, there is so much more to a renovation than what we see on television. I’ll outline a few of the little details that actually happen behind the scenes in those unreal “reality” shows.
Detail #1: The Design is Set Long Before Demo Day
TV shows seem to depict the walls crashing down before the homeowner has even had a chance to pick out the finishes! If this were actually true, the production team would have changed over four times before the episode was finished filming. And the carpenter and electrician wouldn’t be the only ones exchanging blows! Particularly in these post-Covid days, materials and products have to be selected and ordered well in advance to give a crippled supply chain plenty of time to produce the goods!
Detail #2: The Timeline is Reasonable & Well-Thought-Out
The mounting pressure of unrealistic deadlines may be good for a storyline, but no design professional, contractor, or builder is going to sign onto a project that can’t be completed reasonably on time and close to the budget. Real professionals are dependent on referrals and word of mouth so they want to do a good job for their clients. Their reputation and future business are on the line. Watching massive crews work frantically around the clock to meet a crushing deadline is not how it goes in real life.
Thank goodness!
Detail #3: The Investment is Inclusive of All Materials & Labor
Television production budgets are misleading because labor and furnishings are often donated or sponsored. When real homeowners have to spend real money on products that they want to last for a good long while, the bottom line is much higher than Hollywood would project.
If you are planning a renovation of your home, don’t use design tv shows as a guideline. You will get a much more realistic and dependable grip of the facts surrounding the process, timeline, and investment by reaching out to a designer or two. They understand the whole picture and can give you a great understanding of what goes on both on and off the silver screen.