Ask a guy who's house was partially remodelled on HGTV

When I was around 14 my house was on the TV show Holmes on Homes. I mentioned this offhand in a thread recently and people seem somewhat interested in knowing how it was, what it's like, and what Mike Holmes is like.

Mike Holmes is a nice guy but busy as hell. He's certainly a perfectionist, but so is the rest of the crew. He never acted like a "big boss" more just a member of the team who was probably busiest sorting out other stuff. Everyone was professional, on the ball, and there was no drama

Filming takes way longer than presented on the show, obviously. In our episode there's a scene with Mike walking up to the house and saying "Alright day 2!" - that was filmed on the last day of filming, two weeks into the process. Of course, being as we had a main floor replaced, that's not really a surprise.

Costs at the time (we were in the second season) were we had to pay for all materials, they provided free labour. I've heard it's now almost all covered by the show, but they were just getting off the ground at the time

The actual problem with our house was that we had a cement flooring job put in that was hilariously ugly, had footprints, and had a toilet cemented to our floor.

I'm the fat guy at the end of the episode in red. My mom is really the person who got the most screentime from our family, and my brother didn't even make an appearance in the episode.
I saw the episode on tape a few weeks after it was done, and honestly haven't seen it since.
We moved out of the house in Summer 2010, which cost me a valuable conversation piece when I am making a social failure of myself.
The episode is labeled Season 2: EP2021 Floor Fiasco - a link to the gallery, some pics of the house, and my mom is on their website at <a class="postlink" href="http://makeitright.ca/Holmes_Media/Holmes_On_Homes/view_episode.php?season_id=64&episode_id=283" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://makeitright.ca/Holmes_Media/Holm ... ode_id=283</a> - in the last picture I'm the serious looking kid in the red sweater. I have hair now... I was I think 14-15 when it was filmed.


Hilarious postscript on the episode is that a few weeks after the episode aired the guy who put in the shitty cement floor came by to show off his work.
Awkward.


So anyway, Ask anything about the process / being on HGTV / Holmes on Homes.

 

I have no idea what this show is. Really, the whole genre pisses me off, with the exception of This Old House, which is awesome. But TiBbers on TV is always good material for discussion, so feel free to pepper rei with your questions.

 

The show is pretty basically "If a contractor fucked up your house, we'll come and laugh at them then fix it*"


* and by fix it we mean free labour, you still need to pay for materials.

 

This goddamn show has to have been on for more than 20 years (check that. over 30 years), because I can remember watching it when Norm had a gut, Bob Vila was hosting, and I didn't know what a floor joist was.
I don't know about you guys, but I prefer "Ask This Old House", as the back end of the original show.

I wish I had a question for REI, but I've never heard of that show. But one question I have, is if its anything like "This Old House", is: Is it all hands on deck? Which I mean to say,,,, Do the homeowners pitch in and help, or are they just there for TV fodder?

 

We just stood there and shook hands for the cameras.

 

I wish.

 

Were you deflowered by the older, but tender, makeup lady?

 

You're a guy?

 

I haven't watched the show you were on yet but have seen others of his shows and have watched other home improvement shows. Did they accurately portray the costs of things? It's good you say they provided free labor because most of these shows just say, "This room cost $1000, etc. and it really would have been $500 design fees, $1000 materials and $2000 labor, etc.

It's also funny you say they now pay for most of the job as they can then say on their show whatever they want for cost of things. Who cares as the advertisers, network, etc. are covering the reals costs.

Also, what was the true reality of total time the project took versus the total time they said it took on the show?

 

They were pretty up front and accurate about costs - they also gave us more expensive, and cheaper options material wise. The only thing they said is that they wouldn't remodel our basement (some people apparently try to swing entire home re-dos out of one issue). They even allowed us to find our own suppliers for materials if we wanted (though we trusted them). They were very up front with every part of the process. The labour (and design, which was also covered - the granite, slate, and cement is all we paid for) certainly saved us a non-trivial amount of money, or we wouldnt have gone granite to begin with.

Them also not having a sales stake helped as they talked us to granite instead of marble to save some cash.

The work took 2 weeks to do and film, though they portrayed it as two days in the episode.

And yes I'm a guy, and there was no makeup lady anywhere to be found.

 

Is Holmes as big of a fruitcake in real life as he seems on tv?

 

Uh.. he was a nice, calm, busy guy with a lot of empathy - especially in the early seasons (we were season 2) he'd seen a lot of really broke people get almost all their life savings taken away by some really, really shady people. He seemed really happy that our story was funny as opposed to tragic.

 

How many times have you gotten laid because of your appearance on this show?

 

Alternatively, how many times have you NOT gotten laid because of the show?

 

I think we already covered him striking out with the makeup lady.

After they finished the floor, did they walk around the house and suggest other "episodes" they might could come up with?

How was your house / problem selected? I missed that if you stated it already.

 

It's prevented me from getting laid once. I don't think I've ever gotten laid because of it, though I've hooked up with people who knew I was on it from me mentioning it.

There was initially some consideration of supporting the floor from the basement, but that would have caused way more remodelling than necessary. Otherwise, no extra "episodes" from our house.

Our house was selected by submitting a letter to HGTV through their website for the show, which was answered by Mike Holmes himself as well as a production coordinator who wanted to talk to us and take a look. They thought it was hilarious (especially the toilet cemented to the floor) and that was pretty much that.

 

How did this happen? Did she hate the show THAT much?

 

I think it had more to do with not being willing to share dirt on a member of the cast who wasn't actually on the show when my episode was filmed - she was interested because I was on the show, less interested because that guy wasn't there.

 

Will you and Holmes sign a pair of overalls and mail them to me?